I want to denormalize...

I want to denormalize talking to “strangers.” And I say this with the crystalline understanding that to speak to, say, a random person on the street, comes with certain privileges. Not everyone can become acquainted with a perceived stranger for reasons that concern safety, comfortability, and a host of other drawbacks. I mean, if we’re being honest, people are unpredictable and sometimes evil brews within some of us. So what I may be digging at is the chance to grow closer and intimate to more people. I desire a world structured upon love ethics and communion. We should be more familiar with what it is to be human because what are we if we do not have each other?

I want to normalize...

I want to normalize nappy hair. For my entire childhood my parents, siblings, friends, and even strangers would throw wisecracks at me about how my hair felt like a brillo pad (attach a hyperlink to brillo pad…y’all need to feel my pain). It’s time that, as black folk or anyone with nappy hair, that we let nappy be nappy!

Jaylen Strong is...

Jaylen Strong (@jaylentstrong) is a seeker, a body that breathes, a companion to truth, and an arbitrator of love. His practice blooms from his fascination with his profound awareness of human connectivity. He hails from P.G. County, Maryland and has resubmerged himself in his familial origins here in Brooklyn, New York. He is a writer.