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Posted by Robert
Rap News Network
2/3/2004 3:10:00 PM
Tags and topics realted to this article include 2Pac and Afeni Shakur.
JASMINE GUY first met Afeni Shakur in December 1994. Guy and friend Jada Pinkett (now Jada Pinkett-Smith), a close friend of Tupac Shakur, went to a New York City courthouse where Tupac was awaiting a hearing on sexual assault charges. Wrapped in bandages and confined to a wheelchair, Tupac had been shot five times the night before in the foyer of a Manhattan recording studio.
Guy met Afeni in the hallway. The women quickly struck up a friendship, and the former Alvin Ailey dancer and "A Different World" ' co-star was fascinated with Afeni's life.
Guy, who stars in her second season on the Showtime series "Dead Like Me" ' (10 p.m. Friday), spent the next 10 years talking with and recording Afeni's thoughts. Guy initially thought about making a movie on her life, but turned these intimate conversations into a book, "Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary." '
Guy signs copies of her book Tuesday at 2000+ Bookstore in Long Beach.
The memoir spans four decades, revealing the evolution of Shakur through a series of frank personal discussions on love, race, drugs, music and her son, Tupac, who was riding in the car of Death Row Records founder Suge Knight when he was shot four times. He died six days later, Sept. 13, 1996. His murder remains unsolved. Afeni doesn't hold back, and Guy is there every step of the way to capture every word.
Controversial, outspoken and candid, Shakur presents her life as she lived it -- from the dirt roads of rural North Carolina to the streets of the lower Bronx. She talks about her marriages, her pregnancies, her drug addiction, abandoning her daughter, Sekyiwa, her addiction recovery, her years in the Black Panther Party and her love of Shakespeare.
Here, Guy, 37, recounts meeting Afeni, listening to Tupac's music and putting everything in the book.
Q: What was it like the first time you met Afeni outside that courtroom in December 1994?
A: It wasn't quite what I had envisioned. I was feeling that I should sit back and let the family do their thing. (But) Afeni was so warm. She looked right at me and gave me a big hug, and was so grateful that Jada and I were there.
Q: Did she know who you were?
A: She knew that (Tupac and I) were friends. Actually, I won an Image Award from the NAACP, I forget exactly when. I went to the press tent afterward, I thought, to talk about the award. But all they did was ask me about this rapper Tupac. What did I feel about him winning an award? Should he have been nominated?
I wasn't up on the controversy and didn't get what the big deal was. The songs at that time that I knew him for were "Brenda" s Got a Baby'' and "Keep Ya Head Up." ' I was really confused. What's the big problem with "Keep Ya Head Up" '?
When I said, "Could you be specific about the songs you find offensive?" ' They said, "I don" t find them offensive, but (some people) and different women's groups do.'' I said, "I think we have to listen to pop music with a discerning ear. Even based on that, I don" t see that he, in particular, is responsible for most of the bitch and 'ho music out there.' I thought Two Live Crew (was more offensive).
The Shakur family heard that I'd stood up for him. It was purely a social opinion. I wasn't standing up for him because he was my friend's friend kind of thing.
Q: At the time you weren't familiar with his more controversial music, but since listening to more of his music, what do you think of the songs?
A: I wasn't offended by Tupac's music. I've been offended by some rap music, but his music wasn't offensive to me, especially in the beginning when he was so focused on his life experiences. If anything, I thought, 'This guy has something to say.'
Q: Were you surprised other people were offended by it?
A: I felt that (his) music as a whole was being attacked. Because he was so visible, I thought he was used as the scapegoat.
Q: What did you know about Afeni before you met her?
A: I knew she had been a very high-profile Black Panther in the New York Chapter.
I was fascinated with the New York 21 trial. (In 1969, Afeni and 20 other Black Panther Party members were arrested on suspicion of planning bombings. She was acquitted of all charges.) She fought to represent herself with no education and no law degree, obviously. She ended up studying and defending herself in such a way that it got her acquitted and, I believe, got them acquitted.
Q: What events in her life did she tell you about that got you upset?
A: There were certain things that my sensibilities didn't want to share about her life as her friend, things about her daughter. I kept thinking, even though she told me, does she really, really, really want this in the book?
Even when I went to talk with Sekyiwa, her daughter, she said she didn't feel comfortable with it. We both knew that the period of (Afeni's) drug use was horrible. She left that kid, and she was left to fend to her own devices. There's no other way to sugarcoat it.
I'm not as open as Afeni is, but that's also what I admire about her. She'll say this was a (bad) thing to do and I did it and I claim it.
We had looked at other writers for her story before I wrote it. Part of the problem was that she felt they made her a hero, glorified the situation. They justified her actions, and as a recovering addict she said she can't live in that half-truth.
Phillip Zonkel can be reached at (562) 499-1258 or by e-mail atphillip.zonkel@presstelegram.com
JASMINE GUY
What: Reads and signs copies of her biography on Afeni Shakur, mother of slain rapper Tupac Shakur
Where: Education 2000+ Bookstore, 309 Pine Ave., Long Beach
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Admission: Free
Information: (562) 435-1199
Other dates: 7 p.m. Wednesday (with Afeni Shakur), Eso Wan Bookstore, 3655 S. La Brea, Los Angeles; 7:30 p.m. Thursday (with Afeni Shakur), Midnight Special Bookstore, 1318 Third St., Santa Monica; 2 p.m. Feb. 28, Chevaliers Bookstore, 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles.
Find out more about 2Pac. Other items you may find on 2Pac include updates, news, multimedia, chat, links and more. Click here... Find out more about Afeni Shakur. Other items you may find on Afeni Shakur include updates, news, multimedia, chat, links and more. Click here...
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