A Late Summer Update

I’m writing this blog post a month nearly two months after mourning the demise of my would-be VONA experience. I wrote that post without knowing that my instructor, Faith Adiele would decide to turn lemons into mangos (my favorite and arguably the best fruit) by curating an experience for those of us in the VONA ghost class. I can’t say enough how grateful I’ll always be that she did.

I got to meet my fellow writers for five beautiful mornings to invest in ourselves and focus on the present and futures of our writing. After nearly a year and a half of mandatory Zooms for work, optional, but what else were you going to do, Zooms for happy hours, birthdays, and other occasions I was worried for a split second that this Zoom might feel draining. The first morning dispelled that silly fear when after just a few minutes we decided to do the damn thing and be present.

I woke up each morning excited to spend time with my fellow writers, proud of myself that I was honoring myself in this way, and grateful to Faith for her perseverance and to my fellow writers for their magnanimity and the gifts of their words and participation.

Through this unique workshop experience, I observed and experienced what being a good literary citizen looks like. It looks like Faith gifting us with an experience to participate in a dream turned reality for many of us despite the negativity that necessitated it.

I experienced it from Faith’s friend Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström who gave us all the tea and wisdom on how she approaches storytelling and narrative broadening. Her debut novel “In Every Mirror She’s Black” is out on September 7th. I preordered while she was talking to her class and Bookshop delivered it last week! I can’t wait to dig in.

I observed it again from Bani Amor’s willingness to also teach a lesson and then when life changed those plans, followed up to reschedule with our cohort and also generously shared their time. Check out their upcoming Decolonizing Travel Culture at Atlas Obscura.

This experience has once again reminded me that when institutions fail us, we have to rely on individuals and specifically the trust and love that we cultivate with these individuals. After this experience I keep trying to ask myself, how do I show up for my growing writer community and how can I keep showing up for myself?

I haven’t made as much progress on my bookish resolutions (a post for another day), but I’m proud and more importantly thankful for the moments where my intention has been rewarded.

Here’s to prioritizing more experiences that bring me closer to my dreams.