“my children are bridges & compounds

soups & salves

poems and poems and poems”

“We are the ones reshaping what it means to live freely, to exist simply because we were born. We are redefining wealth, legacy and luxury, all through this sacred space, these sacred acts of creating.”

“Years ago, / younger selves, / sensing loss, / wanted

simple clues / reminding us / which way / home.”

“By nurturing the garden, I will become the garden”

“I cut the onions with care. / Tears show the body / is still honest.”

“Through photography, digital tools and software, assemblage, and mixed-media installations, I explore these intergenerational narratives using multimedia and mixed media works, highlighting the ways family and geography carry lessons, values, and cultural wisdom forward as legacy.”

“We are part of the chain that passes our ancestral knowledge, joy, and strength from one generation to the next. We do not only inherit trauma. We inherit love, laughter, ceremony, and wisdom.”

“Channeling the strength and purpose of my ancestors, I picked up the silver thread and sewed into the canvas, pulling the pieces of my painting and of myself together. While my pieces remain scattered, they are not broken. Across space and time, my history, my present, and my future are joined. My pain transformed into something beautiful, regenerative.”

“The image captures daily life shaped by community, labor, and resilience, reflecting my interest in diasporic spaces and personal sovereignty: the ability to claim authority over one’s body, identity, narrative, and vision.”

“some people do not deserve / to have their tears ripple / upon the ocean I will become, / when they refused to pour / into the wells I left behind.”

“[…} when life shut my eyes, / silenced my voice and / laid me down, / i chose to dream.”

“It is not that I solely carry the survival and experiences of those who have come before me, but that my own survival and experiences are being woven into the tapestry of my lineage, as I am breathing and being. The journey between my birth and death marks what will become my evocation.”

“And you know / you’ll never learn / how to go on living. / And worst of all, / you know that, / —in fact— / you will.”

“From beneath his fragments / she emerged. / Stood. / Leapt in small, light bursts, / avoiding the slick black fluids, / and wrapped herself / in her nakedness.”

“my sleep is gone / or i dream on / in my dreams / as if life’s / a dream”

“soul flutters like sparrow / as I swell to sun / and swallow honey.”

“Every step forward / is a thank you / to the girl I was, / the girl I survived, / the girl I outgrew / so the woman could enter.”

“Scatter me amongst these pages / and let the paper wither away in the wind / as pieces of me disappear into nature / and I become one with earth again.”

“But now, as you’ll see, there is breath at the end, just beyond, where the light shines. There, you’ll find a wealth of knowledge—learned, imparted… everything collected over time.”

“And if music is inherent to our being, and we are being advised to take the music seriously, take the inner song seriously, take life’s melody seriously, aren’t we being reminded that Spirit is inherent to our being? And to take Spirit seriously?”