Journey, 2016

Love Letter 2

The unconventional and a bit too radical Spelmaninate you were with many titles and roles that carried too much weight at times.

You were and still are a survivor, an artist, leader, student, community activist and a member. You are the poet excitedly reciting to their poet professor who taught through the unconventionality of group dialog, which was most healing. You were and still are a friend, a sister-sibling, an independent goddess, a performer, a thrift genius, a fashion stylist, a sound lover, the Spelmaninate down Manley Hall and a BLACK queer unicorn with sunflowers. You are you and is not defined by a name of a school or title.

You began to explore your inner freedom before this moment, and you continued it beyond high school. You began to question your belonging to institution and its lack of diversity.

You began unpacking your trauma here and boy was it hard to face. and in that you shared your story through poetry, protesting, ranting and organizing healing and creative events for people to share their own story. You got therapy for the first time, and it held space for you.

You began your journey of discovering the true meaning of liberation through beginning your own ancestral journey and driving to Sumter South Carolina. You did a senior thesis about your lineage and those questions begin to shape into answers.

You fought tooth and nail to be yourself in a space that reminded you that yourself was not of tradition and honor.

You made friends with lovingly queer souls who taught you how to begin the expression and understanding of love. They hugged you softly, kissed your forehead, held you when you cried and ya'll practiced checkin- in. Ya'll showed up for each other which is something you didn't experience until then.

You wore a sunflower for a year after two abusive relationships of verbal, sexual and stalking,

In wearing that sunflower, you found new meaning of God's grace through nature and saw how it made people smile like it did for you.

You explored yourself in many spaces and you stayed true to that. On Saturday's or Sunday's when you were off from work or other obligations you stayed true to you volunteering in the community, something you've done since a kid. You attended monthly music concerts and festivals of all your favorites and met all of your inspirations and they gave you such great wisdom.

You began your journey of finding God for yourself and it brought you down a path you couldn't have foreseen. You began to love yourself and you danced again. You explored all forms of creativity from African dance and printmaking to photography, graphic design, organizing healing circles storytelling and even a collaborative Paper Mache project for social cause. You learned new things about yourself that had nothing to do with Spelman and traveled a lot and drove anywhere the wind took you. New York became your adventure time of China buses, studying for finals and exploring the big city. On one hand, you were the first person in your family to graduate from major HBUC of a family of folks who attended local HBCU's. On the other hand, besides grandma you were the first to attend and finish college. And you studied Art where everyone else studied and became Social Workers. and now you invertedly incorporate it.

You begin to understand your learning style and you took an unexpected route to graduate school even through you wanted to join the Peace Corp and travel aboard to work in different communities. Even through you didn't get the opportunity at that time because art school seemed liked the safest route. Gratefully so--you needed each part of this journey because honey, you are doing it now.