Thank You For Your Service

The purpose of my life and art is to educate, inspire, and entertain.

As the first working artist and social justice activist in my Caribbean and African American family, I know the importance of telling our own personal histories and making art that promotes community healing. Throughout my career, I’ve created or contributed to content that invites people to explore social issues, mysticism, and possibilities.
My poetry and essays can be found in Stand Our Ground; Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander, Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Assault and, love With accountability: Digging up Roots of Child Sexual Assault. Additionally, my articles and interviews can be found on The Grio, Bloom Magazine, and several online journals. As an actor, I’ve participated in theatrical and poetic productions that explore many of the same topics I do in my work. I also speak nationally and internationally on ways to utilize the arts and spirituality to heal from domestic and sexual violence.
My artistic aesthetic started to form in 2004, when I began interviewing women of color about their experiences with domestic and sexual violence after experiencing dating abuse myself. From Ashes To Angel's Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood is the book that emerged from those interviews. Since then, I’ve had book readings at Charis Books and More in Atlanta, GA, the YWCA Glendale in Glendale, CA, Smith College, Springfield College, Bowie State University, the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and cafés around the country.
I then went on write and produce ASHES, a ChoreoDrama that uses monologues, poems, and vignettes to breathe life into the original stories chronicled in From Ashes To Angel's Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood and includes new stories about historical oppression, the media, campus sexual assault, body image, and the journey to self-love. I oversaw all play development, including hiring directors, actors and hiring consultants to facilitate audience engagement work. My philosophy whether in plays or film was to create an atmosphere where each artist can shine.
ASHES has had many successful performances across the country including a reading at Women on Wednesdays (WoW) at The Brecht Forum in New York City on February 23, 2011. WoW was an art and culture series, interactive speak outs, workshops, residencies, and street actions. Women on Wednesday practiced and affirmd a world where Black girls and women live healthy, creative, liberated lives by 1) increasing the visibility amplifying the voices of girls and women artists, cultural workers, and scholars of African descent 2) supporting inter-generational dialogue about issues directly affecting girls and women of African descent 3) increasing civic engagement among girls and women of African descent and; 4) increasing the holistic health of girls and women of African descent .
The piece was also presented at The Council of Churches in Hartford, CT on March 26, 2011, and in Orlando Florida on May 23, 2011, for The Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence as part of their Biennial Statewide Conference, The DC Black Theatre Festival on June 16, 2011, and The Black Women’s Arts Festival in Philadelphia, PA on July 30, 2011. I performed excerpts of the piece at a special White House briefing in February 2012 and the full ensemble performed at Bergen Community College in February of 2012 and The Hackensack Cultural Center in Hackensack, New Jersey, the following March. We also performed at the Ellie Herman Studio on the 3rd of that month. We performed to a standing room only crowd at The Nuyorican Café for Women’s History Month on March 8, 2014. That summer, we traveled to Asheville, NC to perform at Alternate ROOTS, a regional* arts service organization with 44-year history. After seeing us at Alternate Roots, the Different Strokes Theater in Asheville, NC commissioned the piece for a sold out 3-week run in March 2015. We performed at Ramapo College, in Mahwah, NJ on March 28, 2016, Poetic Theater Festival (Poetic License) on April 1, 2016, in New York City, NY, Yale University’s Fearless Conference on April 9, 2016, The White House’s United State of Women Summit in Washington, DC on June 15, 2016, NCADV’s National Conference: Voices United on October 24, 2016, Springfield College School of Social Work on March 19, 2017, and Smith College on April 6, 2017. Additionally, ASHES was further developed through Brown University’s Research-to-Performance Method and had a sold-out weekend performance in March 2018. That same year, I brought together a new ensemble to perform at the State University of New York Adirondack's We Say No conference on April 11, 2019. Later that year, I was honored to travel to Fez, Morocco where I presented a workshop entitled, Utilizing Performance as an Intersectional Response to Violence Against Women, on June 4, 2019.
In 2015, I began writing, directing, and producing a short film called, Thank You For Your Service (TYFYS) as part of As Quiet As It’s Kept (AQAIK), a Brooklyn based multi-discipline performance installation based on the stories of veterans of color in a changing community. TYFYS chronicles the life of a Black Vietnam Veteran living in Brooklyn during Covid-19 and was filmed in May 2021.
A paradigm shift is finally taking place in the industry wherein Black and Brown creators are finally getting some of the representation we deserve. This festival provides an invaluable opportunity to share work with people possessing different perspectives and experiences. It would also be an opportunity to grow networks and collaborate with other creators. I’ve been blessed to live, work, heal, create, and perform in New York since arriving in February of 2011. The energy of the city continues to impact how I see my craft on a deep level. Participating in the festival would provide continued exposure to work, collaborators, and members of our field, which would further enhance my skillsets and networks. Lastly, I believe in the importance of preserving festivals such as these and want to contribute to them in any way possible.