“I live by the beat like you live check-to-check. If it don’t move your feet, then I don’t eat, so we like neck-to-neck.” —Andre 3000
Rap fans had been waiting on Andre 3000 to drop a new album for YEARS. When he finally did, it was flute instrumentals. Niggas was big mad!
His response: “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way,” he said.
That’s how I feel. I ain’t been gone for years, but I ain’t wrote nothing publicly in a while, and the structure of what I finally gotta say is a lil different. Instead of an organized flow, I gotta list of thoughts for you:
- You can acknowledge this land was stolen and its people in power be doing some real fucked up shit, and still enjoy the food and fireworks today. You can also refuse it all. Neither decision makes nobody better than anybody.
- The Untamed Women events I’ve been doing, I just did a video shoot recording it. I can’t wait to share it with you. Here’s a photo I took that day. Shoutout to Andre Johnson for his genius!
- Think I’m about to reread Sula.
- Learn to say “fuck you.” Not from a place of hatred, but love and self-care. Tina McElroy Ansa’s The Hand I Fan With taught me that. It’s one of the books I shared in the video I just recorded.
- Last year I did more rereading books than reading new ones; it’s about 50/50 this year.
- Did you know high heels were originally made for men? First in Persia for horsemen because the heels kept their foot in the stirrups. Then in Europe for height and status, to announce that he was HIM.
- And that, in Europe, pink was considered a masculine color?
- Just finished reading Heavy by Kiese Laymon and OMG! It’s heavy and hilarious and written like a letter to his mother. The subtitle is An American Memoir, and it is exactly that.
- Kiese’s mama’s mentor was Margaret Walker.
- If you ever heard of Phillis Wheatley, it’s probably because of Margaret Walker starting a festival for Phyllis at Jackson State University in 1973. Audre Lorde was there, Alice Walker, Sonia Sanchez, etc. The festival still going too.
- Margaret Walker may be why we know Zora Neale Hurston too. While auditing one of Margaret Walker’s English classes, Alice Walker (same name but they ain’t related) first encountered Zora’s work. A few years later, Alice traveled to find Zora’s unmarked grave, purchased a headstone for it, and wrote about the experience. That essay got folk curious about Zora, leading to publishers printing her books again and a whole new generation of folk reading Zora.
- Every day I make a list of 50 things that would be cool if it happened. I’m doing it for 7 days and I’m on the 3rd day. Got the idea from Erin Walsh.
- Remember I said I be birding? I joined a birding community too. Their newsletter editor stepped down and I volunteered to step up. It feels like genuine give and get. My first newsletter as editor dropped last week.
- Just finished the third season of Survival of the Thickest on Netflix. Before I started the last episode, I asked my daughter if I should save it since I’ll miss the show so much when it’s over. She said, “Just rewatch the whole thing.” Young people be knowing…
- Survival of the Thickest in the family of Girlfriends, Insecure, Harlem, etc. We truly need a high quality new series for black women that drops AT LEAST every spring, summer, fall, and winter. A whole new show and/or a new season of a show we already love. Like my friend said, shows featuring different generations of black women too.
- I don’t miss social media not one little bit.
- Used to wanna visit beaucoup cities and countries. Still do. But more interested in revisiting places that I fell in love with a 2nd and 3rd time, to dig in deeper. Did it with Oakland, Philly, Vegas, and NYC. Wanna do it with Dakar, Loíza, and St. Ann Parish Jamaica too.
- Been harvesting okra from my backyard garden. Harvested corn with my son from the farm plot I was gifted this season. Eating food you grew never gets old. So sacred.
- Learn to ask better questions, and don’t be scared to ask ‘em. It can change ya life.
- Don’t hold secrets of shame. It can kill you. Tell a therapist, a friend, an elder, a stranger on the internet, a tree…somebody who won’t make you feel bad for what you just told ‘em.
- Stretch your body! If you be stiff, you only gon’ get stiffer. Stiff bodies don’t last long.
- Dance too. I’m tryna remember to dance a lil bit everyday. One of the meditations in the book is dancing.
- My book, Women Who Ain’t Afraid to Curse When Communicating With God, is a podcast now. Each episode includes a writing prompt, a story, and a meditation. 3-5 minutes per episode. On Spotify and Apple Podcast.
- Depth comes from repetition, I’m learning. Wax on, wax off, cousin!
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