What does it mean? Tribe? Have I found mine? Have I found several? Have I always belonged? One told me my skin, along a continuum of brown was beautiful. My Black is Beautiful.
Another tells me that lakay means home and Aux Cayes bears almost forgotten, almost sanded off imprints of my DNA.
Attached myself to a tribe of people who call themselves Greats and to another who picked up the Pen and put the Fears down.
So many names I have gone by:
Great, Black, Brown-Skinned, Haitian, American, Haitian-American, Writer, African-American, Christian, Woman, Wife, Sister, Natural.
I am a member. I fell in. I joined. I paid. I listened. I spoke up. I have shouted. I have risen. I have sat down. I have dreamed. I have cowered. I have fallen down. I have kneeled with purpose. I have prayed. I have cursed. I have written.
I was born.
Within this tribe, these tribes, I am human. I have found my humanity and I find myself extending my hand to touch yours.
Kristina Hamlett writes to connect, heal, and be a force for change. 