If I had to describe 2025 with one word it would be transformation. The peacock eats snakes and transforms their venom into sustenance, as I learned from my Shingon Buddhist studies. This year, both the Henjyoji Shingon Buddhist Temple and Seattle Koyasan gave dharma talks on Kujaku Myôô (Skt. Mahamayuri vidyaraja). This unified message from my Buddhist sensei(s) helped me sustain through the barrage of falsehoods propagated by the MAGA cult, the incessant epistemological violence foisted upon anyone with critical thinking skills, and sheer exhaustion to stay afloat amidst it all. In retrospect, the concept of transforming these horrific geopolitical mind games of divide and conquer on a personal level absolutely fueled my writing, art, and community connections, a practice rooted in the wisdom of the peacock guardian Kujaku. It also encouraged me to lean into my social bonds as a form of resistance and coalition building – a strategy to push against political gaslighting and the willful ignorance of the bigoted and easily manipulated. 2025 may have been the worst dystopian nightmare to date, but it has also been full of love and creativity.

I Got Engaged!

The most exciting thing happened to me this year: I got engaged! I am so happy to report that I finally know what a healthy relationship feels like. For the first time in my life, I have met someone who shares my values, has similar healthy living habits, and speaks my language. We have great communication and are able to stay in the light even under high-stress situations. No obstacle is insurmountable and no problem is unresolvable because we make a conscious effort to prioritize the relationship and practice loving speech as best we can while offering each other space, grace, and the benefit of the doubt. It’s not always easy – relationships take work – but it is rewarding and deeply fulfilling. I never thought I could be this happy in love, and I never thought I would actually get married: but here we are! We’re looking toward spring 2027 for the big day, and because we are mutually anti-capitalist, we intend to keep the ceremony small and cozy with a focus on our spiritual heart-bond and dedication to supporting each other.

A Generative Education

This year, my grad school classes truly changed me, how I think, and how I intend to live my life, forever. The reading and writing transformed how I understand history, knowledge production, culture, the world, and how I squeeze into it all. The classes were: Revolution in Literature and Feminist Theory. I wonder if they will get discontinued considering the current political attack on liberal arts.

I started the blog Witness & Resist: Writing for Autonomy based on my fall semester class Revolution in Literature, an English graduate course that focused on revolutionary literature of the last 100 years linked to the Soviet experiment in some way, with an emphasis on African American literature. Reading the memoirs, poems, stories, critical analysis, and historical accounts from these authors made me realize how important it is to document your own experience in the face of authoritarianism and social unrest.

The purpose of my Witness & Resist autotheory blog series is to challenge malicious threats to our freedoms and to refuse erasure through the act of political documentation and creative expression. It is my way of defying biopolitical idiocracy and keeping sane in the face of constant insanity. I was inspired by the authors we studied in class, especially political prisoners Assata Shakur and Eugenia Ginzburg. Although the blog that stems from this inspiration is not written on a consistent schedule, I do pour my passion for truth into each piece. I hope that level of involvement and reflection makes up for the lack of submitting to a click-bait frequency.

My second class, Feminist Theory, helped inform my nonfiction book in progress that is about recovering the works of women beatniks, and gave me a greater understanding of how to smash the patriarchy and use its own language to combat its insidious propagation of epistemic violence. I am still chewing on the class’s lessons, and hope to create something to post on my website soon. 

One feminist scholar we studied, Lola Olufemi, argued: “Feminism is a political project about what could be. It’s always looking forward, invested in futures we can’t quite grasp yet.” Olufemi posits that feminism is collaborative, and recognizes that the way to learn more, to do more, to contribute more to the political project of feminism, it is necessary to “pick up another book, or watch a documentary, search the archive, reach for a poetry book,” which was a nice reminder for me to stay aware, engaged, and expressive. Olufemi goes on to say: 

Everybody has a story about how they arrived and keep arriving at radical politics. Some of us are politicized by…trauma…wars…parents and lovers…by the internet. It’s useful to share the ways we become politicised [sic] if only because it helps politicise [sic] others.¹

She continues with a call to action: tell your story of becoming a feminist, a radical, politicized. I think the purpose of doing so is to infiltrate the otherwise sleeping minds and build networks of solidarity. This premise is the launching pad for my next post in the Witness & Resist series. I encourage my readers to share their radicalization story, too! What made you fed up with the status quo? When did you realize normalcy is an oppressive farce? What made you a feminist? An anarchist? An anti-capitalist? A humanitarian? An anti-racist?

Creative Accomplishments

2025 felt like the most creative year of my entire life. I am so grateful for the renaissance. Just this week on break alone I have spruced up a series of gesture drawings to use for future character pieces, continued with teaching myself oil pastels, collaged (analog style), experimented with mixed media, dabbled in film photography, and have kept up the habit of reading and writing (outside of school obligations) on a semi-regular basis. 

I performed alongside my Shut Up & Write colleagues at events hosted by LMNL Arts in November and June. I also performed at the LMNL Arts patron party. It was such a privilege to take the stage with so many great writers and performers. I felt good about my performances, especially the last one in November, because I felt each emotion fully present in my voice. I made an audio recording and may use it for my music project in 2026. 

In October, the short story about my late brother Stephen, “My Brother’s Escape,” reached the semi-finalist round in the 2025 Patty Friedmann Writing Contest, Creative Nonfiction. This means a lot, 14 years after having lost my brother to a heart attack at age 33. May his memory live on.

This summer, three of my digital collages were accepted by the Carroll Gallery for the On Display: a Twenty-First Century Salon des Refusés show. It was a special gift to share this experience with my fiancé Jeffery Fried who also showed a series of paintings. Around the same time, five of my travel photos were included in the Push Pin Show at the New Orleans Photo Alliance gallery. I made new friends at both exhibitions — connecting with artists and building community was such a healing experience that I didn’t realize how much I needed.

In the spring, my poem “The Changeling” was published in the New Orleans based LMNL Arts Zine, a publication that celebrates Give NOLA Day. It’s been a long time since I had a poem published, so doing so brought me much joy.

My ambient music project, Love Above Will, that invokes the occult through sound, debuted on Phil Western’s Afterflash: A Remixed Tribute. I am so grateful for the album’s stellar reviews. Many of us poured our hearts into this project, and it shows. I also did the cover layout and design, and collaboratively contributed to many other behind-the-scenes aspects of this wonderful tribute to Phil Western. 

Honorable Mentions

Travel

None of my immediate family has ever travelled to see me in all the many places I have lived. My cousin visited New Orleans a couple of years ago, and that’s been it all these decades. But I am very grateful to have had visitors this year: my sister Korey and her daughter Bella! Because my niece is a child, I am not going to post any photos. We had a great time exploring the French Quarter and the Garden District. We also attended a Halloween block party, the Day of the Dead parade, Fete Gede, and Bella had an early birthday serenade when we went to the jazz brunch at Muriel’s. It was such a magical time for us all.

As for myself, I travelled less this year than usual, but I had some really wonderful experiences with my fiancé, family, and friends. I was fortunate enough to go to:

• Mississippi: Several trips with Jeff and his fam to Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, Biloxi.
• DC: Went to a PR conference, visited friends, and saw Darkside live — what an incredible show.
• Portland: Got my cover-up tattoo worked on, visited friends, the Rose Garden, and the beautiful Portland Japanese Garden. I also was able to attend a dharma talk at the Henjyoji Shingon Buddhist Temple.
• San Francisco: Jeff and I visited my exceptionally hospitable aunt Julie and other paternal relatives. We traversed China Town, North Beach, and the wharfs. We went for a day trip to Sausalito. We also saw the cute parade in Niles / Fremont near where my family lives.

Orangutans

I also discovered my love for orangutans and my appreciation for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, by watching the show Orangutan Jungle School with my partner. I even adopted an orangutan for Xmas — agile Iqo — and encourage others to do the same as a way to support re-wilding these incredible beings. 

The BOS Foundation does extraordinary work to help orangutans, our closest primate ancestors, re-enter the wild. Did you know we share 97% of our DNA with them? Deforestation plays a major role in what has caused this highly intelligent bunch to become endangered. They are often killed as adults for food and that leaves the young orphaned and without the parenting needed to learn how to survive in the forest. Sometimes they are captured as pets for the exotic trade underground and fed scraps, trained to fight each other, or are just locked up and neglected. The BOS Foundation rescues them, and sends them to SCHOOL! Orangutan Jungle School babysitters help the young orangutans learn how to climb, forage, and protect themselves in the wild. Please help save these beautiful beings! You can watch their show Orangutan Jungle School for free on YouTube to learn more about these wonderful animals. 

Fin

2025 was one of the most inspiring and transformative years of my life. I feel like I am undergoing a sort of artistic revival I never had the attention span to fully pursue in the past. None of it would be possible without the embrace of communities here in New Orleans and the uplift from my partner and loved ones.

I am so grateful for my partner’s kindness, patience, and encouragement as I bobbed and weaved through immobilizing exhaustion and enthusiastic bursts of creativity. Jeff grounds me when I spiral into fairly reasonable, all things considered, madness. He holds me when I cry, and he helps me when I can’t even anymore. I have no idea if I would be as successful alone and without his ongoing love.

Above all else, in 2025 I have re-learned that the most important thing to me in this life is spending quality time with the people I love. In 2026, no matter how hard things get as we all try to afford rent, groceries, and healthcare, I intend to do even more activities with my partner and inner circle. Next year, I want to stroll outside under trees, adore sunsets, be near water, share learning, watch nature shows, go to the movies, visit museums and art galleries, make art, play games, have fun, laugh, cook, read, perform, witness live music, dance, travel, and just simply enjoy the moment together. I hope you can also prioritize what brings you pockets and mountains of joy.

1. This quote and all Olufemi quotes are sourced from — Olufemi, Lola. “Introduction: Feminist Work is Justice Work,” Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power. Pluto Press, 2020, pp. 1–9.
   
   ↩︎