Posts Tagged ‘immigrant’
2020: Storytelling, Conga Drums, and Emotional Wellness
I didn’t set out to become an author. When I first began writing about my identity, I wanted a deeper understanding of where I was from, who I was then, and who I am now. I did not know it at the time, but writing memoir is a form of therapy, a way to put…
Read MoreRoom for Me
I never knew I was black until I came to Miami. I had spent most of my childhood in Haiti, in a community that was already made for me and people like me. Though I understood there were social classes that dictated my place in society, I was comfortable knowing where I belonged. But when…
Read More“Where in Africa are you from?”
The following is excerpted from Twelve Unending Summers: Memoir of an Immigrant Child: Years ago, when I was doing my residency in Chicago, I was making my way through the hospital cafeteria when a tall, slender, white attending physician approached. He looked me up and down, almost as though in resignation. “Where in Africa are you…
Read MoreMango Treasure Hunt
The glaring hot Caribbean sun is losing its lustrous heat, at least from where I am sitting on the mound of yellow dirt, tracking the movement of my shadow. Once my shadow is directly beneath me, I will know there is enough shade, but even now I feel the cool breeze drying my sweat. It…
Read More