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 By Marguerite Mariama, Ph.D. Dr. Mariama was a featured speaker for our recent Circle, “Uniting in the Face of Fear: Building Transformational Alliances.” If you weren’t able to attend, the video is now available. The lived experiences of some elders like me know that LOVE is the answer. I know many of you are tired of the darkness that is engulfing our world, from endless international wars to political battles here in the United States. Most of us are fed up with the toxicity spewing from so many. We find ways to escape, but denial and retreat do not solve the problem. We do not have to live like this! We do not have to be consumed by darkness. With the love light residing within us all, we can lean into the darkness with beacons to expose its hollow foundation built on lies, obfuscation, projection, denial, bullying, and gaslighting. These are the hallmarks of fear. The antidote to darkness is light and love. A few months ago, I watched the series, “My Generation” with bright-eyed enthusiasm and great expectations. I loved revisiting my teen and early adult years of art and activism, spiritual and historical awakenings, and the richness of multi-cultural and multiracial coalitions. We were evolving and leaning into an understanding of our interconnectedness in this human experience. We were learning unconditional love. During the 60’s and 70’s, civil rights advocates, Black power activists, environmentalists, artists, hippies, and flower children enjoyed an informal bond. Borne from a desire to live free from war, and the autonomy to be our trueselves, as well as loving whom we wanted, we sought to create an inclusive world that celebrated our shared humanity. Characteristics such as truth, justice, empathy, peace, beauty, love, and joy, helped shape our behaviors towards one another.  Our songs and mantras spoke volumes: We shall overcome, Black Power, Praise the Red, the Black and the Green, peace and love, and make love not war rang out as soul-filled expressions resonating with joy and the promise of a bright future. Young and somewhat naïve, we believed we could bend our country towards an embrace of its full democratic potential. The series “My Generation” ended with a message suggesting that we Baby Boomers had all abandoned the exquisite principles that shaped us and the world we were crafting. According to the producers, we sold out, bought in, or surrendered to a status quo that was rife with consumerism and greed. Of course, not all of us fit that description or played that game. Yes, that happened to have been the case for many, but some of us resisted the devouring of our Divine energy. As an artist, I saw the potential to opt on to the band wagon as soul stealing. Truth, purpose, beauty, and a love of people, using my art as a primary vehicle, fueled my passion. I kept going – bobbing, and weaving into several roles, and degrees, all the while the encroachment of oppressive forces were just around the next corner, ready to offer riches and comfort in exchange for my soul. I resisted then and continue to do so today. There are many others who also stayed the course and are still around actively working, and or mentoring younger generations. Our stories were omitted in the series, but “we know what time it is.” This is a term coined by activists during the 1960’s to mean the importance, ramifications, and consequences of what is happening at the moment. It also implies an understanding of what we must do to survive and thrive. The African adage, “The young can run fast but the elders know the way” reflects this way of knowing. Those of us who made it through American apartheid – Jim Crow, segregation, learned lessons that will help guide us through what is now shaping into a 2025 version of this atrocious period in history. That knowing underscores the importance of love, the bedrock for our survival and ability to thrive.  For some, the idea of love is vague. But that is not true for those of us who have lived through apartheid or fascism – especially Black women, who have remained rooted in love. Some have said, God is love, the source of the ultimate power, the highest vibration. I agree. Love is a verb that suggests an active participation in exhibiting a host of characteristics including kindness, joy, abundance, prosperity, balance, order, truth, justice, beauty, creativity, expansiveness, compassion, discipline, dominion, sensitivity, positive intellect, spiritual power and more. On the other hand, there is love’s opposite: Fear. Fear induces the false notion of scarcity, and anxiety, toxic competition, hate, envy, jealousy, violence, bigotry, racism, sexism, inhibitions, and phobias of all sorts. As unique expressions of the Divine source, there ought to be no room for any of the elements associated with fear. Love is light. Fear is darkness. Love expands, fear contracts. Humanity will either expand into the promises of love and light or devolve into fear and darkness. When humans awaken into adulthood, into maturity, we recognize the fallacy of a human hierarchy that defines or limits our value based upon our race, gender, ethnicity, culture, and class. The biases that crippled our hearts and closed our minds are replaced with a recognition and acceptance of a shared humanity centered in Divine love. At this moment of human reckoning, and as our planet cleanses itself of the humans who never learned to appreciate her hospitality, it is imperative that we choose love and light. Our survival depends on this reawakening. It is now time to transcend to the next level of our development in this human incarnation. Forward motion is necessary, essential – buoyed by joy. Holding on to that joy in the face of this challenging moment in history is vital to the achievement of human solidarity. As a reminder the Holy Bible beautifully states: “For we walk by FAITH not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). An embrace of love despite what we see, with its warmth and coziness can be a segue to our freedom. Constant and consistently advancing, evolving, deepening, and elevating, we embrace life as a journey to enjoy the fruits of the existing physical reality. Those of us who consciously live in a state of openness and awareness to the voicings of spirit and have lived through ‘tryin’ times’ are here to tell the stories. There is a psychological muscularity that we have gained because of the lessons we’ve learned. As instruments of Divine essence, many of us are closer to the ancestral realm than we are to our youth and have lessons to reveal to all who will listen. We are spirits in human form with a mission to share our gifts in service to the new emerging paradigm. The old one with historical and political toxins would suggest otherwise. To do this, we need to understand that the power and freedom we seek is within. Nothing and no one outside of ourselves can take this power without our permission. Nope. It is not about other people who seem to be in power via outward manifestations including money and pseudo power. Pseudo power is energy that is limited to what we see manifested including outward displays such as money, roles played, land, and material possessions. But where is the intrinsic value? The answer: There is none, which is why in an effort to fill the void, those with the resources must constantly replenish the supply. That hungry obsession will continue to prevail, unless and until there is an embrace of the true keys to living in abundance, prosperity, and the like. Altering our mindsets to embrace guidance from within and to live from the spirit of light and love is the answer that will fill the internal longing for more. It is an internal game not an external one. Fulfilling the intrinsic via purpose and meaning fuels our lives. And, that does not preclude having and owning possessions. It simply means we become balanced. We seek inner fulfillment which attracts the resources that showcase the Divinity that resides within us all. The spiritual guidance that will provide that balance relies on an open mind, a mind that comprehends a consciousness beyond what we see, hear, touch, and feel (with our physical bodies). Our ways of knowing ought to be connected to a higher understanding of this truth of our being. In this human incarnation, we are at a moment of convergence and can be the architects of a beautiful version of our experience as spirit beings. Nefarious forces seek to stymie or stagnate this moment or take us backwards. Spiritualist Michael Bernard Beckwith describes who we are in this human incarnation as “growth-centric beings.” As such, we must transcend the old paradigm that seeks to impede the progress that is about to be made. As former Vice President Kamala Harris said during her campaign for the highest office in the land, “We are not going back.” No matter how well-funded and ferocious the backlash, when we stand in solidarity with conscious sisters and brothers, we have the power to evolve into our next version. The light within coupled with that of others becomes a beacon to transform ourselves and our world. In our transparent world, we can find truths in many places. The trick is to know where to look. This takes a deep and abiding connection to spiritual discernment, or connections to those whose voices are tried and true with lessons learned and shared. In other words, you have to know both where to look and who to trust. The inner voice will guide us towards thriving beyond our toxic thinking. These lyrics from the song, “Wake Up Everybody” by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes are apt: “Wake up everybody no more sleepin’ in bed. No more backward thinking, time for thinking ahead.” Ahhh, and that’s where we find the good news. There is tremendous joy in escaping the matrix of mental programming. Deconstructing the toxicity of this indoctrination is liberating beyond belief. The world of abundance opens within to greet the willing receiver. And, the accompanying relief, release, and abandonment of the biggest obstacle, fear, is lovingly replaced with love and its many iterations. It does require and open heart, and vulnerability is essential. Clearly, trust is integral to this unfolding. So, the action plan is to find trusted folks. As an elder, I would suggest that we take a page from other cultures, and from what we African Americans of a certain age remember, where ways of knowing are passed on from generation to generation. Elders, those who have done the consciousness-building self-work and are attuned to both the Spiritual Realm and the Ancestral Realm can be trusted to support engagement with the deeper recesses of our current reality. These trusted resources are all around waiting to exchange knowledge with other generations whose ways of knowing might be different, but valuable none-the-less. Despite what is happening at the highest levels of government in the United States and abroad, now is a time to be bold, receptive, and fearless! Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers and others who “know the way” are eager to provide guidance, counsel, and last but not least, love. It is still the answer!  “Keep your love light on.” Lui Satterfield (Earth, Wind, and Fire) Black cultural pride and nationalism during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s gave rise to artists who used their craft to affirm Black culture as a tool for Black ‘upliftment.' These “cultural workers” launched the Black Arts Movement – where social justice, history, the arts and education intersected. One such artist – activist, performing artist, educator, Dr. Marguerite Mariama, has never wavered in her commitment to the arts as a tool for social, cultural and historical consciousness and liberation. A trained professional in music, dance and theatre arts, this former college professor also has clinical experience as a dance/movement therapist. Her early civil rights activism began as a teen in Chicago and included protest marches and rallies, including one led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Mariama was “raised up” as an artist by great teachers including Katherine Dunham (dance). “Sitting at Ms. Dunham’s feet and hearing her stories was awesome; she reminded us of our social responsibility as young artists, and we answered the call in our performances.” She is currently a member of the Chicago Bulls Basketball Team’s Swingin’ Seniors Dancers. As a national and international big band and small ensemble jazzy blues stylist, she has traveled the world as a resident music artist and performed with some to the “greatest musicians” on the planet. She has enjoyed acting roles in theatre, films, commercials and print – and is also a voice actor. As a professor in New York City’s CUNY System, she created the arts integration theory and methodology, Performance Pedagogy® for personal and collective development and transformation. An SIU CoLa Distinguished Alum, and former Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar, Dr. Mariama produces, presents and performs worldwide. She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Education/specializing in African American Musical Culture. She is represented by Stewart Talent Group and the theatrical union, SAG/AFTRA. Her upcoming book, "Artivism: A Sixties Artist/Activist’s Memoir and Guide for Embracing Our Shared Humanity and Transforming Our World" will be released this summer. Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle. The antidote to darkness is light and love.
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