Marvin X at the Elders Institute of Wisdom

Pictured above: SHAPE community center founder Deloyd Parker, Elder Alvin C. Harriss, 88, and Marvin X


Today I had the honor to attend the weekly meeting of the Elders Institute of Wisdom at the SHAPE community center. As I arrived early, only a few people occupied the circle of chairs, but before long the room was filled with Elders of various ages, from 65 to the 90s. They possessed a variety of skills, from engineers, teachers, doctors, singers, poets, clothing designers, painters, social workers, nurses.

They continued drifting in while the meeting progressed. It began with a communal song led by a 91 year old blind woman, Mrs. Harris. At the end, Mrs. Harris was asked to recite a poem, but before she began everyone at the center was requested to come listen, including the young people who were preparing the food for lunch.

The facilitator informed the group that I was from out of town and the father of Nefertiti, a member of the SHAPE center. Everyone knew Nefertiti as the petite lady who looks like a young woman but is in her early forties. When we got home from a club last night, Nefertiti said, "Dad, why are these old men always hitting on me?" I said because they know you are an old soul. Maybe so, Dad, because all my friends are older women.

The facilitator asked me to tell the group about myself so I gave them some autobiographical information and the group seemed appreciative of my presence, but the atmosphere became charged when I told them about the Elders Council I attend in Oakland and our project of educating the community about preserving their archives, the letters, notebooks, scrapbooks, photos, leaflets, posters and other items acquired from our sojourn in the wilderness of North America.

The founder and director of SHAPE thanked me for bringing to their attention a vital project and demanded the group begin preserving their archives and informing their children and grandchildren about the value of archives.

Before the meeting ended with the poem by Elder Harris and my Parable of the City of God, the event had morphed into a concert by a local musician and a young opera singer, Lisa Harris, who brought her 88 year old grandmother for the first time.

As the meeting closed, the founder and  director of SHAPE, Deloyd Parker, a veteran of the black liberation movement, who participated in the Congress of African People, went around the circle acknowledging each person and telling a brief history of their lives. For a rare moment in my life, I was totally overcome with joy and happiness.
--Marvin X
Houston TX
9/13/12