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The Secret Library
Through Hear Our Voices Tours, I was able to read an advance copy of The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon. Eleven-year-old Dally’s journey through her family’s secrets, as well as her own discovery of who she is and the choices she makes for the person she wants to become, inspired this playlist. It’s quiet and… Continue reading
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Hear Our Voices book tour stop: My Teacher Has Tattoos
My Teacher Has Tattoos by Darren López is a children’s book based on the author’s own experience as a first-year teacher in Washington D.C. In the book, beautifully illustrated by Bhagya Madanasinghe, a student named Xavier has questions when he notices that his new teacher, Mr. Mendoza, has tattoos. His confusion stems from the fact… Continue reading
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becoming
i grew up in a household that focused on assimilation. while we ate filipino food and had a handful of customs, these were mostly viewed as something inferior, something we only did at home, something never to be shared, because it wasn’t good enough. we never learned our native language because it wasn’t deemed necessary.… Continue reading
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“you suddenly complete me”
I’d forgotten about the song “Hysteric” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, from the album “It’s Blitz!” When I was first listening to that album over a decade or so ago, the song that I kept replaying over and over was “Soft Shock”. “Hysteric” would come on later in the album, and I would definitely sit up… Continue reading
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new year, more grace.
it’s New Year’s Day, a day when many become motivated to make promises they can’t keep. over the years, i’ve promised to keep up daily workout routines and writing practices. more recently, i’ve learned to give myself more grace. to be okay with my imperfections and incompletions. to do what my mind and body allow… Continue reading
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have an okay day.
something i always want to do is to wish people an okay day. i realize, though, that how it would land would likely be different from how i would mean it. i imagine one would be curious as to why i would only want someone to have an okay day, as opposed to a great… Continue reading
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body
i am arriving, and parts of me are still emerging. this body is new. this body does not bear marks of desperation. this body glows, it melts, it creates rhythms. this body takes missteps but is not its mistakes. this body forgives me. this body makes memories but does not get stuck in the past.… Continue reading
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down time
I have a million things to do so of course I spent too much time in bed deleting hundreds of photos from my phone. What I noticed the most this time, as I was scrolling through the years, were all the sleepless nights and early mornings, every holiday, every weekend day and night, when I… Continue reading
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Last May, I drove out to see my mom for the first time since the pandemic started.
Last May, I drove out to see my mom for the first time since the pandemic started. I ended up (as I often did at her house) in the basement, going through old books and yearbooks and photo albums. Mostly, I look for my old baby pictures (there is one particular album that I haven’t… Continue reading
About Me
musings and imaginings of what we could become. what kinds of communities could we create? what kinds of schools could we build? what kinds of relationships could we grow? we don’t have to live this way. we could become something different.
becoming 