Once Upon a Time
she was a storyteller
There’s been a story knocking around inside of me for a while now.
It started with me realizing that I’d never publicly shared that in 2025, literally in a *BIZARRE TURN OF EVENTS, shortly after being introduced to collaging as a creative practice, I became a published collagist in a Black woman’s literary magazine Sistories, Issue IV: Pleasure Paths.
I was shocked & a lil disappointed when I realized my oversight. I think initially I couldn’t share until the publication came out, after that I have no excuses. I hid my light under a bush y’all (is it a “bush” or a “bushel”? Is a “bushel” a bible bush??…)
ANYWAY—
Once I got over Working through that guilt, has looked like me asking myself, how are we gonna handle this differently, Ebony?
Well, I have been wanting to share my art more, but admittedly I’ve been holding myself back.
Back in the day, I was a lot more candid on MySpace & my/THE early days of Facebook (Yes, I’m 1900s “old”). This led to me sharing all my “cringy”, heartbroken, teenage girlhood poetry (AND selfies) that I thought were SO deep, chile.
TRUST, as soon as I find those alternative Black girl bangs, I’m inserting those digital camera snapshots.
When I got in my poetry bag, you could not TELL me I was not wearing a beanie to the side & snapping my fingers DEEP. Okay! (had me some lynn last night!)And I wasn’t a haiku, less is more type of Poet. I mean, I could be, but long form, THE longest form was my preference😂 And people liked my stuff, that was nice. That was really nice.
But one day, something changed—I woke up feeling HYPER aware of how I might be being perceived online😳 I deleted ALL of my poetry from Facebook. I didn’t wanna be seen in that vulnerable of a way anymore. Even though, I was literally just going through all the teenage angst & awkwardness as everybody else in the 90s-early 2000s, but…damn, in hindsight, I realize that was at THE beginning of social media for real…
Now I’m over here like, how long have I been letting this sh*t f*ck with my mind & my creative flow??🤨 since the mf beginning?!
ANYWAY—
Over time, as we can see here, and even more so if you follow my personal IG accounts (The yapper is IN me, not on me y‘all🤭), I oscillate between my fullER self and my smallER self (never: fullEST or smallEST). I can’t just be anywhere without Being who I am, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying to make myself…small in public spaces, literally, but in lil sneaky ways.
Because of my “falling out” with being perceived online some time ago, I’ve had a private Instagram page for forever. And I LOVE my private page. We have a good time & we love it over there. I’ve curated a safe space to be all/most of who I am in a way that allows me to express myself pretty candidly and find/be with community. As much as I love my community, I feel like there are parts of myself that are “unpotentched” because I’m nervous to “be new”.
So in my efforts to Be new, Be perceived, and just f*cking Be, I created a public Instagram page SlimPickenssLite. I thought the play on words was clever, even if it was only for me. “Lite” as in, a watered down version of my private IG page SlimPickenss🤭
At a time where some folks are deciding to step away from social media, which I totally support & have seen the benefits of, this may feel unnecessary to some of you and baby, that’s fine. Feel no need to interact with it, but dare I say, you’re missing out😏
…but also, I’m missing out on exposing myself to new communities, new types of art, new things to do and new ways to learn them. I’m hiding my light under a bushel again, y’all! (Because it IS a “bushel” & a “bushel” IS in fact a Bible bush😂) if I don’t STOP trying to be sneaky about playing small.
When I say in “lil sneaky ways”, I am occasionally showing my personality, my sense of humor, my unique style, and special interests on my public IG stories (knowing they’re gonna disappear in 24 hrs😌🙌🏾). Very cutesy and low stakes compared to my private IG where I’m cackling like a wild banshee on my stories, dancing like nobody’s watching on my (“lives forever”) FEED & encouraging my friends to have orgasms for breakfast to guarantee a good day. You know, nothing too crazy😅
But I’m not sharing “the goods”. The secret reason I told myself I was really creating this page👀 I reeeeeally wanna…like…*does random dramatic hand gestures* “I’m finding it!”…put myself out there more as the ever-evolving creative that I am.
I am a poet, a storyteller, a model, a collagist. Some of these things I’m new at, others are my oldest loves. There are some newER things that I’m afraid to list, because I don’t wanna proclaim I’m a new thing…just yet. They all trace back to the root of my tree, being a storyteller. So whether jokingly telling insightful stories about navigating sobriety, creating abstract vagina collages, or simply sharing my outfits
I have a lot more stories to tell.
*p.s. THE BIZARRE TURN OF EVENTS will be told, but it’s so much more whimsical than, I submitted my art to a magazine and BOOM!💥
Stay tuned…