One mother,a lifetime of lessons

A revolutionary, recovering addict and mother gave an audience at the IU Auditorium a "talkin' to" Wednesday. Everyone in attendance at the "Evolution of a Revolutionary" lecture paid close attention as Afeni Shakur, mother of late rap artist Tupac Shakur, corrected misconceptions about the Black Panther Party and pleaded with the younger generation to reset their priorities.\n"I am asking young people to form a conspiracy against fear," she said as she read a passage from a letter she received from former South African President Nelson Mandela. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure ... As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence liberates others." \nShakur spoke with actress and author Jasmine Guy about being a recovering drug addict, her past and what she feels young people need to do today to stay strong. \n"Hip hop and who can marry who is not your priority. Your priority is keeping yourselves alive," she said. "I need for you to instill courage within yourselves so you can fix the real problems in your life." \nShakur's disposition changed when a \nstudent asked her about Eminem producing Tupac's latest album amid allegations that the white rap star is racist. She warned the audience she was going to put an end to the rumors.\n"Bitch, nigga," she said as one woman got up to leave. "Get off the bullshit about these words. When you start arguing about a word you get off point. Don't be diverted by something that isn't important."\nLindsay Cannon, a senior majoring in a folklore and African American and African diaspora studies, thought Shakur was very honest.\n"I thought it was interesting. She was so honest, and that is not what you expect from people who come for lectures," she said. "It was like a teaching session."\nByron Craig, programs chair of the Black Graduate Students Association and assistant instructor in the Department of African American Studies, was not too impressed with Shakur and felt her lecture ignored issues blacks have faced for years, he said.\n"I am a little disappointed. I feel like she's promoting this liberal ideology about getting yourself together instead of looking at the system that is still racist," he said. "Especially about words, because that is how our world operates. I feel a lot of what she is saying is based on her recovery." \nShakur asked for students to take time out to enjoy life and learn from each other. She admitted struggling with humility while recovering from drug addiction.\n"I learned a lot from humility," she said. "None of us know enough to keep each other alive. We need each other."\nShakur encouraged the audience to go up to people and ask for help about things that might seem foreign to them.\n"Go up to people and ask them to teach you something," she said. "Teach each other. Teach me what you have in your culture that keeps you going. In my culture I know how to get up when I fall down."\nShakur has learned how to appreciate differences in her life and feels that it was the different people that helped her the most as she was caught up in the streets. \n"One of the things that was good about the Black Panther Party that helped me later was working with black women that had Ph.D.'s," she said. "It made me better."\nShakur now embraces differences in her relationship with Jasmine Guy, a confidante of Tupac and the author of her biography. "Jasmine Guy and I are so different, but we can still like each other and find beauty in each other," she said. \nGuy and Shakur have a long history together, meeting each other at Tupac's trial and after the first attempt on Tupac's life. \n"Tupac told me to call Jasmine and ask her if he could stay at her house," she said. "She allowed my son to get well and never told anyone he was on her couch trying to get well. We were never going to be anything but close."\nGuy, who was hesitant about writing Shakur's biography, said she is very inspired by Afeni Shakur and her evolution. \n"I find Afeni a fascinating subject," she said. "When you are experiencing a painful situation, you're close to the pain, but I saw a resilience in Afeni."\nGuy said she tried to subtly put the story into a historical context of the Black Panther Party Movement. \n"A lot of history stands alone. I wanted to give it a human face," she said. "I wanted to tell the story through her life. I don't think when we learn our history we give it a human face" \nShakur put a human face on history as she stood proud of her drug recovery and past involvement with the Black Panthers.\n"I don't think there is a movement. You can be deceived if you want to," she said. "The movement ought to be keeping young people alive and safe so we can have a future." \n-- Contact Asst. Arts Editor Patrice Worthy at pworthy@indiana.edu.