Generation Women at Joe's Pub

"Being my Own Damn Hero: Stories of Guts and Grit" Generation Women at Joe’s Pub

I was approached by Jessica Lore and writer Georgia Clark to be part of their storytelling night, Generation Women, which celebrates and amplifies women’s voices and creativity. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those women, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s and her 70s+. The diverse, multi-generational line-ups create an intimate and impactful literary salon. The prompt was "Being my Own Damn Hero: Stories of Guts and Grit", and privately, as a hobby I write poetry, love literature, and recently started to write short stories.

Writing nonfiction and fiction is new for me and to give myself confidence, I said yes to this opportunity to not only share my writing, and meet new people, but also to perform at Joe’s Pub. Every performer had an interesting unique story that was full of humor, wit, and warmth. There is a bit of trepidation around aging like career and sense of self, to name a few, so being surrounded by women who expressed just a microscopic time in their life was nurturing in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

Joe’s Pub is an iconic venue in the artistic scenes, and being welcomed in this eclectic creative hub was a dream. Thank you, Georgia, Jessica, everyone at Joe’s Pub, and our photographer Christopher Scalzi!

Promise That You Will Sing About Me ~~ ZINE~~

Hello, hello!

AFROFUTURISM

Whatever it is, the From the Tignon Laws to our current- the Crown Act - there’s a lot of confusion on black hair care, policing on black hair and the confusion on the terminology, for example, protective styling, I recently spoke with a lovely educator in West Virginia who informed me, that one of her senators thinks protective styling means you can’t have the ability to put on a mining cap because something is on top of it “protecting”, total misunderstanding. lack of education on it and hopefully it will provide some education for some and liberation for others. you tell your story online can make all the difference.

My long-awaited zine dream has come to fruition!

Promise That You Will Sing About Me is image research and curated zine with archival collages done by me, featuring poetry from Nadirah Harris with interviews about afro-textured hair care, the architecture of hair - its eye-catching form, a reflection of world view values of the times, equally important transforming + carrying forward the legacy of the past. Available as of right now, at McNally Jackson Soho location and Pushcart Presents on Essex.

I’ve been working on this project for a bit, like 2 years, and thought that it would be so easy to complete; but when you care about something, it takes time. The idea came from studying costume design, being an actor, and people not understanding what to do with my hair. Especially in regards to a hairstylist on set when they approach my hair with freight in their eyes and sweaty palms tenderness and delicacy that you handle with an orchid is the same way you handle my hair. 

In addition, I use to chemically straighten my hair from 7th grade ( I saw getting a relaxer as a stepping stone into womanhood) to 11th grade. My hair got thin, scalp issues, etc etc and went to having natural hair and being completely overwhelmed with anxiety about my hair texture, desirability, and the rain hahah.

As well as, the commodifying of black hairstyles, for example, Amandla Stenberg’s DONT CASH MY CORNROWS, and feeling isolated by everyone and everything, falling into the void of otherness. You can do so much with your hair especially in regards to me I mean that’s why I’m writing this blog entry because at some point I got really frustrated with how to handle my hair and what to do with it and once I took whiteness out of the center for my existence, I saw how extraordinary black hair is.

From the Tignon Laws to our current- the Crown Act - there’s a lot of confusion on black hair care, policing on black hair and the confusion on the terminology, for example, protective styling, I recently spoke with a lovely educator in West Virginia who informed me, that one of her senators thinks protective styling means you can’t have the ability to put on a mining cap because something is on top of it “protecting”, total misunderstanding. lack of education on it and hopefully it will provide some education for some and liberation for others.

INHERITANCE (2021)

Hi, most recent news I had the opportunity to work on a sci-fi - thriller written and directed by the brilliant and thoughtful visionary Annalise Lockhart; here is the trailer for INHERITANCE.

It was my first job post acting for the camera class since I am a trained stage actor, and what a dope experience it was. Four days in Vermont, with an intoxicating aroma of Maple trees filled with laughter in between takes of me having to chop wood ( Yes, I am giving butch queen!) Cast + crew + location = XD

Vineyard Theatre Presents Lessons in Survival

Fueled by the urgency of our present moment, The Commissary, a multigenerational collective of more than 40 ​theatre artists, have come together to reinvestigate the words​ ​of trailblazing artists​ ​and activists ​who survived and created in times of revolution in our country​. Baldwin. Giovanni. Davis. Lorde. Hansberry. Rustin. Hamer. ​In LESSONS IN SURVIVAL, a cohort of actors channel historic conversations, interviews, and speeches, listening to original broadcasts on an in-ear feed and speaking exactly what they hear. In bringing these words to a new life in the present, they ask what these voices can teach us about our country now and the opportunity for true change that stands before us. How might they propel us to look courageously at the effects of systemic racism, to imagine ourselves outside of its prescriptions, and to create, together, a shared future of collective liberation? For more information- CLICK HERE! Vineyard Theatre

Lessons in Survival will continue to develop throughout the season, with The Commissary as an artistic-collective-in-residence at The Vineyard. They will be shared with audiences at different stages over the coming months. More announcements, soon to come in 2021 ;)

Lessons in Survival was featured in NYTimes The Sound in Their Ears? Black Thinkers Sharing ‘Lessons in Survival’