Category: Black

I am proud of me. I sit back and see all that has come from the last four years of college, and I want to take a moment to congratulate me. In the following haiku I will write for me, I will likely be vague, speak in grandiose and soothing metaphors, but I will understand me – and that is enough.

Continue reading “Because You Are Great: A Thank You Letter To Myself”

Black, like BLACK, but also black, and blk.

Black- (n) to live and love in your most sincerest form

Dr. LaWanda Simpkins is the University of Mary Washington’s Post-Doctoral Fellow in Civil Rights and Social Justice. This Spring 2019 semester, she is wrapping up with her fellowship and thus her time at UMW. It is very sad to see a great Black professor leave UMW, my soon to be alma mater. I’m honored to have known her during her three years at the University. I remember first seeing her at the James Farmer Multicultural Center, and being beside myself that I was looking at a Black woman professor. So naturally, I ran up on her and talked her ear off about race, class, gender, transnationalism, and more. Later on when I brought up our first interaction, Dr. Simpkins noted how I was wanting to ask all the questions I had ever wanted to ask another Black woman in academia, but had never gotten the opportunity to do. 

Continue reading “& Black & Scholar & Mother: A Profile of Dr. LaWanda Simpkins”