INHERITANCE / WEEK 3 of 17
INTERLUDE: THE WEIGHT OF MY NAME
The interlude has arrived.
The full essay—THE TRIFECTA—drops tomorrow at 9AM CST.
Strike One: Blackness.
Strike Two: Queerness.
Strike Three: HIV+.
And still—
I'm here.
Read me like scripture.
Because lineage isn’t always passed down.
Sometimes, it’s resurrected.
INTERLUDE: THE WEIGHT OF MY NAME
I have been renamed a thousand times.
By the mouths of strangers who never knew me.
By the hands of lovers who never stayed.
By the world, before I ever had the chance to name myself.
Some names were given to wound me.
Some were whispered behind closed doors, too ashamed to be spoken in the light.
Some names clung to me like a history I never agreed to carry.
And yet, when I open my mouth to say my own name—
why does it feel like something I have to apologize for?
Who was I before the world told me what I was?
And who am I now, beneath all the names that were never mine to keep?
If you stood in front of the mirror tonight—
what word would you write in the fog?
A name.
A prayer.
A refusal.
A truth.
Write it.
Say it.
Or carry it quietly.
But make sure it’s yours.
Subscribe to read the full essay—The Trifecta—dropping tomorrow at 9AM CST.
One name reclaimed at a time.