Raveena Aurora is the whimsical goddess of love and the fairy godmother of queer brown girls. Her new album Asha’s Awakening, released on February 11th, 2022, proves just that.
And I love that you love drawing stars on your wrists and smiley faces on your hands.
That you love when the light hits the side of a building, preferably when it’s a skyscraper.
I remain hopeful. Hopeful for a future where pointé shoes come in rich shades of espresso, mahogany, cognac and everything in between. A future where black and brown dancers are celebrated, not tolerated.
I don’t believe in alternate realities or universes. I don’t believe in fixing broken relationships. And I don’t believe in getting back together. But what if we were given a third chance?
I can’t help but feel as though I take everything for granted. Even love. Don’t we all to some extent?
It took me years to arrive at this feeling of acceptance and patience, especially as a queer, non-binary Asian person in an overarching community that operates through the lens of whiteness.
Decolonizing love in ourselves is a practice that inevitably heralds rebellion. To become ungovernable by the promise of codependence may be the single most terrifying and powerful first act we can commit against the forces killing us and our planet.
You never think about how you navigate love until it becomes clear to you and everyone around you that you have no idea what you’re doing.
This is part of a collection inspired by psychogeography that I’m currently working on in my Creative Writing Masters program. You can view other work by me on my Instagram account @lovebykel.
A personal and intimate poetry collection written in hopes of earning a spot in the Tortured Poets Department
These were first written during the time when the world took a turn (2020-2022). It was a time when we really relied on our devices more than ever: to know what was going on with our world, keep in touch with those we love through social media, consuming content creators’ projects from our homes, and everything felt like it was at a standstill.
This collection of poems is the product of over five years of revisiting poetry as a form of creative writing. It tackles themes of coming to terms with burnout.
Kristine Gerolaga is a Filipina American actor and filmmaker from Vallejo, CA currently based in Los Angeles.