OF AFRICA MAG

Just had to share that OFAfricaMag did the most beautiful and generous profile of me on their site. It was the most fun interview conducted via Skype, a 30minute chat that went on late into the night and didn’t even feel like it. I’m so happy to see what they’re doing – “An online magazine where female voices and visuals are weaved to tell a more nuanced story about people of African descent”. I hope you can check out the feature and support them as well.

Excerpt:
“Know you, then be you.”

Somewhere between laughter, fangirling over Issa Rae, black girl magic, and sisterhood, attorney and blogger Simply Cyn said these words to me. Simple, profound and yet totally doable.

“Know you, then be you.”

I sat staring at my laptop, post-interview, the all-too-familiar Skype jingle still echoing throughout my apartment. However, more presently and more personally was the warm feeling of laughter shared and sisterhood formed. To meet someone virtually with the all the intentions of a formal interview and for all those constructs to be organically broken and rebuilt into a rich and genuine conversation, is rejuvenating. I laughed at myself, remembering how I debated earlier for almost 20 minutes, which of the four beige walls in my apartment would be most appropriately beige to conduct the interview and whether or not I remembered to iron my shirt (I did).

Voice Memo app on the ready, our interview was scheduled for around 9 pm EST. Feeling fabulously professional, I had my first question neatly written down in my suede Chapters journal. Naturally, I was a little nervous being that I was about to interview a modern day renaissance woman. Attorney by day and famous traveler, fashion and food Blogger by night.

Cyn started, “Well…I was born in Maryland but I grew up in Cameroon.” She shared how her parents moved back to Cameroon when she was 5 and she grew up there until her early teens before deciding to move back to New York. She explained how she skipped some of high school and dove straight into taking her SAT’s before moving to London during her gap year to try and figure out her life. Deciding that Law was the path to take, she went to law school and became a lawyer.

To read the rest, click here.

Also check out their profile of Evelyn of the Internets– love her.

And a discovery I made on their page- a short film called Diembe.