Education

Wanting to be a Nun, Nikki Giovanni, and Lies We Tell Our Children

Wanting to be a Nun, Nikki Giovanni, and Lies We Tell Our Children

It was so obvious to me at that point that history books were lying, or at least telling only a very small portion of the story. I knew there were so many other stories and I wanted to tell them, I wanted to see them next to one another. I had a clear vision at that time of how all of these stories would be presented in book form. I had no idea at that time the sorts of technologies that would become available to be able to tell stories. Facebook was only just starting. YouTube wasn’t a thing—the idea that people would be able to make videos at the drop of a dime from their phones wasn’t conceivable to me at that point. Few people are as critical about technology as I am. And yet, at the same time, I have so much hope about the ways in which technology, when used mindfully, can shift the narratives that dictate our lives, can shift how we understand ourselves, our collective and individual histories, and the ways in which we share them with other people.

Destiny Still Tryna Find the Best in Me: Science, Divination, and Owning My Calling to be a Researcher

Destiny Still Tryna Find the Best in Me: Science, Divination, and Owning My Calling to be a Researcher

I think Science (with a capital S) is a cultural system, a spiritual system. And, simultaneously, I believe that all cultural systems and spiritual systems are also scientific systems—ways of exploring the world, ways of discerning what is actually happening, ways of predicting the future. Even crazier (perhaps), I believe it’s possible to merge these different systems. I don’t believe in the separation of spirit and matter. And in reality, the separation of spirit and matter—even in western Science—is quite recent. A large piece of what I hope to contribute to the world lies in my ability to hold spirit and matter together in my own Scientific research, as a serious (formal) researcher.