In Texas, my roots run deep. At least five of my family’s generations have lived there since the 1850s. I was raised in my grandmother’s house in Fort Worth, but as a child we called our hometown “Stop Six.” Back in early 1900s, a Northern Texas Traction Co. streetcar ran from the Tarrant County Courthouse to downtown Dallas. The predominantly Black community in east Fort Worth was the “sixth stop” on the line. This is where my grandmother (who I wholeheartedly called Big Momma) raised her children, where my parents met, and on the other side of town, where my Big Daddy ran a TV repair shop.

I moved away from Stop Six as a kid but never forgot my community that was within a 5-mile radius of Big Momma’s house. When she passed in 2022, naming my creative content company Stop Six Ink was not only in homage to her, but also embracing the early memories that shaped me as a storyteller.