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“Your punishment is to read the Encyclopedia of Black history. THIS is what the schools will never teach you and I wont make it their job to do so. I will take responsibility as your father to do so. And so he did. Each week as he arrived home from driving across country, he always made time for me. What started out as a punishment became time, learning time, questioning time, relationship time, debate time, and yes-daddy/daughter time. It was amazing! He planted a seed that so many others watered, and now I watch God provide the increase. From this experience, I learned power, power structures, words, both silent and visible words, words and their power, how power operates, who has power and when, systems, but most importantly, I later realized I learned that I had a shared responsibility in relation to my knowledge and power. A responsibility, birthed in my purpose to the people. Angeline- - heavenly messenger; one who uses her voice to speak, to speak up, to speak out, to speak alongside of, and to speak on behalf of. This has been my life-always on the side of the underdog!

As an unapologetic, Black female disruptor, local and national organizer/activist, and scholar, I possess a strong disdain for ‘plantation’ politics and systems, and those who fuel the fire with their rhetoric while most times serving intentionally as oppressive predators themselves. Those who mask themselves as gate openers, but once the mask is removed, they are no more than gate keepers sent to maintain the status quo.

My focus here in this fellowship is to reflect upon my life as a means of identity and the metamorphic process of transformation while finishing my doctorate. My primary focus as a doctoral candidate is examining colonial plantation frameworks, both economic and pedagogical, their existence in today’s systems, and how their intentional and predatory nature foster new methods of enslavement. My Oppression/Plantation Paradigm© (OPP-Other People’s Property) model outlines components of the “slave creation” process not only structurally and institutionally, but also systematically and systemically. It addresses racism and internalized racism from a physiological and psychological aspect in congruence with the political economy of the Black body.

This opportunity to partner with Herstory, Stonybrook University, and the Coalition for Community Writing is not only a space to learn from one another, but also important to me as it is a space that situates storytelling as culturally relevant, responsible, conscious, a gift, and necessary. I see Herstory as a method that holds power and aids in dismantling the danger(s) of a one-sided story that frequently subjugates and “others.” It is a tool that opens avenues for others to use their voice to impact change and healing while addressing how inclusion often excludes and how justice comes with a cost for some-a cost which includes enslavement in its various forms. I hope to use this training as a shared gift with those who I have worked with in the various systems (education, health, police, penal, etc.) and communities, one that leads us all on a journey to not just being free, but free indeed.