Even today, the appeal of unending information and glamour dwindles and this collection is an account of this side of the world. Lalibela is an account of coming home.

Inspired by stories from the “Boogie Down Bronx,” this collection is an account of the Black female millennial that left it and that returned to its at times, dilapidated realities. Lalibela holds within its reams the fatigue and redemption of a working class family of the African Diaspora in the West.

The lively avenues, bus routes, love lives and cultures preserved in memory and in real-time as if frozen in place from another, happier time. Retaining a legacy of teaching its young hard truths about survival, identity, achievement, failure, faith, death, resilience, life, love and hate.

As concepts evolve, facts change and truth disrobes, Lalibela is an expression and legacy of survival. Within this small community with limited resources people ponder existentially, pray colossal prayers, and resuscitate grit mouth-to-mouth.

Originally a church in Ethiopia, Lalibela is similarly the sanctuary for a piece of mind and a direction to that inner place of belonging that travels with us all as we navigate our various and difficult realities. Simply, Lalibela is home.

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