In June 2018, I was Guest Lecturer at the 20th Charleston Middle Passage Remembrance Day. I did a 30 minute Power Point Presentation and spoke about tracing our Muskogee/Creek Heritage back 8 generations. I showed how DNA Testing and Genealogical Tools can be used to research Indigenous and African American Lineage. In February 2019, I presented a Power Point Presentation and spoke at the Dividing Lines Symposium on Native American and African American Issues at Kennesaw State University. Most recently I was scheduled to speak on African Descendant Native Americans at the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, (ASCAC) Conference in April 2020 at Los Angeles Southwest College; however, the Conference was cancelled due to Covid-19.
I’ve been a Spoken Word Artist since 1990, and Co-Founded the Riverside Renaissance Writers Group in 1991. I have performed in venues throughout Southern California, including the 1996 LA Spoken, in the Southeastern US and Internationally in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad & Tobago. I’m a 2013 Cave Canem South Alumni, and have a poem, Cape Fear Massacre on the soundtrack to Director, Christopher Everett’s Award Winning 2015 Documentary, Wilmington on Fire, and the poem, Softly Walking is published in the Routledge Anthology, Emergent Possibilities For Global Sustainability: Intersections of Race, Class and Gender. Since 2015, I have presented a Children’s Poetry Workshop at the BOCAS Literary Festival in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Had COVID-19 not interfered with the Festival, 2020 would have been my sixth year working with the youth of Trinidad & Tobago. I’ve also performed twice on the Poetry Stage at the Tobago Jazz Experience.
This track, 42 Confessions of MA’AT, is from my 2009 cd, SANKOFA Times, produced by JAH Eye on Unity Works Music. http://www.unityworksmusic.com
It’s been said that music soothes the savage beast. As a Poet and Recording Artist I know how good great music makes me feel. John Coltrane’s, GIANT STEPS, has such healing vibrations that it’s actually helped alleviate my backpain, so I know the power musical tones can have on the body. I took that into consideration when I recorded my Sacred Music cd, SANKOFA Times, a Dub-Poetry and Reggae Music mix of 12 tunes, 7 of which I use in the PPT workshop. This cd features legendary musicians and artists like drummer, Carlton ‘Santa’ Davis, (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh & Jah-Eye), Amde Hamilton of the Watts Prophets, Lesterfari Simbarashe of Kings Music on guitar and Baba Seitu Amenwahsu on flute. The SANKOFA Times cd is $10/$15 for the dvd. CashApp: $Windclanhadjo or PayPal: sufia.giza@gmail.com
YOGA FOR LONGEVITY:
Since I was 17, I’ve been practicing the Ancient Healing Art of Yoga and it practically saved my life after a debilitating work related car accident left me Permanently Disabled in 1990, due to herniated discs in my back. After being paralized and bed-ridden for months, the gentle stretching, deep breathing and focused meditation brought me back from the brink of death, as I gained strength, tightened my core and reclaimed my health using Yoga. I went from crawling to walking in 3 months, so gladly sing the praises of Yoga here in my testimony of it’s benefits. Yoga does a body good…… During this Covid-19 down-time, during the Spring of 2020, I offered an 8 week Yoga Class online using Zoom.
ETHNOBOTANY OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA:
THE SANKOFA STUDY: An Ethnobotanical Research Project on Medicinal Herbs of Tobago is the first in a three part documentary film series on Traditional Medicinal Herb Use in the African Diaspora. I’ve been using herbal/plant (phyto) medicines since I was 18, and have lots of experience under my belt, so to speak. My official research began in 1999 while visiting Tobago for Carnival, when an early morning Island Tour led to spending time in a meadow with friends who began identifying herbs and their benefits. In 2014, I returned to Trinidad to venture into the Arima Valley Rainforest with Herbalist, Francis Morean, which led to SANKOFA Study II: Medicinal Herbs of Trinidad & Tobago. The last film in this series, Ethnobotany of the African Diaspora: South Carolina to Trinidad & Tobago was completed in 2017. I’m available for consultations, film screenings and to lecture on Traditional Herbal Medicine in the African Diaspora. As with most Indigenous Cultures, whether Native American or African Caribbean, I have found that the use of traditional herbal medicine is common amongst the people.