I grew up with my ears pierced to the radio listening to the reenactment of Sir Lionel Luckhoo’s, the famed criminal trial lawyer, cases. I shared the same sentiments with my peers vowing to become magistrates. There was nothing like a good juicy murder with all the machinations to preside over. That somehow conflicted with my love for the arts – something that was woven into my architecture.
Unfortunately, my family and I did not see eye to eye with such a pursuit. And though ballet, pianoforte, and track and field were a big part of my adolescence, they were chalked up as mere hobbies. To them, a respectable living was achieved through academics. As a result, I was never really committed to corporate work. With bouts of ennui, I stood on the cuspid, barely holding down a job for more than three years before finding an excuse to quit so I could pursue yet another creative venture. From figure skating to millinery, to running a clothing import business to designing period costumes… each venture fueled my creative spirit but yet none fully satisfied my deepest desire which until recent years, I had not a clue what that might me.
While I was passionate about justice, I did nothing with my criminal justice degree as my corporate career began and ended in IT. I also realized that had I gone to law school and become a trial lawyer, I would accrue fines longer than the great wall of China, jailed and possibly disbarred just because… I had things to say…
Then, on a very normal day in my frustration castigating the two justice systems in the U.S., and the fallacious rhetoric corporate media promulgate about Black people, my mind was illuminated… that it would be up to me to create my own Black superheroes and heroines — without the Disney ending (wink, wink). I was faced with the daunting question, could I even write? I answered that by eviscerating any energy needed to undertake such a task. But it kept tugging at the hems of my shirt and before I could repudiate my thoughts, words pelted from my head funneling all the creative elements that surged through me into Amma’s Divinity.
So to answer my question, I suppose I can…