Time to say Sayonara, NYC. Im leaving on a jet plane, Ghana-bound.......... Hi yall, Im saying goodbye to NYC. On December 30th, I am picking up to move and live in Accra, Ghana. Yall know my fam is from Ghana. I am excited to make this big move and for this next stage of my life. I will be teaching journalism, I will continue to host my weekly syndicated radio show, The Spin, from Accra and via NPR in NYC, and I will continue my emotional justice work. I also have some new exciting projects. How to say goodbye? Never been good with those. I have met, worked with, become friends with, laughed with, loved, created community with so many amazing people. It has been a phenomenal 8 years. I first came in 2006, I created a show that recorded in NYC and broadcast in London. It was horrible. I hated it. But I learned from it. I had written my first book, I did my first dramatized readings. I closed that show. I started working with WBAI, I created a literature radio show, Off the Page, I went on to host WBAIs morning show, Wake Up Call. I created the All Women Media Panel which brought together an intellectually brilliant community that continues to this day, and that I am so grateful for. At WBAI, I met and worked with amazing folk who I so respect and had fun with: Sharan Louise Harper, Ifé Dancy, Jennifer Sindab Nā Ta Lē Desirée Desi K. Robinson Michael G, Reggie Johnson Andrea Rose Clarke and so many more. I fell in love and was in a relationship with Greg Tate, I wrote my first play - I went on to write four plays. I got to see each of my plays produced on a New York and a Chicago stage because of the amazing Voza Rivers, Debra Ann Byrd Trazana Beverley. Through theater, I met Beverley Prentice, dancer, actress and who would become one of my dearest friends here, my sister. Bev would get married and her husband, Randy Thomas, became my brother - Ive had so much fun and love and friendship with and from them. I met and got the chance to work with the most amazing playwrights through the one and only Sandra A. Daley-Sharif - damn Dennis A. Allen II, Joslyn Housley Mc Laughlin, Micah Gaugh James and all of us who worked so, so hard and wrote and lovingly critiqued one another and got to see one anothers work - such a special year. I created Emotional Justice, my seasons of conversations - live and on air - brought me to work with and to create community with so many of you, I wrote articles, did keynotes, created panels and creative campaigns - this is one of the most important pieces of my work and I continue with it. I became a commentator on TV and got to meet and work with great folk at GRITtv and MSNBC. I fell in love again and was in relationship with Eric Harris. I got to be with Mama Armah back in NYC for the first time since Kennedy was president, my dear, dear London friends Debbie Robinson, Joy Francis, Philomena Francis came and stayed and played in NYC. I met and created work and community with the Pleasure Ninjas - how fly was Cali! - Brittney Cooper Kaila Afrekete Story Treva B Lindsey, and later met and became friends and worked with my Ghana Ninja sis Yaa Yaa. I was laid off from WBAI, I expanded the 30 minute all women media panel and created a whole show The Spin - which will continue. How do you capture so many special moments and people and work and vision and relationship and community on a post? I came to build, to create community, to make friends, to fall in love, to expand the global spaces I do journalism, to build Emotional Justice. It was always my dream to live and work in NYC. Dream fulfilled. xoxoxo
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:38:19 +0000
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