I am a poet.

I write and make films about…

Black, brown, yellow, tan and red people
Rainbow lies and sunshine
Faith and fear
Flesh and bone
Life in the shadow of death
The bread of prosperity and
The crumbs of poverty
Love, pain, shame, and joy
Inherent prejudice / innate compassion
The power of the oppressed / the freedom to be
Underdog champions
The brave / the bold beings
The forgotten and remembered
I give birth to characters that fight on their feet
On bended knee or their backs
Who speak in dialects, languages and tongues
With the spirit of a shero, a hero or regular Joe
Who rise from ashes / the gutter or ghetto
To find beauty

I create worlds with
Re-imagined realities / possibilities
Ripe with raw honesty
Uncomfortable truths
Begging for answers to problems
We all bury within our hearts
But find them in our shared souls
Our commonalities / our wonderful differences

I tell stories that unite / make us cry
And make us wonder why not

I am most proud of a blank page that I can make sing
I am excited about the imaginations of young people
I have walked as a docent in the wilderness of struggle
Was fed by ravens when I was homeless
Sipped tea from brooks and rivers with other starving artists
Where we hid in the cleft of the rock until it was time

A loss is just a win turned inside out
You can choose to be a warrior or a worrier
Adversity is a necessity / a coefficient in the formula
for success / do the math / live long and multiply

When you are built to win you never worry
So be anxious for nothing except the sun