These women were revolutionary for the time. I didn’t care they were white. That their rent to income ratios didn’t make sense. That there were problematic tropes—nobody even SAID the words “problematic trope” in 1995. I don’t look for art to be perfect, I look for art to move me. And this show grew me and a whole generation of girls into women.
Read MoreRemember back in elementary school when you got those progress reports with grades but also conduct scores? Well my progress reports my ENTIRE LIFE and Della can vouch always were straight A's with a "NI" needs improvement in the conduct area of "Controls Talking". I couldn't shut up. My whole life.
Read MoreGod’s gift to me was a level of fearlessness to share with y’all my journey. If there was something, anything, I’d want people to “know” me for? It’d be for self-care. More like self reverence because to love yourself is to love God. My video is raw. It’s real. It’s hard to listen to. It’s my truth and now that it’s out of me, it’s my contribution.
CW/TW: rape, self harm, eating disorders, anxiety, PTSD
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I say to you graduates, congratulations. This is the time where you have just contributed new knowledge to your filed. Do not be afraid to keep spreading the word of your work. Final defenses are only just the beginning of you using your voice and speaking truth to power. You owe it to your participants and everyone who made your research possible to DO something with it. To create real, sustainable change. To examine that change with a critical eye and to refine it relentlessly. You have been given the tools to create the new and innovated and to have it substantiated by a group of your wisest peers. It's not the time to shrink into the shadows. This is your time to shine.
Read MoreImmediately after finishing my dissertation, I took a writing hiatus. As someone who wrote every single day for the past decade and a half, it was a tall order. I did it because I’m scribing my research, writing had become transactional. It was something I had to do versus something that felt therapeutic. My hiatus was supposed to only last six months, but I haven’t written with any sort of regularity since then.
Read MoreI saw the article linked from a colleague, a fellow Black woman. "The don't really want to know" I commented. Wondering if I sounded too bitter, pausing only for a second before I clicked "post" I didn't care how I sounded. It was the truth of the moment.
Read MoreI was meditating just now and I was arriving at my usual “place”. It’s always this lush, verdant riverbank. I’m in white and when I get to that place I know I’m “locked in”. It’s where I can always hear the clearest.
Read MoreI had tried everything. Smoking. Drinking. Smoking and drinking. My “in case of emergency” pill. Another. I cried. I screamed into a pillow. I writhed and wiggled about thrashing feverishly because nothing I did seem to ebb it one bit.
Read MoreToday, I quit my job. At least I did in my head. In actuality, I simply gave myself a date. An arbitrary date set in the not-so-distant future where I would submit a resignation letter. A date by which I would have fully worked out at least a rough draft of how I was going to survive the next 365 days.
Read MoreI stood on the side of interstate 75 examining my car that was just hit by a driver who did not stop. My dad has cancer. I hurried back in the car and immediately thanked God that it was not worse than what it was. Unsightly scratches and a busted taillight. My dad has cancer this was nothing in comparison.
Read MoreWhat does it mean to fully Trust myself? Well...I'm pretty sure it comes from real true faith in God. This year I'm working on taking more leaps and increasing my FAITH|TRUST capacity.
Read MoreWe met at work. He was the creamy brown-skinned guy with the perfect smile and hazel eyes and naturally, every girl and woman who worked with us delighted in attention from him. He was charming, handsome, intelligent, witty, and was athletic. He was the guy every girl wanted to be wanted by and despite my cool attitude, I was no exception.
Read MoreCurrently, there is a bit of an uproar at the institution where I earned my doctoral degree. The unrest comes at news that one of our seminal leadership courses will no longer be required, but will, instead, be offered as an elective. Days ago my email started to fill will threads from various other classmates (fellow alumni) who were shocked, saddened, and some piping hot about the decision made by our faculty. Among my most trusted friends I discussed the decision and shared my disappointment, but my admission that I was not at all surprised. In fact, nothing has surprised me in the world since November 9, 2016.
Read MoreSlowly but surely I am making the transition to vlogging. Check out a very impromptu Facebook live session detailing some straight-up gems from my last therapy session.
Read MoreAnyone not wishing to know me most intimately, you have been warned. I came here to introduce myself and tell you my name. If you do not wish to know my truest form then from before to here you have been warned.
Read MoreAs part of every job in education I have ever held, there is a requirement of staff, faculty, and selected student leaders to go through some sort of sexual harassment, sexual assault and Title IX training. So the alert that my mandatory attendance at the training for my new institution came as no surprise to me. What was surprising was my reaction to it. The statistics of women who report versus those that don't sent me right back into my living room curled up on the couch as two police officers asked me the intimate details of my own story.
Read MoreI recently had a major life epiphany: I was twisting myself into knots trying to prove points to people who didn't matter. Even worse, I was doing so at the severe and often dire detriment of my own health and well-being. I was becoming someone who allowed fear to guide my decisions. I had rushed into choice after choice without taking a moment to ask myself with true consideration of what I actually wanted.
Read MoreI am terrified to write this piece. When I write my blogs, they come from a place of trance. Unless otherwise stated, my blogs are unedited streams of consciousness as my capital S self works around my ego in an attempt to awaken me to something. Never has that been more true than in this moment. I can feel what is arrive and it scares me because it is so tender.
Read MoreI'm gonna write you something, okay?
Its kinda public but also just between us. No one ever could read between the lines like we could.
Read MoreThe reception to my article by my academic community made me think of two things. One, was a conversation I had with a friend during my Masters program. I told her that I wanted to be an advocate for LGBTQIA+ youth who were struggling to reconcile parts of their own identities and she said "Shine your light in the darkness and those who are in need will find you."
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