“You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.” -Coates

Solitude is the reason I travel. It differs from the feeling people speak of when they linger at home for too long; being alone. Solitude is a stage, more of a test, but without the pressure to finish or ‘to pass’. It’s a test of particular things you believe; thus traveling does not answer all of your questions, but where you travel has the ability to answer specific questions.

And so I found myself, after graduating from UC Berkeley, packing my bags literally days after the ceremony, and embarking on a pursuit of a place where black lives matter. Where all Black Lives Matter…The Mecca, or A Mecca of sorts. And New Orleans was the first stop. New Orleans a city as black as jazz, as sweet as candy yams, as sour as the South sounds to those aware of American History and a place some called, “The Most African City” in America.

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