Trust

Meteor

On September 6, 2015 my father-in-law, Muhammad Americo Mendez, returned to Allah (SWT). He was loved and respected internationally. I have learned so much from just watching him, and listening to his stories. He is truly missed. The 90615 LP, a compilation of zikhr (litanies) and songs, was created shortly after his passing. Each track captures a specific emotion evoked when I think of him and the memories me and my family built with him. Insha'Allah these sonic instillations can remind us all to make du'a (supplication) for him, any loved ones we've lost, and for ourselves. From Allah we come, to Allah we must return. 
Muhammad Americo Mendez ( June 5, 1948 - September 6, 2015 )

Executive Produced By : Hassan "HAZali" Abdus-Salaam ( BMI ) 
Co - Executive Produced By : Rashidah Mendez 
Album Design : Rashidah Mendez 
Forthelovers Music Group © 2016 
www.shootwithhaz.com


Released by:
Forthelovers Music Group


Jummah with Shaykh Hassan Cisse feat. Saidah Denise & Kamilah Shuaibe *Soundcloud Exclusive*

Poem full text:

loverboy said no sexting after Isha. After saying he could caress my ass. What I remember most about the old masjid, was the carpet. Clean and green and vacuumed over twice. Daddy brought a woman to the mosque once. Dumped her cause she wouldn't stop cooking pork in dark pots. I don't know how to to wrap my scarf. 

make a dua for me, loverboy says. what I'm doing is inappropriate. Breathing his dreams into text messages. sleeping me into sunlight. 

Daddy lost a wife to Alabama Fruit of Islam black and gold kufi caps. No clean, green vacuumed carpet to dance under her feet. Nothing says love like a slice of bean pie. 

I hear my father making fajr prayer in early streams of morning. Nightmares wrapped in duas that I find a husband who knows that desire and scarves rip tight at both ends. 

Give me my mother’s smile on her wedding day. Give me a cream sari and knotted stomach. give me my father’s gold when Elijah Muhammad was king. 

I just want love without the lines. a man woman woman chamomile love under nylon and rayon. touch my hand. 

Isha

"In the early 1990s, Lake Merritt became a popular hangout and cruising spot, where crowds of black youth would gather outside of the popular Festival at the Lake, extending cruising from East Oakland into one of the city's most desirable public spaces, "The Jewel of the City."
-"Dangerous or Endangered?: Race and the Politics of Youth in Urban America"
By Jennifer Tilton

"Me and my friend, we walked around. We got numbers and everything. I think the boys there were a lot more nicer in their approach to talking to us."
-Woman at Festival at the Lake, 1996
 
lake merritt is our little secret
daisy dukes and Dantes
smiling across the grass
why i never get the numbers i want
geese and gold rims and your mama set a curfew
cruising is what they said we was doing
but we really just
Floatin
on sticky car seats, hoping love will come
through a tinted window

water at our backs 
and a breeze through our bangs 
I got this ring pop and he’s looking at me 
but who is that girl with the green eyes
all on his mind
and why this other nigga followin’ me so close
oh, there go the police saying we bad for the area
they here to crush us
but i’m hungry and my girl talkin to some dude
who keep looking at her butt
I was with her when she bought that bikini top
our bodies are brown and sure
this lake, just a mirror
and we walkin, smilin into each other
and runnin 
away from ourselves

~Nijla 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p2EwQL4wyY

Ode To Lake Merritt

Nijla1

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