background + influences:

Professionally, I am a trained educator with a focus on language teaching, and a degree in French Studies. I am also an artist, and have performed as a dancer for many years, training mainly in traditional West African, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban dance. I have additional certifications and professional development trainings in Expressive Arts Therapy, empowerment coaching, and somatic healing tools. 

As a writer, I started out writing highly imaginative stories in Grade 2, which were typed up, bound, and “published” with my illustrations by the librarian (who was often overwhelmed at the volume of work I sent her way). I went on to write poetry and personal reflections, publishing in YorkU magazine, e-Magined Journal of International Education, Simply Woman magazine, and in the books Simply Woman: 30 stories from magnificent women who have risen against the odds and She Rises Volume 3 by Mago Books. I have had the privilege and honour of being mentored by Canadian author Barry Dempster, and receiving a scholarship for Summer Literary Seminars in Montreal and Nairobi where I studied with prolific writers such as poet Martín Espada and the late Binyavanga Wainaina. 

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All of the above training and experience influences my voice and perspective as a writer. My work as an educator and artist has led me to teach, train, and study worldwide,  and I am profoundly marked by and grateful to the communities I’ve spent time with in Kenya, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Peru, and Greece. The role of communal relationships, navigating the unknown, seeing and holding multiple truths and adapting to different ways of being all come through in themes I explore in writing. (Some of my much earlier writing explores these things directly in relation to travel and being an outsider – if you’d like to read this older work, you can do so here and here)

These days, I focus heavily on themes of truth, transformation, and complexity with the body as a lens of understanding. The body is a language to me, and a colourful one (literally – kinetic-colour synesthesia allows me to see coloured patterns in movement!), and like all languages I speak, it influences how I make sense of things and express my thoughts. I’m especially intrigued currently by the maturing relationship to my body’s voice and how it’s shifted my understanding of my past, my years in healing/wellness spaces, and my inner landscape. Though I sometimes write about trauma and mental health, please note that I’m not a licensed therapist or mental health professional. These writings are personal, not professional, in nature. 

People whose work + thoughts have left an imprint on me (in no particular order): Angélique Kidjo, Tom Robbins, Oumou Sangaré, Mona Eltahawy, Danielle Dulsky, David Bedrick, Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, Adrianna Yanuziello, Richard + Phoebe Asiyo, Maya Angelou, Kimberly Miguel Mullen, Jane Clapp, Martha Graham, Thaís Sky, bell hooks, Jeff Goldblum, and many more.