Yasmine Tadross

The girl that was denied, Denied her ability to exist. The one that felt like she was either 8 years ahead or 15 years behind in her social development. She was always the object, but never the subject. Her blood, sweat, and tears were always overlooked and never praised. She was either a bullet train going 1000miles an hour, with no breaks, barely a grasp of her pulse, and never could plant her feet on solid ground; Or stagnate like a statue, sitting and waiting for someone to observe her. The girl is enraged, She has enough anger to become a hurricane, To reck havoc on everything and everyone that denied her being. To make this land a permanent wasteland. Everybody of water, soil, and forest would be dried up and deteriorate. She figured in casting a permanent dry spell over this land, every person who denied her mind, body, spirit, labor, and emotion shall never escape.   Where she can finally claim herself, Where she can finally go to bed without crying to sleep, She can access...

My Sweet Melancholy,  You are rare. You are the type of girl that can't be replaced.  The one that will always be an inconvenience to the masses. You are cheerful and warm by day, but after every meeting, headline, and black body that dies for existing, you turn somber. You have the ability to be brilliant off of 2% battery life. Sweet Melancholy, You constantly grieve because the boys that you romantically like will never come, because you often desire the ones that will hurt you the most. In this world, we are taught that love will cost you, rather than be free. But right now, when everything is so isolated, womanhood being negotiated, and people are dying faster than leaves falling from a tree in early autumn, people holding you sounds nice. Sweet Melancholy, Everything that you are feeling is real. You are crushing on a black boy while grieving the loss of Ahmoud Arbery. You are angry at the world, yet angry at yourself. You feel like you have been trying to catch up to ev...

Dear Bag Lady, How do you do it? How do you carry the weight of the world and yet take up so little space? You occupy like a fire escape, Operate within a small square dark cubicle and only speak when someone sparks your flame. Dear Bag Lady, How do provide space for others and not yourself? You are amazing at making sure everyone else is taken care of yet leaving yourself lying on the bedroom floor without the will to get up. Dear Bag Lady, You have the ability to recognize everyone's humanity, but your own. You often see yourself as part android. Having the ability to portray that you are brilliant Do every task, take on every project, make sure everything I say is articulate, and program yourself to be as nice as possible to make sure everyone has a smile. Dear Bag Lady, This time you finally cracked, you enter into a room that is filled with 20 people that feels like 200. your battery has depleted. Trying to engage in conversations about professionalism an...

I went to a pub with a friend, It was a Wednesday and 40% off appetizers, Because we both know we are not paying full price for that shit. We were talking about Angel from the tv show Pose , He said that I was similar to her, specifically around white boys. I don’t know, I have always been fond of them. They are sooo…… normative. They walk the street like there is no care in the world, it just turns me on. He told me jokingly that “I needed to stop going after them.'' Though just for humor, I really thought about it. For most of my life, I thought if white men desired me, that would be the end goal. I would have reached the pinnacle of desirability, Run through a hill where the bright green grass is up to my knee. We can run together holding hands and lay down next to each other as the sunsets. That was never the case, white boys saw me as a spectacle. I am fabulous on a stage or pole, but ugly when walking on the sidewalk. A person to desire at 3am as they ar...

To My 16-Year-Old Self, You are about to start puberty, I know because I am going through the third one right now. (PS you are trans and going to go through three different puberties!) Our hormones are currently spiraling like a roller coaster ride that never ends and we both seem to have crushes on 5 people, a few of them we should not be having, but we still have them because fuck it.  We are both physically, emotionally, and philosophically busy because either it is the workload as well as working, being a loner, or trying to figure out your next steps in life; you are just busy.  However with me right now, I have friends, which is kind of odd because I am not used to it. By the time you are 22, your only experience with friends will be for about 3 years or so, but this time you are dealing with parties.  I will tell you later.  You are currently living through a conversion therapy now, the holy trinity is telling you that you deser...

To my Insecurities, I just wanted to let you know that I love you.  That I apologize that most of your life, people have hurt you.  Being raised in a post 9/11 era, though I didn't immigrate to this country, my body has been treated as foreign. By both white and brown communities. I didn't grow up having friends, didn't go to sleepovers, high school parties, or tailgates. I sat alone and created worlds in which my body was not discarded like an empty plastic cup, but I was queen.  That I walked into rooms and everyone would turn heads.  In which if someone was policed, communities came to the rescue.  You see, I wasn't born in the wrong body, I was born in a world that is scared of what I am capable of. Now that I have obtained community and western forms of "success", I am afraid. I am afraid of losing my loved ones.  To lose connection. That at some point they will find better people and leave me. ...

$95 million to each resident of West Garfield Park is roughly $5343.52, that is not nearly enough for reparations, however, the cop academy is reverse Robin Hood; give to the reach, displace the poor, and leave them with nothing. A cooperative food shop and community gardens would be open on every single block to feed the masses. Their bellies will be full and youth won't have to be reminded that whiteness is the only way to be nourished.  Every person would have at least their own 400 sq ft paradise. To be reminded that housing is not a commodity, it is a human right. It is essential to life and as vital like honey; it pollinates, rejuvenates, and spreads the sweetness from generation to generation. Without housing, there is no community.  Arts, education, and community centers would be open and will teach black and brown youth that they are royalty. That your life is a throne and should be praised by many. To understand that you don't have to grow up so quickl...