Melanin Unity

As a young and naive darling of the world, I was brought up to believe that all the stress of parents, school, and life in general, would melt away with the ease of a single application to my college of choice. I’d simply grow to the tender age of 17, begin a year of classes that weren’t rigorous or challenging, maintain my honors level GPA of a 3.56, and without a doubt get accepted into my dream HBCU - Howard University. But like that white lady in one of my favorite memes said: Senior year is currently only one week away -- even though it feels like it has already started with all the AP (Advanced Placement) homework I’ve had to complete. AP work is the right of passage all students who are “Academics AF” must go through; consisting of terms lists, progress tests, analysis of experiments for AP Psych. Then reading, essays, and annotations for AP Literature and Composition. Which in total contributed to the minor panic attack I had over the summer. I decided to write down...

If you're from the suburbs and reached out to local workshops or camps for art, chances are, you’ve encountered Weird White People.  From my own experiences, these spaces can be intimidating and lonely, more so than any other space where I'm the only person of color. I know the feeling of anxious excitement all too well: obsessing over the new skills I hope to learn, imagining the cool people who may be there, rehearsing conversations filled with references only true art hoes would know. But, that soaring optimism loses a wing and hurdles towards Earth when my eyes are greeted by WWP  ( Weird White People )  who identify as wolves and plants. T hey’re magnetized to the same creative spaces I go to for guidance on my craft and it's disappointing, but very manageable at this point. If after striking up conversation no connection with WWP can be sensed in your near future,  here are 10 tips to help you stay on your creative grind when there's no brothas or sistas i...