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This book sounds so good: three Brooklyn teens who plot to turn their murdered friend into a major rap star by pretending he's still alive. Can you imagine?!? (📸: @wellreadblackgirl) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5xzxAfAwGs/?igshid=1k40q69e4unay

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I am still reading Women Who Run with the Wolves by @clarissapinkolaestes. More and more it is becoming a book that should be read more than once. As a way to remind yourself the way back to yourself if ever lost. We have the tendency to get lost sometimes. The good news is that a map is already embedded within. It reads, “Art is important for it commemorates the seasons of the soul, or a special or tragic event in the soul’s journey. Art is not just for oneself, not just a marker of one’s own understanding. It is also a map for those who follow after us.” (🎨: @akintayoakintobi) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5nNCyxAa8G/?igshid=1zfoc1k80xys

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This inner work is endless. Forever evolving and moving. Always learning, teaching, unlearning. Repeat. This is called living. This is called trying. Making the effort. Putting in the tiresome gruesome work. Gardening, even if you may not harvest right away. THE season will arrive eventually. 🌚 https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Y_jq_AuE_/?igshid=1alwgetbyykm

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A very diverse collection of books for a young reader, if I’d say so myself 🙃 https://www.instagram.com/p/B5VyUtwgRtU/?igshid=1lz2i5evu2fai

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The sky looks beautiful this morning. In a place that is often cloudy, gray and cold, the little wins must be recognized and celebrated. (🎨: @artist_ria) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5KuSAkAVEO/?igshid=e2p32qimahxs

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I am SOOOO excited about Aravind’s upcoming novel, Amnesty! I was first introduced to his work when I picked up White Tiger and later Selection Day. He is a great writer: funny, smart and makes complex scenes easy to see. His newest novel will be available February 18, 2020. Swipe, swipe! (📸: @simonandschuster) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5FhbJKgNTU/?igshid=5tjoeclckd1p

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@chloe_hilliard is funny and smart. In her upcoming new book, F*ck Your Diet and Other Things My Thighs Tell Me she unpacks her lifelong struggle with weight, America’s relationship with food and how those two connect. She pokes fun at herself and us, as a nation, for teaching our kids to over consume. It is a cycle that must change, yes. She writes, “What changed my life was the realization that my issue with weight wasn’t entirely my fault. I, like most Americans, am the result of the working class who survived on processed foods, fast-food chains, and a lack of education when it came to nutrition and exercise.” And “Only in America would people eat more because they’ve heard about someone else starving. It’s as if we were voodoo dolls and our consumption made it into the bellies of Ethiopians. The fight to end world hunger translates into: ‘Eat your food. There are starving kids in Africa.’” This beauty publishes 1/7/20, a perfect New Year read to decolonize and reestablish your relationship with what you put into your mouth. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4-B-P5gINC/?igshid=1btm6aia29sc0

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Simple. Just the way I like it. (🎨: @andreapippins) https://www.instagram.com/p/B47UTxcgqC_/?igshid=tv2l4cs9v7zg

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“The womb is the gateway of all human life. When the womb is honored and respected, she becomes a channel of power, creativity and beauty — and joy reigns the earth. When her voice goes unheard, unanswered, denied, the womb becomes a vessel of disease... The womb is the birthplace of all our creative abilities.” ✨✨ https://www.instagram.com/p/B45PcTKArnW/?igshid=5s5b6phknhz

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“Each woman has potential access to Río Abajo Río, this river beneath the river. She arrives there through deep meditation, dance, writing, painting, prayermaking, singing, drumming, active imagination or any activity which requires an intense altered consciousness. A woman arrives in this world-between-worlds through yearning and by seeking something she can see just out of the corner of her eye. She arrives there by deeply creative acts, through intentional solitude, and by practice of any of the arts. And even with these well-crafted practices, much of what occurs in this ineffable world remains forever mysterious to us, for it breaks physical laws and rational laws as we know them.” https://www.instagram.com/p/B4zlnMQAdfG/?igshid=4bmsh4vc9u2z

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This has literally been me since I started both Sacred Woman by @queenafua and Women Who Run with the Wolves by @clarissapinkolaestes. I started them both at the same time, reading one during my commute on the train and the other at home after feeding and putting my little one to sleep. I had no idea they’d compliment each other in such an effortless way. Here is to doing the inner work; constantly evolving; forever learning; being alive. (🎨: @bartlettstudio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4x7lf-ARmQ/?igshid=1lvwlbq2xx1qo

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The inner work. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4vf8FigVuM/?igshid=t752v8tgw5ph

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It is so interesting to witness the planet transitioning into a new season. The shift is obvious. The sun and moon show up differently. They adopt different roles. It is very similar to our own internal clock. ⏰ Can you feel your own shift? https://www.instagram.com/p/B4bM7vXgtXp/?igshid=19g1wih5zbbro

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“Our mothers were pregnant two-legs thrown overboard while crossing the ocean on slave ships. We were born breathing water as we did in the womb. We built our homes on the seafloor, unaware of the two-legged dwellers.” Inspired by a song by @clppng titled with the same name, The Deep has me in a trance. I am only 28 pages in! And it allowed me to discover such a great band. So many themes to unpack, so much to explore. So far, it’s turning out to be a great journey. 🧜🏽‍♀️ https://www.instagram.com/p/B4PiTUnFlOI/?igshid=1wkypfyie5k29

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I finished Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat. I genuinely enjoyed it. My favorite story was the last one: a man falling to his death. I read her nonfiction book, The Art of Death, so to see her fiction writing in action on the subject was so much fun. This morning I picked up A Particular Kind of Black Man because I’ve heard only great things about it. I am on page 6 and am like 😧. I get the hype. Who has read Tope Folarin? What’d you think? No spoilers! 🙃 https://www.instagram.com/p/B39gEjYgFDi/?igshid=13ejvcu4wqqx1

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You all have heard her story. Celebrities and the everyday person have been championing for @cyntoiabrownofficial ever since it was discovered that she might serve life in prison for being a victim of sex trafficking. And I got to meet her, hear her discuss her plight. Her book, Free Cyntoia, is out now. The most surprising thing? She was so calm, cool and collected. She laughed and smiled as if she had not been through anything! She said to us, “I don’t wear prison on me.” 👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽 Oh, and she thought I was 22 🙃 https://www.instagram.com/p/B3xvcobAoCW/?igshid=1pclvekrog4vu

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I purchased the documentary on Toni Morrison over the weekend. I can’t remember the last time I purchased a film; with all these streaming options nowadays. But I was looking for something very specific and I wanted the freedom to watch again and again whenever I needed a refill. For the past two days, I’ve been thinking about the documentary: what I learned about her, the intricate ways her life seemed similar to mine, how her narrative seemed to speak directly to me. This snapshot here is literally me. I carry my journals with me everywhere. One for me, one for letters to my daughter. I write in them when I’m on the train or when I’m waiting for one; when I’m on my lunch break; when I’m in a taxi. I remember one day, frustrated, writing: I just want to write and mother. And here was Toni feeling the same thing. Days after watching @tonimorrisonfilm I am still thinking about it. Her. (📸: @tonimorrisonfilm) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3rc355AJjm/?igshid=q89fv7e4cgyc