I’m thinking about the writers who have come before me. I’m thinking about Nikky Finney. I’m thinking about Audre Lorde. I’m thinking about James Baldwin. I’m thinking about Toni Morrison. I’m thinking about the people who have written because they needed to break down barriers and create access and create change.

Alice Walker writes, “To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves.” I often refer to my mother, grandmother, and ancestors as people who survived the unsurvivable. This makes my existence a miraculous one. Every child of a diaspora, every marginalized person has survived a global project which intended to kill them. I want people to remember that they are not, and have never been, alone. Everyone who knows me knows I talk to my ancestors all the time. I see and feel them everywhere because I remember to look for them, and in so doing, I remember myself.