WEBVTT 00:00:00.792 --> 00:00:03.333 "I've got people in me." 00:00:03.375 --> 00:00:06.226 So sang the late Abbey Lincoln. 00:00:06.250 --> 00:00:09.226 I take that lyric as mantra. 00:00:09.250 --> 00:00:11.292 "I've got people in me." 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:17.726 Jomama Jones is the person in me I turn to as a guide. 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:19.768 She's my alter ego. 00:00:19.792 --> 00:00:23.768 I've been embodying her in performance since 1995, 00:00:23.792 --> 00:00:29.601 and she comes around when she has some insight to offer folks. 00:00:29.625 --> 00:00:31.684 At this time of radical change, 00:00:31.708 --> 00:00:35.917 I'm glad to be the vessel for her message to you. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:41.542 --> 00:00:43.143 Jomama Jones: What if I told you 00:00:43.167 --> 00:00:45.559 it's going to be alright ... 00:00:45.583 --> 00:00:47.583 but what if I told you not yet? 00:00:48.542 --> 00:00:51.143 What if I told you there are trials ahead 00:00:51.167 --> 00:00:53.976 beyond your deepest fears? 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.893 What if I told you will you fall ... 00:00:56.917 --> 00:00:59.125 down, down, down? 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:05.518 But what if I told you you will surprise yourself? 00:01:05.542 --> 00:01:10.000 What if I told you will be brave enough? 00:01:11.333 --> 00:01:13.184 What if I told you 00:01:13.208 --> 00:01:15.417 we won't all make it through? 00:01:16.333 --> 00:01:18.643 But what if I told you 00:01:18.667 --> 00:01:22.059 that is as it must be? 00:01:22.083 --> 00:01:26.417 What if I told you I've seen the future? NOTE Paragraph 00:01:29.125 --> 00:01:31.184 Do you like my hands? 00:01:31.208 --> 00:01:33.518 They're expressive, yeah? 00:01:33.542 --> 00:01:36.018 Now look at your hands -- now go on. 00:01:36.042 --> 00:01:38.726 There's so much history recorded through their touches 00:01:38.750 --> 00:01:43.309 and marks of the future sketched on their palms. 00:01:43.333 --> 00:01:45.143 Sometimes hands grip tight, 00:01:45.167 --> 00:01:47.958 sometimes hands let go. 00:01:49.375 --> 00:01:51.768 What if I told you 00:01:51.792 --> 00:01:54.292 it's all going to come undone? 00:01:55.083 --> 00:01:56.476 Hm. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:58.226 Ladies and gentlemen 00:01:58.250 --> 00:02:00.768 and otherwise described, 00:02:00.792 --> 00:02:03.893 I am Jomama Jones. 00:02:03.917 --> 00:02:06.768 Some call me a soul sonic superstar, 00:02:06.792 --> 00:02:08.684 and I agree, 00:02:08.708 --> 00:02:12.143 though even in my past that was from the future. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:12.167 --> 00:02:14.268 Let me take you back to girlhood. 00:02:14.292 --> 00:02:15.851 Picture this: 00:02:15.875 --> 00:02:17.726 it was Planting Day, 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:19.893 which was a holiday I invented 00:02:19.917 --> 00:02:22.476 for the Black youth community group I founded. 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:25.601 I dashed home to put on my gardening ensemble 00:02:25.625 --> 00:02:29.643 when I caught my uncle Freeman red-handed. 00:02:29.667 --> 00:02:34.684 He was standing over my piggy bank with his hammer raised high. 00:02:34.708 --> 00:02:36.958 He was fixing to steal my coins. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:37.667 --> 00:02:38.976 And you see, 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.476 my uncle Freeman was a handyman. 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:42.851 He could fix anything -- 00:02:42.875 --> 00:02:45.059 a broken chair, a shattered pot -- 00:02:45.083 --> 00:02:48.351 even bring grandmother's plants back to life. 00:02:48.375 --> 00:02:52.476 He had that magic touch with broken things ... 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:54.184 and broken people. 00:02:54.208 --> 00:02:56.184 He would take me with him on his jobs 00:02:56.208 --> 00:02:57.518 and say, "C'mon Jo, 00:02:57.542 --> 00:03:00.893 let's go do something to make this world a better place." 00:03:00.917 --> 00:03:03.143 His hands were wide and calloused, 00:03:03.167 --> 00:03:08.643 and they always reminded me of displaced tree roots. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:08.667 --> 00:03:12.018 As we worked he would talk with folks 00:03:12.042 --> 00:03:15.976 about the change he was sure was just around the corner. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.351 I saw him mend flagging hopes 00:03:20.375 --> 00:03:23.101 and leave folks with their heads held high. 00:03:23.125 --> 00:03:26.042 His hands stirred the sunshine. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:26.875 --> 00:03:31.018 And now he was about to break my piggy bank. 00:03:31.042 --> 00:03:34.143 I said "Step back, man, and show me your hands." 00:03:34.167 --> 00:03:36.601 You know the irony was 00:03:36.625 --> 00:03:42.393 he used to give me all the old coins he'd find under floorboards while working. 00:03:42.417 --> 00:03:44.018 And I put them in the piggy bank 00:03:44.042 --> 00:03:47.875 along with the money I earned through my childhood side hustles. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.976 But by the spring of 1970, 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.851 Uncle Freeman had lost his touch ... 00:03:54.875 --> 00:03:57.500 along with most of his jobs. 00:03:58.333 --> 00:04:01.809 He saw a heavy future 00:04:01.833 --> 00:04:07.643 of civil wrongs and Black power outages in his palms. 00:04:07.667 --> 00:04:10.768 The last straw had come the previous winter 00:04:10.792 --> 00:04:14.333 when they had gunned down Fred Hampton. 00:04:15.417 --> 00:04:18.434 Overwhelmed with fear 00:04:18.458 --> 00:04:20.226 and rage 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:21.559 and grief, 00:04:21.583 --> 00:04:25.018 Uncle Freeman tried to game his future. 00:04:25.042 --> 00:04:26.976 He gripped too tight, 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.309 and he started playing the numbers. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:29.333 --> 00:04:31.934 "Well, one of these numbers is gonna hit, little girl. 00:04:31.958 --> 00:04:34.018 You got a quarter for your uncle Free -- " 00:04:34.042 --> 00:04:36.518 Now some of y'all have that relative. 00:04:36.542 --> 00:04:40.101 But I knew right then and there I had to do something. 00:04:40.125 --> 00:04:41.934 I jumped up and I grabbed that hammer 00:04:41.958 --> 00:04:44.184 and I brought it crashing down on that pig. 00:04:44.208 --> 00:04:48.309 And Uncle Freeman started to weep as I gathered up all the coins. 00:04:48.333 --> 00:04:50.851 "We're not buying no lottery ticket, Uncle Freeman. 00:04:50.875 --> 00:04:52.125 C'mon." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:53.333 --> 00:04:58.583 We spent every last cent at the seed store. 00:04:59.542 --> 00:05:01.559 You know, the kids in my gardening group? 00:05:01.583 --> 00:05:04.226 They didn't bat an eye when I had Uncle Freeman get down 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:06.684 and put his hands in the earth again 00:05:06.708 --> 00:05:09.726 and start breaking up that soil for our seeds. 00:05:09.750 --> 00:05:13.559 And my little friend Taesha even came over and started slapping him on the back 00:05:13.583 --> 00:05:15.309 saying, "Cry it out, Uncle Freeman. 00:05:15.333 --> 00:05:16.583 Cry it out." NOTE Paragraph 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.292 "I can't fix this," he sobbed. 00:05:22.583 --> 00:05:26.125 It's an ancient-future truism, that. 00:05:27.042 --> 00:05:30.625 He wasn't the first to feel that way, and he wouldn't be the last. 00:05:31.750 --> 00:05:37.500 Right now, it feels as though everything is breaking beyond repair. 00:05:38.625 --> 00:05:39.875 It is. 00:05:40.708 --> 00:05:45.684 But that breaking apart can be a breaking open, 00:05:45.708 --> 00:05:47.809 no matter how violent and uncertain 00:05:47.833 --> 00:05:50.125 and fearsome it seems. 00:05:51.125 --> 00:05:53.393 The thing is ... 00:05:53.417 --> 00:05:55.458 we can't do it alone. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:56.958 --> 00:06:02.643 Uncle Freeman cried so much that day as we planted our seeds, 00:06:02.667 --> 00:06:05.667 he was our very own irrigation system. 00:06:08.125 --> 00:06:10.476 "I don't know who I am anymore, little girl," 00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:12.833 he said to me at sundown. 00:06:14.083 --> 00:06:16.643 "Good, Uncle Freeman. 00:06:16.667 --> 00:06:17.958 Good. 00:06:18.833 --> 00:06:21.518 You're new again, 00:06:21.542 --> 00:06:24.792 and that's just how we need you."