The following is a list of key points from each of the Four Agreements, believed to have derived from Toltec wisdom.  
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The First Agreement: Be Impeccable with Your Word
Key Points: 
- Your intent manifests through the word
- One fear or doubt planted in our mind can create an endless drama of events
- When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.
- Use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself.

The Second Agreement - Don't Take Anything Personally
Key Points:
- Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you.
- Taking things personally, makes you easy prey for those predators
- You get mad because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear.
- In that state of bliss you are making love all the time with everything that you perceive.
- Whatever people do feel, think, or say don't take it personally; don't take anything personally
- The mind lives in more than one dimension
- You don't need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.
- You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you.

The Third Agreement - Don't Make Assumptions
Key Points
- We defend our assumption and try to make someone else wrong.
- We literally dream things up in our imaginations
- Making assumptions in relationships leads to a lot of fights, a lot of difficulties, a lot of misunderstandings with people we supposedly love
- When we believe something, we assume we are right about it to the point that we will destroy relationships in order to defend our position.
- You need to stop lying to yourself about what you truly want
- Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.
- Find someone whom you don't have to change at all
- Find the voice to ask for what you want
- Everybody, including you, has the right to tell you no or yes.
- All human problems would be resolved if we could just have good, clear communication
- What will really make the difference is action

The Fourth Agreement- Always Do Your Best
Key Points:
- If you always do your best there is no way you can judge yourself
- You are not here to sacrifice your joy or your life; you are here to live, to be happy, and to love.
- You are going to be productive, be good to yourself.
- Doing your best is taking the action because you love it
- When you do your best, you learn to accept yourself.
-Be aware and learn from your mistakes - look honestly at the results and keep practicing - this increases your awareness
- Make everything a ritual, and always do your best
- Let go of the past and live in the present moment (Learn from the past)
- Take a risk and enjoy your life
- Say no when you want to say no, and yes when you want to say yes.
- When you don't do your best you are denying yourself the right to be you.

“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything “, said Malcolm X, a man who stood for right and truth until the day he died.”  I’m a boxer, and I really don’t want anything to do with the civil rights programs right now “, is what Muhammad Ali said while trying to find out how to become a man in a complex world.                                                                                                                       
Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X is a book based on two men who used their friendliness and religious beliefs to help strengthen each other.  But, was that really enough?

Even though both men had similar back ground experiences and the respect for brotherhood, their friendship become toxic the minute Malcolm X was silenced and ousted from the Nation of Islam Muhammad Ali, who believed in and respected Malcolm X was born between his loyalty to Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad.  In the end, Ali chose Elijah Muhammad and said of X after he died, “Malcolm was my friend, and he was the friend of everybody as long as he was a member of Islam.  Now, I don’t want to talk about him no more.”

​Blood Brothers is a book about admiration, loyalty, friendship, respect, doubt, lies, hatred, betrayal, and murder. 
- Gwen Tyus

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Talking Points from the Nia Literary Society Book Discussion:

PHILOSOPHY - Conscious thought and practice – unity among all things.   

NTR - Concepts and attributes of nature.

SYMBOLs OF MAAT - Woman, ostrich feather (male/female balance/harmony), scales

LIFE LEVELS and the HUMAN/SOCIAL PLANE - Taking care of the earth, respect, harmony with nature, sharing – family, community, nation.

LIFE CENTERED: RELIGION, RITUAL & EDUCATION - God is everywhere, NTRU (innate attributes/elements of all things, God as an object, creation as a sustaining process, not an event.  What are some common everyday rituals?  Prayer in schools.

THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE - Spirit as a real entity, addressing ancestors

TRANSITION - Do you fear death? 

LIFE CYCLES: FROM KEMET TO MODERN DAY - The fall of Kemet?  Foreign invasion (still happening), existing as a whole.

Another brilliant journey of a jazz artist, a pioneer, and a visionary –
A leader… 
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Herbie Hancock brings a spirit of kuumba and an energy of tranquility as he narrates his story.  The music is amazing, the struggles were real, the triumphs were unprecedented. 

(Read the full article HERE)

James Baldwin once so poignantly stated in a 1965 issue of Time magazine that, “To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.”  It would appear that aphorism is just as true today some 50 years hence.  The work by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and Mumia Abu-Jamal, “The Classroom and the Cell : Conversations on Black Life in America”, illustrates this point succinctly.  It is a dialogue that encompasses the pressing societal issues facing Black America; such as, politics, religion, education, culture, incarceration, and leadership between two men of the diaspora whose backgrounds are from opposing ends of the spectrum.  The discourses are provocative, engaging, enlightening, and in the final analysis unforgettable; they reveal the commonality between two people that on the surface appear to be most dissimilar.  That being whether in a prison cell or a “cement cell”, to be Black in America is to be a prisoner of some kind. Freedom from such must begin with a conversation.    - J After Dark

Lionel Hampton once remarked, “Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.” So what better way to get an understanding of existence, of the human experience, than by getting to know a drummer?!? Mo’ Meta Blues is drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson first foray into writing an autobiography. The work doesn't follow the typical autobiographical narrative but a memoir that pendulums back and forth between the events of ?uestlove’s life out of sequence like those of Kurt Vonnegut’s work “Slaughter House Five.” From his middle class upbringing in the Illadelph by moderately successful Do Wop singers to his meteoric rise as the co-founder of the multi-Grammy award winning Legendary Roots crew, there is an underlying connective theme throughout his life : Music. “When you live your life through records, the records are a record of your life.” - ?uestlove. 

Ahmir’s true talent may not lie in producing or DJing or dare I say drumming but rather in his near encyclopedic knowledge of music; which he used to tell the story of his life. As someone who too has in their mental repertoire seeming limitless esoteric albums and obscure artists, I found ?uestlove’s storytelling through records to be endearing, poignant, touching, and even awe inspiring. His appreciation, his reverence of music, of his craft raises the level of musicianship. For that we should all give the drummer some!!     -J After Dark

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• Consumption has isolated communities (neighbors and families)
• There is an overwhelming belief that the good life depends on consumption.
• Strong local community is a necessity.
• Safety and Security should be mainly on the citizen.
• Health:  we are disconnected as a neighborhood, we create business for the specialist in the medical system.
• Economy:  Establishing incentives to create small business and local economy
• Food:  best done through local production and food activists must be created
• Learn to care for family in a way that cannot be paid for
• Everything from outsourcing to superficial nature of society selling perfection and immortality
• We are enslaved by debt
• Choosing a satisfied life takes commitment
• In accepting our basic human nature, communication is key: Storytelling has to take its place at the table.  (What is your narrative?)
• Key ingredients:  kindness, generosity, cooperation and forgiveness and art (spoke briefly on these topics)
• Make a list of resources in your community and the community you serve.
• Bridging the generation gap with active, relevant gift sharing, such as young people teaching computers/Internet to seniors
• Building associations based on these abundant community principles and connecting them. This requires work. Planning, writing, networking,  communication (especially with strangers), etc. Use block parties, clean-ups, and social events
• The abundant community has specific "Tenets" that must be understood: 

                                                                   a) What we have is enough
                                                                   b) We have the capacity to provide what we need in the face of the                                                                                   human condition
                                                                   c) We organize our world in a context of cooperation and satisfaction
                                                                   d) We are responsible for each other
                                                                   e) We live with the reality of the human condition

In Post-Blackness, Toure takes a journey through the lives and circumstances of numerous Africans in America.  From styles of discipline to miseducated middle class, he touches on most facets in the experience.  He asks some profound questions on the current overall direction of those of the Diaspora, infusing his personal experiences and through the interview of many others from campus intellectuals to comedians.  There are the painful realities of the struggle and the personal triumphs of many, but Toure delves into common plight and possible means of dialogue to spark the eventual development of identity healing. 

Great line from the book: "If you're scared to publish it, then you absolutely must publish it."