Notes on Being

Some stories don't end with neat answers or perfect healing—they end with the truth. Notes on Being is not a book about how to fix your life. It's about what it feels like to live it, in all its contradictions. It's about being queer and Black in a world that wants to define you before it even knows you. It's about family that loves you but doesn't always like you, relationships that take more than they give, and the quiet ache of wondering if you will ever be someone's first choice. In these deeply stories, I pull you into the rooms, streets, and moments that shaped me: tense kitchen table conversations with a mother who couldn't see me, holidays that felt like anything but home, the rush of love that comes too fast, and the slow burn of intimacy worth waiting for. I write about rejecting labels that never fit, surviving in bodies people misunderstand, and carving out space where there was none before. With honesty that doesn't flinch and warmth that holds you even through the hard parts, Notes on Being speaks to the ones who've been told they're too much, too quiet, too weird, or not enough. It's for the queer readers who have been forced to choose between truth and safety, the Black women and femmes who know the cost of being unapologetically themselves, and anyone who has ever had to build a family from scratch. You'll find yourself nodding along, sometimes laughing, sometimes pausing because the words hit too close. You'll see the beauty in being soft and strong at the same time, in refusing to shrink, in learning to be your own safe place. If you've ever looked in the mirror and wondered, Am I enough as I am?—this book is here to tell you, yes.