"What time did you want to meet for brunch?"-Shauntell text read.We ate brunch at Lauriol Plaza, a tex mex restaurant in Northwest DC, a place recommended by Shauntell.This was my first "dine out" restaurant experience since everything have been shut down due to COVID-19. I felt a sense of normalcy. We sat, drunk, talked, laughed and was magically black. We discussed father's day, Insecure (#LawrenceHiveCancelled) and COVID-19. Afterwards, Shauntell recommended Gabriel and I check out the Black Lives Matter Plaza a few blocks away.

So we did. As we walked toward the Plaza, I could not help but a small mural of Angela Davis painted on a building.

Then the realness overcame me. I am living in history or [her]story in this moment. It was one thing to see protests and the murals painted on social media (which I had recently disconnected from). It was a different feeling being an actual eyewitness.

I read in books, I researched, watched documentaries, but nothing prepared me for the revolution I am seeing in front of me. As quoted,  "the revolution will not be televised." We crossed the street and entered the plaza. And there it was.

B L A C K L I V E S M A T T E R.

Painted in yellow. What amazed me more was the black hustlers in this plaza selling t-shirts, jewelry and other memorabilia. In this moment, I was proud of blackness. We have a plaza thats in front of the white house and we are selling our own merchandise in this plaza. FOR US BY US. The entrepreneurs and black hustlers represent generational resiliency, using this moment to build wealth for the next black generations in the middle of racial turmoil.

I continued down the mural and people watched. A black man with his two daughters stood out to me. They were beautiful and vibrant and all wearing "Black Lives Matter" shirts. In this space, even among police and spectators, I felt safe.

As an art enthusiast, Black Lives Matter Plaza was an open installation of black art, dopeness, wokeness and admiration. I was in the middle of black art and black cinema all in one. I imagined myself in the middle of a Spike Lee set. I imagined myself as Nola Darling (Netflix, we need ya'll to renew this show). I imagined myself in a black museum. The Trap Museum. The murals that stood out to me:

Black Woman in Yoga Position with a black fist on her shirt. 

This mural spoke to me. I was HER and she was me.She represented a level of peace and namaste however, "tea and incense can turn into colt 45 and newports if need be." (Erykah Badu). The black woman on this portrait was unapologetically black with the words next to her "No Justice, No Peace."

"CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM NOW"

The fact that I know the statistic that 1 in 3 black men will go to jail at some point in their life is alarming and why this mural means so much. Ending our tour, I captured a

black woman selling handmade flower masks (Buy one here: Flower Mask)

Of course, I bought one. I guess it felt symbolic to me; black people are blooming through generational resiliency. The flower mask also represented me: FASHIONABLY EXTRA. And I hold that crown well.

I wore my blackness proud. I chose to see this moment as generational resilience and not generational trauma. We are traumatized as a people however, we are here because our ancestors displayed generational resiliency. They did not give up, they were able to recover from the trauma and procreate the next generations and teach valuable lessons. This reminds me of one of Tupac's infamous quotes, "I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that changes the world."

Generational Resiliency has been ignited and sparked. As I continued throughout the plaza, I felt resilient. I hope when people of color and others visit the Black Lives Matter Plaza, they see generational resiliency and not necessarily trauma.