January was the month to plan for a vacation. Spring would soon come and as the rising sun shown on each day the vacation in the view of daydreamers was only months away. The sounds of rustling through the closet and the frustration of picking out vacation clothes came with the excitement of knowing that […]

Living in the Midwest has exposed me to harsh realities. It is the place I was told at age 13 to go back to my own people, it’s a place of a binary narrative and a place where I think about injustice every day. It’s the place where class after class of Black History made […]

For many centuries white privilege has allowed white people to feel entitled to police the reactions and words of People of Color. We are told to be quiet, have no opinions and don’t speak passionately about our dislikes. The truth is anytime we speak out against white structures and systems, we face backlash from white […]

The sounds of the ukulele playing and the birds singing, my mind misses you more than anything. The more I learn, the more I miss you. I get anxiety listening to the music with native tongues. . .my language, the language of Kānaka ‘Ōiwi, the language of my heart. I listen to the moʻolelo and […]

Excuse us, can you hear us or are we screaming silently while you’ve been trying to quiet us. . . wait, you don’t even acknowledge us. . .never allowing us to break free or tell the story of who we are. Snaring at us, making us a color, race, identity that we are not. Beautiful rainbow, identities that […]

Paradise. . .a mirage of the truth. There is beauty that is held, much more captivating than any photo could bring. . . life to images of those papaya trees, coconut leaves, a place of peace and serenity. . .destruction and despair apparently not many know what actually has been echoing from there. The waves […]

Compassion, even when I can’t cry. . . I never want to live a life where I don’t say what’s on my mind. . .never want to live my life where I didn’t fight for what is right, but so many think I am wrong. . .because they won’t ever fight for the things I […]

Suppressed thoughts. . . Imagination running wild. . . scattered movements, scattered dreams, scattered moments. . . Struggling to find the evidence of something she feels but can’t point out who did it?Was there a time she can’t remember because it’s easier to not confront it. Poison running through her veins, infected by what one […]

Education makes you smarter but it never tells you it makes you angry. You never get to see the shattered dreams of a lineage fighting to hold on to everything while losing a battle with modern society. . .I thought my education would make me proud that it would make me remember the great things […]

S.e.v.e.n.t.e.e.n. years happens. . . days go by seems like all is forgotten. . . There was laughter, smiles as you were swept away from the room. Protected by a warm incubator straight from the comfort of the womb. . . Days, nights. . . Hours, minutes still breeze quietly. . . Too young to […]