I thought it would be an eye... or a drunken stomach.... or green with envy... but it's none of those. It's a crown. The crown of an African queen.

Dark, dark chocolate brown beads...

My body... my skin, my breasts... me.

A rainbow mesh surrounds me...

Way, way back in my history, there's been pain and sex and love and bravery and joy.

...tears and terrors and magic and strength and resilience and overcoming and song (!) and passion and art and farming (?) and labor and bravery.

See this twine? I wove it into a friendship bracelet.
See this twine? It's a rainbow of light. It hugs me at my center.
See this twine? It's been used for strangling Black women and lynching Black men. You can't deny that.
See this twine? It's not all of me... just a piece. A piece everyone can see.
See this twine...

I can't explain any of this in words... the literal connection is... isn't... there, doesn't -- make sense, at all, but...

somehow it does. At the same time.

Because with this twine, I hug myself.

With this twine, "I me wed."

Claim the rainbow lights around my body... celebrate the pain, present and future...
This Brown robot... she's me. But not. But part. And so...
Africa, I want to know you. And I want to know too, Georgia. I want to know the world -- the world inside of me and the world around me. And this doll... She's my tour guide.

"Study away: Inside the strange and tangled caverns of your own soul."

Who said that?

It sounds cheesy... I don't really care, though. It's absolutely true.

Dear Madam Doll, when I look at you, I see a strong, Black woman.

What do you see, Madam Doll, when you see me?

She says: "I see a woman empowered enough to make her own decisions."

"Just choose, and move forward with whatever choice you make, Aliza."