Raquel Brown

I was born. Most living could say this. I live while I’m alive and I can, without a doubt say that. Raised in a hole the color of skyscrapers and gun smoke, I loved hard ‘til I learned that it makes love hard. They call my city “Philadelphia” on Welcome signs and maps and I’ve been writing since I was 13 and I often feel that I’m making a mockery of this therapy by merely calling it “writing” for without a pen and paper at my disposal, I can tell you that I would have died and resurrected in the gutter of “Killadelphia”like my father did. I am not my father although, well versed in his swagger and readiness to fight. I have performed with amazing artists and performed FOR more amazing audiences. I have written for and with recording artists as well as authors and I have, myself authored poetry books as well as a memoir entitled,  “The Alpha Woman’s Bible”. I have children that have taught me how to love strong and have friends that make my small biological family, a huge world unto itself. My friends and men that I have loved are all encrypted in my speech, vernacular, my slang, my facial expressions.I am soft and firm and ready and calm. I am open and truthful and can be honest as I understand other’s feelings and I do my best, although not always successfully, to treat others the way I desire to be treated. I recently learned that a commercial that I've written and performed is being considered for an Emmy. I married a Black man and although that's really his last name, it just makes so much sense for the character he plays in my story.  And, with marriage alone, I will never run out of material: for the stand-up comedy that is so often my life as well as another book or merely a status on some social media platform because I love black men like I love God. 

I write…that’s what I’ve come to do. And, I do it well.