CEREMONY, RITUAL, ADAPT

BY LE'VAR HOWARD

CEREMONY
Grandma Nana's house to visit eat tomato soup, potato bread, family get togethers, and listening to my Auntie Julia sing.

RITUAL
Every day, for years, me and my younger brother Junior, my cousin Taylor, and my cousin Devin would walk through the fence between Garden View Apartments and the park and play. Our ritual: we ran basketball drills, we practiced defense drills, ran lines, ran laps. To this day, I still practice this old basketball dream. I shoot alone and work on drills like a new dreamer, one step after the other, elbow and chest out. Flick the wrists.

ADAPTATION FOR PRISON
My exercising is my ritual working on my body in ways to better improve my physical condition. I love this, I practice this and have signed up for athletic classes, college courses. I have also become an executive member of the athletic club, I'm on a journey to one day join the ceremony of the bodybuilder’s show. I have a long way to go, many rituals must take place before I qualify. For the great ceremony, I want to be a part of that show … at 45 or 48, whenever I'm released. | LH

LE’VAR HOWARD IS A PORTLAND, OREGON NATIVE. MOST OF HIS FAMILY COMES FROM GULF PORT, MISSISSIPPI, ATLANTA, TEXAS, AND OKLAHOMA. LE’VAR IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE GROUND BENEATH US WRITING GROUP. HE TRACES INFLUENCES ON HIS WRITING TO HIS AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE.