Here’s how our first session of “Un Ratico con MÁS” went, and what’s coming up next.

Our first session of Un Ratico con MÁS was an intimate and empowering gathering. A small group of us met on Saturday, August 29th at Estelita’s Library in Beacon Hill to write poetry about our names, get to know each other a bit more, and reflect on the importance of creating spaces and activities that amplify our voices and strengthen our presence as Afro and Indigenous people in this city in the Pacific Northwest.

While enjoying a delicious guava cocktail and chips with guacamole, we created from the imaginaries of our own bodies and experiences. We began by naming ourselves for ourselves, feeling the sounds of our names, and searching for new meanings within them—names that sometimes hold secret messages of family histories and heritages that we are not always conscious of.

Imagining ourselves from our own lived experiences becomes a priority at this moment when violence against the migrant community is increasing. It is a way to reaffirm the value of our presence in this territory and to celebrate our creative power.

Here I share the poem that was born from this exercise of reconnecting with my name, as a sample of what we create in this space: