the other day a sister asked me what does the diaspora feel like? a question i’ve never thought of before yet it invoked fleeting memories of a home that was out of my reach like the sand slipping through my fingers on the island of Borinken i grasp at something that will never be mine…
It has been a rough two weeks. Like, hide-in-my-bed-and-never-leave two weeks. America has chosen a known white supremacist to be president. This cannot be real life. But it is. And we are all trying to deal with the trauma and pain that this election has created. I love that there have been multiple community gatherings…
In a special report released on April 22, 2015, Juan E. Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, found that prolonged solitary confinement (in excess of 15 days) is torture. This torture happens EVERY DAY in the United States. And in the state of New…
Happy Chanukah! Hanukah! Hanukkah! However you want to spell it, this Chanukah (I like this spelling) has a very special and deep meaning for what is happening in the world right now. Although the story of Chanukah is not real, it still has a lesson that can be applied to black/brown/poor/queer/minority people: change will come,…
to my white feminist sisters/sisters that use my back/to break the glass ceiling/ceiling that can only be shattered/by you/not me/sister that will never be your sister/sister outsider do not hang pictures of me/on your wall/wall of phony solidarity/solidarity only meant for/your sisters/sisters that rewrite herstory/herstory that first belonged to me resist the urge to tell…
On Sunday, July 12th, the New York Times printed an entire article about how awesome Amy Schumer is. And I puked a little in my mouth. The article, titled “The Sneaky Power of Amy Schumer” should have been called “The Not So Sneaky Power of White Privilege.” The article as a whole is literally a love…
my mami’s hands are always soft like the reindeer named Twinkles who i cuddled with at night she would make up bedtime stories about Twinkles my imagination growing like a sunflower her hands have carried me through loss through happiness through debilitating depression when i was a young girl she sliced her finger open on…
Black people are being shot in historic churches and assaulted by police at pool parties. Black Haitians are being deported from the Dominican Republic. It literally feels like there is no safe place for people of color. I am scared. I am sad. I am angry. I am numb. I have been pretty open about my…
i see you to be seen is to be heard to be heard is to be loved and i love you i love you from my veins to my memories that carry this trauma these stories this diaspora i feel you our histories entwine with our touch our pain melts together like a candle in…
my mother named it Cruella DeVille when i could not find the words to describe the elephants that were sitting on my chest crushing my bones and squeezing the very life out of me my doctor named it depression and anxiety but i still prefered Cruella to describe the days when i tasted loneliness in…
