Home.Girl.Hood.

Initially, when I first wrote Home.Girl.Hood., I reached out to Button for publishing, but they were backed up & gave me a timeline release I was too impatient for. So it was originally released by a different publisher with a different (equally beautiful) book cover. Fast-forward five years later and I’m still holding this baby like it’s brand new or my first born. Home.Girl.Hood. is young, fun, & developing. These poems, “do it for the culture,” talks sh*t and be unapologetic. I love writing about family, womanhood, and where I come from. This work is meant to grow-up with you and not have all the answers – she just living her life & figuring it out as she goes. Home.Girl.Hood. is a conversation with me talking to my best friend or myself. You’ll find that woman is spelt womxn or womyn in this book. Here’s the tea! I had no idea that was actually a thing, I honestly just wanted to write something w/o man/men or toxic masculine thinking all over it. I also wanted to do a play on the xy-chromosomes & gender bending. Some folks get thrown off by the strong language I chose to use, but this is the proper way to say things in my hood. I’m a person-in-environment, don’t blame me, just know, you’d never make it! (lol) No, but really, Home.Girl.Hood. is complex in the way it reinvents itself and demands folks to sit with the truth. My delivery is clear, intentional, and to the point. It’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions, so if you think something is funny, I’m giving you permission to laugh and if you wanna cry, cry… sometimes, if you really get it, you’ll do both. Thanks to my good buddy, Mike Whalen, Home.Girl.Hood is also a curriculum that meets TEKS & Common Core standards. I promise if you work in any type of inner city school or hood, this body of work is something they’ll be able to relate to. Several poems have been translated into different languages. Link in the bio for this & more. I s/o hella folks in this book, but I want to be sure to thank @buttonpoetry here for publishing their first Black woman poet from the South. I’m so glad we finally got to make this happen. Get your libations ready suga foots! Photocred: @stevens.orozco