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Bree's Black History Watch List

This month I’ve been determined to find ways to celebrate consciously, something I’ve found difficult since graduating from the structured activities of academia. Luckily, streaming has made it extremely easy to (literally) observe Black History Month in the safety of our own homes! So, I’ve been intentional about watching stories that highlight the black experience and boast creative involvement from black people off camera as well. So without further ado, here are the top 4 films on my Black History Month Watch List for 2021: One Night in Miami It’s the era of the play on film! I started watching this without realizing that it was based on a play, but stopped to google this fact after realizing that characters were repeatedly talking for way too long without interruption. The source material is clearly rich, and that combined with first time director Regina King’s brilliance, makes for a tour de force of a film. Leslie Odom Jr. has been a favorite actor of mine since the d

Saying Goodbye to Harlem without Losing Myself

The day after Thanksgiving, I found myself moving into a cozy and cute apartment in what could arguably be described as the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This move thrilled me for a variety of reasons; my commute to work has decreased, I am surrounded by bars and restaurants that I can’t wait to try once we have a vaccine, and it’s now a bit more convenient for friends from other neighborhoods to reach me. This apartment really seemed to have it all, which is why my roommates and I signed the lease with little hesitation. However, in between signing and moving in, I found myself having to battle the very real emotional hurdle of saying goodbye to the neighborhood of Harlem. Ever since I moved to New York City in February of 2019, I called Harlem my home. I was excited and proud to call this cultural mecca my home. Historic buildings and multiethnic restaurants were available as I stepped out of my door, and my neighbors were a beautiful mixture of all types of ethnic, cultu

Living in Community

Do you know what community looks like? Many young New York transplants might say no. The city is famous for moving ridiculously fast and being a place where in an apartment of many units you might never learn your neighbor’s names. Moving to New York at 23, I had resolved to defy those stereotypes and bring a sense of small town community to my little corner of the Big Apple. But after about 6 weeks I found that I had had zero success in finding any sense of community in the space around me. Then quarantine hit. For the few months that I was back at home with my family, I got a pretty positive picture of what community looks like. One night I was washing dishes and it dawned on me that I had done all the dishes almost every night while my sister had yet to even rinse her own water bottle. But on the other hand, I couldn’t recall having done laundry since I arrived. That was a chore she’d taken upon herself each week without any instruction. Each of us was contributing differently, bu

How To Be Happy (Without Embracing Toxic Positivity)

All my life people have asked me how I stay so positive and cheerful. When I was younger I couldn't really give a solid answer. But as I’ve grown, I’ve had to become more intentional about maintaining those traits in life. After all, the older we get, the easier it is to become bogged down with cynicism about the world around us. I know that it’s impossible to be happy all the time, but I also know there are some things I can rely on to nudge myself more in the direction of happiness than despair. So without further to do, here are 5 ways to be happy - without embracing toxic positivity of course. Try to Unplug These days it’s especially hard to disconnect. With gatherings still being largely limited and a lot of people still working from home, it’s easy to glance at the clock and realize you’ve spent the last 12 hours in front of a screen. But research has shown that spending too much time with your devices can cause neck strain, headaches, blurred vision, and disrupted sleep

Finding Purpose in Legacy

Throughout the last few months I’ve struggled with feeling a sense of purpose. While time moves forward, most of the acting industry is at a standstill and I can’t do what I’ve spent most of my life preparing to do as a fulfilling career. Coupled with the lack of agency is a feeling of uncertainty about the timing of the industry’s full return. Many nights I’ve sat on Indeed.com and stared at a slew of job posts wondering if it’s time to make a transition into business or corporate administration. There’s a fine line between the romantic notion of waiting for passion to become tangible again and needing to pay rent each month. But without theatre, without acting, I couldn’t help but wonder dreadfully, what is it I’m meant to do? Even worse than the existential dread has been the sense of guilt that I’m worried about my career while others in this country and across the globe are literally fighting for their lives. Every life lost has been a painful reminder that the time we have on ear

How my Daily Run Became a Spiritual Meditation

Last month, my dad invited me to a running group based on the Nike Run Club App. The group does challenges every month and he convinced me to take part in the 30-mile challenge. This broke down into one mile per day, a seemingly easy “challenge” as far as they go. However, anyone who’s known me for much of my life can tell you that I’ve always been a sprinter in the most extreme sense. My middle school years are haunted by gym class mile times of 15 minutes and I can’t think of my brief stint on the track team without thinking about how it took me 90 seconds to run a 400 meter race during a tournament. Despite my misgivings, the lack of a gym had me ready to explore any and all forms of exercise and so I dove in. The first two weeks of the month weren’t bad. I was running about 1 ½ miles each day and consistently clocking in at around 12 minutes per mile. I was proud to have come down to 12 minutes after starting off the first day of the month at around 13 minutes. Every day