(Photo courtesy of April Silver and taken by Carmen Troesser)

April Silver Won’t Stop ‘Cause She Can’t Quit and it Can’t Wait

Speaking to April Silver and acknowledging the full span of her reach and the weight of her resume, has the last line of Remy Ma’s “Conceited” running through my head. She definitely does have plenty of reasons to boast and could probably make the rest of us feel bad about ourselves, but somehow, someway Silver keeps her feet humbly planted on the ground and her ego in check, all while appreciating her talents and the talents of others.

“Everybody isn’t going to the first one at the mic talking about “Charge!”,” acknowledges the multi-facetd leader. “Everyone has their role to play and you have to recognize people for what gift they can bring.”

Though Silver has always been an activist at heart, she credits her years at Howard University as the turning point that helped her define her role and realize what she could bring to the greater table. In 1989, students were fed up with many of the University’s decisions, the biggest being their invitation to Harvey Leroy Atwater, a controversial strategist for the Republican Party, to become a member of the school’s board of trustees. “We could not understand how this individual, who we and many other people in the country deemed to be conservative and racist, could be on the board of trustees, making decisions for this Black institution. We were like, ‘Oh hell no, that’s just not going to happen’. We wanted our voices to be heard.” Through strategic planning Howard students were able to gain support from all over country and former alumni who were part of the University’s 1968 takeover.

The students met with the University’s president but weren’t able to come to agreeable terms. In early March of 1989, during her junior year, Silver and hundreds of unarmed students stormed the campus’ main administrative building. “This wasn’t one or two students walking into offices, these were hoards of students saying, ‘We’re here to stay, so you might as well go home’. People left and we locked ourselves in for three days. Lee Atwater eventually resigned from the board, so we had a victory.”

Encouraged by the student body, Silver and Ras Baraka, educator and son of Amina and Amiri Baraka, ran on the same ticket for student body president and vice president, respectively. During her term, Silver also served as the co-founder of The Cultural Initiative, Inc. and in February of 1991 she co-produced the nation’s first hip-hop conference. “That is the first intersection between hip-hop and the academy,” shares Silver. “Prior to that there wasn’t any discussion on hip-hop culture, hip-hop as a source of social change, hip-hop education-none of that was taking place in an organized massive way, on the collegiate circuit.” The conference helped to spark long-lasting conversations on the culture of the art form and its impact on society.

After being put on the U.S. government’s terrorist list for her part in the protests, Silver knew that working an ordinary nine-to-five was out of the question. So she had to ask herself how she would be able to do what’s in her heart and still survive in a capitalistic society. Her answer was to become a social entrepreneur, someone who starts their own business and puts principal as their bottom line, not profit. “The concept was what can I offer? What can I create that will compliment the people I know and I can get paid?” reminisces Silver. In 1993, Akila Worksongs was born. The company first started out as a speaker’s bureau and has eventually added on public relation, artist management and consulting services. With 15 years in the game and Doug E. Fresh, Sister Souljah, and the Center for Law and Social Justice listed as some of her clients, Silver is convinced she’s created something that works and emphasizes that now, it’s all about continuous growth and development. “I can get more and more staff but if we don’t improve our structure, I’d just have more people in the office.” And even with an impressive list of clientele, she still continues to donate seven to $10,000 worth of free services per month to independent artists and start-up organizations. “I do it because I’m not a hoarder of information,” Silver states matter-of-factly.

The natural born educator acknowledges that while she isn’t the originator of the concept of fusing the arts and activism, she is certainly dedicated to perfecting it. “Art is political. What you create as an artistic being says a lot about what you really want to stand up for. People of color - very specifically Black people in this country- our life, our environment, our history, for the most part, I don’t think gives us a lot of leeway to not be involved in our liberation. With what it is that we create, be it a poem, a song, a quilt or whatever kind of creative expression, [Akila Worksongs] believe that, that body of work or at least its energy should be centered around adding to the political evolution of our community.” Similar to Sir Leopold Sedor Senghor, a famous Senegalese poet and Senegal’s first president, Silver rejects the Eurocentric view of art and believes that art has a function and doesn’t simply exist for its own sake but instead, for the collective empowerment of the people.

Although she’s committed to using her strengths and interests for service, Silver confesses that, from time to time, the weight of it all definitely takes its toll. “If you talk to any person whose life’s work is on this path and they’ve accepted these huge responsibilities, be it in the field of activism or a family maker, they’ll tell you that it can be overwhelming. On the day to day, the world kind of pulls at you and you have to constantly replenish yourself.” She admits that taking it easy isn’t something that she’s fully learned but she has gotten better at it, especially after being hospitalized for eight days back in 2001. “I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that doctors don’t know much about. I thought I had a bad cold because I couldn’t stop coughing, but what it turned out to be was that my lungs were inflamed. At the same time, I was losing vision in my left eye and I thought my contacts were just messed up, but it ended up that my optic nerve had a lesion on it.”

Silver was told by doctors that the coughing and the loss of vision in her right eye were both connected and that though they aren’t sure what causes sarcoidosis, they do think its stress related. “That was a wake up call unlike anything for me,” Silver confesses. “Once I realized this was caused by stress I started taking more and more breaks after that, so that the stress could melt way.” Where others may have been hesitant and scared to get back into work that requires so much emotional, physical and mental energy, Silver doesn’t view quitting as a desired alternative. “The easiest way for white supremacists, sexists or ignorant people in general to win is for us to give up. If we do just acquiesce then it’s really a wrap,” she passionately declares. “But, if we look at our work as a collective of people who know better and who uphold love and what is just and right, then it becomes bigger than our own individual fatigue.”

While illness and stress are sometimes symptoms of being an ambitiously dedicated female business owner, Silver also knows firsthand that it doesn’t always vibe well with her male counterparts- in and out of the office. She openly shares that most of the men she has dated have been more than supportive of her ambitions but she has also had a few encounters where that wasn’t the case. “Men say they want a strong woman until she actually demonstrates strength. They mean it as long as it is convenient for them but when that strength manifests itself as something that is a challenge or pushes them in a way that they aren’t used to as a man, then it ain’t cute anymore,” bluntly states Silver. “I’ve known that to be true. I attract a lot of progressive, liberal minded men but I find also that those are the ones that are less likely to believe that they have traces of sexism. To them it’s like, ‘I’m not sexist, I’m with you‘.”

Instead of taking the stereotypical male bashing, angry Black woman route, it’s more Silver’s nature to be diplomatic with her approach. “I’m more prone to figure out how to get the message across so they can hear me as opposed to them feeling like they’re being attacked… But don’t get me wrong - diplomacy doesn’t always work and sometimes people need to get their shit checked right then and there,” she adds. “But, I’ve also seen men shut down, so I’m most often times trying to be a strategic communicator. The bottom line is do you want to win or do you want to be right?”

What’s left for a woman who is 40-years-young and has accomplished so much? After being asked to steer and edit the anthology, “Be a Father to Your Child: Real Talk From Black Men on Family, Love and Fatherhood”, named after the Ed O.G and Da Bulldog’s song, Silver is extra motivated to get deeper into writing and thinking about her next book project. She’s considering coming out with a guidebook for independent artist on how to promote themselves, even if they don’t have a million dollar budget. In the meantime, she’s pumping “Be a Father to Your Child” as a must read. “This anthology pulls 24 guys from across the country -everybody from Talib Kweli to Kevin Powell, Davey D, Rhymefest, and Bakari Kitwana. There’s also a whole bunch of others who have never been published but all of them have come together to talk about what it means to be a father and a son for those who came up during the golden era of hip-hop. It’s really getting people at their hearts because we don’t have a whole bunch of examples of Black men being honest about their anger, their love for family, fatherhood and what role hip-hop plays.”

Regardless of the difficulties, sacrifices and temporary setbacks, Silver feels spiritually connected to a lineage of people who were fighters and believes that a long time ago she made an agreement to dedicate her life, energy, and craft to the community at large. For her, doing anything less is never an option.