“I believe there is power in words, power in asserting our existence, our experience, our lives, through words.”
— Jesmyn Ward, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (2016)
That One Year I Read 40 Books… All By Black Women.
8,645 pages read.
Your girl did it. Multiple funerals, mental health issues, leave from work, and just being a whole busybody, but I did it. I knocked down 40 books in 2020. What made my reads even more special was the fact that every single book I read in 2020 was written by a Black woman. Famous Black women. Established authors. Breakout authors. Caribbean authors. British authors. American authors. Fat authors. All of it.
Dear 2020, I don’t hate you.
As I have spent the last few days cleaning like a crazy woman because, #BlackTraditions, I was extremely appreciative that I finished last night so that I could truly focus and reflect today. Instead of thinking about all that didn’t happen, went wrong, or what I lost, I’ve been trying to think about some of my favorite highlights.
To Everyone Mourning a Loved One During the 2020 Holiday Season
It is hard. It is incredibly hard. I don’t share the ugly moments I deal with daily because who wants to hear that? Unless you are in my immediate circle… or my therapist, you have no idea how I am dealing. But please, do not make assumptions about someone’s healing process because it is a lifelong journey.
4am in Vegas
So now, here I am at 4:00 am now officially glued to CNN and the projections. No matter how hard I tried, I simply could not fall back asleep and had a feeling that I was going to need a strong coffee to get me through the day. I had also decided on another whim that I wanted to extend my time in Vegas and forfeit my original plans of being in Los Angeles on Friday so that meant I had to switch hotels. I was exhausted but on adrenaline, because I felt like things were finally starting to happen.
“For such a time as this…”
Well friends, the day is here. The day we have waited for since Midterms 2018. Election Day 2020. I have been feeling so many feelings and trying to process my thoughts while not spiraling because elections remind me of my godfather. I distinctly remember him taking me to Springside (a school) to vote with him and sometimes lil’ me even got to hit the voting button even if I wasn’t supposed to. I remember how since he had three TV’s in his bedroom (yep), CNN was always on one of them. So here I am, decades later, in my own fight with my community to help our people get out the vote.