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I was tagged on this on Instagram. I know @aka Contrarian has been around long enough to "get" this message from one former poster to another. "deeshaphilyaw" went on to become a critically acclaimed writer nominated for a National Book Award in 2020 for her collection of short stories, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. The last time I saw Deesha was in November at the 2024 awards ceremony. I never did meet Yvette in real life. From the 'Gram: deeshaphilyaw 17h My dear friend Yvette Perry, PhD is a wonder. In addition to her work in academia, her roles at the @thegoodlisteningproject as the health equity programs lead and a member of the co-founding team, and her adventures as an art collector, Yvette is also an artist in her own right. Recently, I became the beneficiary of her creativity, brilliance, and generosity. She sent me this “junk journal” she made for me, and listen, y’all…the tears I cried as I thumbed through it OMG. It’s beautiful. It’s detailed. It’s thoughtful. It’s smart. It’s funny. And so, so sweet. It took everything I could not to post pictures of every lovingly made page. There are vintage ads, TV scripts, book excerpts, and so much more. Tucked in some of the pages are little surprises, like a gorgeous photo of Miami that Yvette took; for a too-brief time, we both lived in Miami, which is where I live now.

There are also blank pages to write on. I’m still trying to decide which thoughts and ideas of mine are worthy. Yvette’s note on the envelope references both my short story collection (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and my forthcoming novel (The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman). Very fitting given that our friendship spans the 20 years during which I wrote these books. Like so many of my friendships, ours started online (shout out to the early 2000s @aalbc message boards). And while Yvette and I haven’t seen each other in person nearly as much as we would like, I’ve always considered her friendship a treasure.

Along with the journal, Yvette also sent me a collage she made (see the next to last slide here). Eagle eyes will see that the text to the right of the church ladies is from my short story, “Jael.” Yvette gives the details of the collage on the last slide. I am thankful for my #goodartfriend!

POTUS OJ has been given the mandate to hyper-nationalize the US. The current agenda is to move away from business as usual with the US being the world 1) police and 2) bank. The current administration is trying to 1) force countries to pull their own weight and 2) give more power to the states. The other party is not totally opposed to this direction. Two sides of the same coin. @richardmurray, excellent analysis of the current political situation.👏🏿😎

There are engravings of creatures with the heads of birds in the body of men. That does not mean that those creatures existed. People create images of horses with wings doesn’t mean they’re flying horses as somebody wants to believe something, anything can be twisted into proof… it’s human nature to see what you wanna see even if it flies in the face of science defies logic, or is just dumb. 🥺