I’m not crying, you’re crying

Cheers to #ZohranMamdani I hear hope ring church bells in #NewYork sing solidarity— power the people #voting booths roar— we’re equals let’s flip birds to the system

This was a cute age gap love story between a single mom and her kid’s coach. They both spend a beautiful vacation together during carnival, and spiciness ensues! You’ll root for the couple to get out of their way & simply love. 🥰 This was a really fun Summer read! #bvm #blackbooksky #booksky #books

Y’all, this story felt SO real! I thought it was a true story! I’m over here googling, trying to figure out who the villain of the story is 😮‍💨 I was angry and sad, but I calmed down when I learned it was fictional. LOL 😅 But that lets you know how AMAZING this story is! 💕 #poetry #prose #bvm #booksky

“We Should All Be Feminist…” The author argues this point with precision…😌 A beautiful short read, listen, or TEDTalk watch that outlines, with witty commentary 😏, what it means to be a feminist from a feminist. No worries, all genders are called to the carpet for real talk. #blackbooksky #booksky

THIS book is an entire MOOD!! 🥹 Warsan, whose poetry is in the interludes between songs in THE QUEEN 🐝’s Lemonade album, doesn’t disappoint!! Her words travel through love, loss, identity, and home, charged by her Somali-British heritage. #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm #blacksky #beyonce #poetry #poet

As an educator obsessed with unknown or hidden Black history, I ADORED this read HON-EY!!! 😍 I wanted MORE STORIES!!! 😩 I hope there's a 2nd book in the making… 😏 #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm #queer #harlem #book #LGBTQIA+ #blacksky #blackwriter #blackhistory Photo credit: www.ebar.com/story/153643

Another life-changing read!!!😌🥰 Radical self-love is the only path forward to healing mass insecurities, as well as arresting body shaming thoughts, and releasing judgment of other body types. Open this book and get ready to be lovingly challenged.💕 #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm #bodypositivity #love

If you're looking for a quick read to end June #Pride with pizzazz, enjoy Brontez Purnell’s book. They are a WHOLE MOOD! You feel a roller coaster of emotions. Just let your stomach flip & your hair toss in the wind. I guarantee it’s worth the wild journey. ✌🏾😘 #booksky #blackbooksky #poetry #bvm

This is an excerpt from the #poem “Home” written by Warsan Shire. Every word hit me like bricks! 🧱 🥺😮‍💨🫰🏾🔥 #human #home #poetry

Trump shows force like a big baby with a torch fumbling through court. You’re a jester performing for yourself—MAGA cheers from a hung jury helping you commit war crimes. Where is Congress to reel you in? Impeach him for his sins. This is unconstitutional, my fellow Americans. #protest #poetry #Iran

Black women! Come to the front, let’s huddle up. Sisters of the Yam is THAT GIRL in the book world! This is the prerequisite read to cultural self-recovery & self-actualization. If you haven’t claimed it, this has the knowledge to free living Sis. Happy #Juneteenth #blackbooksky #bvm #blackskywomen

This magically written modern-day poetic folk tale is laced with sisterly love, queer love, and shocking betrayal. No worries, the betrayal leads to a satisfying conclusion at the end. It is a cautionary tale indeed with a lovely lesson to learn. 😌👌🏾 #booksky #poetry #prose #queer #folktale #pride

I almost forgot the feeling😮‍💨 I needed to recall for gratitude's sake. If you don’t remember, need to be reminded, or need to remind someone else about what it was like during COVID-19, read this! For Educators, there are good short stories for High School ELA lessons too! #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm

I see no king here I see a coward taco cloaked in fascism #nokings #haiku #blacksky #nokingsprotest #poetry #bvm #skypoet #noking

The first poem I memorized was on the TV Show Moesha by Lady Lunatic Poem “The Equation” 🔥🔥 I can still recite it from memory! 😏 #bvm #blacksky #blackskyover30 #blackskypoet #blackpoetry #poetry #harriettubman youtu.be/lgrG598_R-M?...

This book is a CALL to ACTION for undervalued people starting a #company or investing in one. It’s highly motivational & inspiring to Black women with Impostor Syndrome. This is the representation & roadmap into business you’ve been waiting for! Run, don’t walk! #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm #business

It has been a 🔪 murder and mayhem plot, neck-twisting reading roster in #May, with a splash of OMG Head-shaking Romance baes.💕 I might continue this momentum into June.😏😌 #readinglist #booksky #bvm #blackbooksky #blackwriters #romance #thriller #mystery

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this Black Woman's practical #prayers and #poems appealing to God using the context of History, her People, & Personal Experiences. She challenges the Bible, her Life, & Culture while maintaining deep respect and reverence. #blackbooksky #blackwriter #blackpoet #bvm

I enjoyed listening to this book's culturally rich, bold, opinionated, unapologetic #LGBTQIA+ characters & allies who are figuring it out. Listening to teens discuss, defend, & define themselves for themselves was heartwarming. Read with compassion & enjoy the emerging lovers. #booksky #writer #book

This book is a cute teen love story between a high-strung, achievement-focused chick and a laidback, naturally academically creative dude as they compete for the title of Valedictorian. I love the message at the end after barriers no longer block them from being together. #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm

my sacred spaces hold memories of our pain and celebration #haiku #poetry #blackpoet #skypoet #celebration #vss #photography by #staylo

who’s hurt? you need me to be villain, color of victim looks better on you #haiku #poetry #blackpoet #poem #vss #hurt #skypoet #photograpy by #staylo

#April, my nose was stuck in stories! This month’s reads had some of my most top-rated unforgettable stories & life-changing advice to date. I lost, learned, laughed, cried, stood still stunned, uttered Amen, & cheered Yasss! Pick a book, any #book. 🫶🏾 #blackbooksky #booksky #writers #bvm #books

in two days watch me sky like May embrace the overflow of April rain, and live #haiku #poetry #blackpoet #bvm #skypoet #april #may #photography by #staylo

While reading, I experienced all the feels & fell in love with the Felix Love, who’s Black, Queer, & Transgender. Felix is vulnerable and annoyingly cute. I rooted for Felix even when they were wrong. Spending time in Felix’s world helped me connect with this beautiful community. #blackbooksky #bvm

I am the ground absorbing the shock of soles as sounds settle into my surface leaving impressions of their woes people pounding my pavement in frustration— because I am the steady one my load is heavy, but I am not Chins sink deep towards me but I am not misery’s company I am above ground #poetry

Do not offer me darkness when I offer you light Do not offer me criticism when I offer you care Do not offer me consideration when I offer you assurance Just don’t— or choose to be without me #poetry #poem #blackpoet #skypoet #bvm #vss #dont

Time is watching your teacher pace back and forth with her belongings in tow looking out the window always being the last kid picked up from school and the next day, doing it, all over again #poetry #blackpoet #poem #vss #time #skypoet #poet

A scar is an uninvited tear on the family quilt— and to mend it another tear must be shed #poetry #blackpoet #poem #skypoet #micropoetry #vss

Silence is pressed lips at the end of a difficult sentence— one that won’t see a period #poetry #blackpoet #poem #micropoetry #skypoet #vss

These characters are unhinged and I loved every minute of it! The mother/son partners-in-crime are the secret to the book’s success! Shenanigans are their middle name; there’s not a dull moment in their world. After a dual love betrayal, read how they Burn It All Down! #diversebooksky #queerbooksky

Read ‘Black in Blues’ with deep reverence. It takes us on a journey throughout history, exploring my people's special connection with the color #blue. The richness of indigos in our skin, music, fashion, etc., is astounding! Buy this #book bc you’ll keep revisiting these stories. #blackbooksky #bvm

This book had me shouting out loud into the air, talking to nobody. Clearly, I was thoroughly invested in this story. 👀 I wanted to make decisions for the characters because I felt they needed to get it together! 😅 Needless to say, I enjoyed this romance immensely. #blackbooksky #diversebooksky #bvm

Right down the middle Sun splits our river in two I'll find ways to you #haiku #bvm #blackpoet #poetry #skypoet #poem #photography by me, staylo

the greatest peace is found near still waters, what can you offer the earth #haiku #blackpoet #bvm #poetry #poem #skypoet #photography by me, staylo

A brilliant piece of ART! Every poetic word is intentional. This is a novel you’ll remember among a sea of books. It is a timeless, timely work that makes you reflect upon race dynamics in ways you haven’t to understand Black Americans deeper. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 #bvm #blackbooksky #booksky #dropeverythingandread

When everything aligns…🧘🏾‍♀️ #BlueSkyArtShow #Peaceful l #photography by me, staylo

I finished this book in a day! Partly bc I couldn’t renew on Libby 😅 but mainly bc I was on the edge of my seat with chills! The horror story centers around a multiracial blended family living on an abandoned street in an all-Black neighborhood ruined by race riots. So much to unpack! #blackbooksky

waves hit the shore I tilt my head back to absorb the shock the wind ripples my face mimicking the sea’s shape neither distinct but we know it, when we close our eyes to imagine #poetry #poem #vss #bvm #blackpoet #skypoet #waves

sky, open up, and cry for us, mourn our undoing, expose the corruption this traitor is ensuing we who are lost; find us in the flood, wash away the mud and reclaim our earth. #bvm #april5 #handsoff #blackpoet #diversesky

Inspired by the work of Ancestors. #metaphor #message #poetry #vss #bvm #blackpoet #poem #alliteration #writingcommunity #imagery #simile #symbolism

Pick a card, any card, from The Nap Ministry’s Rest Deck and choose peace today. #Blacksky I meditated 🧘🏾‍♀️ & 🚶🏾‍♀️clocked 5k miles this morning in the name of rest. #blackbooksky #bvm #diverse Photos from & Purchase from: www.shopatmatter.com/product/the-... (Independent, Black, and Woman-Owned)

If Book 1, Rest Is Resistance, is the roadmap & instructions, then We Will Rest: The Art of Escape is the practice. I highly recommend getting the audiobook because it’s a relaxing listen that will pull you into a meditative state & we should to rest tomorrow. 😌🧘🏾‍♀️ #blackbooksky #bvm #diversebooksky

As we approach April 5th, #BlackSky this is your reminder that Rest Is #Resistance! And if you don’t believe me here’s a well-developed argument of prioritizing #rest in a capitalist and grind culture society. Rest is a need & it’s essential to living. 🫶🏾 #blackbooksky #bvm #diversebooksky

Y’all!!! March has been 31 days of roller coaster emotions 😮‍💨 and heavy healing ❤️‍🩹 through reading but I enjoyed every heart pulling page. 💕🫶🏾🥰 Books help us rest, reset, and, at times, escape. #📚🌎 #blackbooksky #booksky #book #diversebooksky #writers #bvm

The #poems go down to the #bone of domestic violence, exploring the cyclical nature of abuse through antidotal prose. While also finding moments to steal away & love, connect, confront, and trust again. Unearthing these stories took bravery, vulnerability, & healing. #blackbooksky #bvm #booksky #📚🌎

Betrayal is yanking blood-soaked band-aids from wounds they sculpted, locking eyes, pressing harder, doubling down— then asking me to trust you again. #metaphor #practice #poetry #vss #bvm #blackpoet #poem #skypoet #writingcommunity

Love is fingertips kneading knots out of sagging shoulders following a trying day Love is the brush of lips pause before a soft kiss Love is tight lingering hugs with no seeming end in sight Love is forehead to forehead whispering, reassuring, we are in this together, no matter what #poetry #bvm

Envy is being seated at a gourmet table with hunger pains nagging your gut, waiting for your dinner companions to get up, so you can switch plates with them. #metaphor #practice #poetry #vss365 #bvm #blackpoet #poem #skypoet #writingcommunity