Hi Ms. Sherry!!!

I am quite impressed with the breadth of information I have acquired since I started on the path to both mother and woman hood. I have had the wonderful opportunity to:
work my way through school (earning two degrees), have three children, and be self-supporting through all of it. That by no means says that I have accomplished all of this on my own. I had a small, but incredibly consistent team of women who knew it was part of my "real life training" to go through heartaches, disappointments, false starts and plan collapses. What amazes me is how every experience sets the stage for something else that happens in the future.

I went to a Parent Conference, sponsored by the UFT today. I walked right into a childhood friend, parents whose children attended my after-school programs, after-school professionals who took trainings I facilitated or managed and professional mentors and colleagues. It was truly breath-taking for me. I have been struggling with a definition of myself and what I do, how to take all of the skills I have developed and present them in a comprehensive way that makes sense and in which the connections are clearly visible. The only way I have found to do this which is both effective and honest is to label myself, The BlackLove Advocate. Really. This may be for a few reasons.

One of the reasons being that I was not raised in a black neighborhood. I had to actively seek out Black people to identify with them. Culturally, my influences were predominantly Latino and white. I grew up with an incredible mix of "friends" as I understood them, but I rarely felt as though I had an automatic affiliation with any group. I loved the difference and richness of various cultures and always sought to understand or experience a "taste" of a world outside of my own. This passion was only ignited by the many books I devoured. The racial diversity of my classes and teachers did little to herd me into the racially isolated groups teens tend to gravitate toward in high school. I truly felt the "melting pot" aspect of culture rather than the "mixing bowl" reality I eventually chose to submit to.

I always identified ethnically as Black, but when I was around Black people I never quite fit in. This perhaps, may be the reason I delved so deeply into African and Black American history as well as engulfing myself in the throes of Hip-Hop culture. It is true that everyone needs a peer group, particularly during those rough adolescent years. I thought that these needs were being filled by my extended family, however, my personality was a bit too bland for the likes of my kinfolk. What then would someone like myself do? You run from group to cause to association to experience to religion to art to institution in hopes of finding the place and identity that "fits". The result? An unintented consequence of never walking into a room, conference, or neighborhood and not knowing at least 3 people!!!!