Amaha Sellassie, Dayton, Ohio, USA -- Live Real in a Real Time

Amaha is brilliant. As a community organizer. As a colleague. As a justice worker. As a friend and brother. See his bio below.

I love the way Amaha lives from love and spirit. I loved reconnecting with him about that in this recording. 

Enjoy the listen, 46 minutes:

1:00 Human to human distills to essence....quest to  understand our humanity...the social choice of ubuntu

3:20 How did we get off the narrative? How did we get stuck in the manipulation of "lesser human"

6:20 What is hard in activism?

9:20 Do you have an experience of waking up -- agape at my Aunt's gas station

13:20 Forgiveness is the key...the truest of bringing gifts together.

16:50 Learning, seeing, feeling about connection in food systems, black farming, praxis, and belonging

22:30 Crossing over from aspiration to acceptance...living in to deep beliefs... embodied community

27:40 Unlearning at Gem City...paradigm shifts...the food apartheid in Dayton West...community has power to reimagine

32:30 On becoming a person who leads with love and spirit

35:20 How bright is your light shining...beyond head knowledge

38:00 The most simple step to adding healing in the world = slowing down... there is now shame in the healing journey

40:45 Live real in a real time...it is a social choice to love...we have the power to choose

44:40 Tenneson's appreciation of Amaha

Amaha Sellassie (www.amahasellassie.com) is a afrofuturist, peace builder, social healer, freedom fighter, network weaver, student of cooperation and lover of humanity.  He’s an Associate Professor of Sociology at Sinclair Community College in Dayton Ohio. Amaha is a practitioner scholar and participatory action researcher dedicated towards building bridges of trust, healing historical wounds, and harnessing the unique gifts and talents of every human being as we press towards a just and equitable society. As the former chair of the Dayton Human Relations Council Board, his areas of interest include health and education equity, praxis, cooperative economic development, dismantling structural violence and getting the voice of marginalized communities into the center of public policy in order to emerge structures of belonging that acknowledge the dignity and worth of every human being. He is co-founder and board chair of the Gem City Market, a community driven effort to address food apartheid through a food coop dedicated to increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables within west Dayton. He is also a co-founder and co-ed of CO-OP Dayton a coop incubator that is guided by the Mondragon model towards building a Just Economy Ecosystem. Currently he is working towards his Ph. D. in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati with an emphasis on utilizing community based participatory action research (CBPAR) towards emerging health equity, co-creating opportunity and community transformation.