My personal creative joy comes from being the kid who always loved…

being selected to read aloud in school

getting the ribbon in the oratorical contest

watching Reading Rainbow with glee (and of course singing the theme song obv)

writing poetry and consuming copious amounts of Def Poetry Jam videos in the early days of YouTube

visiting the library with her grandmother who was a librarian and mother also who worked at a library in her formative years so she could devour the entire summer reading list and get her gift certificate for a free meal at the spaghetti factory (yes, it’s that good - and yes, I still enjoy eating there)

going to Da Poetry Lounge when she realized her favorite poets performed there and she might actually get the chance to meet them, speak to them, and maybe just maybe even have them know her name

playing chess with her grandfather who would let her talk his ear off about the books she read that he would oftentimes read along with her which all rubbed off on her to volunteer at the library in high school and tutor kids in the library during college

performing her own poems every once in a while to audiences and online for anyone willing to listen to the whispers of her soul that weren’t underneath the layers of comedic and theatrical characters she was often cast as

and thus, all of the above ultimately led to this exciting passion that I’ve now developed for

audiobook narration as an adult so now my dream of becoming a library grandparent won’t have to wait any longer nor will it require the need to birth kids or pray for grandkids so I get to cut out the middle (wo)men - whoohoo! and now I can already read to kids or to you

along with becoming a published poet which I’m working on making a reality, real soon, and maybe one day I’ll become a someone’s favorite poet too!