Not me getting a standing ovation at Yale?! Thank you @yaleafamhouse for inviting me back and for all of the other panelists who shared their stories and listened to mine. In the second clip, I’m explaining how one of my teachers (who was a white woman) began day of 1 of classes by sharing how she didn’t believe that the “Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano/Gustavus Vaasa” (one of the first narratives written + published by an enslaved person) could have been written by a Nigerian enslaved man. For the rest of the class, she went on to explain that the text was “elaborate” and “articulate” as if it wasn’t possible for an enslaved person to produce writing of that stature. When I confronted her about it, she cried and for the rest of my final semester at Yale I taught myself the course from my bedroom. But to be clear this isn’t about her, it’s about the structures and systems that attempt to rob us of our histories and the need for spaces that are centered on our stories and the preservation of Black narratives. ___ The @yaleafamhouse was one of my favorite spaces on campus. It was/is a space of Blackness, refuge, exploration and consciousness-raising for me. I’m so grateful that it exists and that I was able to experience the same sense of refuge again.