Amena Brown - Breaking Old Rhythms: Answering the Call of a Creative God

Breaking Old Rhythms

Answering the Call of a Creative God

Amena Brown

Foreword by Dan Kimball

www.IVPress.com/books

To Jesus,
the DJ of all DJs,
the Greatest Master of Ceremonies,
the Ultimate Teacher of the break dance,
You create and break my rhythm, and I'm always better for it.

Amena Brown is a poet, speaker, journalist and event host from Atlanta, Georgia. The author of a chapbook and two spoken word CDs, Brown has performed and spoken at events across the nation such as The RightNow Conference, Creativity World Forum, Catalyst Conference, Chick-fil-A Leadercast, the 2008 National Poetry Slam Competition, as well as touring with Gungor.

She and her husband, Matt "DJ Opdiggy" Owen travel and perform "God.Rhyme.Reason." a presentation of poetry, monologue and deejaying on doubt, faith and hope.

Brown is also journalist for numerous blogs, magazines and newspapers in the Atlanta area.

T hank you to Kimberly Womble, Margaret Feinberg and Dan Kimball for continuing to (figuratively) kick me in the pants to write this book. It would not exist if it werent for your support and friendship.

To Jayme, thanks for sharing your music with me and always hipping me to a new artist.

To Robert and Jay, although we can never seem to agree on the best rapper alive, I am thankful for all our hip hop conversations. The two of you are major reasons why I immersed myself in hip hop.

To Dave Zimmerman and the InterVarsity Press staff, thank you for believing in me and supporting me. Thank you for your patience with all my questions and changes. I appreciate you all!

To Greg Tate, you mentored me via email, coffee and a tour of Harlem. You told me the straight up truth about writing, about art, about writing about art. I am still wading through those albums, books and designers you told me to study up on. I am a better writer for having met you.

To the kind people who read these chapters and gave me honest feedback and another set of eyes: Jamila Abston, Adan Beane, Charlette Clark, Michelle Hoeft, Heath Hollensbe, Adrienne Howze, Kwajelyn Jackson, Makeda Lewis, Travis Mason, Lewis Moats, Rachel Monroe, Cole NeSmith, Vickie Owen, Kelly Pope, Lindsay Smith, Mari Wiles, Joy Worley and Brian Wurzell. All of your comments, encouragement and questions helped me to sharpen the content here. You deserve a shout out! Thank you.

To the DJs who inspire me: Opdiggy, Klever, Questlove, Jazzy Jeff and Pete Rock. Thank God for albums and what you do with them.

To Maya Angelou, Anne Lamott, Dream Hampton, Donald Miller, Toni Morrison and Tariq Trotter, your work inspires me to return to the blank page and blinking cursor.

To my dad, James Brown, for passing on his love of music to my siblings and me: Jayme, Robert and Jay. To my stepmom, Jackie Brown, for all those good choir songs you played on repeat in your car, and for teaching me harmony.

To my sister, Makeda, Im so thankful for your art, challenge, fashion and inspiration. You keep me going in more ways than you know.

To my mom, Willa Jeanne Brown, you have believed in my writing since you stumbled on my first steno pad full of poetry. Thank you for buying me records, books and journals, and for showing me what a godly woman looks like. Your words and life example lift me up. You are a great mom and a wonderful friend. I love you.

To my Grandma Bert, I love you and all the stories I get to tell about you. Maybe one day I will fill a book with them. Thank you for all those trips to the library, for making me watch VH-1 instead of MTV when I was a kid, and for teaching me hymns while you played the piano. If it werent for you, I would not know the Berenstain Bears, Paul Simon, Tracy Chapman or Blessed Assurance. You are the best!

To my sweet and patient husband, Matthew Opdiggy Owen. I cannot count the mornings I wake up next to you and thank God that you are my husband. You are everything I prayed for and all the things I didnt know to ask God for but really needed. You inspire me, challenge me, sharpen me, love me and accept me, and God uses your love all the time to show me a glimpse of his love for me. Thank you for always believing in me, for being my husband and best friend.

Lastly, to you dear reader, thank you for checking out this book. I hope this is a spark for you to embrace and break rhythm.

I was born of tambourine and handclap
Foot stomp on old wooden church floors
Learned to love a sound that came straight from James Brown
Not the Godfather of Soul
Im talking about my father, whose soul is earth, wind & fire
Whose eyes are shining stars for me to see
Earphones bigger than six-month-old me
Placed around these little ears
So I could hear a slice of what my life could truly be

Amena Brown, The Key of G

T he too-big headphones belonged to my dad, James Brown. Yes, my dads name is really James Brown. For years I have been trying to convince people that this makes me the granddaughter of soulbut no takers. When I was growing up, my dad listened to funk and jazz, and hes been playing piano as long as I can remember. Every time I hear Earth, Wind, & Fires Lets Groove, I am transported back to the small living room in our North Carolina townhome, my dad clad in doo-rag and short-sleeved white T-shirt, my first time hearing the recording of a horn section, layered vocals and a thumping bass line.

My mom played in the band during high school and was a lover of all things music: Prince, Michael Jackson, Tremaine Hawkins, Bob Marley, and Frankie Beverly and Maze. Eventually I got my own boom box and started to play the hip hop, jazz and soul tunes that moved me. Since before I said my first word, Ive been following a rhythm. We all have.

I went to my first concert in Atlantas Centennial Park in 2004. Admission was five dollars. Some friends and I met up, threw our blankets on the grass and waited for this new rapper named Kanye West to take the stage. He performed hits from his debut album College Dropout . My friends and I were all recent college grads so we could identify with Kanyes middle-class angst. Most of us were working far from dream jobs, doing what we could to make it between paychecks.

When Kanye performed his controversial hit Jesus Walks, the audience went from bohemian blanket sitting to standing with hands in the air. I looked around at the crowd as the soldieresque background vocals and marching band percussion opened the song. Age, race, faith, skin color, fashion, economic status, didnt matter. The whole crowd was bobbing their heads, rocking their necks and bouncing their arms to the same beat. This was one of the first times I understood the power of rhythm.

We all have a rhythm were used toa tempo that goes beyond the kind of music we listen to. God gave each of us an internal rhythm. Put your hand over your heart, a hand over your wrist or two fingers on the side of your neck, and youll discover you have your own internal clicka personal metronome that God thoughtfully put inside each of us. We find our rhythm in the way we like life to go, in the way we choose to love and allow ourselves to be loved, whether we like life to be easy, planned to the minute, exciting, adventurous or safe. Our rhythm is our lifes cadence. Its something we follow, most times without even knowing it.