Oni Lasana Doin' Dunbar as 'Lias' Mother

1st Free Stylin’ Dunbar Session 1 : January 16, 2025

Lifeline: Thursday : Love of Dunbar Collective familiar roots, Peader, from Ireland showed up at 7pm est time, 12:00 midnight in Carryduff...he relaxes in his bed. 

Viveca, her beloved mother's caretaker in Texas gently smiled on. I was so pleased to see familiar faces from the monthly Love Of Dunbar, wanting more Dunbar.

A new energy popped in! 

Melanie in Florida kept her registration commitment! Yeah! 

10 registrants were missing, or forgot, or will pop in another Thursday. No worries, adventurous minds and happy faces were present...I kept a pluggin' away. 

So what happened? What did YOU miss?

Melanie, a retired journalist loves Dunbar and is researching and developing a children’s theatrical production of her favorite poets' prose, Dunbar being one of them. 

Freestylin' Dunbar is not about me, Oni...I've had the pleasure to perform and teach his poetry for 31 years and this is a way of giving back and keeping my brain cells active in memory. I take great pleasure to share with those who feel it too, and desire to understand the work. 

Oh my, oh my...was I so happy to show off my favorite "Dunbarians!"  Viveca sang Keep A Pluggin' Away and Peadar recited Circumstances Alter Cases to Melanie's delight of poems she hadn't heard before.  

Melanie’s stationary smile continued as we gave a brief tour of our resource page; www.PaulLaurenceDunbar.org created by Adam Alonzo of Dayton, Ohio...Dunbar's hometown. 

Things can get personal in Freestylin' - how else do we humans bond?  I was intrigued as Melanie who appeared to be of Caucasian persuasion;-) made her love of Dunbar as interesting as her joyful presence. So in friendly curiosity I asked Melanie of her heritage which she proudly exclaimed “I’m Black!” 

Right on sis! Shut up Oni!

Getting to know one another is important to reach hearts, minds and souls, beyond Dunbar. Diggin' deeper into Melanie's heritage it was revealed she indeed harbors Native & European roots as family members in her past have passed for Caucasians. With the terrible shadows of slavery always lingering in American our-stories, and in Dunbar's plantation prose, shoot, Melanie and I could be cousins.

On the surface, our love of literature and a shared history, race matters. It's no harm to accept the reality of the heart, where one must proceed with care with those who show interest in Dunbar. Is it only entertainment, without interest, knowledge or self-reflection on the history of the works? I hope not. 

In Freestylin' Dunbar’s our connections to Dunbar's poetry is not only intellectual, but also a journey into our personal psyche, our creative flow, as we discover and uncover him, for the genius he was, who we are and where we all come from. 

Dunbar is Sankofa time in a Octavia Butler vibe. 

Getting to know one another in connection with Dunbar's work is rooted in respect, understanding, and appreciation of his/our heritage, then and now, and not merely for microscopic curiosity. Dunbar is a literary humanitarian in that all people can clearly understand where he was coming from. Everyone.

Freestylin’ conversations with Melanie strolled us into an imaginary chapter on Dunbar’s poetry. Melanie turned the page as she described her work in progress, Poems To Plays, how clever is that?  When Dey ‘Listed Colored Soldier’s and The Rivals, are the seeds in the visionary garden of Melanie’s creative mind, soon to bloom into a children’s theater production. We can't wait to collaborate or be amazed as her audience one day!

January 16, 2025, Thursday was a small but mighty gathering for the debut of Freestylin’ Dunbar. I'm looking forward to meet, see, hear and muse with future brilliant surprises of folks who love Dunbar's works and will show up and show out in the Zoom square for the Love of Dunbar - in the weeks to come! 

Hope it will be YOU!

Give thanks: Peader, Viveca & Melanie for showing up in the zoom village square because in the words of Nikki Giovanni, 

"Dunbar is community!" 

Welcome to the neighborhood, where its all good. 

Oni *!*

© 2025 Oni Lasana Productions