We hope this Wednesday finds you well. I love Nikki's words above. I used to have this poem pasted on a wall in my room. Needed to hear it again today. This week, I am so grateful for one of my godmothers, Mama Nia. I participated in one of their kitchen conversations, bringing together the worlds of medicine and art. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it.
I'll be going to the showing below on the 6th of May but it will be going on throughout that weekend.
We're sharing a recent video, and photos that we displayed during our wedding reception last month.
More to come! If you're around next Friday 5/5, for the May Full Moon, please reach out by email or text - we're going to the BEACH!
Be with you soon,
N
In the early years of our relationship, we went on a ton of walks...through Harlem, through South Jamaica, just throughout the city. John snapped this picture on a moment's notice, only to find Nzingha doing something she never does, smiling. This is us on Rockaway Beach. We took a long bus ride from South Jamaica to the Rockaways. John's wearing an Afro Cuban, Afro Ricans shirt and Nzingha has on a pair of earrings that she got in Athens with her mother. We're siitting on a blue and white cloth with lots of snackies.Now, we're in Cape May, Nzingha is wearing a light blue scarf. John and Nzingha are standing in front of an hydrangea bush. This was one of our first trips together. This is a section of Cape May with the old Victorian houses. Cape May was also home to a very large African-American community that fell victim to displacement.While we haven't found as much time to paint in the last two years, we've organized paint parties together and John is low-key an amazing artist. Here's a shot of one of our early soaks with friends and family. The babies in this shot I think are in kindergarten now.Nzingha in a white dress, and a quilted bag she got in Hobart NY. She stands here on a street in Lisbon looking back at John as snaps the shot. Here we are at a palatial garden in Sintra, Portugal. Architecture by the Moors filled the garden in the form of temples, and other structures. Isn't this tree divine?This is the whole crew that went with us biking with Mama Nonkululeko by the Hudson River. This was a celebratory bike tour for Mama Nonkululeko birthday.KissiesChristmas Dinner, 2020. This was one of Nzingha's first holidays with John's family. She'd found all these recipes on a PBS special, and we made so many dishes together with Mama Sheila. One of her favorites were the pistachio-topped, chocolate covered pears. Yes!!A shot by John of Nzingha and Nefertiti sitting on a beach in Florida. This was a few days before Nzingha & Nefertiti's dad made transition.Minneapolis Fam! We had a good time. Our first apartment together, in one of its many iterations. We'd been searching for apartments and this was one of the last apartments that the agent had a listing for. We came up to the Bronx that day on a whim, not really thinking this would wind up being our home for the next two years.John taking a moment to adjust the seat on Danni's bike on one of our rides along the Hudson River.Beautiful smiles, beautiful people - John with his Aunt Cory in San Diego, CA.Zing in a pair of white socks and lavender shirt sitting on the fire escape outside their apartment. The New York Balcony.John, Eugene & Nora, and Nzingha and Nefertiti out for a day of peach and nectarine picking.One of John's favorite pictures. This shot, if you can believe it, is from the very first day John and Nzingha met. It's taken in Central Park, near 74th Street.A shot of John by Nzingha on a first date in April 2018 at the museum within the CloistersASE: A Sister's Eve - Walk, cider, , games, and kiki together. Khalya and Keith, Nzingha and John, Shukrani, Shtira & Kori, Glenda & Zuri, Nefertari & Martini, Danni, and Afriyie came out with so much joy and laughter to celebrate Nzingha on her recent brithday this past January.A recent shot of John working for a client in Brooklyn. John is an incredible builder, very much focused on design and follow-through.Yup, John's an artist and also fascinated with trains. This is the one picture that Nzingha had up on her profile. At least, that 's what she remembers. John says only books and quotations were on her page, and one of Nzingha's poems called, beauty be sweet. That's all. John liked one of these photos, which led Nzingha to check John's page out. John had a picture of a bike he built and that began a long conversation about riding, and biking, and in a sense that's what Nzingha and John, are on, a very long ride, God Willing.
