3:30 p.rri.

Claxton, GA

Mt. Pleasnt Cemetery 1268 Mt. Pleasant Rd

11:00 a.m. Augusta, GA

Williams Memorial CME Church 1630 15th St.

Driving directions will be provided at service

Ann Arbor Area Univ. of Michigan* Sept. 26, 2013 7-9 PM

Locations Subject to Change

n lieu of flowers and/or gifts, the family suggests donations be made to

Ma ron a Amandla Memorial Fund PO Box 970444 Ypsilaiiti, Ml 48197 www.gofundnie.com/3nxo0g

For updates on memorial gatherings, to view featured work by Marona, and to learn how you can help celebrate her legacy visit

http://www.marona-amandla.com/

arana man 5) 985 20

My research focuses on people’s identities—particularly on how and how much they identify with the social groups (according to race, gender, class, and sexuality) that define power relationships in American society. I hope eventually to examine the implications for changing these power dynamics and advancing social justice.

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The time is right I'm gonna pack my bags And take that journey down the road Cause over she mountain, I see the bright sun shining And I want to live inside the glow

I wanna go to a place where I am nothing and everything That exists between here and nowhere I wanna go to a place where time has no consequence at all the sky opens to my prayers

Please understand that it’s not that I don’t care But right now, these walls are closing in on me I love you more than 1 love life itself

But I need to find a place were I can breathe I can breathe 1 wanna go to place were I can hold the intangible And let go ol the pain with all my might

I wanna go to a place where 1 am suspended in ecstasy Somewhere between dark and light, where wrong becomes right

1 wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

er own wor 5 If I could share an afternoon with anyone, 1 would love to share it with...

. .. my grandfather, who passed away when my mother was young. He spent most of his life in Augusta, Ga., where my grandmother still lives. Growing up, I would always hear stories about how poised and generous of a man he was. My grandfather fought in World Word II. When he returned, he used his GI Bill funds to obtain his Ph.D. from New York University, since the University of Georgia had not yet begun admitting African-Americans. He’s said to have been the first African American from Augusta to earn his PhD. It’s a profound legacy, and I would want to spend a day listening to his experiences living in Georgia, New York, and overseas throughout the first half of the 20th century.

If 1 knew 1 could not fail, I would...

... institute an educational requirement for each of us to walk in other people’s shoes before graduating. I’m interested in studying the way people handle difference and diversity and often wonder how much prejudice in our society is due to our inability to empathize or even recognize others’ realities. Specifically, I’m interested in exploring the best way to teach qualities such as acceptance, consciousness and empathy and how framing diversity in a way that honors difference but highlights commonality across people’s experiences might help reduce prejudice.

Home Going Service for Marona Amandla 11:00 A.M.

Williams Memorial C.M.E Church; Augusta, GA

Opening Music Marona’s Favorite Artists Lizz Wright, "Coming Home"; Reba McEntire, "If I Had Only Known"; Whitney Houston, "I Didn’t Know My Own Strength"; IndiaArie, "Strength, Courage, & Wisdom"; Amos Lee, "Colors”; Annie Lennox, "Many Rivers to Cross."

Opening Prayer Rev. Paul W. Gardner, Sr.

Scripture Readings Rev. Gene R. Dean

Musical Selection

Silent Reading of Obituary "Beautiful” IndiaArie

Nimara Snyder

Reflections Marona as friend Marona as teacher Marona as journalist Marona as scholar Marona as kinfolk

Allison Shirley, Orlando, FL Judy Sims, Rome, GA Valerie Boyd, University of Georgia Abbey Stewart, University of Michigan Marci Bailey, Brunswick, GA

Musical Selection Marcellus Cooper "Georgia on My Mind" Ray Charles

Acknowledgements LaVerne Ayodele Moore

Words of Comfort Rev. Paul W. Gardner, Sr.

Closing Music Marona’s Favorite Artists Rissi Palmer, "I'm not of this World"; Lizz Wright, "Lead the Way"; Alison Krauss, “I’ll Fly Away”; The Band Perry, "If I Die Young"; LeAnn Rimes, "What I Cannot Change"; Carrie Underwood, "Temporary Home.)

***For those joining the processional to Claxton, GA, you may pick up a to-go lunch in the Fellowship Hall.***

Graveside Ceremony for Marona Amandla 3:30 P.M.

Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Cemetery; Claxton, GA Prayer Reverend Charlie P. Fogle, Jr.

Thomas Grove A. M. E. Church

Silent Reading of Obituary

Words of Comfort Reverend Michael Dixon

Mt. Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church

Reading Maryemma Graham

Adapted from "Will & Testament” Remika L. Bingham; What We Ask of Flesh: Poems

Musical Selection

Acknowledgements

Interment

Lizz Wright, "Amazing Grace"

Repast Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church

Linny A. Bailey

Saturday, July 27th, 2013

A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL ©1995

Audre Lorde

For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant edges of decision

crucial and alone for those of us who cannot indulge

the passing dreams of choice who love in doorways coming and going

in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward

at once before and after seeking a now that can breed

futures like bread in our children's mouths

so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours:

Forthose of us who were imprinted with fear

like a faint line in the center of our foreheads learning to be afraid with our mother's milk

for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to be found the heavy-footed hoped to silence us

For all of us this instant and this triumph

We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain

when the sun sets we are afraid it might not rise in the morning

when our stomachs are full we are afraid of indigestion

when our stomachs are empty we are afraid we may never eat again

when we are loved we are afraid love will vanish

when we are alone we are afraid love will never return

and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard

nor welcomed but when we are silent

we are still afraid

So it is better to speak remembering

we were never meant to survive

Saturday, July 27th, 2013

fvjarona /^mandia (l 985 -201 5)

* sft/A ¿ó my ôekeed, hr w/iom -J/ am we//y/eaAed. Matthew 3:17

We mourn the passing of our beloved daughter, sister, granddaughter and friend Marona Amandla on July 16, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Having battled a cancerous sarcoma successfully, she was diagnosed with treatment-induced leukemia in January 2013. Marona demonstrated remarkable strength and resilience in the face of a terminal illness. At only 28, she was already a beacon of light for many as a teacher, a journalist, and scholar.

A Home Going Service will be held 11 a m., Saturday, July 27, at Williams Memorial CME Church in Augusta, Ga. Interment of her ashes will follow at the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery in Claxton, Ga. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the Marona Amandla Memorial Fund (Marona Amandla Memorial, PO Box 970444 Ypsilanti, MI 48197).

Born January 19, 1985, in Pontotoc, Miss., Marona moved with her family to Cambridge, Mass., where she attended elementary school. She traveled to Georgia often, spending time with her grandparents, and made her home there until entering a doctoral program in psychology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan in Í2011. At the time of her death, Marona was in her second year of the program. Always serious and steadfast, with little time for what she considered frivolous engagements, she prepared herself early in life to become a world class professional.

Marona graduated class valedictorian in 2002 from Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, (! N.H., where she was an athlete in soccer, rowing, and other sports, editor of the school’s literary magazine and an award-winning photographer. After entering Vanderbilt University, her summer work experiences at Camp Starfish in New Hampshire serving children with special needs and her research at the university inspired her study of neuropsychology and special education She graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt in 2006. Her work within research teams at Vanderbilt included authorship of several academic journal articles. She taught special education in Nashville, Tenu, public schools and later moved to Adairsville, Ga., as education coordinator for Downing and Clarke Academy, where she derived great pleasure from working with special needs youth.

Her passion for journalism returned as she began writing, blogging, and documenting people’s lives through stories, in 2008, she entered graduate school at the University oí Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication as a McGill Fellow to focus on the social context of personal narrative and to learn how to tell stories better that needed to be heard As she completed a master’s degree, she wrote articles that circulated widely, including a penetrating analysis of her sojourn to South Africa in 2010. Her articles appeared in Current Health II, UGA campus publications as well as her blog. Marona pursued her interest in teaching by working with young journalists in

: the summer, including health journalism camps in Greene County, GA., and Savannah State University. A brief stint as a journalism instructor al Spelman College in Atlanta complemented her burgeoning interest in a career in higher education.

arona man Reading more broadly especially in women’s studies combined with her initial interest in psycholog}' shifted Marona’s focus toward more quantitative research in identity studies. The University of Michigan eagerly embraced her application and research proposal, and in 2011, she began her PhD studies there. She quickly found her academic home in the research area of personality and social context within psychology. Her professors commented that her “theoretical brilliance” exceeded that of more advanced students and anticipated her work would make significant breakthroughs in the measurement of simultaneous multiple identity and how these identities shape attitudes and behaviors related to social justice.

Marona loved the rural countryside of her Mississippi childhood and her many years Georgia, just as she of New Hampshire where she spent her high school years. She took full advantage but was not fundamentally changed by the affluence she found in Cambridge, Mass., where she went to elementary school, began her lifelong interest in art, and became an accomplished young double bass player. The country-fled city of Nashville during her college years contributed to her balanced view of the world, her well roundedness, and her interest in and love of country music. She embraced the opportunity to travel in a very deliberate manner: she went to Haiti to help build a hospital. Her photographs of the country and its people remain a testament to her profound understanding of the need for greater human connectedness.

Marona set her own standard for achievement, often demanding more of herself than she did of others. She was bold, but not aggressive: she was compassionate, but held little sympathy for slackers. She had a fierce commitment to social justice and a unique ability to see all sides of a situation, refusing to allow emotion to affect her decisions. She could be a fearless critic who held her ground.

larch and her death in July, Marona approached death in the same way she had approached all other aspects of her ically, thoughtfully, practically. She did not want to travel or create a bucket list. She wanted to be surrounded by friends. In great detail, she provided instructions for handling her final days. She especially wanted to provide îS for her far-flung network of friends to celebrate her life and to build new relationships among each other that

inue beyond her death.

c relied on Malika as a source of loving and constant “big sister” support. She grew even closer to her brothers who moved Ann Arbor from different parts of the country to anchor her care-giving team. She made one special request of those who j guided her: to continue her research, and of this she was assured. Her intellectual work will live on through her menton

nie Boyd at the University of Georgia and Abigail Stewart at the University of Michigan.

trona is survived by her parents, Maryemma Graham, Lawrence, Kan., and Ronald Bailey (Urbana, ILL); a stepmother tundra Murray Nettles (Urbana,111) ); three siblings, Malika Josina of Chicago, Robeson of Claremont, Calif, and Ranee

Bois of Cambridge, Mass.; grandparents Helen G. Moore of Augusta, Ga. and Earlean G. Bailey, Claxton, Ga.; a host ding, uncles, aunts, and cousins in Georgia, Florida, California, and especially Michigan, where she bonded

reeman of Detroit, and Linda Lee Gulley of Flint, Mich.; and three of her closest friends, Allison Shirley, w'ith Mer"'1’*1 . . . ... . , ....IMS! jp.. .

Orlando, Fla.; Loti Walker Ann Arbor; and Loren Saxton, Washington, D.C. Her family acknowledges the many dear friends from Brewster Academy, Vanderbilt University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Michigan, who were important in Marona’s much too short, but rich life and who visited with her in the last months.

Some people pass through life and leave an imprint that we only come to know long after they are gone. But in her time with lie X/fiviYvna’c imnrinl wrttc nn inrlplihlp nnp Ac chp farprl thp far! nf a chrvrtpnpfi lifp clip rpvpalprt an innpr clrPriPth that

within ourselves and the world into which we are born. One by one, she sought us out to affirm our place in her life, and to help us to make sure her memory and legacy live on. Marona Amandla identified the core of her being arid engaged it fully. She leaves many who will not only continue to mourn her but will also follow her model of an exemplary young life.