The world is extremely chaotic. I almost couldn’t write past the noise until I remembered I’m in my natural habitat, chaos.

Have you been feeling anxious lately? I sure have.

I’ve decided to take it slow, pour into my ART and then I find out that Trump spoke to the president of Puerto Rico again…

SPOILER ALERT Puerto Rico doesn’t have a president..

Trying to escape the noise, I ended up watching the Gucci Mane and Keyshia Ka’oir interview (BIG UP Jamaica). Go donate and assist during these hard times. The real gag wasn’t the interview it was the ignorance in the comments.

Let me make it easy:
Keyshia Ka’oir does not have Gucci Mane under a spell, and she’s definitely not dumb, you’ve probably never been around a Jamaican woman if you think this way. I was raised uptown, if anyone can influence you to do better is a woman that migrated to America for the better. Aside from her culture, in my opinion true love knows no bounds. I know exactly what can happen when you have a good partner in your life. But in these last few years I’ve learned that we pull towards the negative more than we do the positive, in America that is.

Gucci Mane brought awareness to drug abuse, mental health and how you can be there for someone who struggles with substance abuse & mental health issues.

To be honest WE KNOW GUCCI WAS TRIPPING.

Addiction is a disease.

Drug use doesn’t automatically mean mental illness, but it can cause psychosis and studies show that 10–20% of people who experience drug induced psychosis later develop schizophrenia.

Now, I’m not a doctor, but Google is free. And honestly? There was nothing abnormal about that interview. In fact, I was impressed. Have you ever loved someone with a mental illness? Well I have and I do. (We’ll talk about that in another blog.)

Sometimes I wonder, is anyone still doing research behind what we see online? Whether it’s politics, mental health, or even entertainment, I’m always looking for facts

I got into a back and forth with an old co worker,  he loves making blanket statements. I HATE small talk and I really hate when people talk just to act like they know shit. I might even rage bait you and act completely clueless to hear the dumb shit you have to say. 

No facts, no research, just vibes. I told him I passionately feel that if you’re not reading, you’re not learning. I reminded him that it’s extremely important for me to exercise my right to read while I still have it because there was a time when our ancestors couldn’t. 

He ended up saying, “I never looked at it that way.”

Yeah, most of our people don’t. But my mother had a love for literature, so I developed one too.

That conversation made me think of the anti-literacy laws. They’ve been gone for 160 years, but honestly, they still exist in different forms.

Today, there are state level bans and policies removing books that contain “un American concepts” or “wokeness”which has led to many of our history and civil rights books being pulled from schools. Erasing our history.

When people tell me, I don’t have time to read I think of our ancestors that risked their lives to learn, and you can’t spare ten minutes? Reading stimulates your brain. If they keep you dumb they keep you under control.

Slaves could not obtain education because of the fear that LITERACY would lead to a rebellion. 

Just in March the government threatened to ABOLISH the department of education, approximately 83% of “American” kids attend public school.

That’s why when they talk about dismantling the federal department of education, we have to step it up and teach our kids. Even if you don’t take the traditional route in life, ya might wanna know how to read. Read a book, study the laws, read the room, read in between the lines… Teach them that when the media was controlled all we had left to do was read. And if I say read one more time take a shot.

I remember joining a youth reading program years ago. We read “To Kill a Mockingbird” Thank you, Denise.

“It makes people  uncomfortable.”

Good. It’s supposedddd to! To Kill a Mockingbird is a pro civil rights novel. I’ve read it more times than I can count. Harper Lee captured small town life through the eyes of Scout a child whose innocence lets us see the beauty and brutality of the South in the 1930s.

Atticus Finch an attorney defends Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of assault. He does everything right and still loses. That’s the power of the story it shows how racism runs so deep it can make justice impossible, even in the hands of good people.

It was published  in 1960 three years before Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, it’s one of the most honest mirrors of America we’ve ever had.

Racial inequality. Anti-Feminism. Civil rights. Civil injustice. It’s all there.

Working with magazines and newspapers gave me a clearer understanding of why certain books are being removed. You’ve got to do things the good ole American way otherwise, they won’t like it. They’ll edit you, like they’ve tried to edit me. But THIS is OURS, and it’s not for sale.

 I won Best of the Bronx Blog, it wasn’t because I’m in my Kanye era.

It was because my followers actually read.

I’ve tried joining creator campaigns, making little TikToks, doing the trendy thing but at the end of the day, I rather write. We need readers, we need authors, we need writers.  

Because when we silence stories, when we stop reading and writing, we’re doing exactly what they want us to do. 

I was slightly broken when someone described my perfect future, then told me my dream was so perfect it would make the world better, even people happier and that’s exactly why it would never happen.

But I remembered this quote:
“The moment after you take a leap of faith is the scariest moment. You don’t know if it’ll work out. But if you don’t risk it, you might never live life.”

I’m willing to teach you motherfuckers the importance of reading, compassion, empathy and love.