0:00:01.202,0:00:03.019 "I've got people in me." 0:00:03.405,0:00:05.804 So sang the late Abbey Lincoln. 0:00:06.399,0:00:08.900 I take that lyric as mantra. 0:00:09.317,0:00:11.755 "I've got people in me."` 0:00:12.592,0:00:17.098 Jomama Jones is the person in me[br]I turn to as a guide. 0:00:17.914,0:00:19.580 She's my alter ego. 0:00:19.915,0:00:23.962 I've been embodying her[br]in performance since 1995, 0:00:23.962,0:00:28.888 and she comes around when[br]she has some insight to offer folks. 0:00:29.636,0:00:31.713 At this time of radical change, 0:00:31.713,0:00:36.479 I'm glad to be the vessel[br]for her message to you. 0:00:41.534,0:00:43.326 Jomama Jones: What if I told you 0:00:43.326,0:00:45.749 it's going to be alright ... 0:00:45.749,0:00:48.210 but what if I told you not yet? 0:00:48.721,0:00:51.337 What I told you there are trials ahead 0:00:51.337,0:00:53.527 beyond your deepest fears? 0:00:54.147,0:00:57.092 What if I told you will you fall ... 0:00:57.092,0:00:59.138 down, down down? 0:00:59.985,0:01:04.875 But what if I told you[br]you will surprise yourself? 0:01:05.562,0:01:09.986 What if I told you will be brave enough? 0:01:11.317,0:01:13.373 What if I told you 0:01:13.373,0:01:15.811 we won't all make it through? 0:01:16.465,0:01:18.754 But what if I told you 0:01:18.754,0:01:21.538 that is as it must be? 0:01:22.096,0:01:26.747 What if I told you I've seen the future? 0:01:29.167,0:01:30.952 Do you like my hands? 0:01:31.291,0:01:33.116 They're expressive, yeah? 0:01:33.473,0:01:34.744 Now look at your hands -- 0:01:34.744,0:01:35.841 now go on. 0:01:36.209,0:01:39.276 There's so much history recorded[br]through their touches 0:01:39.276,0:01:42.871 and marks of the future[br]sketched on their palms. 0:01:43.434,0:01:45.156 Sometimes hands grip tight, 0:01:45.156,0:01:48.281 sometimes hands let go. 0:01:49.363,0:01:51.959 What if I told you 0:01:51.959,0:01:54.681 it's all going to come undone? 0:01:55.006,0:01:56.009 Hm. 0:01:56.535,0:01:58.373 Ladies and gentlemen 0:01:58.373,0:02:00.838 and otherwise described, 0:02:00.838,0:02:03.656 I am Jomama Jones. 0:02:04.005,0:02:06.953 Some call me a soul-sonic superstar, 0:02:06.953,0:02:08.722 and I agree 0:02:08.722,0:02:11.902 though even in my past[br]that was from the future. 0:02:12.232,0:02:14.104 Let me take you back to girlhood. 0:02:14.283,0:02:16.047 Picture this: 0:02:16.047,0:02:17.890 it was Planting Day, 0:02:17.890,0:02:20.005 which was a holiday I'd invented 0:02:20.005,0:02:22.502 for the Black youth[br]community group I founded. 0:02:22.502,0:02:25.741 I dashed home to put on[br]my gardening ensemble 0:02:25.741,0:02:29.333 when I caught my Uncle Freeman red-handed. 0:02:29.815,0:02:34.600 He was standing over my piggy bank[br]with his hammer raised high. 0:02:34.600,0:02:36.979 He was fixing to steal my coins. 0:02:37.776,0:02:38.991 And you see, 0:02:38.991,0:02:41.621 my Uncle Freeman was a handyman. 0:02:41.621,0:02:43.013 He could fix anything -- 0:02:43.013,0:02:44.030 a broken chair, 0:02:44.030,0:02:45.247 a shattered pot -- 0:02:45.247,0:02:48.243 even bring grandmother's[br]plants back to life. 0:02:48.488,0:02:52.537 He had that magic touch[br]with broken things ... 0:02:52.537,0:02:53.884 and broken people. 0:02:54.123,0:02:56.357 He would take me with him on his jobs 0:02:56.357,0:02:57.587 and say, "C'mon Jo, 0:02:57.587,0:03:00.739 let's go do something to make[br]this world a better place." 0:03:00.988,0:03:03.518 His hands were wide and calloused 0:03:03.518,0:03:08.089 and they always reminded me[br]of displaced tree roots. 0:03:08.838,0:03:12.209 As we worked he would talk with folks 0:03:12.209,0:03:15.359 about the change he was sure[br]was just around the corner. 0:03:16.031,0:03:20.373 I saw him mend flagging hopes 0:03:20.373,0:03:22.905 and leave folks with[br]their heads held high. 0:03:23.207,0:03:26.405 His hands stirred the sunshine. 0:03:27.139,0:03:30.823 And now he was about[br]to break my piggy bank. 0:03:31.087,0:03:34.157 I said "Step back, man,[br]and show me your hands." 0:03:34.157,0:03:36.769 You know the irony was 0:03:36.769,0:03:41.959 he used to give me all the old coins[br]he'd find under floorboards while working. 0:03:42.446,0:03:44.074 And I put them in the piggy bank 0:03:44.074,0:03:48.101 along with the money I earned[br]through my childhood side hustles. 0:03:49.101,0:03:52.179 But by the spring of 1970, 0:03:52.179,0:03:55.084 Uncle Freeman had lost his touch ... 0:03:55.084,0:03:57.501 along with most of his jobs. 0:03:58.568,0:04:01.990 He saw a heavy future 0:04:01.990,0:04:07.171 of civil wrongs and Black power[br]outages in his palms. 0:04:07.761,0:04:11.002 The last straw had come[br]the previous winter 0:04:11.002,0:04:15.025 when they had gunned down Fred Hampton. 0:04:15.556,0:04:18.709 Overwhelmed with fear 0:04:18.709,0:04:20.300 and rage 0:04:20.300,0:04:21.627 and grief, 0:04:21.627,0:04:25.119 Uncle Freeman tried to game his future. 0:04:25.119,0:04:27.210 He gripped too tight, 0:04:27.210,0:04:29.170 and he started playing the numbers. 0:04:29.504,0:04:32.064 "Well, one of these numbers[br]is gonna hit, little girl. 0:04:32.064,0:04:34.074 You got a quarter for your Uncle Free -- " 0:04:34.074,0:04:36.409 Now some of y'all have that relative. 0:04:36.601,0:04:39.608 But I knew right then and there[br]I had to do something. 0:04:40.125,0:04:41.919 I jumped up and I grabbed that hammer 0:04:41.919,0:04:44.171 and I brought it[br]crashing down on that pig. 0:04:44.171,0:04:48.065 And Uncle Freeman started to weep[br]as I gathered up all the coins. 0:04:48.320,0:04:51.073 "We're not buying[br]no lottery ticket, Uncle Freeman. 0:04:51.073,0:04:52.776 C'mon." 0:04:53.481,0:04:59.069 We spent every last cent[br]at the seed store. 0:04:59.644,0:05:01.692 You know, the kids in my gardening group? 0:05:01.692,0:05:04.442 They didn't bat an eye when I had[br]Uncle Freeman get down 0:05:04.442,0:05:07.015 and put his hands in the earth again 0:05:07.015,0:05:09.858 and start breaking up[br]that soil for our seeds. 0:05:09.858,0:05:13.587 And my little friend Taesha even came over[br]and started slapping him on the back 0:05:13.587,0:05:15.317 saying, "Cry it out, Uncle Freeman. 0:05:15.317,0:05:16.539 Cry it out." 0:05:18.103,0:05:20.991 "I can't fix this," he sobbed. 0:05:22.697,0:05:26.121 It's an ancient-future truism, that. 0:05:27.094,0:05:30.622 He wasn't the first to feel that way[br]and we wouldn't be the last. 0:05:31.765,0:05:37.506 Right now it feels as though everything[br]is breaking beyond repair. 0:05:38.725,0:05:39.918 It is. 0:05:40.786,0:05:45.691 But that breaking apart[br]can be a breaking open, 0:05:45.691,0:05:47.150 no matter how violent 0:05:47.150,0:05:48.288 and uncertain 0:05:48.288,0:05:50.425 and fearsome it seems. 0:05:51.235,0:05:53.506 The thing is ... 0:05:53.506,0:05:55.811 we can't do it alone. 0:05:56.993,0:06:02.804 Uncle Freeman cried so much that day[br]as we planted our seeds, 0:06:02.804,0:06:06.271 he was our very own irrigation system. 0:06:08.137,0:06:10.690 "I don't know who I am[br]anymore, little girl," 0:06:10.690,0:06:13.106 he said to me at sundown. 0:06:14.208,0:06:15.977 "Good, Uncle Freeman. 0:06:16.714,0:06:18.123 Good. 0:06:18.968,0:06:21.710 You're new again, 0:06:21.710,0:06:26.167 and that's just how we need you."