Clik here to view.
To Ferguson, With Love
For those who have lost their lives Solely based on their skin color, For those who face the system That has its foundations in white supremacy, For those who have been fighting For 100 and more days...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jim Crow Lives On
A couple of weeks ago, I saw The Throwaways at a theatre in Albany, NY. The documentary is filmed in Albany and highlights one of the biggest issues of our time: the mass incarceration and profiling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lilacs
I have a memory of the springtime flowers blooming and My godmother helping my small hands Bead intricate necklaces, while teaching me My history, Borinken history, our history It’s late summer and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don’t Touch My Hair
Today a sister stared at me and smiled then asked me if my curls were natural, or a perm? (natural, but no sister of mine) Can I touch your hair? It looks so fun, to play with No don’t touch my hair I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Concrete Island
my papi and I took a soul trip home and Borinken opened her arms and kissed our brown skin we were running from the ice that had turned into a cage of despair and homesickness we walked on the sand at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eliminating the Wedge
A couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with my mother about my organizing work. We chatted, and I told her about my current work with Eliminating the Wedge, which is a group in Albany that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
But Where Are All The Feminists?
By now you have probably heard about or watched what happened in McKinney, Texas. You’ve seen the horrific images of a teenage girl, Dejerria Becton, in her bathingsuit, being pinned to the ground and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cruella DeVille
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Diasporic Love
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your Silence is Violence
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nobody Has Hands Like Hers
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Sneaky Power of White Privilege
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
these bridges/still hold us
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Justice, Justice We Will Pursue
Image from chanukahaction.org, Artwork by Zoe Cohen (zoecohen.com) Happy Chanukah! Hanukah! Hanukkah! However you want to spell it, this Chanukah (I like this spelling) has a very special and deep...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Solitary Confinement: Not Just a Black Man’s Problem
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stop Asking Me to Dry Your White Tears
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Last Taino Indian Has Not Yet Been Born
Photographer: Kiki Vassilakis 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...
View Article
