By Dianne Danquah

My teachers always told me not to draw in my school books.

Why?

As

if my small artwork would cause distraction from the words or numbers on the page.

As

if it was incongruent to it or diminished the value.

What

if it made it more alive?“

By Glory Ebengo

When I feel as if I am going through something, I have the tendency of longing it out. I look at timelines, I look at whys, give me the stats I am looking at that because I like to understand. What I have learnt is that not everything is to be understood. I should stand up and rise and continue. Sometimes we delegate temporary trails and make them seasons when we have not been called to stay there.

By Diane Danquah

It’s funny how numbers dictate our understanding of what a year is. The simple switch from 31 to 1, and 22 to 23, seems to bring about a mindset shift. Though we have experienced thousands of seconds, the one between 23:59 and 00:00 incites something.

By Matilda Oduntan

When we speak of soul, many think immediately about the genre and the voices of Aretha Franklin, James Brown or Marvin Gaye. Many of us then think of the African American church as an institution of soul, where many Black singers across several genres developed that “soulful” sound. But I find that soul, the genre, is just a starting point to understanding what soul, the feeling, is.

By Cielle Marie

he squeezes my hand and gestures to my phone,

and i remember that everyone speaks the language of

holding hands until one’s heart bursts,

the electric shock of touching each other’s arms

on a hot, hot night fizzing with romance,

and it can only be a happily ever after on the cards

when he calls me the sweetest girl,

and scoops me up in his arms on the sand

as if he is scared to lose me.

next thing we know, we are together for hours

until the sun slips between the night’s open hands.

By Dianne Danquah

“I’m sure we all have ‘abandoned words’ , collecting literal dust on paper or digital dust, as our notes app fills up with other words. Maybe one day you will be compelled to return or maybe not. Just remember your true words are never abandoned.”

By Matilda Oduntan

We have so many stories that make us unique, even when we inevitably look the same as others. I no longer want to treat beauty and fashion as something I must resist. Each piece I collect says something about me and has a story behind it. You can pull a thread on a piece of clothing, and it unravels into tales from a former life.

By Cielle Marie

i want you to be my daydream.

be my occasional headache but a constant presence,

be my soul's solace and the love of my life.

may your eyes be the reflection of a sunset at sea,

may your lips feel like coming home

at the end of a cold and painful day.

be my midnights lit by a half moon and a scented candle,

be my cinnamon and cloves and sugar,

be the electricity that keeps me going within darkness

when you feel way too good to be true,

be my peace and my alarm clock

to force me awake from my irresponsible mind.

be who i've always wanted and i'll be your daydream too.

By Timi Olaitan

We are quick to expose ourselves to new environments, but never quick enough to ask ourselves if the environment actually works for us.

By Dianne Danquah

I still cut plantain the way an Aunty in Ghana (who I met once) taught me.

I still braid my hair the quicker way I was shown when I was supposed to be focusing on math equations.

I listen to some musicians because my brother played them out loud or shall I say “put me on”, as he likes to boast.

When I finally learn to drive, I will always park “ready to leave”, as my mum does, because her dad told her to.

As much as I am me….I am mosaic.

By Glory Ebengo

I often find myself drowning in the midsts of what ifs. The very questions which designed the trajectory of my mind. The what ifs which circumnavigate my thoughts to places I seek to be. The places in mind projected by inspiration. I ask myself what inspired the ifs and I answer the questions with ‘id rather be there than here’. The what ifs that simply bring me ounces of hope in a space of utter clutter. I am the hoarder of what ifs. A collection of maybes and not absolutes. A space of inquisitive desire to be anywhere but here. I am tired of the friendship breaks, the not getting my way, the ‘God I thought I excruciated this perfectly’, the ‘they did me wrong God’. That used to be the thought.

By Shamica Carey

The particular genre I recommend if this is your ultimate goal? Fantasy. Within a fantasy driven book where entire magic systems are created and problems you would never come across in your very real life occur, you get a strong sense of something completely other and new. However… You often also see strong similarities within your own universe, especially depending on the type of book you read.

By dapomaah’s thoughts

The module ‘Becoming Yourself’ bored me. & one thing about me is, I am superbly intolerant to what bores me. It bored me because well, how does one become their self? ‘Becoming Yourself’ is a very provocative title. It is challenging.

It’s important to check up on your strong friends and here are 10 things to look out for!

The hourglass shape is the heralded, (whilst thinness is still what is considered beautiful) this is an ideal that disproportionately impacts black girls.

The masculinisation and defeminisation of black women/girls contributes to the societal acceptance of violence against us.

It demonises black women's resistance to our human trafficking, enslavement and sexual violence.

Self-care is often seen by others as selfish because we’ve been taught to take care of others before we take care of ourselves. But, what many fail to realise is that self-care is incredibly crucial for a healthy life.