All Day Sunday / Uhuru Reunion Pt. 2

Last weekend was the two day All Day Sunday and Uhuru Reunion. I attended both days, as the photographer. In doing so, it allowed me to have an inside out and outside in perspective on the people, the event, the culture, and the family, that has been created through this business.

There was a sentence that echoed throughout the first day, as each family member talked about ADS and their experiences.

“If it wasn’t for All Day Sunday, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.”

How amazing is that? That a boutique would have the power to become a second home or maybe a first home to teenagers and blossoming adults, who were trying to find themselves in a time that negatively and barely acknowledged them as equals. In a time that limited opportunity. Now when I say limited, there was definitely a combination of feeling powerless as individuals and feeling dependent on those in power to give opportunity. The hatred (a.k.a jealously) of our melanin, in turn made many of us lose site of the power that we’ve always had to create opportunity and resources for ourselves.

Now take a second. Think. How many shops can you name today that reflects even a fraction of what All Day Sunday did for their workers and community? And yes. I’m talking 2016. Name one shop right now… I can’t think of one. And what I've spent the past two weeks reflecting on is barely scratching the surface of what this store has meant to the city of Rochester.

This store accepted each employee, each customer for who they were. There was no need to make excuses as to why someone chose who they wanted to be. There was no need to explain your blackness or your whiteness or whatever-ness. The point I’m alluding to is, you never had to think about yourself when you walked through those glass doors.

Dear white people, you may or may not have experienced this. I on the other hand live this every day of my life. Constantly aware of my blackness where ever I go. The other night, my friend Kareem couldn’t even walk down a sidewalk without being harassed by the police. Then he watched a white couple make a b-line to the closest hotel because they were afraid of him. That’s two back to back instances where he was back stroking in his black awareness. Give me a break.

I am so grateful to ADS because indirectly, they’ve helped ME to become the person I am today. All the skills my sister learned from working under Frank and Ruby, have been passed down to me. I will continue to pass it on to others and the legacy of ADS will continue to live on throughout generations.

Part 2 of Ayette’s Interview

Tell me about the scholarship and what it meant to you. How did you apply for it.

Sure. So before me, Elaine Brown, Leah Green (Gause), and Phumelelo Nzima (Moses), some of my older "sisters", won the scholarship before me. They're all so smart. one's an engineer, another is an education guru... the people that had won the scholarship before me were people I completely looked up to. I believe I wrote an essay talking about challenges I over came in order to be able to go to college. So, maybe not having a supportive family, you know what I mean? But i still wrote my way into college and figured all of that out.

Leah was the person who actually helped me into college. My family circumstances were such that I did everything on my own. So I had them to look up to. They were always right there to help me. Leah was the person that moved me from my house in the city to college at Brockport. We didn't have car. And she taught me how to drive. Her and Phil would take me out in the middle of winter to MCC campus, drive around the campus, drive around the parking lot... They were the family that I didn't necessarily had at home.

You know I don't know how you want to spin that but that place helped me develop a full well rounded identity because before ADS, I would say I wasn't in touch with my african american identity.

Tell me more about that.

Because I was going to primarily white schools. Because majority of my family was like in Michigan and you know, I didn't have the most uh.. I don't want to say I came from a dysfunctional family even though that would be accurate, but you know. I didn't have close relatives so they [ADS] were my family.

Why do you think Mom made you go to predominantly white schools?

She thought that it would be the best outcome for my future.

What do you mean?

Meaning like she felt I would receive a better education in the suburbs as opposed to city schools.

So I know that the store sold tickets for WDKX when music artists came to Rochester. Can you tell me something about that? Or about the music you've experienced through working there?

I don't think that I was in the store when Biggie Smalls came in, but he's been in ADS. We would sell the concert tickets. Because we were selling the concert tickets we always got free tickets to the show. We would go, so being the youngest they would always look out for me because going to rap concerts was not always the safest thing to do. (She laughs)

Before they got really big and famous I saw the Fugees and Jay-Z and Mary J Blige... All of those people would come to Rochester and do shows... And I remember them getting me dressed up and made up. Never to look like cheap or something because we always wore baggy clothes like B-girls. Those women were my role models. They carried themselves with grace and style... You couldn't mess with them because they would totally snatch you up.

Try to sum up All Day Sunday and Uhuru in one word.

Transcend.

#AllDaySunday #Uhuru #ADS #WDKX #Black #Family #Community