“As a poet, I write of mass Black exodus, ancient memory, unspoiled land and what I mean is that I want somewhere of my own.”

“I choose to share my beauty with those who cherish it and who won’t tarnish it. It’s not for the world to take what’s mine and feed it through a machine that creates plastic barbie dolls; slaves to an industry responsible for corrupting a generation of Kardashian wannabes.”

How my family's body-shaming led me to codependency issues and a suicide attempt.

What could go wrong when watching Pink Panther?

Analysing and navigating through a range of identities.

Things I could do with my time: Cook nshima and kapenta. Cook visashi. Crotchet products from chitenge. Knit products from chitenge. Speak to my parents about a history they had long left behind and refuse to revisit. Speak to my father about his life in Egypt. Speak to my mother about her life before my father. Speak to myself. Things I do instead: Have an existential crisis, several crises.

“I wonder if being in a romantic relationship is the unquestioned prerequisite to being accepted-then-respected in most societies. It's almost to say that if you're "with" someone, you must somehow be lovable, or at least likable.”

I‘ve been trapped in this narrative of “not fitting in” and disliking myself so much so that true self-love has been foreign to me. In fact, it’s been so much easier sitting in this place of self-hate than working towards anything else.

I had a voice in me that kept telling me to go on… Was that God?

Though I am a mother, I am an individual who believes that motherhood should not strip away your identity; it also should not stop your internal and external growth, success, and fun.