At some point or another, everyone has felt unseen and unheard and marginalized.
I've just kept going, like millions of people do every day, because life does not allow them to do anything else.
I never thought I had the monopoly on struggle or suffering.
I have been a policymaker proven in tackling some very complex social issues on the municipal level here in Boston.
I am probably an outsider because I challenge conventional narratives about who should have a seat at the table.
I will sit at the table and compromise with anyone in the name of progress, but there are things I'm not willing to compromise and negotiate on, and that is the rights of women, of immigrants, of workers, and of the LGBTQIA community.
We make a mistake when we stereotype neighborhoods as 'bad' and not worth our attention or investment.
Public service and community organizing and movement building is such a part of my DNA that it's really hard to separate it.
When I was growing up, 'Ebony Magazine' was a must read in our household. In those pages I found our news, our stories, and my pride.
Plans without price tags are simply pandering.
Just as every animal is part of a kingdom, phylum, class, and order, every Dorchester resident has a parish, school, park, and neighborhood that they identify with.
My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead.
People close to me personally, politically, have expressed frustration that I'm not the political animal that they wish that I were.
I've not been a decisively re-elected city councilor and top vote-getter three times because I haven't done the work and because I don't work hard.
When I was ready to buy my first home after years of renting, I immediately zeroed in on Dorchester.
I think culture is a very challenging thing to reverse.
Thanks to my mother's sacrifices, I was able to attend one of the best schools in Chicago.
We want Boston to be the safest bicycling city.
I happen to be black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both, but that is not the totality of my identity.
For me, whatever vantage point that I'm serving, I'm going to be an advocate and do the work to actualize my values.
