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

reading aloud in school (yup, totally volunteered)

participating in oratorical contests (and winning!)

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 A TON with my granny who was a school librarian and mom also who worked at a library in her formative years so I could devour my entire summer reading list and get my 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 I realized my favorite poets performed there and I might actually get the chance to meet them, speak to them, and maybe just maybe even have them know her name (all of which totally happened!)

playing chess with my grandfather who would let me 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 my own poems every once in a while to audiences and online for anyone willing to listen to the whispers of my 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!