I make my own headpiece every year, claiming a space for my ancestors in the annual Carnival celebrations.

On October 26th, I opened my mailbox to see an invitation to participate in a roundtable: Queer Ecologies Symposium, hosted by the British Society for Literature and Science and the University of Oxford.

Among other things, “queer ecology” challenges traditional ideas regarding which organisms, individuals, memories, species, visions, objects, etc. have value. It challenges the idea that humans have more value than any other lifeforms.

The only constant is change.

The first of this series appears as the first of “The After Party”, a series of newsletter guest appearances, hosted by Stacy Marie Ishmael at The Main Event.

That’s me, front left, standing with my cousins Kino and Helen, with Aunty Mavis and Uncle Bertie on Santa Rosa Festival day. I might have been six or seven when this picture was taken. Aunty Mavis was later crowned Queen and she died one year after The Amerindians premiered.

Writing for radio, I learned to construct sharper opening sentences which resonated and also, to compose succinctly, with color.