I am a Storyteller

I have dreamt of becoming a filmmaker since I saw the movie "The Wizard of Oz", with Judy Garland. Since I learned how to put words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs I wanted to be remembered as a storyteller. I created my own stories, imagined many and followed a few. I read books of wonderful authors, Rene Marques, Julia de Burgos, Luis Palés Matos and Pedro Albizus Campos. I have also read many American, African and European authors, to my liking few, but I can assure that Emily Dickinson and Chinua Achebe top my list.

As a filmmaker, I want the world to read and see my stories, to leave people wanting more. I want them to feel the need to question their journey, through the screen. I am not sure if my passion translates into my writing, but I know one day my stories will send a message so powerful that all voices will rise.

As a woman over 50, who entered the filmmaking game a bit late, I have considered giving up many times. The inspiration is there, the love for the craft is there and the need to tell stories is there. What am I lacking? I don’t think I'm lacking anything. The fact is that I am a woman, underrepresented, Hispanic and Muslim. By trade I am a journalist, outspoken and directing my focus towards the truth.

I spoke against gentrification and the end result of the projects my husband grew up in. I spoke against gun violence, created a documentary and the whole city outcasted me because I am making the city of Newark look like a killing field. In reality, I just wanted to tell the stories of mothers like me, who lost their children to street and gun violence. Some of the mothers did not get justice, for others justice was a slap on their faces and others saw the man who killed their child in prison for life, before they died. My son’s death was ruled an accident. I set the course to interview mothers whose stories need to be told, their grief needs to be a constant reminder to lawmakers that new laws need to be in place to protect our young men and women.

My focus on my documentary is not about police brutality, it is black on black, brown on brown and black on brown crimes in our neighborhoods. The pain of these neighborhoods is breathtaking. The way to connect that the city connects with grief is sweeping it under the table. It’s not an in between situation, it's all or nothing. Either we let our children die and be silenced by the politicians or we speak in order to end the pain lived everyday by parents, communities and leaders who have no way to solve the problems we all face.

I don’t have many followers, but a few people that read my stories. The few followers and readers like how my stories developed from something simple into an intriguing puzzle. Maybe they will read my book The Search for Khadijah. Suddenly it seems someone is talking to them. They find a moment where they connect and relate to the story. Some others may watch the short film Timeless Pain, Emily Rose. The short can be taken as gruesome and leave people thinking about what took place in the writer's life to bring such a story into existence. Or they might like how The Journal started with the end and ended with the beginning. An Island Nation is one of my treasures. It opens the heart of those who have lost their identy due to colonialism, slavery, and occupation. It shows how hope can grow the heart of those oppressed and denied a life of freedom.

The creator writes stories for people, everyday people. The stories they can relate in their everyday life. It could be that domestic violence, human trafficking or the story of a small island catches their attention and takes them into a world they can only imagine. The end goal is to bring passion to the forefront, to insight a soul, to deliver good memories or find a way to heal a trauma with some compassion by telling their untold tragedy. Anecdotes defined by the everyday structure of happiness, sadness and justice.

The author must play a guessing game with the reader, each time a new line is read. The writer needs to give the reader a new vision into a tale already told. "How many ways can I tell the same story that has been written a hundred times, again?"

ACTION!!!!