Black woman
I wanna create a beautiful world for you Black woman
A world of beauty for beautiful you
A world where Black women can bathe
Naked and unashamed in gentle streams
A world where poetry is you Black woman
Bathing in gentle rhythmic waves
I will create create create
Until I create that world for you
Black woman
~ Dahveed Nelson, Black Woman
I remember being totally scandalized but also intrigued when I first heard this poem as a teenager. The idea of being naked in public with no fear of shaming and scrutiny captured me. I couldn’t imagine it, but I definitely wanted to be involved in creating it.
So when I heard that Dahveed Nelson was returning to the public eye as “The Great Grandfather of Universal Rapport” (aka Gg4) and bringing an art collection that takes “Black Woman” and recasts it into silver, I just about lost it! And I jumped at the opportunity to speak to him about it. But let me back up and give some context.
Who is Dahveed Nelson?
You may know him as David Nelson or Dahveed Ben Israel, the revolutionary spoken word poet who conceived and named The Last Poets. He came up with their name after their first performance. Dahveed and Gylan Kain were set to perform at a commemorative Malcom X event in Harlem on May 19, 1968. Abiodun Oyewole (then known as Charles Davis), a friend that he’d told about their upcoming performance, showed up unexpectedly with written poetry in hand. Dahveed then introduced the two since he was the mutual friend, and they decided to do the event as a trio.
The trio did about seven poems total, including Dahveed’s legendary “Are You Ready?” poem, which Nina Simone performed at the historic 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
Borrowing the chant “Are you ready?” from a Howard University sit in, they had the crowd repeating, “Are you ready n****s?” as he and the other poets delivered verses.
“David Nelson….had a whole other thing happening. It was his spirit. You could feel that in the way that he pronounced and the way he presented his words,” Oyewole told Perfect Sound Forever recounting the energy of that time.
Needless to say, the show was a hit. When it ended The Last Poets began. It started as a group and evolved into a fellowship spanning generations.
At their next performance, Dahveed recited his new poem “A New Breed.” In the poem he says, “We are a new breed…. Black warriors, the Last Poets of the world.” Which is how they came to be named The Last Poets.
He was partially inspired by the late Keorapetse Kgositsile poem “Towards A Walk In The Sun.” In this poem South Africa’s first Black poet laureate, wrote:
There will be no art talk, the only poem
you will hear will be the spearpoint pivoted
in the punctured marrow of the villain; the
timeless native son dancing like crazy to
the retrieved rhythms of desire
fading
in-
to
Memory.
~ Keorapetse Kgositsile, Towards A Walk In The Sun
Dahveed definitely tapped into that same warrior energy, invoking a fire that incites uprisings to this day.
Dahveed remained tied to The Last Poets throughout its splits and various incarnations, often serving as a connective force and peacekeeper.
Outside of the fellowship of poets, he went on to earn multiple degrees, travel the world as a scholar and Pan-African, and to bring heightened consciousness through his teachings and artwork.
Who is The Great Grandfather of Universal Rapport?
In the process of living a life in service of the people of the earth, Dahveed Nelson re-evolved into The Great Grandfather of Universal Rapport. Gg4 is a renaissance medicine man who has distilled life’s lessons into universal messages. He calls it Sage Wisdom, and he’s inviting us to add a little sage wisdom to our lives.
As a restorer of sacred balance, he continues to use spoken word and visual arts to inspire revolutionary progress. His latest project is an art collection called “Precious Moments.” It’s art created with precious metals with the intention of putting silver, gold and platinum back in the hands of the people. To inspire them to reconnect with the earth and tap into the healing, metaphysical properties of these elements. Gg4 also designed the collection to be a vehicle for wealth-building, so families can acquire culturally relevant heirlooms and collectibles.
He intentionally launched the collection with his classic poem “Black Woman” to honor and celebrate Black women.
I asked him how “Black Woman” came about.
“It’s a poem that I wrote for my Mom. And as I became aware of the Black Consciousness Movement and I read the poem ‘No Images’ by Waring Cuney, I developed a better understanding of the struggles she went through,” he said.
And then he seamlessly recited the Cuney poem:
She does not know
Her beauty,
She thinks her brown body
Has no glory.
If she could dance
Naked,
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river
She would know.
But there are no palm trees
On the street,
And dish water gives back no images.
~ Waring Cuney, No Images
“We accept that labels have been put upon us, but it isn’t always an accurate representation,” he continued.
Gg4 believes that honoring Black women in a way that elevates the divine feminine will help restore some needed balance as we remedy the imbalance created by toxic masculinity. And through this art collection he’s inviting Black men to honor and celebrate Black women by gifting them these commemorative, heirloom pieces that appreciate in value.
The collection consists of limited edition silver art currency cards with “Black Woman” engraved on them, signed silver and ruby pendants, and commemorative paper cards with original artworks and the hand-written poem. And if you’re specifically purchasing any items in the collection for Black women, you’ll receive a gift code for a discount. This is Gg4’s way of encouraging us to adorn and invest in the Black women in our lives.
“Silver is the frequency of peace. What better way to honor the powerful balancing force of the divine feminine, than to cast a dream for a beautiful world that she evokes into silver?” says Gg4.
Gg4 plans to transform more poems into precious metals art currency because the ancient art of combining precious words and precious symbols leads to precious moments, which, if nurtured, can create precious momentum to help us collectively shift out of our oppression.
“These pieces have intrinsic value because they are time capsules that call forth a new era of divine human progress, but reconnecting the people of the planet to these powerful precious elements in a way that invites healing and harmony is our mission,” adds Dahveed Nelson Gg4.
Deep.
The Great Grandfather of Universal Rapport BEEN deep though! Still a visionary ahead of his time, but seemingly always right on time. And this art collection is just more proof of that. Tap into this precious moment via TheLastPoet.org.
