Vulnerability is on my side. I’ve been through many hardships in my life so far. As I come into adulthood I realized many of those hardship I have yet to heal from, but the journey of learning how to heal has to be my biggest achievement to date. Healing is a very long process. Sometimes we as humans believe that we are on the path of healing, but later find we have yet to start. There have been a number and series of events in my life that have opened my eyes to the possibility of healing, even if those events hurt me. Trial and error is a major component of the healing process. When we as humans notice that we are hurting or are in pain, we find ways that we think may assist us or act as a crutch to support all our needs emotionally, physically, mentally etc. Trial and error can be frustrating, especially when you’re ready to be 100% healthy. A few trials during a major event in my life took over my everyday routine, even though most of them weren’t working. I became a victim of binge eating, I tried meditation, I tried yoga, and I even tried baking. I was at a point where every week I was trying something new, to see if it added or took away from my healing. Eventually I found writing, and that was the positive turning point for me. Writing opened a new door for my brain and emotions to process. Writing was and is a safe space where I say and write anything with no repercussions. I found myself processing the hurt through storytelling, specifically playwriting. I was able to create a world just like mine, I was able to create characters with experiences parallel to mine, and in the end I controlled whether or not they healed in their story. Playwriting allowed me to create and control narratives which fortunately inadvertently allowed me to control mine. I am now able to reflect not only my hurt in my stories, but the hurt of others. I realized and now understand controlling a narrative doesn’t have stop at healing me and that it can heal many. The event that caused me to find writing I can say is nearing to being a closed wound, but my job I believe isn’t finished. I discovered writing as a healing tactic for me, but because of some writing opportunities I’ve been granted, I now see my work positively affects others. Because of the many souls I’ve touched, I believed writing is my calling. I’m happily ready to dedicate my life to spreading my word, because by healing myself I realized I can heal others.

Im a writer. I recently had the amazing opportunity of having a staged reading of one of my plays at Pilsburry House & Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The feedback I received made me realize my words can impact others, and more importantly that they hold power. It’s an amazing feeling, when you’re weeping and crying because you notice how moved people are by the art that comes from your brain. The staged reading has inspired my to continue writing and to continue trying to move people with the power of my words. Most of the themes and topics I write about involve images of people or events that reflect our lives as humans and individuals today. I believe the best way to truly inspire someone, or to truly move someone, is by writing for nostalgia but also for emotion. Pandering towards people’s memories can create a great bond with an audience. Not to sound cocky, but people will remember my name not because I rose to a status, but because my word hold truth, and power, and memories. Writers today are making money off of entertainment, when they could be writing to make a connection with their audiences. My mission is to write for the connection.

I want to change the way the world views black stories. I want to be the person that grants new, fresh, and yet overdue perspective on what the black story and experience can look like on the stage. We live in a culture and society, where black life on stage and in film is over dramatized or overtly stereotypical in order to appeal to the masses. This is due to the conditioning of expected black tropes and characters by viewing audiences. I plan to change what people expect of black writers, stories, and characters. If you look at black stories well beyond the 90s, they either were extremely dramatic or extremely stereotypical. These stories were the ones that brought in revenue, so the cycle of mass-producing these stories continued. Black Americans still aren’t palatable to audiences unless put in extreme situations or unless retaining a generalized idea of blackness. Audiences and the media should not have the power to use blackness as a pawn for entertainment. Though the drama is engaging and is what catches the attention of our audience, I believe there needs to be a general shift in how audiences and the media control a message or art form artists are trying to present. Blackness shouldn’t have to be a burden or be dramatic to be worth the watch, Black stories should be able to present as regular everyday stories and still hold value. I personally hope and plan on applying and getting into school for either a BFA in musical theatre or BS in African American studies/Africana studies. My ultimate goal though is to apply to the NYU Gallatin program where individuals are able to shape their own degrees. At the Gallatin, I’d specifically study dramatic writing, African American studies, and urban studies. I’d use my learning throughout my 4 years to inform my writing style and the way I depict characters and my use of language, while also informing how I choose to represent the black community as a whole in my storytelling. This will allow me to create not only regular black stories but stories that hold truth. I want my stories to inspire and represent individuals from all over whose lives and stories are taken advantage of for the big screen and stage. The college will only be the beginning for me, but I hope to use my degree to push forward and show the world that black stories on the stage and screen don’t have to be 1 dimensional or even 2 dimensional. I want to be another catalyst like August Wilson or Issa Rae that puts value on regular black stories and regular black people.