Shoot Promos on Race, Class, Gender, Etc

"The reality of truth is not to be bought, to be sold, to be repeated; it cannot be caught in books. It has to be found from moment to moment, in the smile, in the tear, under the dead leaf, in the vagrant thought, in the fullness of love." - Jiddu Krishnamurti I was tasked with having a difficult conversation with a client this week: she was to be given a move out date from our Transitional Program for failure to adhere to our guidelines. When families enter our domestic violence shelter, there's not a lot asked of them. They are expected to work and/or go back to school. If they are not currently working, then they are expected to attend domestic violence classes going over topics like parenting, anger management, and self-empowerment. They are not regular tenants so they are expected to keep their units, 1 bedroom apartments, clean everyday. They are not required to pay rent or utilities but they do have to put money away into a savings account; money put away that the...

"You don't need someone to complete you, you only need someone to accept you completely." - Unknown During my therapy session this week, I shared how I spent my week off conducting a social experiment embracing my independence without people pleasing. What did that look like and how did I show up for myself? How did it feel to curate my own itinerary, to only do the activities that I wanted to do, and to create peak experiences? Every decision was made out of desire. Big decisions like what hotel I was going to stay at, where I was going to sit for the Silk Sonic concert, and what night I was going to visit Partage for the tasting menu experience. To the minute decisions like what times I was going to utilize the hotel gym and pool, which ended up being the earlier the better before both places got too crowded. Anxiety attack aside (read last week's blog detailing that), the result was that I felt a sense of validation once I acknowledged that I accomplished everythi...

"In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone." - Carson McCullers "Self-actualized people also tend to be independent and resourceful: they are less likely to rely upon external authorities to direct their lives." - Martela & Pessi, 2018 This past week was the first vacation I've taken since I began working in Domestic Violence and my first vacation since April 2018, when I went to New Orleans for WrestleMania 34 with my best friend Lexi at the time. This was long overdue, having long since past the point of burn out from work and the PTSD of being a frontline worker during a pandemic. There was always a reason to delay my break. Colleagues who took their vacations and the struggles to find coverage for those missing shifts. Several colleagues who left the organization to pursue other opportunities, whe...

"Maybe he's found the answer to all the April snow" - Prince, Sometimes it Snows in April The following portrait was inspired by album covers from two of my favorite artists, Prince's 1986 album Parade and David Bowie's 1977 album Heroes . They were two prolific genre defying singer-songwriters who constantly reinvented themselves and pushed the boundaries of gender image and sexuality. As a music nerd, I like to create debate topics like: if you measure the body of work in both quantity and quality, which artist had the greatest decade of music? Some of my qualifications: do they have 3 or 4 widely considered classic albums and several songs from that era that have stood the test of time? While Michael Jackson is synonymous with the 1980's like no other pop star, he technically only released 2 solo albums ( Thriller in 1982 and Bad in 1987). Is that enough quantity to stack that up against every other artist and decade? For me, David Bowie in the 1970'...