One of those native Houstonians as mixed up as the gumbo soil we live on. A reformed Coconut, I finally found some balance between being born brown and a desire to be anything but an "other".
In the mundane world, I'm a college instructor devoted to the educational side of life, humbly serving as a guide to students who are trying to have a better life through learning English as a Second Language. I am extremely proud and honored that my academic career has lead me here, where I can make such a vital contribution to bettering lives.
I recently was hired to teach an ESL class for our city's major newspaper, which will be branched out into other major corporate businesses in Houston. The greatest feeling in the world is when you receive a "thank you" from a student - a thank you for helping them begin to open doors that before were difficult, at best, to access much less to assist in their creating a better quality of life for themselves. I am humbled everyday. Truly, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Teaching may never make me rich. No one will probably ever make a movie out of my life, but there are hundreds of people out there who take me with them wherever they go and in whatever they do with their lives from this point on, and that's enough fame for me. To date, I have so many students thank me for teaching them, but I always thank them for being my students. A teacher is little more than a refence book without students. It is the students that bring them to life. It is in the students that the teacher finds a purpose.
I am on a consultant team developing the system policy and curriculum for a distance study pilot geared towards community college adult learners - the first in the Texas region. This is my first opportunity to teach instructors how to teach, and I'm loving it. I am equally engaged in curriculum development for English As a Second Language in the Workforce, working to promote literacy for a safer and more productive workplace and am part of a political movement that will be lobbying the new administration for support and funding.
I begin serving as Training Coordinator for an major organization funded through the Mayor's Coalition for Literacy this month, expanding my role to educating literacy providers and agnecies, coordinating city-wide training and professional development opportunities, and networking with major coorporations and government agencies for support and funding projects.
I've also become professionally active in editing and reviewing the work of various talented writers and am poised to write several academic articles which I will post soon.
Additionally, I am finally reaching beyond my heart and going into the deep recesses of my mind - I am allowing my dark side to show via the horror genre, in paricular vampires and other tales of mystery and the supernatural. Cultural and personal experiences helped develop this part of my literary life, and it is time to bring that out of the closet (if you will).
The struggles between all the extremes in life inspire me to write. Of course, the ultimate influence is everyday life as it comes to me, or I go to it, whichever comes first. The psychological, spiritual, physical and mental qualities that form the foundation of life have fueled my passions since I first began to read. You will find some, if not all, in everything I write, and in everything I embrace and love in life.
The Muse in my life is my one and only beloved Babe (that's the brains and beauty behind who the rest of the world knows as the reknowned lesbian erotica author Blue Sleighty, who is not only a talented writer, she is a wonderfully talented artist).
When you read my romantic poetry, it is quite clear that my partner is the seed that gives birth to my heart's breath at the dawn of every morn and the blessed rain of peace in my soul at the closing of every evening. We are the love story I always yearned for my entire life, and we are pledged to each other for the rest of our lives.
If I had to to choose, I'd have to say that, as far as writing goes, I am first a poet. If I have a poetic style, it's romantically freerange. I write from inspiration without much regard to formality. It's the one place I color outside the lines. If you find this offensive, you have been warned.
And YES, I tend to be an overdramatic, sappy romantic lesbian, but I am in good company . . . .
Me and My Partner, 2008
Birth Place: Houston, TX USA
Accomplishments: 2002 Fotofest Exhibit-Poetry meets photography at Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas.
Houston Women's Work Anthology - Collection, Houston Women's Project, 2001.
Sabledrake Magazine - Point of No Return, short vampire story.
