This Little Light of Mine: Addena’s Substack

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This Little Light of Mine is a monthly newsletter about my thoughts, new writing, readings, workshops and interviews with the artists and community movers and shakers that inspire me.

This Little Light of Mine:

Addena’s November Newsletter

Addena Sumter-Freitag
Nov 30, 2025

November Newsletter

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Hello again.

Thank you to all of you for welcoming me in your Inbox. I’m grateful that you chose to take a lil time out and spend it with me. I really hope you’re all enjoying these monthly issues. If you have any feedback, I’d be grateful if you leave comments at the end of this issue, or contact me on my website and leave comments or ideas. Feedback from you is the only way I can know if I’m getting this right. ♥️

Let me give you an example of why I say that. Last month in the newsletter, I tried to experiment a little and play around, so I started the Newsletter out with an audio poem, called, “The Hurricane”. I was excited to get your reactions and feedback about my presenting an audio poem as opposed to a written poem, but when I asked a couple of subscribers what they thought of the audio poetry style, I got feedback saying, “ oh I didn’t realize there was an audio poem.. I didn’t see it.” I told them, it was right at the beginning of the Newsletter and they said “ I ’ll have to go back and look at it. I didn’t realize it was there”. So … obviously, I have a lot to learn about how best to present my poetry in audio performance/presentations style and see if they are received as well, as or better, than a written form poem.

** This month and next month in the Newsletter I’m going to offer a couple of stories and a “Series of Poems For Jamaica”.

I know I say this every month, but this month just flew by!

It’s funny that I say that now, because so many times during the month I felt like the days were actually dragging along as the weather was rapidly changing as each day it seemed to get colder and colder.

For me, November is almost like a month for mourning. I mourn for warm days and for the Sun. It gets dark early now, so on cloudy days it makes the day seem so grim and dim. (Like living in the Arctic in the winter) I mourn for light. Especially since in September and October everything outside seems so luminous. The leaves turn brilliant yellows, and golds, and reds, and they are so bright, they mimic fireworks bursting and changing by the moment as they shimmer and glimmer on the trees. By November, nearly all the leaves have fallen from the trees, and they’re all over the ground: pale yellow, and brown, and curling, and shrivelling, and drying. Then the Fall rains start, and the fallen leaves get all wet and slimy, and slippery and soggy, and it’s so hard to rake them up, and bag them up.

Speaking of bagging them up, so far I think we’ve bagged 17 giant-sized bags. I say we, but it is actually my husband Irv who does all the raking and bagging, because breathing in all the dust from the dried up leaves trigger my Asthma, so I can’t rake leaves. Yahoo! Thank Heaven.

Remembrance Day

November is the month for Remembrance Day here in Canada. We buy Poppies or wear commemorative pins on our clothing to honour our military on November 11 th . We honour all our Family’s Soldiers, and all the Canadian Veterans that served. We remember and honour as well, all the Veterans from all around the world. Sometimes we do that by holding ceremonies and parades, and sometimes (less formally) we honour and remember them in our homes and in our community circles.

Each year, I usually post stories and photos on my Facebook for Remembrance’s Day and I did again this year. My goal is to try to have all Soldiers represented, and various family’s stories about their relatives who are veterans told.

It’s now the end of November, and usually every year this time (at least for the last 35 years) we are getting into Holiday Mode and getting ready to go to Jamaica. It’s one of our favourite places in the world. We started out vacationing there when we were still working by going two weeks a year for holidays, then three weeks, then four weeks. Since we’ve been “independent”, we go for usually three months.

Jamaica Soothes my Soul

This month and next month in the Newsletter I’m going to offer a couple of stories and a “Series of Poems For Jamaica”.

I think I may have told you the story before of what I call: “Our Discovering Jamaica”. Just in case I haven’t here is the story: We were living in the Arctic, in the Northwest Territories, for 10 years. For 5 years we lived in a small community called Rae Edzo (it was called that in those days). It is now officially called by its Aboriginal Thlicho name: “Behchoko”. When we lived in Behchoko, we had to drive one hour from there to the city of Yellowknife to do our shopping, go to a restaurant, see a movie, or catch a plane to fly out of the community.

There weren’t very many Black people living in Yellowknife at that time, maybe 10 in total. There were only two Black people living in Behchoko: me, and an African fellow named Siguro, who worked as the Financial Officer at the Band Office.

One day, my husband Irvin and I drove to Yellowknife and we went in their grocery store supermarket. I was cruising up and down the aisles shopping and I looked up. I thought I saw another black person! …so I took my cart and went bootin it over towards them and followed them up and down and around the aisles until we met face-to-face. I said “hello”, and she smiled at me and said, “hello”. Then we stood in the aisle and talked for 10 minutes (at least). Her name was Minette. Before we parted ways, she gave me her phone number and said, please call me any time, and if you and your husband come to Yellowknife, you are welcome to stay overnight at my place instead of driving all the way back home in the dark.

That meeting in the Supermarket was the beginning of a decades long friendship that turned into Minette and her family and us becoming: New Family.

Our “ discovering Jamaica” came about when Minette invited us down to Jamaica for Christmas, because she and her family always went “Home” to Jamaica for Christmas. We had never travelled there before, but she told us not to worry because she would drive down from her community, Duncan, with all her Cousins and they would pick us up at the airport in Montego Bay the same way they always pick her up. This poem is dedicated to Minette.

Meet us at the Airport

Island soul!

Salt fish and Akee

To wash that Mc’Donald’s

And Can-ay-dee-ian Food

‘Ottah yur mou-th.

Let’s see you got-‘ten-nee riddim left!

Girl! Don’t you go pretendin’ y’all- fan-cee’

‘Cause you from Can-ah-da now.

You still ‘nappy-headed’

Had a ‘Pickney’

Out of wedlock

And screwed ah-round

And ‘screwed up’

Like the rest of us

Lookin’ for “Mr. Rye-ht.

Get yur big- foot ashy-legged self..

Ovah here!

Moo-ve that rownd onion!

Give you’ cousins a b-i-g kiss!” …

​ Gurl .. give us a ’ kiss!”

​ Ah-hhh!!

I miss the Blackness

And the Brownness

And the Blueness

All around me

Breathin’

Rhythm

And music

And laughter

Loud

Unabashed

Reggae music

Island music

To soothe my soul …

Home!​

C. Addena Sumter-Freitag

The first time I arrived in Jamaica, I cleared and came through Customs first. Then left the Customs area and walked outside to meet Minette. I thought, God I hope I can find her out there. In Yellowknife it’s easy to find each other. You just look for another little Black dot in the snow… but, when I went outside to look for her, there were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting for the planes to land bringing all their Christmas visitors, … and all of the people outside were Black! I got so excited! I didn’t know what to do. I quickly ducked back into the airport, and I leaned against the wall. I was breathing fast and shaking my head and laughing with joy! Then… I peeked back outside, and all those people were all still out there! That’s when, why, and how, I first discovered, and fell in love with: Jamaica.

As I walked around, everywhere I looked in Jamaica I saw people who could be my cousins. Everywhere I looked, I saw people who looked like me! I saw people with hair like mine, people with gaps in their front teeth, women shaped like me. Add to the joy of all of that: the sounds of music in the air ... everywhere! Sounds of loud unabashed laughter, and smells of deliciously spiced island food wafting in the air. This lil’ Canadian girl was smitten. It was Love at First Sight.

Jamaica Soothes my Soul

Jamaica is my Soul’s pacifier

I suckle ancestral juices from its breasts

Those juices nourish me and helps grow me

That sustenance washes away all the pain of growing up in a vat of Whiteness

Fearing my Blackness would taint the brew

Jamaica throws back the covers.

And reveals the mysteries

Of why its rhythms stir my Soul

Why seeing reflections of me

Validates my existence and soothes me to my very core.

© Addena Sumter-Freitag

Despite the fact that we were in Holiday Mode, and packing to get ready to leave, at the end of November, Hurricane Melissa swept through Jamaica, and the aftermath of that is what prevented us from going.

Hurricane Melissa was devastating for so many people. It left horrendous damage in its path. People lost their houses. Many people’s roofs were ripped off and rain fell inside houses flooded and ruined people’s beds, furniture, and precious papers and ID’s There were flood waters everywhere. Hurricane Melissa knocked down the powerlines and its flooding polluted the water supplies. People were without water and had no power for over a month. Power and water are still not restored in all areas. I spoke to my friends on WhatsApp they are able to get Starlink in some places so they can go to a place that has it and they can contact the outside world once in a while. It is heartbreaking to hear the reality of what it’s like to live without power and water. My friend, when they were able to get Wi-Fi via another friends, Starlink. said to me:

“ Oh Addena it is so horrible. It is darkie, darkie, darkie! It is so depressing! For 12 hours every day there is no light… no lights in your house, no lights on the streets, no light anywhere! There is no light .. Just dark:. It is just so depressing!”

On top of the no light situation, you have an extreme heat problem. Remember It is hot there, and it’s extremely hot at night, after your house or apartment heats up all day. Because there is no power you cannot have any fans to help you cool down. Without fans you have to open up your doors and windows. After the hurricane and the flooding there are many mosquitoes people are suffering from excessive bites. Those especially suffering from the extreme heat and mosquito bites are young children and babies, and that could become serious health issue.

People’s land was destroyed. The hurricane destroyed all their trees and their gardens (which is a loss of many families’ main source of fruit and vegetables) The hurricane also claimed many people’s farm animals, their yard chickens, their goats, and their household pets.

If you can help in anyway, please do!

You can donate to World Central Kitchen which is feeding 15,000 people each day. Or you can research and find trusted local organizations that are providing aid. Or, if you have any friends, in Jamaica or family just help them. Maybe you don’t have much to give but anything that you can do will help. 💖💖

I will truly miss Jamaica this year.

The last poem I’m going to do in this “Series of Poems for Jamaica” is called, Family of Origin.

Family of Origin

When I look at the Sky here

I can trace my Family of Origin

They are outlined in the shadows in the clouds

The Prisms in the Sun

My Roots dwell in the foam of the waves

The pearls in the sand

The Green in the Palms

The breath of the wind

The Dawn of the Age.

© Addena Sumter-Freitag

♥️♥️♥️. Jamaica we will miss you this year. One Love 🇯🇲🇯🇲

I Hope to see you all next month. Try to keep your Spirits up. Remember - so many people that you see around may look fine on the outside but may be going through struggles on the inside and they may be lonely and need some company or a gesture of Kinship.

Be kind to each other and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it, or offer help if you see it’s needed. That is the One Love philosophy way.

We got this! 💥

Thanks for reading This Little Light of Mine: Addena’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.