Ayanna L. Wilcox

​I am an American by birth, Haitian by Blood. I am African due to the diaspora but I am Black by experience. Legally and biologically, I am the baby sister to two. But emotionally, in addition to, I am the big sister to four. I am the youngest daughter to Larry and Marie. But spiritually, I am the daughter of the Almighty. God is Love and Jesus is my Lord. Therefore, I can do all things through him. Statistically, I am not supposed to be here. But my faith allows me to firmly believe in never letting your circumstances define nor confine you and because of that I am destined for greatness.

 

At the same time, I am a product of my surroundings. I am the product of the streets of Irvington & Newark, New Jersey. Sort of speaking, I am a contradiction to what it means to be from “le hood.” I am the result of after-school programs, and cheer squads. I am the result of coaches that cared and children who looked like me wanting the same thing – to be happy, to be negligent of things children shouldn’t be exposed to or have to experience or even witness. But do I resent it? Of course not. If not for it, I wouldn’t be as passionate as I am to create safe havens for children of urban neighborhoods. I wouldn’t be inflamed for the reformation and development of urban communities.

 

With all the negative things that go on, I always find a way to be realisticly optimistic. In hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, my intuitive spirit allows me to have a good sense on how to make things go right. (The implicit, naïve me wishes that the world would just be a place of joy, where no strife exists. Until then, I’ll be wearing my breast cancer crusade, waiting for my knight in shining armor marching for the cure to Alzhiemer’s Disease and all cancers.)