A year in China? Poetry? What were you doing over there and where exactly is this going? What's funny is that I didn't even think I would be writing about China in the context of my poetry until I started writing Origins: Way Before Not A Monolith. My feelings about my year in China were complicated for a very long time. I always said I would do a video but as we've discussed sometimes the spoken word and I don't exactly get along. But after 7 years and a poetry book under my belt, I think it's time we talk in-depth about my year in China and how it encouraged me to rediscover my love for poetry.

They say long-form content is back! Although I wouldn't crown myself with the title of certified yapper, verbally that is. I quite literally always have something to write and I believe that's where this story begins. Before we get to the pivotal moments that led to my debut poetry book, Not A Monolith: poems and musings of a black woman, I must first lay the literary groundwork that helped shape Baby Tash.