Mother of the acclaimed hip-hop artist and poet Tupac Shakur, Afeni Shakur-Davis, spoke words encouraging the nourishment of love and tranquility last night as she appeared at an event sponsored by the Black Student Alliance in Haymarket Theatre.
Her son was the artist behind several multi-platinum albums, as well as a published poet and charismatic personality who preached inspirationally about growing up on the streets and rising to the top.
Though his life was a rags-to-riches story, Tupac spoke realistically of the deprecating lifestyle of struggling to survive in a hostile environment. He was shot four times late on the night of September 7, 1996. He died six days later in the hospital from respiratory failure.
Since her son's violent death, Shakur-Davis has become the founder and CEO of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, an organization based on promoting peace and providing an artistic environment for young people.
"I only want us to learn how to live together without destroying each other," Shakur-Davis said, "You have never heard me ask 'who did it.' You haven't heard me question who murdered my son, or for me to seek justice. There is no justice after a murder. The only thing we can do is make lemonade out of lemons."
Shakur-Davis was an outspoken member of the Black Panther Party during the late '60s and was arrested for withholding information that could have lead to the conviction of prominent Panther members. She was pregnant with Tupac while in jail and, as she said, survived the experience of her imprisonment for him. A little over a month later, Tupac was born, and so began the most joyous years of her life.
Tupac himself led a very rough life, and was arrested several times, and jailed on multiple occasions. When her son died, Shakur-Davis wanted her son's legacy to live past his illegal convictions.
"When Tupac left, just in case he had not changed somebody's life already, my family and I decided we would help him change someone's life," Shakur-Davis said. "And the way we could do that was magnifying the good that he had done, and the good that he had."
The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation is based in Atlanta. It exists on nine acres of land, six of which are dedicated to a "peace garden," where people may come to enjoy the serenity the landscape offers, to meditate, or to be together in a protected environment to celebrate collective unity. Shakur-Davis has been the producer for her son's posthumous releases which have funded the organization's activities with the profits.
Shakur-Davis spoke with frank genuineness, which was appreciated by many of those in attendance. Kristal Gray, a senior, felt Shakur-Davis appealed to her on a personal level because of her keen sense of humor, and affable personality.
"These words were really her own," Gray said. "She said what she felt and was very genuine. She was not condescending like many other speakers, she was real. I thought it was great."
Shakur-Davis was confident in her position in the world and her purpose in life. She mentioned that earlier in her life, she drifted through turbulent times and is a recovering drug addict. Tupac's more personal songs discuss his distaste with how his mother let him down in that aspect of her life. But she turned her life around for the better, she said, because of his direction and inspiration.
She described to the audience the first moment she had heard his song, "Dear Mama," which she described as his forgiveness to her for her selfish mistakes. She had just gone to pick up Tupac from jail in Atlanta, and he had desperately searched for his personal effects. As soon as they got in the car together, he put the tape in the deck and played it for her. It was one of her proudest moments, she said.
"I'm not an entertainer; I'm not a star. I'm here because I'm Tupac's momma," Shakur-Davis said. "I stand here a complete person, through good decisions and bad decisions. What you finally do with those decisions is what matters. Now, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do."
An audience member asked what she thought of the rumors about her son still being alive. The crafty 61-year-old beamed, and laughed. She said she has lived through a lot, and has endured everything life had thrown at her, including the worst night of her life in September of 1996. She said she understood these rumors were just jokes, and understands they are meant to be taken lightly. But to her, and through her, her son's legend perseveres, an example of the quality character Shakur-Davis exudes.
Tupac's legend has ardently prevailed past his death, has inspired the lives of other influential artists such as Nikki Giovanni, and has been the subject of Harvard sociological studies on his cultural impact on the world. To his mother though, Tupac was a son, a comic, a friend, and most of all, just human.
"In reality Tupac was an artist, he was just a person," Shakur-Davis said. "I didn't want him to be remembered as a gangster rapper, or a sexual abuser. I want people to appreciate him as a whole person, and to show them who that person was."