Tag: struggles

Black Graduation 2021 was a proud showcase of young people who stretched themselves with grit in the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to proceed through the Rites of Passage ceremony with hearts full and heads held high.

I created my brand – my foundation – out of necessity. It was essential to my existence to find a purpose for my life that was greater than myself. I was tired of aimlessly traveling through life when all I had to show for it was a life sentence. That hangs over my head like a dark cloud. I had to ask myself, “What is your legacy going to be?” After pondering that question, I decided to turn my family name, Bim, into an inspirational slogan, Believing In Myself. I’m proud that I created something that the masses can relate to.

“Mama at Twilight: Death by Love” is a love story that offers a frank examination of family life in the inner-city as it intersects mass incarceration, poor access to health care, religious taboos and struggles under the burden of imposed tropes of man and womanhood. The Lower Bottom Playaz traditionally offer works that interrogate the experience of being human through the lens of the North American African experience. “Mama at Twilight: Death by Love” follows this tradition.