ThatTimeJuls...

I want to tell you a story about love. I’ll let you know ahead of the time that the girl doesn’t get the guy (or vise versa). We don’t decide to just be friends. However, there is an epic ending but not in the sense that you may be thinking. When I was seven I went to church with very few people that looked like me as far as ethnicity was concerned. There was, however, one family and their son was just a couple years older than me. He wasn’t the cutest guy, or the most talkative but he was magnetic. I was drawn to him (yes at seven) and I knew that I loved him. I never professed my love but I did tell him that I liked him. He told me he didn’t like me back because I couldn’t beatbox. I told him beatboxing was dumb (only after my failed attempt to try it) and I moved on with my seven-year-old life. Our church later moved into a new building and his family didn’t move with us to the new location. If you read my previous blog then you know middle school and high school was go...

Do you remember what it felt like when you had your first crush or when you found out that someone was crushing on you ? I remember my first crush. I really just thought he was the coolest kid in third grade. Unfortunately, I was shut down cause he didn’t like girls with allergies (I just laughed to myself) I was consumed with all the allergies. What did we know as kids about liking boys or girls? Little did I know my day was coming. Middle school changed the game for me. I was still riddled with allergies but I was in the band. While the movie “American Pie,” made the band seem corny and extra lame. New Orleans let you know the band was life (and still is)! Okay, so, I was only tangentially cool but I was cute. At this stage in my life when I had a crush they crushed back and as a result, I got my first mixtape. I know I’m aging myself by saying tape but CD players hadn’t been out very long so recording a CD was out of the question. Not to mention tapes were easy to access. ...

I am a lover of “Black 90’s Love Stories.” My favorite is Love Jones . I love the artistry, the weaving and intermingling of lives met at random. I am a sucker for 90’s R&B, the “baby making” music, the stories of love lost and of course the songs of one finding themselves after dodging the bullet of bad love. I lived in those words and in those spaces of love stories created for the culture. Black buster classics are where I began to identify my blackness. I have recently been watching “Love Is…” (on the Own network). I am brought back to the girl that I wanted to become, the imagery of how I wanted my identity shaped. The story is so beautifully written it reminds me of how simple love is yet it’s so complex. The tapestry and fabric of love are defined so differently for everyone that when weaving these delicate yet luxurious hearts (and lives) together we have to remember to be patient. There are some areas that seamlessly come together but there are other areas that ...