Kindred Paper Company

“Atlanta is a special place...”

there’s no place like Atlanta and that’s the reason and purpose of BE KIND ATL- one shop downtown where tourists and residents alike can shop locally, with artists that create here and live here. this is Atlanta, made here.

Come and see. 201 Peachtree Street ATL 🍑

Thank you for sharing this Atlanta story.

In Montreal…there’s a record store called . All of my favorite deep cuts were there.

keep something cool in rotation.

#1) running by is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. Been listening to it for year and it always moves me always.

#3) beat head jr.

#7) for transporting to another dimension.

#8) i’m raising my kids right.

#10) play music to yo plants.

#11) teenagers’ emotions hold useful information.

#12) i deeply regret not copying that album that had a previously unreleased track on it. But at that point I was already 10 albums deep.

#13) sunglasses and scarves forever.

Do we know love?
There was no after care post-slavery. No support group. No help for how we *felt.*
We took it home and ate it for dinner. It became part of us, and in some ways it brought us closer together, and in some ways, it took us apart from one another.
BUT “love is our only hope.” -bell hooks.
AND “we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” - Gwendolyn Brooks.

Black excellence is great, but it won’t save us. Achievement won’t save us. We’ve tried that. We need more and it’s only one thing: love. We are worthy of the highest regard. We are worthy of the supremacy of love.

Join our little book club and let’s talk about Black people and love. Bell Hooks wrote volumes on the topic of Love and I was introduced to the seminal text “Salvation” and it changed my life. It changed my perspective on how our culture and our history has shaped the way we love. And I wanna read it again in community. The 11 chapters range in topics from self love to mama love to black masculinity.

Let’s read it together and discuss. All month long in February. Virtual so we can be all over the map with it.

Love is our (only) hope.
Love is for us.
Love is our true liberation.

Comment or DM to join. Sign ups are open until 1/31 🫶🏾

2025 is a blank canvas.

and i don’t know how long it will take.
and i don’t know how long it will take.

i really don’t know how long it will take, but i’m in no hurry. because the goal, when reached, is just the cherry on top. the real prize is the process. the glory days are right now. the building, the learning, the tripping, the falling, the getting up.
these are the days that i will cherish the most. the days “before.”

get 2025 on the phone and tell it we deserve it all.

merry merry from the lone star state. this is a place where the culture is do things your on the way. we’re mavericks. and i’m proud of that. a proud texan.

although many moments of the day could have been experienced any other household:
the warm breath of a child hovering over me in my sleep, trying to be respectful in their anxiousness to open presents, not taking into account that i had only gotten two hours of sleep the night before;
the dance in the kitchen as multiple chefs cook multiple dishes;
neck hugs from people we haven’t seen in way too long; the kids tearing through their toys, then coming to me and telling me that they’re bored and my subsequent threat to take all this ish back;
the group prayer in a circle over the food and the hands that made it;
my dad falling asleep while “watching “ the game;
the realization that we made way too much food and arguing over who’s gonna take what home;
a small child climbing in my lap claiming they’re not sleepy, then two minutes later, snoring gently on my thighs;
i can’t get up. it’s either of our weight of them or the whiskey and eggnog.

then when the last guest leaves, there’s the inevitability that me and my mom are the last one standing. in the kitchen, cleaning up, giggling, gossiping and moving in sync to tuck away neatly the chaos of the day. this is sacred time.

even though i know we’re not unique in this in these things, i do sit back and listen. i watch, i observe, and i love that in our texas family we all have our little quirks in our idiosyncrasies and somehow, it all works.

we do things our own way and we make space for each other’s lives, needs, and wants. everything is bigger in texas. maybe even, hearts.

happy holidays. I hope you got everything you wanted and if not, there’s always next year.