
Afro-Finnishness
For the second summer in a row I went to my mother's homeland of Finland and had my mind blown. This time I was hosted by Ruskeat Tytöt (Brown Girls), the first all-POC media platform in the Nordic region. In Helsinki I was blessed to teach a writing workshop for brown women and non-binary folk, which they tell me was historic, the first of its kind! SahWira Africa International invited me to give a workshop for youth in the historic city of Turku to talk about their experien

Two Writing Workshops, One Deadline (2/19)!
Time to get cracking on your New Year's resolution to write more! Or to support a loved one who has a story. I'm teaching a community-based Meditation & Writing workshop in Oakland Feb 24 & Mar 3. It's generative and appropriate for all levels. And Travel Writing for People of Color this summer in Berkeley. 5 years ago VONA/Voices and I teamed up to launch the nation's 1st writing workshop exclusively for travelers of color! 50+ published articles and 4 partnerships (Away Jou

Give the Gift of Story for the Holidays
#writingworkshop #personalnarrative #newyearnewyou #meditation @anasayoga To register #memoir #writing #workshop #oralhistory #travelwriting #AnasaYoga #familystories #communitystories

Calling Women Writers of All Genres/Experience!
MAY 5-7 I'm teaching at VORTEXT, Hedgebrook’s weekend salon at the famed Whidbey Institute (Whidbey Island, WA). For 3 days, women from around the country do generative writing in small workshops, listen to inspiring keynotes, dine on organic local food, and talk about being a woman writer. Register NOW and Choose from: Use Your Senses to Make Your Writing More Powerful & Persuasive - Faith Adiele Write Your Truth Without Hurting Anyone - Elmaz Abinader The Music of Voice - G

Oakland Magic of Memoir Conference + SF LitCrawl on same weekend!
I'll be speaking on the Why Write Memoir panel Saturday morning and reading with a group of travel writers organized by Travelers' Tales Saturday evening. How do I get myself into these things? #Memoir #Conference #Writing #Literary #TravelWriters #LitQuake #LitCrawl #Reading

June is for brides & writers
After a week in Seattle with my mum, attending the Seattle International Film Fest (SIFF), which is wrapping up a 4-year commitment to African films, checking out the Food section at the iconic Elliott Bay Bookstore, where it's clear that Nordic food is having a moment, and decompressing, I believe I may be ready for JUNE. This weekend I'm presenting at the Bay Area Book Fest, moderating a panel on Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape and speaking on a sold-out pa

Book Trailer for my first vlog post
I thought I'd share the book trailer-in-progress for my memoir-in-progress, TWINS: AN AFRO-VIKING EPIC. In preparation for the graduate seminar in Digital Storytelling I'm teaching at California College of the Arts, I took a weekend workshop at StoryCenter (formerly the Center for Digital Storytelling) in Berkeley; this was my homework. It was created on WeVideo, an open-source platform similar to Final Cut, but clunkier. It does interface super-easily with Google Classroom a

First blog post on revamped website, first Rumpus essay!
I'm super excited to announce that my long-awaited essay about our 25-year courtship and wacky, cross-cultural marriage - which grew out of Facebook posts liked by ALL OF YOU - was published in The Rumpus Wednesday! The illustrations come from a shorter, PowerPoint version - which, coincidentally, I'd performed for the Radar Queer Reading Series (established by Michelle Tea at the San Francisco Public Library) - the night before. And you'll see from the slide below that I was