I remember recalling the day when I realized that;

The Cryp walk, AND the Blood walk, are both a mixture of global tribal dances, including (but not limited to); MozArabic Ballet, Santeria/Voodoon/ West African, dances of the Dutch River Dance, the American Indian, and Km.t .

I would watch my cousins dance and be like – wow, that is so beautiful, how they look like they are rocks skipping across a lake, barely ever stepping hard, unless it was meant to be communicated.

And I remember seeing the sign language that the Vatos would do, and it just reminded me of the beautiful wood carvings of Moorish Art carved into crown moldings inside of old craftsmen homes or lodges, even the ceilings sometimes covered in sacred geometry. That’s how beautiful some of these hand signs would look to me, no matter which hood was doing it.

Then I learned that people of the same blood would fight and kill each other over flags and sign language and dance. And that hurt me. Because I also felt like it was the story of many tribes and clans that was misunderstood, misinterpreted, and utilized as a weapon by outsiders so that we would have to kill each other, without them getting their hands dirty. And that hurt me.

Because – although not EVERY one gets along ALL the time, we had come to a civilized understanding of at least TRYing to exercise Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice. And certain things had reasons behind them. Then other things just became senseless.

Now, we can’t see any of the beauty of the various tribes and hoods bc people are afraid a war will break out. Instead, we have to watch on our screens and that sucks. Because all clans have traditional dress, flags, sign language, and dance that represent their history, and it becomes mainstream because what starts at the bottom is ALWAYS the foundation for everything that builds to the top. And I would just like to see us all celebrate the many aspects of us in peace, whether we like each other or not, it may be the art that influences a future writer to tell the stories behind the art, but not if it means that it will only cause more war.