Poetry is such a sacred space, dontcha think? I've been writing poetry since I was a little girl. I was raised by my mother, an English teacher. She had me reading Maya Angelou in the third grade, so believe me when I say, it's in my blood. Another unavoidable truth within, is my blackness. I am a black woman born and raised in America. I have fallen in love, black. I have struggled, black. I have grown up, black. This book of poems is the representation of that.