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IANA Blog- March 2025

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  Blog Happy March and Happy Women’s History Month, First off, I want to congratulate one of our IANA 2nd Gen members, Ifeoma Ugeh on being a new member of the Dream Team and being a Public Relation Officer. Ifeoma will come in handy as we prepare for the IANA Convention in Maryland in 2026. But now, I wanted to talk about something different. For the past couple of blogs, I talked about certain topics, such as diaspora wars, the FBA/ADOS movement, and Pan Africanism. I’ve been mentioning Pan Africanism in many of my blogs, and in one of my blogs, I mention Dr. Umar Johnson. I figured I’d make this year’s blog about him, especially since news broke out about how he’s not taking care of his kids, but here it is. For those that don’t know, Dr. Umar Johnson aka Dr. Umar Ifatunde Johnson is an African American psychologist, activist and motivational speaker. He also refers to himself as “The Prince of Pan Africanism.” In 2011, he appeared in Tariq Nasheed’s documentary, Hidden Colors ....
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IANA Blog- February 2025

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  Blog Happy February and Happy Black History Month, For this week, I wanted to talk about something that I have been a fan of for a while… …Afrofuturism… Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic/movement that uses futuristic and science fiction themes to explore the Black experience, Black history, Black culture and the African diaspora. Afrofuturism has also incorporated themes of fantasy, realism and alternate history. The term was first used in 1993 by cultural critic Mark Dery.  During the first Friday in February, I got to go to an exhibit being held at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. They were having an exhibit on Afrofuturism, featuring one of my favorite organizations in Oakland, AfroComicCon. During the event, there was a workshop that focused on Black Identity and how Afrofuturism can play a part in the life of Black people. We talked about how different music/musicians, different films, and different cartoons, comic books and novels play a huge part in Afro...
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IANA Blog- January 2025

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  Blog Happy Gregorian New Year…and Happy January… As IANA gets ready to bring in the New year, I wanted to open this month’s blog and the first blog of the year with the chieftaincy of my parents. December of 2024, my parents Mr. Onyeabor and Dr. Veronica received their chieftaincy in Issele-Uku, Delta State, Nigeria. Crowned by my cousin, his royal highness, Obi Nduka Henry Ezeagwuna II, my father received the honor of being crowned the Ikedi-Uge of Issele-Uku, which means the strength in the Issele-Uku royal palace. My mother received the honor of being crowned the Uvie-Uge of the Issele-Uku kingdom, which means the beauty or the honour of the Issele-Uku royal palace. Uvie-Uge is significant, because my mom hails from the Ogboli village in Issele-Uku, which is highly regarded as holding the title of “Onishe of Issele-Uku.”  When I heard that both of my parents were receiving the honor, I was happy for them, especially considering that my dad had a chance of receiving the ho...
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IANA Blog- December 2024

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  Blog Happy December, As we close out the year, I wanted to focus this final blog on something that I noticed during the second week of December. During the Summer, I wrote a blog on the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud. This December, Kendrick Lamar released a surprise album, GNX . It is his first hip hop album released not from his former record label, Top Dawg Entertainment. Another hip hop artist, Doechii is one of the up-and-coming hip hop artists out today and is one of my coworker’s favorite artists right now. I’ve also listened to her music and I became a fan. Listening to her music is very throwback to the 90’s Boom Bap style and for those that don’t know, 90’s Boom Bap will always be one of my favorite sub-genres in Hip Hop. She is signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and she released a mixtape this year called Alligator Bites Never Heal , which received critical acclaim. Kendrick’s album also received critical acclaim as well. A couple weeks later, after Kendrick was receiving pra...
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