I create my art as a way to destigmatize my identity as an African American & Latinx female spoken word poet and artist.

The poem I wrote was originally a poem for my English class.

Exploring and expressing my creativity impacts my life by allowing me to show others who I am in an artistic manner.

“Pipes” is a very short flash fiction about a person with OCD that can’t stop washing their hands because they feel like there is disease all over them.

I wanted to write something creative and funny.

I don’t really have a process for art. When I have a thought, I write it out.

Writing either takes me a few days or a few months to complete. Sometimes I get a complete plot thought of and the whole story flows into sentences.

(Not) For Sale is a haunted comedy about what happens when a disgruntled teenage ghost decides that she'll do anything in her power to protect the house she died in, and how her hauntings have affected the poor real estate agent tasked with selling the property.

In the story's world, it's normal for people to be born with wings. There are several 'academies', with the one that Shaye was born at being the most prestigious, that raise a kind of super-soldier, raised from birth for use in the government's military, with those that don't make the cut going to work for private agencies.

Currently, as a writer, I am interested in exploring how our culture’s ideas of “villainy,” passed through literature and other forms of media, impact the way we criminalize and, in turn, dehumanize groups of people based on race, gender, and class.

"The Difference" is a poem I wrote to try and explain my emotions after a time when I made bad decisions, did bad things, and was what most would call a bad person.

The medium of the short story aligned with the feelings of this work. I wanted to convey in a moment, as ordinary as taking the subway, an experience thousands of working-class people have, familial pressures, dreams, and realities.

My piece focuses on acceptance centered around my racial identity.

When I first began writing "Run", it was for my Creative Writing class at school. I didn't know what I was going to write about at first, but I knew I wanted it to be dark and mysterious.

I go out sometimes into the everyday surroundings that I don't pay much attention to and I allow myself to associate words with them. Finding hidden associations and interesting metaphors is interesting to me. It's an odd sense of curiosity that asks me to explore every side of things that I see.

Winters in the bay are filled with quiet breezes and chilly months. The initial idea of my haibun arose during a rainstorm, while I was playing a Chopin nocturne on the piano with this particular coldness on my fingertips. Nocturnes by Chopin are generally expressive and dynamic, representing emotions from wistfulness to rage to sorrow.

This flippant, unconventional how-to fiction piece to not be awkward will be sure to guide you on an interesting journey. As one who is awkward I believe this is a pretty trustworthy source... maybe.

This free verse poem was written for my pure catharsis. I was angry at my friends for a situation none of us could control, and while I still felt like I had a right to be upset, my feeling of guilt was much larger and I questioned how I could even begin to be angry with them.

My piece “illusion” is a free-verse poem about being deceived by someone who is two-faced. When I wrote this poem, there was a person in my life who I found toxic and manipulative, however, everyone around them was unable to see them in the same light.

I am inspired by the natural world around me. I write my best poems when I'm hiking or exploring the woods. My work is influenced by Mary Oliver and Emily Dickinson.