Back in September 2019, I was sitting in Jardin du Luxembourg and my amazing creative friend @yonitalkstv caught me lost in the beauty of the first touch of fall. The foliage of the leaves 🍁 with hues of oranges and yellow surrounding me, while flowers were still blooming, despite the crisp air. I missed the transitions of seasons. I often daydreamed ☁️ as a child, always staring at the bedroom wall;watching the stars at night. Sitting in fresh cut grass on our perfectly manicured lawn, staring into the clouds ☁️. Now that I am adult, I know when I gaze I’m in admiration, surprise or deep thought. In this moment I was having a vision. Pioneering, like my ancestors I saw a better life. A place where I could feel safe as a BLACK WOMAN. A new beginning. Escaping the trauma and triggers of systemic racism in America. The more I researched, I realized that so many of my ancestors did it, Nina Simone, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Zora Neal Hurston, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, Eartha Kitt, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington and the list continues. Many African Americas left America for to spend extended time in France. Why? Freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom of ideas, and freedom to create ! To be celebrated and recognized for their amazing contributions. We all want to be free. Free of the mental enslavement. Free or the constant negative rhetoric around black people in the media. Free of fear that I could be gunned down by for saying the wrong thing or being in the wrong neighborhood. I slowly started to realize in this moment the struggle many of my ancestors faced when spending time abroad away from America. How could I feel more welcomed and at home in a foreign land, yet feel like a foreigner in my own damn country. How can I go back? (at Jardin du Luxembourg) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBi4WRDhdPf/?igshid=97q6nflpe5cu
