Spear of the Nation

Today, Daniel speaks with Spear of the Nation. Spear’s a hip-hop artist, educator, radical healer and mentor and has worked throughout the Bay Area. He has supported African American Wellness through the National Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Oakland Freedom School, Flourish Agenda’s Camp Akili, Oakland Unified School District’s Manhood Development Program, and Determination Black Men’s Group at United Roots to name a few. He approaches the work with passion and insight. 

Spear speaks at length about his experience with DecrimInalize Nature & the nationwide movement to dismantle & so called “War on Drugs” & the fervent need re-educate the populace about it’s malignancy. 

A big influence on Spear is his uncle who performed with hip hop Pharcyde

In the 90’s who overtly celebrated the positive use of marijuana. 

Quotes:

Spear: The medicine’s in the storytelling & that’s the magic of integration. When people have space to unpack, share, speak, to share their authentic selves & to be their authentic truth.

Spear: Transformation when making music is key. We always knew that music was the key towards liberation.  So that me & my bandmates looked at it. When you’re looking at 60’s/70’s with jazz artists like Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, that’s what I heard at home when growing up.  

Spear:  I used to think of myself as a rapper, or an emcee, but that’s evolved…now I just see myself as a sound-healer. I’m mostly concerned with how we can take the power of music and integrate that positively into our communities with integration being a major word to focus on here. We have to look out how our communities need healing & how the music needs to come from that healing.

Spear: The intentions of Decriminalize Nature are in the right place. No one here’s saying ‘we are the answer, this is the answer, we have the best model’. We’re saying ‘hey, here’s an option!’ Let’s look at this option & see how it can positively impact our communities.

Spear: We’ve had peak experiences, with & without plant medicine, with the exorcisms of people’s trauma coming out & we’re holding space for them. Sessions with crying, screaming, yelling where that somatic release is real. We tapped into some deep traumas & helped each other heal.