OUR ROOTS. OUR HERITAGE

IN THE ROOM WITH THE FUTURE

WORDS by PICASSO MOORE
PHOTOGRAPHS by AVION PEARCE

Nearly a year into a global pandemic, and six months after one of her most intense PTSD flare-ups in a decade, Anyanwu faces a mirror in a white tank top with the bullet wounds she has termed her “battle scars” on full display. She’s newly engaged, reinvigorated, and flashing a megawatt smile. Nimbly, she glides a barber’s clipper across her forehead. She shapes her own haircut and chimes “I’ve been feeling amazing this past week. My PTSD has been great!” While looking at herself in the mirror there is a distinct focus… (continue reading)

THE HUMAN IN THR

By Rahel Neirene | March 18, 2018

What does it mean to look into the eyes of a stranger and see their life flash before your eyes? Do you see their beauty? Their stressors, obstacles, and challenges they had to encounter on their journey to who they are in that moment? Do you take the time to see this stranger outside of how you see yourself? Do we ever take time to do that these days? Probably not. Especially in busy cities where our personal space is so crowded that we barely take time to look at each other because it makes us uncomfortable.

The Human Root strives to shine light on those parts of ourselves that are uncomfortable in order to allow us to truly see each other while also understanding differences. We come from many different backgrounds that are important to acknowledge and inquire about so that we know how to relate to each other. Having a critical and conscious analysis of difference towards forming connection is what The Human Root strives to bring to the people they work with. (learn more)

She filled that role quite naturally throughout her radically conscious 20’s of challenging systems, supporting young people and engaging in diasporic studies deeply connecting to the developmental journey of people of African descent. She also comes from a family history of movement. Being a daughter of an immigrant mother, she moved around often. She spent time in her mother’s home country, Jamaica, as well as other countries when her mother joined the military, and as customary with many immigrant families, she spent time living with family members. This history of movement has given Anyanwu the opportunity to journey who she is in relation to the eyes of society in a number of settings, regions, cultures and eras. As a responsive action of justice during her journey she has been involved in Community Organizing and Action work, Entrepreneurship, K-12 Education Justice, Youth development, and School Reform, as well as in healing modalities such as Doula Support work and Medicinal Herbal Medicine work.

Anyanwu gained a sense of community quite early living in Marin City, California. She calls Marin City a rich and thriving community. Although resisting high crisis and conflicting challenges of racialized trauma she says her town is a city full of Black Love,  ‘Black people looking out for each other and really practicing tender love and care with each other.’ This community has defined what it means for her to be rich through connection and community, richness through what it means to be alive in Blackness. Marin City also has a history of activists who came up there. The Black Panthers have a thorough history of moving in and through Marin County, George Duke was from Marin City, Tupac lived in the same community and went to the same high school as she did—Tamalpais High School. Anyanwu had a very firm foundation to build on, and her community saw her as one of the young people who could keep the tradition of community building going.

Her community also understood the history of economy, government, race, and class and their interconnectedness. You see it in the archive of events and people who came from where she is from. You see it in her, and more importantly, we see it in who she surrounds herself with and what she holds as a baseline of importance. You can never really separate economy, government, race, and class from one another and the reason why you can never separate the four is that systemic decisions are made based on them and they depend on one another.  This is why The Human Root exists, to ensure that we have an understanding of how we move and work in society, and how to form closeness through the knowing.

MARIN CITY 2020:

Fighting for Change: How Marin Organized a Protest In Support of Black Lives Matter in Only 4 Days by KIRSTEN JONES NEFF June 25, 2020

Marin City Collection: Explore Local television news film and broadcast video relating to Marin City in action for social justice, an unincorporated community in Marin County about 4 miles north of San Francisco over Golden Gate Bridge.

• Marin City Land Ownership Dispute

• Marin City Ball Field Dedication Ceremony, 1998

• Marin City Law Enforcement Debate (KPIX-TV)

• Marin City Residents Protest Against Housing Authority

• Marin City Community Action Committee

• Marin City Community Center Opens (1968)

• Marin City Law Enforcement Debate (KRON-TV)

• Marin City Residents Meet Marin County Supervisors (KRON-TV)