As we look toward the 36 th Annual Real Men Cook®, a fun celebration of families, we think of the families that were there almost from the start. The Ricks/Walton family was there every year. Their participation began with elder, now ancestor, Russell Ricks, Sister Soyini Walton’s father. In the midst of the real men are women as champions, recruiters. volunteers and fans including Soyini Walton. Russell Ricks cooked in the Father’s Day Real Men Cook with his, son, Mark Ricks. Mark’s son, Kendall, is of a third generation of Walton cooks. Soyini’s son, Khari cooked and served along with his father, Chaga Walton, and eventually independently with his sons, Justin and Khari. Brother-in-law, Peter Henderson was a leader in both Atlanta and Dallas and Edmund Walton, Chaga’s brother cooked alongside the late Congressman John Lewis. Chaga and Soyini’s daughters, Mesi, who served as a logistics manager and Tamu who worked at Chicago and Atlanta events, grew up in Real Men Cook. Chaga’s daughter, Aduni, participated with Real Men Cook/Bahamas. Chaga’s wife Althea Walton and sister, Valoria Simpson have led the volunteer effort. In 2022, the men serving as guests paid a powerful tribute to their family legacy, and a big part of that legacy is Soyini Walton.
Soyini recently reached a milestone – her 80th birthday. People find it hard to believe because she looks so young and vibrant, and she’s full of energy and so outgoing. We asked this “Queen-ager” what is the secret to her ageless beauty.
It starts with love. Love for the children she has taught through the years. Soyini, along with Haki Madhubuti and others, co-founded the Institute of Positive Education which birthed New Concept Development Center and the Betty Shabazz International Charter School, founded in 1996. Love was part of the plan, as she explains, “Fundamentally, children need to feel safe, they need to be loved, they need to be nurtured and they need to have a good curriculum so that they’re exposed to all of the latest technology and information, AI and everything else that’s out there. The school is focused on STEM, science, technology, engineering and math.” But at the end of the day, it focuses on love.
“Part of the goal of the Institute of Positive Education was to re-educate the minds of our people through the children and to teach them about our history ourselves,” she explains, “We want them to understand all the achievements and accomplishments of Black people so they could be proud of their race.”
The proof is in the Betty Shabazz alumni. The children of NCDC and Betty Shabazz, including Soyini’s own, are in their thirties, forties and fifties now, and as successful adults, they serve as evidence that IPE accomplished what they strove to do in establishing the school. “They have a strong sense of community and they are very grounded,” she says proudly, “They know who they are and they have a sense of their place in the world. They are not afraid. We have alumni in every profession. A lot of them are living in different places in the world and they’re brilliant and successful, yet grounded in their communities.
They’re all over the world. All over the United States doing professional things. They’re engineers, entrepreneurs, college professors. “They are artists, community organizers, lawyers, doctors, so all of this is proof that what we started out to do is working,” she states.
Besides instilling valuable education and values through IPE and BSICS, she and Haki Madhubuti and Dr Carol Lee also teach individuals of all ages through the books that are published through the Third World Press, which Haki started 55 years ago, when he was Don L. Lee. “When we first started the Institute of Positive Education,” she says, “We had community people come together and just read and talk about books, because back then we were learning about our history, our struggles, our resistance.” Today, people don’t read like they used to, but Soyini thinks it’s just as important, even more important today that Black people know that we have resisted the injustices, and through our resistance we’ve come this far. “We get knocked down and we fight back,” she says, “We are a strong people. We are deeply spiritual people.”
Yes, love is a major ingredient in keeping this queen-ager whole, and healthy and ageless. Love of Black children, love of Black people, love of God.
“I pray,” she says. “I give thanks every day.”
Love of self is also key. It means loving yourself enough to make sure you’re eating a healthy diet. Soyini was once a vegetarian, but now she eats fish and some poultry. “But I eat a lot of vegetables and a lot of fruits daily,” she says “and I strive to drink a lot of water.”
Love yourself enough to get the seven to eight hours of sleep that we all need, she tells us. “I’ve really been focused on sleep,” she says, and admits, “It’s difficult in this age because we can take electronics with us everywhere, and you have to really make sure you’re not scrolling on your tablet or phone right before you go to bed.”
Love yourself enough to know the importance of having a sense of purpose in life. “Every day when I get up, I feel I have things to do,” she says, “I have a goal, I have a mission.”
Someone once said that movement is medicine, and Soyini adheres to this principle. “We have to keep our bodies in motion, we have to keep moving around,” she says, “As a member of the Kroc Center I do water aerobics and the Tone and Stretch class, and sometimes I walk in the Dan Ryan Woods with a group.” One of this 80-year old’s favorite activities is roller skating!
Being social plays a big part in staying young. “I’m very social,” Soyini says, “and as you know queen-agers should have a social group, social connections, they should get out and be amongst people. This is easy for me because I’m extroverted.”
The ultimate love is love for her soulmate, Abdi. Three years ago, Soyini married, Abdi Levi, who she met at New Concept. Now, at eighty-years young, she’s living her best life and showing the world that it’s never too late to love and take care of yourself, it’s never too late to meet and marry the love of your life, and 80 ain’t nothing but a number!
