Kwanzaa: Kuumba ('Creativity')

Habari Gani? Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah)!
Day 6.  December 31

Using creativity and imagination to make your communities better than what you inherited.
I don't consider myself to be 'creative' in the normal sense.  I haven't written many poems in my life.  I don't create original artwork of any kind.  I don't create my own songs.   I imagine that I'm not unlike many of you.  I suspect that many of you join me in feeling confined in the roles we play, expected to conform to the expectations of others.

However, God gave each of us 'wings' on which to fly our personal journey.  Caged, we can do little more than flutter those heavenly wings in frustration.  We must sing to give vent to our misery, to express ourselves and to create beauty in our own world.

We all need to find outlets for our stifled selves.  In the act of creating, we enter an almost meditative state where our troubles cease to exist and our spirit heals and fortifies.

Painting, playing an instrument, or writing a poem my readily occur to us as means of creative expression, but so are blogging, gardening, cooking, or quilting -- whatever appeals to our individual natures.

Perhaps it is time for us to celebrate this sixth principle of the Nguzo Saba principle, 'Kuumba'! Perhaps it is time ... as we prepare for a new year ... to allow our creative natures to breathe a little more.  Perhaps it is time for each of us to allow the caged bird inside of ourselves to sing ... to fly.

On this day, I will do something artfully.  I will write a letter, make a pencil sketch, or just rearrange one of my rooms in a different way.

Those are my thoughts about Kuumba. Please take a moment to join this online Kwanzaa celebration with me. What do you think when Kuumba comes to mind?

Harambee!

The Rose of Education Wants to Unleash Your Inner Creative Genius: What is Your REAAL NAME?

Most of the time we see true creativity and invention from afar. Steve Jobs is an example. Everyone know that he was a creative man ... but, I doubt that anyone reading this blog post actually met the man in person.

Anthony Hall

I think I've met and interacted with a true creative genius ... Anthony Hall. Anthony is founder of The Rose of Education. The Rose of Education is investigating the use of language to develop new technologies for communications, education, energy, security, defense, propulsion, automotive and robotics. More applications and sectors are being identified.

This is the point when I need to remind you that folks that Jobs was crazy for trying to combine a telephone and a camera in the same piece of equipment.

Hall feels that the result of his efforts will be a bio/technical interface industry, where technology will be used to focus, speed and multiply our natural abilities - cognitive and physical. The Rose of Education is starting at the beginning, with Language.

It's Never Too LATE: Literacy - Academics - Technology – Education, is an initiative intent on increasing awareness and generating interest in the connection these all share - Language.

• What are the prospects for those who have the creativity and aptitude to succeed in the technological field, but not the mastery of language to allow them to turn imagination into an application?

• Are there generations of software engineers and programmers residing in our inner-cities, urban and rural communities, just waiting to be identified and nurtured?

The Rose of Education is preparing to find out.

100,000 REAAL NAMES integrates the 4 components in the LATE acronym in a WORDS Game:

First and Last names are turned into acronyms; player chooses words associated with each letter to compose a list of qualities, or a descriptive sentence about the individual that is evocative of closely held aspirations, beliefs, values, visions, etc. For example:

1. AARON HALL - Ambition And Resilience Overcomes Negativity; Heralding A Lasting Legacy.
2. DEBI MELZER - Discerns Enlightenment By Imagination, Masters Enlightenment Lovingly, Zeal Empowers Realization.
3. WAYNE HICKS - Wise African; Your NAME Expresses Hope, Inspiration, Compassion, Kindness, Strength.

The WORDS will become part of a unique Dictionary and Database to help expand the vocabularies of children and adults using the letters of their own names.

I encourage all 'villagers' to play and by doing so, play a part in empowering, enriching and uplifting youth everywhere with a most precious gift - our Name.

So, I ask you -- 'What is Your REAAL NAME?'

Here are some definitions created by Anthony Hall and the folks at The Rose of Education:

• AS - Applications / Systems
• HAT – Hieroglyphic Acronym Translator
• ITY - I Them You
• LATE - Literacy Awareness and Technology Education
• NAMES - Neural Acronymics Modular Exercises: Summations
• REAAL – Revolution in Education: Acronymics AS Language
• WORDS – What Our REAAL Dialogue Symbolizes

I plan to create my own REAAL NAME for both 'Wayne Hicks' and 'Villager'.  The example shown above was provided by Anthony Hall.  However, it isn't easy and I haven't been able to do it yet. I may have to break out that bottle of vodka in my kitchen so that my creative juices can truly flow!

I hope you will give it a try.  If you do ... please share your REAAL NAME with us! 

Here is our opportunity to live out one of the Kwanzaa principles -- Kuumba (creativity).   Are you ready to 'make it so'?