38 Random Facts About Me

Hanging out with Polkaroo in Toronto, a character I grew up watching on Canadian public television in the 1980s.

I am 95% vegan which means I do not eat fish, meat, eggs, milk, or other dairy products unless they are of the cheese and very yummy dessert variety. Hey, who wants to pass up some great chocolate and red velvet cake? What I do get to eat is lots of fresh fruits and veggies, grains, breads, pastas, nuts, nut milks, tofu, soup,... foods that come from plants. You get the idea.
I also make seitan which is a type of meat alternative made from gluten flour. (I call it seat-in because it sounds a lot nicer that way.) And you can make it taste like anything. For example, you can make seitan taste like chicken which is ironic since I don't eat chicken. If you got the sense that I love to cook then you're right.
I used to hate practicing the piano as a kid but then it all changed around age of 10 when I had my first solo recital and realized I love to perform for an audience (although I was a terribly nervous pianist). Another thing I loved about piano was that at 17 when I was earning almost two and a half times more than the minimum wage. Those hours and hours of practice and piano exams pay off.
I grew up in Jane and Finch and Rexdale... two communities in Toronto that don't have the best reputation nor the greatest news coverage. But wonderful things can happen in these spaces and great people can emerge... take me for instance.
I am proud of my Jamaican roots and it informs a lot of my writing. My parents are immigrants from Jamaica which meant that I grew up learning to speak a second language called patois, also known as Jamaican Creole.
I was not allowed to speak Jamaican patois so when my sister and I would play, I would sometimes make my dolls speak it. My dolls were pretty fluent. Miss Lou, Jamaica's late Cultural Ambassador, was a poet, folklorist, ethnographer, dramatist, writer, and scholar. She helped make Jamaicans proud of their language. I would have loved to meet her. I used to sing with the Heritage Singers, a choir that performs Caribbean folk music and the music of Miss Lou. (They also performed with her when she was alive.) I also used to play keyboards and sing background vocals in reggae bands.

Me performing in the Nine Nite scene with the Heritage Singers. I think I'm third from the right.

I want to travel the world. All over, especially parts of Africa, Hungary, France, Spain, England, and the United States.

I've had a lifelong dream to visit Africa which was fulfilled in 2014 when I visited Ghana for the first time. I learned to play music of the Ewe people from the Volta region and then travel to some of the locations (Assin Manso, Elmina, Cape Coast) that enslaved Africans travelled before they were transported in slaveships.
I want to visit Brazil next. I am working on a young adult novel set in west Africa and Brazil and I long to learn more about the African roots there.

As a child, I wanted to learn every language in the world. Je parle français. Hablo un poquito d'español. Parlo italiano così così. Falo um poucu do português.

The King of Dzodze, a village I visited in Ghana, and his entourage.

New York City is like a second home to me, especially the Bronx and Harlem. I have been there at least 30 times. I have a lot of family there as well as other parts of the United States and have visited South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, and Michigan so far. I would still like to go to Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, and California next.

Me at the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan, NY at Christmas time

Loving my natural hair at age 9.

I have visited all Canadian provinces except for one-- Prince Edward Island. I have still yet to visit the territories (Nunavut, Northwest, and Yukon). I also did summer French immersion programs in the Acadian region of Nova Scotia and Jonquiere, Quebec. I lived in Hull where I worked for the Francophonie Games 2001.

I have a strong knack for remembering music especially theme songs from the 1980s.
I hated recess and gym class when I was a kid. I would much rather sit inside and read or draw.
I have been writing in a journal since the age of 9. I now have 40+ journals.
One summer, I worked at the Ontario Science Centre which was the funnest jobs ever.
In high school, one of my best friends had her own television show and the other one was a vampire.
I sing and hum constantly... in public... when I am alone... doesn't matter... even without me knowing. But I am okay... really, I am.
You might find me sketching people on the subway. If they catch me doing this, it freaks them out just a little.
I wanted to be an actress as a child. My first role was in a play called "Christmas Spirit" in fifth grade. I was the Story Lady who was in charge of all of the books and the stories. I helped the lead character find his way. It seemed promising until I got the part of Little John in Robin Hood in the eighth grade. (Even I was the only student in Grade Eight in the play, I still took it.) My first audition was at thirteen for a role in a play called "Rainbow World" which was written and directed by Canadian blues legends Salome Bey and Jackie Richardson. (I did not get the part which was cast to Salome's daughter, the amazing vocalist, Saidah Baba Talibah. Hands down.)
I love when it rains and my favourite season is summertime. When the living is easy. (I got to see the real Summertime being sung on Broadway.)
My favourite colour is blue, especially peacock blue, ocean blue, cornflower, and turquoise.
I once ran a film festival called ICED IN BLACK: Canadian Black Experiences on Film across Canada to nine cities in 6 provinces-- Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Waterloo, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria-- on a shoestring budget. I organized and attended while completing my last year in the 1st, teacher's college in the 2nd, and graduate school in the 3rd years of the festival. Let's just say I like to multitask.
My writing has been compared to Alice Walker on two occasions. Once in high school a classmate said she thought I would be the next Alice Walker. Another time, I was in a writing class and a peer called my style "Alice Walker for Kids". Big shoes to fill.
These are people I look up to and influenced by: Chimamanda Adichie, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Jill Scott, Miss Lou, Olive Lewin. These are writers I look up to now... Chimamanda again, Junot Diaz, Coe Booth, Jacqueline Woodson. Some of my favourite illustrators/artists right now are Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Yuyi Morales, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and many who I have met at the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) showcase.
I have won poster and drawing contests as a child then as I got older, I gradually stopped drawing. I even got a chance at age 9 to paint a huge mural of a drawing I entered on the construction wall for the expansion of Sick Kid's Hospital in Toronto. I picked up drawing again in my late 20s.
I'm a morning person. Each weekday, I am up between 3 and 4 am so I can pray, meditate, read, journal, and write stories before I teach French and the arts to students from kindergarten to Grade 8.
I love my family (to bits). I am an auntie three times over. I love family reunions. My relatives span North America, Jamaica, and England and I wish I got to see them even more.
I wear my hair naturally. It started when I was in high school. I hated to "perm" or chemically-straighten my hair. For some reason, my hair would never completely straighten either getting frizzy in the rain or get really coarse. For various social pressure reasons but always went back to relaxing. One day about 16 years ago, I put a final stop to it and have worn my hair natural ever since. I have had dredlocks for about nine of those years and the rest have been twists, afro, extensions, and everything in between. I love my hair!

I compost and recycle (like a fiend) and, I'm sneaking one in, I'm a cancer survivor.
I have loads of dreams like being a clown and a storyteller, having a children's show, recording the songs I write on a children's album, making movies, opening a fun, arts centre for kids, planning birthday parties, and of course writing and illustrating books.

I love to meet celebrities and I either am totally starstruck or treat them like anyone else. I have met Solange Knowles, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, David Alan Grier, Robert Guillaume, Vanessa P. Williams, Paul Campbell, Melvin Van Peebles, almost Kevin Bacon, several Canadian celebrities like Jully Black, Maestro, Kardinal Offishall, Lyric Bent, and lastly famous writers like Newbery award-winning, Kwame Alexander. Toronto is a great place to meet these folks but I have also met some in New York City. I still want to meet Chimamanda Adichie and Jacqueline Woodson, so if they are reading this right now, let's do tea.

I am hanging out with New York Times-bestselling picture book author Herve Tullet.

My nickname in high school was Bag Lady. Let's just say that not much has changed.
I always wanted to go to an arts high school like on the show Fame (I grew up in the 1980s) and when I was recommended by Grade 7 teacher, my mother did not let me because it was too far. I make up for it now though. I'm a music-drama-dance-art teacher/author/illustrator who loves to tell stories, salsa, and act.

Growing up, I loved to read. I loved to read books about children in different countries. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, Ann Martin's Babysitters Club, Judy Blume. Then, I began to read books about African-American history as I did not learn it in school and it was hard to find Canadian books on Black history (still is). I eventually read Walter Dean Myers, Rosa Guy, Rita Williams Garcia, Alice Walker, then Terry McMillan and Toni Morrison when I was in high school.
I experienced racial prejudice as a child and was teased for my full lips and my kinky hair and excluded by classmates because of the colour of my skin. Yet, now there is a whole industry that makes billions of dollars on collagen lip injections and tanning skin. I was ahead of my time.
I used to write and make books as a kid. Here is one. My teacher liked it so much that she sent it to the school board where it was displayed at a festival where it got rained on. Then I wrote consistently for my high school and university newspapers, later community publications and magazines.

The cover one of my few surviving books, The Greatest Carnival Ever, got soaked in the rain.

I loved illustrating this book that I wrote about a Carnival. I wonder if this is where my inspiration for Malaika's Costume came from.

I went through a pretty awkward-looking phase as a pre-teen and did not like my appearance for years. I had terrible acne, braces then retainers that collected saliva, and I had to wear glasses. I also wore orthopedic shoes at age 5 but they were so uncomfortable that I stopped. I wasn't happy with my body so I also dieted at different times. My dentist suggested I correct my gummy smile. But then one day, I grew up and embraced my imperfections and became a queen.

I was the queen of this Maracatu procession in Toronto.