A Celebration of Life...

Hey everyone, I hope that you all have been well. It’s been a while since I’ve last given you all an update…right ? Well, so much stuff has been happening in my life that I actually haven’t had time to just sit down and collect my thoughts. Today, I want to talk to you guys about a celebration of life. Yes, my life, and yours, we deserve to celebrate it and be happy about how far we’ve come. As you all know Juneteenth was just a little over 16 days ago and the fourth of July was 2 days ago. Now that I have you all here let me say this, I do not celebrate the fourth of July as a holiday. That is not my independence-day and I don’t honor that day as such. My independence-day is June 19th, that was that day that the last of my enslaved ancestors in Texas found out the war was over and that we won our freedom. The gag is that it was a whole two years later when they did find out. Even though I do not celebrate the fourth of July on both June 19th, and July 4th, I had the chance to celebrate my life and my families.

We are going to start off with Juneteenth, which was almost 3 weeks ago. Juneteenth was a vibe that had you feeling empowered all day. As the day begun, it was actually pretty hectic; the day before I had got my very first custom order to create some bell bottom pants for a friend of mine who had a shoot. Well we can just say that I slayed those pants I created, and my friend loved them. After I dropped off the pants me and my best friend went to a protest that was happening right down the street. It may have been our independence-day but the fight for our right to live has not ended yet. We are still putting up our fist and fighting for a change to happen within our community.

As me and my best-friend protested and sang the chants that spoke of our freedom, there was an empowering feeling that shoots through your body. Being out on the front lines fighting on the street with the people to gain our right to be able to live without fear of being slaughtered. You start to feel a power within yourself that makes you want to create the change we want to see. Not only you but the entire community is raising their voice to fight. Once you see that you aren’t alone it makes you want to go harder and that’s what we did. We stayed in downtown D.C. for half the day protesting.

It wasn’t until a little while later that I ended up back at home, but this time there was a cookout in progress. My mother had decided to host a Juneteenth cookout, and when I say that there was a lot of food, you guys the food was amazing. My best friend had come over to celebrate with us! The energy in the house was sol empowering, being able to be around so many great black minds it makes me happy. If you all didn’t know this was my very first Juneteenth celebration, I have never had the chance to actually celebrate it. So, for this to be my very first celebration, this was something I had to make sure that I share. The empowering feeling, I felt was one like no other. To be able to finally celebrate a holiday that is about the empowerment of black history, and to celebrate the freedom of black people made me feel a power like no other.

Now let’s, fast forward about 15 or so days to July 4th, everyone knows that that is called independence-day for the white man who freed from Great Britain but still had enslaved people. So, in the end whose independence-day is it really, when all people on this land weren’t free at the time? If you all didn’t know because you haven’t been reading my blog long, but I am a part of the Royal House of LaBeija and our family day this year fell on July 4th. Now can you understand…yeah, I felt a little awkward too but then I had to realize this isn’t about Independence Day, this is about family. This is about being able to show up for family when you’re needed the most.

If you are a part of the LGBTQA+ community, or ballroom community, or maybe your cis and not a part of any of this, and if you just so happen to fall under the category of homophobia or transphobia then you can you please exit stage left. I have no time for ignorance or negative energy within my space. As a proud Black Bi-Sexual Woman I am so involved in this community that all the pain that is felt by my brothers and sisters I feel. I know you guys have a social media account whether it may be twitter, Instagram, or snapchat. Whatever the case maybe, I am positive that you are all aware of the horrific state our black trans community is in.

It seems as though that every day there is a new hashtag out for a trans woman who has had their life taken without any reason. Well…we all know the reason, it’s the same reason that we as black people are continuously being led to the slaughter like pigs. Hate is a very strong drug that can lead you to do the most heinous things. It breaks my heart every time I see those post because it could’ve been one of my sisters or brothers, it could have been someone from my family, or one of my friends. So, I want you all to understand when we say Black Trans Lives Matter it’s not to diminish the movement but to point out to other who clearly don’t know that when we say Black Lives Matter that includes trans lives as well.

As we get back to family day, me, Nafi, and Trisha, along with her girlfriend decided to drive to New York. We hit the road early on Saturday to make sure we were able to beat traffic. We actually made it to the city by 1 in the afternoon. You guys Trisha was driving so you know we got there quick. If you all didn’t know Trisha driving on the highway is different from Trisha driving city speed limits. As I stated earlier, we ended up getting there rather early which was fine with me because that was more time that we could spend with the family.

We finally made it to Father Freddie’s house after having to make it up five flights of steps. Walking up those stairs made me remember the time I spent in Barcelona last year. My friend Rosie and Danica stayed in an apartment on the very top floor of a building with no elevator. Sometimes I think that it’s a great idea not to have one because you are able to exercise every single day, and don’t have to worry too much about your weight.

After making a pit stop at father Freddie’s apartment, we went straight to the roof top. Now let me tell you something…that rooftop was so cute, and the view was everything. The one thing that kept bothering me was just how bright the sunrays were shining down on me. At one point it hurt to open my eyes. If you didn’t know I have very sensitive eyes. I can’t even do my eye make-up without my eyes getting teary. Eventually we had found a spot in the shade that felt like everything. It was in the perfect position, had shade to cover my eyes, the wind blew a nice breeze by every couple of minutes.

Things kept getting better and better as the day went on, I got to see my family who I have been talking about almost every day. If we want to be honest, I miss them a lot being down in D.C. so, being able to be surrounded by the family I’ve been missing was so much fun. I was able to learn some new moves, eat some good food, battle on the runway, and just enjoyed each other’s company.

Just in the past couple of weeks the celebration of life that has been happening around me feels my spirit with so much joy. Being able to celebrate black excellence makes me feel a pride deep inside. To be able to see the unity and the change we are capable of when coming together will always be breath taking. In the end I hope that you had an amazing Juneteenth and were able to honor our ancestors the right way. I do not celebrate the fourth of July, but I will say that family day this year was one I won’t forget.

As always, it’s good to be able to talk to you all. Have you gotten a chance to celebrate life, even if it’s the small wins, make sure you take some time out to celebrate? That’s what going to help you keep pushing forward.