Remembrance

Remembrance 

Memory. The price paid for living. The currency of experience. 

Memory. 

Love, the fullness of such, running deep in my veins. Honor and uplift, progress and persistence. 

Loss, a guaranteed barter with the passing of time. Expected, but without ease. 

Space and time. 

Memory, the currency of experience.

Life often feels like a dialogue between remembering and forgetting. 

What is the price of remembering? What is the cost of forgetting?

In no clear order of importance, two things are forgiving, one thing is not 

Mind and heart, forgive, with work, and with time. 

Healing 

The body does not forgive; be gentle in your breath. 

Carrying the prayers that were spoken well before I was even a thought 

Remembering 

Memory, the blessing and the burden. 

Without it, there is emptiness. 

Space to forget, space to forfeit 

We will not forget. We cannot forget. 

Remembering. 

Memory, the currency of experience. 

Remember. 

Two Things Can Be True

Writings apart of my first solo exhibition, “Two Things Can Be True” written in the Spring of 2022.

Nuance 

Every day is a fight of both will and faith  

It is constant work to stay grounded and sit in a sense of peace that everything will work out  exactly how it’s supposed to.  

In many ways, it feels like man versus mind, man versus time.  

Reminders that a deep breath, and the loud and silent prayers can and will carry me. 

Will It Be Long?  

In many ways there is neither light nor darkness 

Moments feel like a middle gray, with scattered clouds and the soft peek of a sun ray  Is there space to belong? 

I’m sitting, engulfed in constant noise 

Searching for clarity 

After deep breaths and slow exhales, whispers of loving kisses, I see the sun  Can it be this complex? 

Is this calm or chaos?  

Soft whispers of loving kisses, steered by hints of ridicule 

Will it be long?  

Belonging; a suffocating urge  

I am existing as the flower and the soil, hoping to belong 

Will it be long?  

Witnessing  

I have witnessed  

I have existed  

This is my blackness 

I have sat from the rooftop, looking down  

Will they see me?  

Full of words, charged with thoughts 

Will they hear me?  

Why aren’t they listening?  

Intersections, all existing at once  

Distorted words but clarity in thought  

This is my blackness  

Give me space  

Let me breathe 

I have witnessed  

I have existed 

Where the Sun Goes to Set  

I sat on the edge  

Where the sun goes to set  

Longing to fly amongst the painted clouds  

Searching for rest 

Urgently gasping for my breath  

I’m here alone, again.  

Provoked, and pried.  

Burdened by what I can’t control  

Plucking away at the moments of revelation, where there seemed to be a glimpse of hope Gasping for a breath  

The sun is setting, the skies that are painted; I painted myself 

OCTOBER (001)

October will always bring reflection, as it is the month of my (2 month very early birth)

As I am forced to embrace and shed parts of me, as I approach my 10 year anniversary from studying International Studies, Spanish, and Studio Art at Richmond.
It starts and ends with my heart, and the art.

So, now I lead with Artist, as I have always and will always be.

These are just parts; the stories, the tears, the unseen paintings, the physical therapy, the occupational therapy, the speech therapy; and yet I still have my words.

I don’t care about what is said. Having a disability is hard; my friends fight for me, speak for me when I am unheard, I am balancing more than I asked for. Life is so imperfect, but it is a great gift. I am black, woman, and disabled. Somehow, someway, it is as the cool say, “foot on neck.”

I’m happy I have given myself space to be. I literally drove myself to my near end, trying to do and be so many different things; feeling inadequate when I missed the mark. The motto is grace and space.

See you where the paint is.

WOMAN, GREEN, SEEN

Woman • Green • Seen

March is always a moment of reflection for me, along with it being Woman’s History Month, its also Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month. This nuance, and part of me is not one I can or will leave out of my story. I acknowledge it in many ways because of the growth and perspective I’ve had around having diverse abilities. Ive learned to acknowledge and accept its mishaps, it’s imperfections, and the resilience I’ve adapted with time.

This is just a reminder that no solution is one size fits all, and I like many others, labeled or not, are dealing with a lot that is unseen.

We all just need a little patience and perspective. So here’s to 2lbs and barely making it, to being more than enough. I am so appreciative to my life partner and the best fiancé ever, family, and friends, that are always there to catch me when I fall. (Literally)

Grace + Space: The Motto.