About Me

My faith dictates that love be my highest calling. Dr. Cornel West says “Justice is what love looks like in public.” So because we are refugees on this earth, I make it my business to fight for justice and to do so in love.

I am a writer. Back in the 1800s they called what I do “living by the pen.” I write articles and poems, essays and analyses, PowerPoint presentations and sermons, tweets and notes notes notes. I also text a lot and I play around with song-writing.  I received my alternative teacher certification along with my bachelor's in English from a local state school. I teach tenth grade English, Creative Writing, and the AVID Elective.

“I am here to help you find, take back, and keep your righteous mind.” - The Great Debaters

Much of what I live and believe can be summed up in these Lupe Fiasco quotes:

1. “God over everything” (from “I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now”, Lasers) 
2. “You gotta give ‘em something real…something [that] they can recognize, something they can feel…something [my mama] could be proud of, something she could feel” (from “Real”, Food & Liquor)
3. “You see, I hood a lot and, yeah, I nerd some. Hood’s where the heart is; nerd’s where the words from” (from “I’m Beamin’”, Lasers)
4. “1 in the air for the people ain’t here, 2 in the air for the father that’s there, 3 in the air for the kids in the ghetto, 4 for the kids that don’t wanna be there, none for the n*ggas tryna hold them back, 5 in the air for the teacher’s not scared to tell those kids that’s livin’ in the ghetto that the n*ggas hold them back, that the world is theirs” (from “The Show Goes On”, Lasers)
5. “Freedom ain’t free, 'specially 'round my way” (from “Around My Way”, Food & Liquor II)

The fact that they are Lupe Fiasco lyrics is significant. I love hip hop and he is my favorite rapper, despite his extremism and his politics.

My humanistic belief in art and literature means that I post a lot about things that are simply beautiful. I value everyone’s creativity.  I love to see what we do with what we have. 

“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful…we have done so much with so little for so long we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” - Mother Theresa via Doug E. Fresh and WeTheWilling.org

BUT, my social-reconstructionist view of education and politics requires me to go beyond the simply beautiful. I believe that art and rhetoric’s highest calling is to paint a picture and sing a melody for the powers that be and the children who are our future. Like Russell Simmons said, “spit truth to power”; take a stance and make it known. So the artists and writers that I prefer are those whose content I agree with. I have learned by being a lover of poetry and hip hop that form is very important, and so every now and again I relax and give people their props for being technically good. Lil Wayne’s flow was killing the rap game even though he takes no stances (unless you call drugs and womanizing stances).  Amber Rose is beautiful even if she’s not a good role model. Etc. The interdisciplinary study of art and literature has made me value people’s cultural identities as well as learn to embrace mine.

“I didn’t know that by demanding excellence I would be challenging…the roles you were born to fill.” - Mona Lisa Smile

I live in Oklahoma City, OklaHOMEa. I root for the Thunder, and I only like football if I know someone on the field (although I try to pretend to be interested because everyone around me is).

I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t spent three years as a very active member of a national fraternity of amazing women.

“Not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image.” - Mona Lisa Smile

I read a lot. I sometimes post my poetry.

“…live by example and compell us all to see the world through new eyes.” - Mona Lisa Smile