I used to work downtown Brooklyn, New York, in the courthouses, as a criminal defense lawyer. It was there that I saw so many lies and discovered that I was happiest during that time writing about truths and giving voice to the black and brown people who were caught up in the System. I had to write and read to cope with the evil and injustice that I saw day in and day out and to bring to the forefront of my mind the truths I know: Black people are resilient, have incredible spirit, intelligence, and beauty.
Sitting in courtrooms waiting for my cases to be heard by judges, I would write pages and pages about what I saw, felt, heard, thought, about what was happening to Black people. I wrote on the New York Times, the New York Law Journal, legal pads, napkins. I scribbled in margins. I needed to write to survive those days and got a lot of satisfaction out of creating stories with endings other than jail or prison.
I created my first stories when I was a girl in Kinston, North Carolina. Ms. Ida, a short, pudgy, dark-skinned woman with moles, who dipped snuff and collected black dolls that lay on the beds throughout her shotgun house down the street from us, was scared of thunderstorms. Whenever a storm visited the town, I had to go get her and bring her back to our house. I told her stories that I made up to keep her mind off the cracking and boom of the thunder and lightning. She used to tell me the stories were good. Sometimes she laughed, covering her mouth so the snuff would not spit out. I was grateful she did that. Looking back I am glad I had the opportunity to tell her stories and that she told me they were good. They probably weren’t.
In my first political poem I spoke the truth about terrorism. Slavery was terrorism. Jim Crow was terrorism. Schools without computers are terrorism. The Prison Industrial Complex is terrorism. I read the poem at a Blackout Arts Collective program. It was the first time that I read aloud a poem that I had penned as an adult. Since then I have been writing and sharing poems.
I work with our youth through non-profit organizations, such as the Brooklyn Public Library, NY Writers Coalition, and the Youth Arts Academy at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. What the children and teens write is incredible and inspiring. And truth. I am privileged to work with young people who dare to speak truth and to help them feel confident to do so.
I won the DorisJean Austin Award for African American Fiction Writers from the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, and have been awarded grants for my community work with youth. I founded Griot Reading Programs to bring African American authors to youth and to provide free writing workshops for them. I'm a Cancer. I love eating out. I love macaroni and cheese, sweet potato pie, and my mother's potato salad. I love to dance and fantasize about being a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem or Alvin Ailey. I love being out in the world. I love spending time with my family, especially my nieces and nephews, all the young people in my life, and my friends. I love art. I love Aminah Robinson’s work and I love photography. I love Sade, Aretha Franklin (I love Sparkle!) and Nina Simone. I am a writer, poet, educator, artist, cultural activist, community activist, aunt, and artist. I am true to myself. I am true. Revolution begins with me.