Before smartphones and social media and AI and iMacs…

Before robots performing surgeries, before self-driving cars and self-checkout in the grocery stores…

Before algorithms and paid ads predicted how much you are seen…

I saw my self first in the reflection of the clearish water of the small creek nestled behind our low income neighborhood.

And it is within that memory, that I recover and reclaim my ontological weight.

Remembering who I once was and who I will ever be - beyond the pixels and the posts and the poses curated by an unquenchable desire to leave a mark as proof of my existence.

Before all of those things, I am me. The girl turned woman who could get lost in worlds I created with only my imagination and mere words on paper pages untethered from the world wide web of digital machinations.

And I am from a place that the digital divide left behind before it even began.

I am from picking, washing, and cooking collard greens in sticky, Southern summer-time heat

I am from hand-me-downs and reduced rate lunches since Momma couldn’t make ends meet

I am from small church revivals and people catching the Spirit as we sang lined hymns

I am from a Trinity of Black women who live and move and have their being in the crucified Christ

I am from Alice Walker, Katie Cannon, and Emilie Townes to name a few

I am from Martin Luther King, Du Bois, Angela Davis, and Ella Baker too

I am going to write myself free so that I can free others too

I am going to preach and preach and preach some more

I am going to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God

I am going to get to heaven and I’m taking everybody with me

I AM SIMPLY BECAUSE WE ARE.