Let us see how deeply we can hold each other today. In all our suffering and joy and empathy. In the decidedness of action. In the bread of servitude. In the chapel of our tears and sanctuary of our sacrifice. May we fortify the temple and shrine and mosque of our mercy. May we declare bankrupt the merchancy of violence and the obsolescence of oppression. Our mourning offers itself to us as miracle, that we may dare a new world. Our morning offers itself to us as a clarified canvas for change. We will not choose massacre as our God. Not anywhere that it flares. Behold our Love eruption. You and I, we are settling the bills of our ancestors. The toll is terrible. Our endowment is of might and mountains. They have left us their centuries of Grace. Huddle now by the fire. Hold each other close. Let us see how preciously we can exist today in the demanding sunlight of the Beauty Way.
- Jaiya John
Blessings, Family! I am honored to bring my poetry reading world tour, The Gathering, to Compton.
Moonwater Farm
Compton, California
Sunday, March 3, 2024
3pm to 6pm
Ages 10+
Tickets here (QR code), my website, and eventbrite.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jaiya-johns-the-gathering-world-tour-tickets-846465249347
I will read mostly from my book Father to Son: Ode to Our Black Young, which is a poetic and spoken word book for the entire community, including women and daughters.
I so appreciate you spreading the word about our gathering within your community, including places of worship, youth and women's programs, schools, book clubs, and more. *This gathering is being filmed for a documentary.
*Each ticket purchased comes with a gift copy of Father to Son, courtesy of Unearth and Empower Communities. Big Love to UEC and Moonwater Farm!
Our poetry reading ceremony will be followed by Aftercare, which includes light food (vegan and more), drinks, fellowship, and personal visiting with Jaiya, including book collection purchasing and signing, and selfies).
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JAIYA JOHN'S
THE GATHERING.
A WORLD TOUR
a poetry reading ceremony and book collection signing
I am excited to join you in your community to read from my collection of published and unpublished work, bringing to life the spirit of the medicine words. I say reading, though incantation and prayer are truer. Thematically, these readings are on collective freedom, and take on the flavor of each audience from gathering to gathering. A rich weaving of cultural fabric. These gatherings are remembrance songs, bringing us back to our Indigenous ancestral ways of gathering and being together. As this tour is part of my global Soul Water Rising rehumanizing mission, we stir the soul to remember itself as we garden our collective liberation and the end of oppressive systems and ways of life.
I am also honored to include, at some of the gatherings, live Sacred Conversations with revolutionary souls who inspire me. During these gatherings, I also commune with the audience in questions and conversation. And we build into this healing experience what we are calling Aftercare. Before the afterparty, and after the reading, we care for each other as I make myself available for sacred listening, tears and laughter, sacred embraces, selfies, and book collection signing.
And as a part of Soul Water Rising's Book Angel Project, whether or not you attend a particular gathering, you have the opportunity to purchase books that we then gift to vulnerable souls with whom we gather along the tour.
The Gathering is a people's freedom movement. The tour is happening in living rooms, cafés, libraries, prisons, hospitals, shelters, community centers, women's centers, campuses, HBCU's, Indigenous reservations, art galleries, art studios, museums, parks, amphitheaters, auditoriums, theaters, and stadiums. Call us to North and West Africa, the Levantine, Southeast Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and beyond. We go where we are called.
You play an organic role in this. If you desire for the tour to come your way, email us through the button below. You can help us identify aligned venues, communities, and audiences. This project is a production of Soul Water Rising.
Tour dates and locations are announced on a rolling calendar as sites are secured. This tour is a culmination, crystallizing, and new season of my life's journey, work, and calling. I am awed and enchanted to read for you and embrace you in a healing way.
We will see each other soon, in Love, at The Gathering.
Big Love,
Jaiya
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My books are available at booksellers worldwide and directly from the author at jaiyajohn.com (eBooks are exclusively at my site). Thank you for posting your copies, readings, and creative images and videos, and for sharing online reviews. It all breathes life into a book's life. I hope you will gift these books to your people.
Also at jaiyajohn.com, enjoy my books, eBooks, audiobooks, talks, sleep stories, and piano music. I also offer creative writing support phone sessions, keynote speaking, talks, and book/poetry readings.
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