Josie M

“If you asked me what I was,

& you meant in terms of culture,
I’d say Dominican.

No hesitation,
no question about it.

Can you be from a place
you have never been?

You can find the island stamped all over me,
but what would the island find if I was there?

Can you claim a home that does not know you,
much less claim you as its own?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Identity was partly heritage, partly upbringing, but mostly the choices you make in life. ~ Bran”
― Patricia Briggs, Cry Wolf

“I am convinced that clarity about who one is and what one’s work is, is inextricably bound up with one’s place in a tribe – or a family, or a nation, or a race, or a sex, or what have you. And the clarity is necessary for the evaluation of the self and it is necessary for any productive intercourse with any other tribe or culture. I am not suggesting a collection of warring cultures, just clear ones, for it is out of the clarity of one’s own culture that life within another, near another, in juxtaposition to another is healthily possible.”
― Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

“My son asks... Father, am I Australian or Syrian? You are a unique blend of both son, never allow anyone to dictate that you must choose one, when you are simply cherished with both.

Only open minded people will accept and more importantly understand, that you can certainly be both Australian and Syrian/Greek/Indian or Irish simultaneously. Your blood is nourished by the water you consume, the two are inseparable...”
― Anass Basha