Treat Me Right

Welcome back. It has been a tough journey, but here we are persevering the best way we can in 2021.

A few weeks ago, I watched Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Netflix, as millions of us have. It is an engaging and thought-provoking story that speaks on race, religion, the wealth gap, and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white record executives. I’ve been a huge fan of August Wilson since reading his play, Fences at the age of nine- and re-reading it more than six times since then. If you haven’t read The Coldest Day of the Year or Two Trains Running, please stop reading this, type both titles (actually every piece of work he’s written) into Google, and pour over these amazing written works of art- then come back. There’s no question that August Wilson truly was the theater’s “poet of Black America,” but I digress.

There’s a dialogue in the second act/part of the movie from Ma Rainey, played by the marvelous, award-winning Viola Davis, to the leader of the band who is also the guitar and trombone player, Cutler, played by the award-winning actor Coleman Domingo (side note- he’s one of my favorite actors, have you caught up on the latest season of Euphoria?). You learn insight into how her record company views her and why she speaks to the executives any way she wants. “All they want is my voice. Well. I done learned that, and they gonna treat me like I want to be treated no matter how much it hurt them. They back there now calling me all kinds of names…calling me everything but a child of God. But they can’t do nothing else. They ain’t go what they wanted yet. As soon as they get my voice down on them recording machines, then it’s just like I’d be some whore, and they roll over and put their pants on. Ain’t got no use for me then.” The way Viola Davis delivers these lines hit me like a brick. So many individuals have had their talent and creativity drained from them by their jobs as if they are giving blood- myself included. Over the past couple of years, I took the time to learn that it has been my fault for not setting boundaries of what or how much a company or individuals can take from me- the word no is easier for some than others. So like Ma Rainey (minus a few explicative words), I too have clapped back to those who try to see how much they can stretch my capabilities. You’re smart, so I know you already know that whomever you work with/for, they need you just as much, if not more than you need them. If they didn’t need you, they wouldn’t have hired you for your skillset. Sure they can bring on someone else, but they want you, so teach them how you want to be treated. Of course, you want the agreed-upon work to be precise and complete on time, but don’t work to the point of exhaustion, don’t allow delayed payments of an invoice or paycheck, and don’t tolerate disrespect from anyone in any form.

I hope we all continue to build up our inner strength and loudly speak up for ourselves the way Ma Rainey did.

The original Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Playbill from 1984.

Run Brooke Run

Last month I ran the NYC Marathon of 26.2 miles within 4 hours, 50 minutes and 26 seconds. I was able to run through all 5 boroughs. After I finished I had so much energy- adrenaline is its own kind of drug, that I was jumping up and down as if I was on a trampoline. One of my closest and best friends Rashawn, who was one of the main photographers for the marathon, met me at the finish line and hyped me up more (I even reenacted crossing the finish in slow motion). The feeling of accomplishment and completion was truly euphoric. Afterward, I was met with questions of how I trained or what was training like, but to be honest I always stay ready. Yes, I did increase my running a couple of months before, but I work out (intensely most times) 5 days a week and have for years, so I didn’t have to do extreme training for the marathon. I mentally prepared myself more than anything else. I’ve run half marathons and smaller races before, so knowing the heavy increase in mileage with a full, I had to get out of my head to realize I can do it, that I worked hard to get to this point. But when I got to mile 20, I hit that infamous “runners wall” and I prayed so hard for God to give my knees and thighs strength to keep going.

Though the entire race was an amazing experience, it didn’t start out that way. I had never been to Staten Island (where the race was starting) therefore, I underestimated my timeframe to get there from the Bronx. I was up at 6 am, on the train by 7:30 am, and my race time began at 11 am, so I figured I gave myself more than enough time. Well, thanks to the lovely MTA system, my train was delayed several times getting to the Staten Island ferry which was delayed 10 minutes. Not observing the timeframe of how long it takes for the ferry to get to the destination- it took 30 min. After the ferry docks, I do notice that there are no other runners, which is a key that something is wrong. The time was then10:40 am. I sprinted to find this shuttle bus that was to take runners to the start. As I was searching, I spotted 6 other people running and 4 with numbers. I made it on the bus and the bus driver asked, why we were all so late, everyone explained their story. After 25 minutes, we made it to the start point only to be met by a woman (I’ll call her Cruella), overseeing the start point. She told us we missed our start time and we couldn’t race. A woman who was on the shuttle bus and was running began to cry saying she and her husband were from Russia and came just to run. I immediately called my parents who drove up from Florida just to see my race. Completely choked up I told them that I wasn’t going to be able to race, but I would call them right back with more news. I then told Orande, who called me to see what happened. As we were speaking, I could hear in the background a few people trying to break through to Cruella. There were about 25 cops around us as well, a couple of them were sympathetic and asked the crying woman who was racing what happened and she told them. The rest of us were talking to the cops and members of the running team to see if there was anything they could do. One cop offered to escort us to the start point if Cruella would just let us race. Cruella must have gotten word she was getting a new Dalmatian because she broke down and let us move forward. So after we got the go-ahead, race numbers were scanned and around 12 pm I started my journey.

It’s true that it doesn’t matter how you start, it matters that you keep going and you finish. I had a goal of running the full marathon and told myself it would be in 2019. I prayed and meditated on it going into 2019 as I applied for the lottery to be entered into the race. Now that I can check it off as an accomplishment, I want to run it again in NYC and other cities. I’m thankful to my support system of Orande, my family, and friends who cheered me on before and the day of by sending words of encouragement or creating banners (thank you Qilah, love you) and always God for giving me the opportunity and ability. Without you all, a dope playlist, preparation, and a focused mindset I would not have been able to complete it in the timeframe that I did. We did it ya’ll!

Engraved and official.