I always felt like I should have been born a boy. Males were always valued more, wherever I went. So, I flew under the radar, dimmed my light, my intelligence, my creativity, and independence. It was expected back in the day, and I wonder if this is still the case.     I grew up in the middle of two ... Read More »

You sound white! You speak so well. You’re very articulate. As I was coming up in the world,  a brown-skinned Bronx born Boricua at a time when my appearance and the sounds coming out of my mouth didn’t compute for many people. I’ll never truly know what they expected to hear, but I remember what it felt like to receive ... Read More »

Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative. ~Maurice Chevalier   I lost my best friend when we were 32. We met when 5, in kindergarten. Marsha Moore was a wonderfully tall fat Black girl who treated me like her sister. We were sisters. Marsha didn’t get the chance to grow old. Her life in this world was ... Read More »

1989 I am eight years old. I am standing in my bedroom looking up at the black woolly hair that crowns my mother’s head. We live in a bungalow in a largely white, working-class suburb of Western Sydney. My bedroom window looks out onto a stiff, spiky lawn, permanently kept yellow-green as the grass fails, year after year, to recover ... Read More »

1997-2017:: in which I am a dystopia As the unexamined traumas lodged in my muscles, bones, and organs metastasize into a laundry list of erratic pain, illness, and life-altering shifts, I find myself in one waiting room after another, filling out the same information (and lack thereof): what are your current symptoms? how long have you been experiencing these symptoms? ... Read More »

By the age of 6, I had been to see more psychiatrists than I ever wanted to – 6,10,15 – I’ve lost count. So many faces they just disappear. My parents searched far and near for help but all they got was sorry there is nothing for her here. Unnecessary pain and suffering dominated my life for years because the ... Read More »

I was introduced to Melanie Santos through a tag of her Instagram page @melalamode_ of her Moon rituals (now, If you follow me on IG you know how much spirituality plays a huge role in my life and that I practiced moon rituals). I clicked on her page, watched her full moon tutorial on YouTube, signed up for her newsletter and began ... Read More »

This week, I came across a social media post about an upcoming documentary on Hip Hop Journalism. Right away I felt the idea was brilliant and I had to support this endeavor. After watching the trailer, I reached out to the creator Syreeta Gates for an interview.  To my surprise, she not only accepted my invitation right away but I ... Read More »

The first time I came in contact with Armando “Tito” Tam was through my interview with César Vargas. Thank you, César, for the connect! This is the advantage of social media and the reason why it is so important to me to continue building connections through this platform by sharing the stories of these magnificent human beings who are making a ... Read More »

My entire life, I got sick very easily. Always something wrong with my stomach, complaining of nausea constantly. As a kid, tests were run, though my mother made sure we all had a healthy diet, doctors thought I had one illness or another. At around 11 years old, my mother called me into her bedroom. Before I was blindfolded with ... Read More »