Community Mission

            “Through out my life I [have] looked for communities, and when I cant find them; I build them.” Imani has given birth to many communities all of which have black people and their societal well being at the core. One of the many important and influential communities that Imani started is Fellowship of Friends of African Decent, which bought together Quakers of color to support and encourage one another on their social and spiritual endeavors. The fellowship that started as a weekly meeting held Friday nights at her house grew to be an international community of black Quakers that is still in existence and active today, traveling all over the world to join with other Quakers of color. The other extremely influential community, that was the beginning of a line of other similar ones, that Imani was hugely responsible for was The Star Team. This team was a group of four teachers who were responsible for 60 students who were far behind in their academics. Not only did the STAR team get students excited and celebrated for positivity and progress, but The STAR team also went to the students’ houses to make a personal connection that allowed even more holistic growth. The STAR team “helped to build the foundation for [her] continued work as an educator. It was in the STAR team where [she] learned how to be in holistic communities that were intergenerational and placed youth empowerment and societal transformation at the center. The STAR team was the first community [she] helped to develop that linked education with liberation.” After this Imani went on to teach and be an administrator in schools where there were an overwhelming number of black students who were behind in their education. Also, while working on her dissertation she was immersed in African-centered schooling and culture at Imhotep Institute Charter High School and Khepera Charter School. She is currently at Sankofa Freedom Academy where she works daily and diligently to build a community of service to her people and holistic education to the youth. “All of these communities have as part of its mission and vision the transformation of self for the transformation of communities.  In all of these communities we challenge ourselves in order to challenge the system.  In all of these communities education is seen as basically a spiritual endeavor that manifest itself in the incarnation of good in the world.”

Ayesha Imani while accomplishing so many goals and both serving and creating communities, she is also a mother, daughter, sister (and care taker of both her mother and sister), administrator, and spiritual and cultural leader; and she fulfils these full time roles completely with an insatiable drive towards excellence.   

A Spiritual Journey

            Finding meaning from the universe and ones place and purpose in it is a journey that every individual must embark upon for themselves. Ayesha Imani seemed to be born with the divine extremely active within as she searched for a community of people with whom she shared the same religious beliefs. As she went on this journey she spent time studying and being involved with a number of the world’s main religions. At the early age of nine Imani found Christianity and was an Evangelists trying to bring others to God. When asked how being so spiritual affected her childhood and family relationships, she giggled “my mother thought I was strange, when my siblings wanted toys and games, I wanted bibles, different versions and colors, and my mother would say ‘you already have one,’ and would get me another.” As we talked more it became clear that Christianity has been the backdrop to Imani on her spiritual search. At the age of 15 she moved out of the house with no financial support and lived on a Christian commune. “We lived communally, there were 15 people in one apartment, ever week we would put all our money in a pot and combine our finances for our needs. We went around the neighborhood and took food to the homeless or forced them to come home with us to get them cleaned up. We would drive in our van, and when black people were being arrested we jumped out and took pictures, we had to document police brutality. We were simply trying to live as the early Christians did, and do the work that Jesus did.” During the next two years Imani studied more closely the Christian teachings under the minister on the commune, they started going to the mosque near by and tried to convert the Muslims to Christianity, however “we would have debates with them, and eventually instead of us converting them they converted us. Simultaneously our leader went off to college where he was exposed to Islam and worked towards our conversion.” Imani explained how she, along with the rest of the community, was predisposed to Islam before they officially converted because “[they] were calling themselves Muslims who were Christian because Muslim just means one who submits to God.” After trying to go to the mosque and convince her Muslim contemporaries that there was nothing wrong with a Christian who called themselves Muslim they once again debated and swayed her opinion. Even more than discussion with her Muslim peers, it was the “beauty of the Qur’an and [her] reading of ‘Religions of Man’ by Huston Smith (re-titled to be gender neutral as ‘World’s Religions’) that really won her over. And again she was off on her journey.

            After years of being a radical Christian, and then a radical Muslim and exploring Taoism for a short time, around 1978 she was “a Muslim woman who fell inlove with a Jewish man, [and together they found Quakerism] it seemed to be the only place we could continue our spiritual exploration together with the religious backgrounds we had [and the situation we were in].” Imani found a permanent home and comfort zone with Quakerism, however with her she offered the teachings and knowledge of Islam and a different denomination and culture of Christianity.
 She is currently a Quaker, however due to her divine purpose and her continual journey, Imani takes not only from her previous religious affiliations, but also from both ancient and current African spirituality and culture. With these tools she has been able to reach a level of clarity about a number of things in her different communities, her immediate family, and herself and her Divine purpose.  

    

Glimpse Of The Past

             Standing four feet and eleven inches tall and embodying an inspiring and genuine story, Ayesha Imani began her journey in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born to a mother, who had only a 4^th grade education, who was a domestic worker for middle class white families; also the great granddaughter of a slave. Born by the name Ann R. Platt, she attended William B. Kellie public school, but was soon requested to transfer to Masterman Academy, an advanced school for especially academically gifted students. She was the first student in the history of her school to be sent to Masterman, where she completed two grades in one year and graduated high school at the age of 16 in 1970. As a poor, black female, graduating high school was a huge accomplishment for her. In fact she was the first female of her family to graduate high school. From a very young age she was a serious activist and scholar. This made childhood somewhat difficult and unenjoyable, being the “only one” in almost ever setting made Imani feel “as if [she] didn’t belong anywhere.” In her line of 5 siblings she was the most serious one, excited by an assortment of bibles, politics, and society while simultaneously caring for her autistic sister; teaching her to read and write, before anyone knew exactly what autism was.

            Although she did not come from a family with high academic standing at all, Ayesha Imani grew up with a mother who belabored the importance of education. Although she never officially joined feminist organizations her mother was an example of a “strong, independent, black women”, whose idol was Mary McLeod Bethune. “Black women of my time were hesitant to join the women’s’ movement, it did not seem to address the struggles of black women. We knew that as black people and black women we had to fight for respect from men and women both black and white.” she explained when asked about her involvement with the feminist movement. However with a mother who embodied feminism Imani was able to excel knowing that she had a purpose. Imani says with passion and nostalgia “not only did my mother encourage education, in fact she didn’t teach me the domestic skills that she used in the houses of her employers. I would ask her to help cook or clean, and she would sharply say ‘no do your work, this is what I have to do so that you won’t have to, I never want you to’.” Her mother was extremely forward thinking for her time in the 50’s. She believed in birth control and safe abortions, which was rare. With a powerful, progressive, and encouraging mother Imani did indeed excel. She went on to be the first person in her bloodline to graduate from college. She graduated from Temple University, where she started as a secretary of the Urban Education Department in 1978 and ended as a professor with a Ph.D in the same department in 2004. And as successful as this brief background may seem this was only the beginning of an individual’s life that has evolved into a community’s movement.