Former St. Louis Alderman Terry Kennedy was culturally reflective when discussing the latest passing of his twin brother, Gary (Dhati) Samuel Kennedy. Most St. Louisans knew him as “Dhati Majaliwa” which in Kiswahili means “Free will, dedication, and gifted.”
“There’s an African custom that claims twins maintain a spirit that’s too huge for one physique…but it surely’s nonetheless one spirit,” Terry stated, talking to the connection between he and Dhati.
Dhati died from problems associated to leukemia on Friday November 11. His funeral is Friday.
He was recognized with the sickness in September after passing out at an area grocer. Dhati spent the previous two months together with his twin brother, Terry, who considers their ultimate days collectively a blessing.
Harkening again to the African proverb, Terry Kennedy stated he bodily felt a shift in he and his brother’s universe after the dire analysis.
“We might say ‘we’re sick,’ not simply him…that’s how linked we had been,” Kennedy recalled, including: “When twins get in hassle, they all the time search for each other. Most individuals don’t have a way of what it’s prefer to all the time really feel this different individual.”
The twins had been each storytellers, artists, activists, and champions for Black folks — politically, culturally, and economically. In a approach, they had been born into that dramatic world. There have been 5 kids within the Kennedy house within the 4100 block of Enright Ave.
Their father, Samuel Kennedy, was a local of East St. Louis who served as president of a Textile Union previous to changing into alderman of the18th Ward in 1967. He held that seat till his passing in 1989. Terry Kennedy assumed the position and held the aldermanic seat till 2019 when he determined to not search reelection.
Their mom, Frances, was energetic in neighborhood actions and the humanities and was the primary black nurse to conduct orientations at Youngsters’s Hospital, Kennedy stated, including that she was the one who introduced the music and affect of legends like Harry Bellefonte and South African-born singer, Miriam Makeba, into their house.
The Kennedy Twins
The Kennedy Twins are recognized for talking with a quiet knowledge that Terry attributes to his “fiery, contemplative and reflective” mother and father.
Household lore has it that their nice, nice grandfather was a slave who escaped captivity together with his spouse after savagely beating a slave grasp. Plantation and East St. Louis tales, together with the race riots of 1917, had been handed via the Kennedy Household for generations. Mom’s grandfather, a griot in his personal proper, was the one one who predicted his daughter would have twins regardless that docs detected one heartbeat.
Terry, who is eighteen minutes older than his twin brother, Dhati, recalled a day in kindergarten when their instructor requested if anybody within the class may play an instrument. He remembered the concern of being embarrassed when his brother raised his hand. To Terry’s utter shock, Gary, who by no means had classes, performed a complete tune on piano.
“He instructed me he may see and listen to music in his head,” Kennedy stated. “He didn’t think about himself a musician per se…he simply used no matter was available-a spoon, a fork-anything to make music. He simply took to music.”
When internationally acclaimed dancer Katherine Dunham introduced her troupe member, Senegalese drummer, Mor Thiam (rapper, Akon’s father) to briefly dwell in St. Louis, the elder Kennedy’s organized to have him educate Dhati learn how to play the djembe (a goblet-shaped drum historically carved from African hardwood).
The Kennedy Twins got here of age throughout St. Louis’ cultural revolution of the Nineteen Seventies. Of their teenagers, they joined the Black Pupil Union and the Black Patriot Occasion at Vashon Excessive Faculty. They had been members of the Free Angela Davis Help Committee, the St. Louis Kwanzaa Committee, and the Sudan Illustrators, which began at Mid-Metropolis Group Middle, and manages Progressive Emporium & Training Middle.
All their actions as children had been “political,” Kennedy acknowledged, together with his brother’s love for drumming.
“He entered drumming as a political act for 2 causes,” Kennedy stated. “One; to recapture the artwork and a practice that had been denied us throughout slavery and two; to make use of music to show classes and provides factual details about our tradition and historical past.”
The twins separated briefly throughout their faculty years. Terry attended Howard College and Dhati studied music and historical past at Hampton College in Virginia, the place he realized the South African Gumboot Dance as a member of the Hampton African Dance Troupe.
Dhati was a mainstay at native festivals. He organized St. Louis’ first open mic poetry and drumming units underneath the title “Ngoma” the place luminaries akin to Eugene Redmond, Shirley LeFlore and the Bosman twins shared their skills with keen audiences. He was actively concerned within the Michael Brown and George Floyd protests and arranged the annual commemoration of the East St. Louis Race Riot.
Based on a press launch from Progressive Emporium, Dhati is survived by a big household, together with his older sister Dr. Joyce Kennedy, sister Katherine “Azima” Kennedy, his daughter Laurice Pye, son Kevin Liddell, grandson Damon Clark, his companion Coralicia Howard and her 4 kids and eight grandchildren and “a bunch of different kinfolk, mates and prolonged household who will miss him.”
Terry stated he desires folks to recollect Dhati as “a superb, caring, loving, ideologically clear and dedicated brother who beloved his folks. He was extraordinarily gifted, and he shared these presents with whomever got here his approach.”
When requested if nonetheless feels that connection together with his brother even in loss of life, Terry answered resolutely:
“Oh, completely.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.
For extra data on providers for Gary (Dhati) Samuel Kennedy, please contact: Veronica L. Banks at Progressive Emporium & Training Middle (314) 875-9277.
