Out Loud!

A few years ago I locked my cameras in a drawer and stopped telling stories.

What I didn’t understand at the time: when I stopped telling other people’s stories, my own story stopped too. I spent that stretch living inside other people’s passions, other people’s goals, telling myself I’d find my fulfillment in helping them find theirs. I didn’t.

No one asked me to put the cameras down. That was my choice. And I’m still learning why I made it.

This portrait of me on a Chicago street during the Great Depression is really a picture of the depression I was living in when I put my purpose down.

Recently I took the cameras out. Dusted them off. Started creating art and telling stories again.

The challenges haven’t gone away. They’re chapters now. Not the ending. Scenes in my own film instead of scenes I’m watching from the outside. Alhamdulillah I’m writing my own narrative again.

Consider this the first frame or first scene. There is more coming insha’Allah. I’ve picked it back up and I’m swinging for the fences… OUT LOUD this time! No fear. No compromise. No apologies