sankofa
Ten years ago I made a promise as I left the House of Slaves on Goree Island . I promised my ancestors that I would help to tell their stories , so their great , great , great , great , great grandchildren would know of them and their struggles .
Welcome to the first edition of The Soultown . It is 10 years after the promise .
When the final concept of The Soultown was birthed , I was 6 months deep into a 10-month exit plan to leave the Silicon Valley . Combining my time in South San Francisco and East Palo Alto , California , I had worked a job I loved -- exposing the youth to various forms of technology -- for 8 years . It was time to come home . Home is where my family and my longtime friends reside . Home is where I went to college . Home is where I planted seeds of hope . It was time to see the fruits of my labor .
The spirit of entrepreneurship had dominated my soul . I had earned my second Masters degree in Information Systems . I was officially a techie . There were two things post secondary education taught me : ( 1 ) No one could take your education from you . ( 2 ) Degrees grant respect .
Whatever I had yet to learn from the Silicon Valley , I could figure out . The last 8 years as an Intel Computer Clubhouse Director taught me patience , perseverance and instilled the passion I needed to continue my work . There was still something missing : I felt lost .
I am a poet . Expressing myself verbally is necessary to my existence . In search of the “ je ne sais quoi ”, I wrote poetry … more like spoken word poems . My hope was that each verse would fill the void that existed . Not so .
Chillin da Conscious Poet is the Innovative Extraordinaire of The Soultown , Executive Director of Say Yes , Inc . and Chief Technologist of Kabba Kreations / RastaMarleyan . Born and raised in Chicago , Il . and attended college in Iowa and Arizona . She is a lead educator for Adobe with an AAA degree in Graphic Communications , a BS in Business , an MBA and a MS in Information Systems . She is an award-winning Graphic Artist , Youth Developer & Slam Poet .
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THE SOULTOWN • CONNECTING OUR CULTURE TO OUR COMMUNITY THESOULTOWN . COM