The AfrisymPOEMsium is an interactive multidisciplinary meeting with the community at large. Using POETRY, FAMILY BUILDING SESSIONS (break-out sessions), FILM, and LECTURES. In 2023 the AfrisymPOEMsium theme will be called REAFRIKANIZATION. ReAfrikanization is a poem written by Amen Ptah which critically and creatively dissects the meaning of re-afrikanization from past to present day. Amen’s prophetic words encourage us to reAfrikanize our thoughts to help liberate the MIND, BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT of the AFRIKAN family.
AMEN IMHOTEP PTAH
AMEN IMHOTEP PTAH have over 8 years of professional experience in the mental health field with a clinical background in crisis counseling, assessment (diagnostic, suicide etc.) suicide prevention, and substance abuse treatment. As a Marriage Family Therapist Trainee, he currently sees a caseload of patients in a clinical setting under the direct supervision of trained licensed professionals in the University of Rochester’s Medical Center Institute for the Family. Although his clinical training follows a western medical model, his lifelong work is fueled by Indigenous Knowledge Systems rooted in the soil of eastern science and African Spirit Traditions. Traveling back and forth to South Africa, Mr. Ptah’s been able to infuse African indigenous cosmological science gained from anthropological field research with clinical knowledge obtained from higher western academia. He is a recent graduate from URMC’s master’s Marriage and Family Therapy program in May 2023.
Amen Ptah worked as a Youth Engagement Specialist for Strong Recovery’s Adolescent and Young Adult Addictions Program, and the Senior Health Project Coordinator for the UR’s Department of Psychiatry’s Office of Mental Health Promotion. His work duties involved advanced community training, education, action, and advocacy in mental health promotion in virtual and agency-based settings. He has informed RCSD students on the importance of critical media literacy pedagogy, branding, and self-concept. Amen led poetry and discussion workshops involving issues around stigma and historical trauma (at NCBI and UR’s Diversity Conference) and facilitated group learning across diverse perspectives on race and privilege – in addition to coordinating Community Based Participatory projects around violence transmission and suicide prevention. As a graduate of LCCP Cohort XII, Amen has been able to assist community stakeholders in elevating their leadership capacity; provide students with tools that influence mining for their optimal potential; all while advancing opportunities that encourage personal growth and development.
He is the previous Digital Media Specialist/Program Coordinator for the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County’s ImagineYOU teen digital media learning lab and was the lead trainer and Coordinator for LRNG Rochester. Mr. Ptah is also the founder of a small local multimedia business brand “APVisuals”; credited for producing informative products for Rochester Monroe Antipoverty Initiative, Community Place of Greater Rochester, Action for a Better Community, and several other notable nonprofit agencies. Amen has been involved with numerous community initiatives including the Gun Involvement Violence Elimination Program, Coordinated Care Services’ Cultural Competence and Linguistics Initiatives, and keynote speaker for ROC The Peace. He was an active member of the City of Rochester’s ‘Pillars of Hope’ program which teaches 6th graders the importance of cultural identity and diversity. In addition, Amen is the recipient of the SUNY College at Brockport’s prestigious Diversity Engagement Award.
SHABAKA MU AUSAR
SHABAKA MU AUSAR is an independent Producer/Director/Writer/Editor from Rochester, New York. He graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 1999 with an Master of Fine Arts in Film/Video Production. He started UTCHAT VISION in 2000, a production company that produces films and facilitates courses in multimedia production. Shabaka has over 23 years of teaching experience in the area of media production; including graphic design, web design, video production, film production, podcast production, and more. Shabaka’s teaching experience spans from elementary school to the collegiate level.
In 2014 IN-CONTROL and UTCHAT VISION produced the ground-breaking documentary film “Young Black Male”. This film was screened to sold-out theaters with audiences like the Rochester Police Department and Rochester City School District. Shabaka is also the Founder of MEDIAMOVEMENT.NET, a network of music, music videos, concerts, interviews, films, and original content.
ABUNDANCECHILD
ABUNDANCECHILD is a Professional Mother, Venture Culturist and Restauranteur. A former student of Ursuline Academy, Clark Atlanta and Delaware State University her goal was to become a Chief Justice for the United States Supreme Court. However, the early 90 cultural scene in Atlanta who adopted her quickly and introduced her to nature via Ifa, an indigenous tradition, morphed her into an entirely different career and life path.
As a result of that life initiation in Atlanta, Abundancechild was catapulted into a foreign world beyond her Hockessin Delaware upbringing and Ursuline Academy ecclesiastical textbook culture into an Aboriginal/Indigenous traditions, culture, and lifestyle with roots that were nothing like what Alex Haley described. With no degrees or formalized training in culinary arts or in radio broadcasting, just heart, mind and spirit, Abundancechild immediately adjusted her vision with no hesitation and has impressed beyond her expectation on the mic, in the kitchen and as an activist.
Over the years, this average “black “ girl who grew up in Delaware took the podcasting world by storm with her 5 year run of her “Always for the People” broadcast, Abundancechild Live. Being and Original Ambassador for the GUERRILLA REPUBLIK organization helped her to find her passion and voice with a global audience. During her tenure as the host of Abundancechild Live, she curated hundreds of shows and a high profile list of people she worked with and interviewed like Dr. Sebi, Dick Gregory, Queen Afua, Frances Cress Welsing, Dr Laila Africa to start…During the last stages as the host of Abundance Child Live, she created an unapologetically healthy segment called, Drop Squad Kitchen to expose people to healthy and plant-based alternatives to Standard United States comfort food and the American Soul Food that she grew up eating.
Believing the revolution is in the kitchen of one’s temple AC took her activism offline and founded, Drop Squad Kitchen, Delaware’s first and original plant-based restaurant. Molly’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream and deli (founded by her mother, Maxine L’Abbee) provided the incubation and foundation and a later partnership with her brother ( Richard L’Abbee Jr.) created a win-win situation. Sought after for her mouthwatering home-style plant-based recipes, Abundance Child and her restaurant has been featured in PETA Magazine, Food and Wine, The News Journal, Delaware Online, WHYY to name a few.
Adding the title of Professional Mother to her repertoire, Abundance Child founded two active organizations to preserve Indigenous rites of passage for girls growing into Womanhood (Girl Society) and to preserve and refine the powerful rites of motherhood (Order Mother Earth). Both organizations teach self and responsibility as a foundation. Those organizations have nurtured her as a Mother and as an author and have helped her to find her G.A.M.E., Godly Ability to Master Everything. She has written and published curriculums for the organizations, training manuals called GAME Books, a book on Branding called The Book of Resume which is currently being used as a template for a Delaware Welfare to Work company, a lifestyle advice series, the Book of Abundance, and an advice column, Ask Abundance. In addition, Abundancechild has published many articles on her blog which are being recycled in her publication, Emancipator Magazine, a modern abolitionist journal that is offered seasonally for free in Drop Squad Kitchen. Aside from running Drop Squad Kitchen and being afforded to work and grow with some of the best women and children she has ever met, Abundancechild is a green belt in the Modern Veejitsu Martial Arts system with her two daughters and 97 % of the members the Order Mother Earth organization. The Modern Veejitsu philosophy of “Pray, Train , Study” and her Yoga practice has inspired her to create an “Unapologetically Healthy” lifestyle series which she launched in the New Castle County library system and now instructs around the U.S. and locally in her restaurant. Abundancechild shares her wisdom and experience of how to make plant based meals, detox, DIY personal care products and Unapologetically Healthy tools like home life organization, astrology, and fengshui.