Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beyond Vietnam Book Review

Monday, January 19th, 2026

By Aya Black

Today I was feeling low energy. I do not typically celebrate MLK Day because I believe there are so many expressions of Blackhood, celebrating Blackness is not a monolith and doesn’t have to look one particular way. However, moving to a new state / city and not having a community makes it very crucial for me to honor the people and things that have shaped me into the person I am today. I grew up loving my black skin and hair and having public figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the several reasons why. Getting to see widely respected change makers that looked like me at a young age had a very positive effect on my psyche. 

On MLK’s actual birthday on the 15th I was able to go to my local bookstore and purchase one of his pieces of work, Beyond Vietnam, which is actually a speech he made at a church in New York a year before he was murdered and adapted to a book. I am glad I was able to show my gratitude for an ancestor that fought for the civil rights I have the privilege to benefit from today. 

Some days are harder than others for me emotionally but grabbing this book to read was a low lift and I am glad I did. Although I was distracted it took me about an hour to finish. Beyond Vietnam showcases Dr. King’s antiwar stance, naming the war for what it is a war on the poor and vulnerable. Although I do not like the overuse of the word poor and peasant in the book, I do have to agree with Dr. King’s assessment. Telling men, especially Black men, to go fight in a war abroad when he doesn’t even have freedoms in his own backyard doesn’t make any sense and King called out the hypocrisy.  

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” King states in Beyond Vietnam. This assessment he is making is spot on. He could even make this speech today and what he is saying still holds true. Our country is at a critical moment right now, what we choose to spend our dollars on truly matters. Will we go down in history as a country that bombs and destabilizes other countries or as a nation that commits more deeply to social uplift? 

How are you honoring MLK? 

Endings Lead to New Beginnings

Wednesday, January 14th, 2026

By Aya Black

Today while in Dollar Tree I picked up some cleaning supplies and a large storage tote, the reality of my journey living in Seattle is coming to a close. The lease for my studio apartment is up at the end of the month and I start the journey of becoming a nomad next month, my plan is to travel across California, a state I fell in love with when I first visited L.A. now almost 12 years ago. After being in Cali for a week I will make my way back down to the south via Tucson, Houston, NOLA and Atlanta before going back home to Miami. The journey is not going to be easy as I am reworking my budget constantly to make sure that the bills still get paid, maintenance needs are happening for my car, my L.A. Fitness membership is renewed and I have wiggle room for some fun along the way.

This Seattle ending has been cut short and has me feeling bittersweet but I am at peace with this decision and to see where life takes me next. I have been applying to jobs, interviewing and this weekend I will be making a trip to Home Depot to get some moving boxes. I am ready for a new beginning! 

I look forward to all the new memories I am going to be making in some of my favorite places on earth such as Oakland, San Francisco and L.A. All the national parks I am going to visit for the first time and elevating my yoga practice to the next level. 

I think as we get older, letting things go that no longer serve us gets easier. I think this ending is going to make room for me to get deeper into finally writing my romcom novel, reading more, and getting serious about meditating.

Actually, now that I think about it…I am very grateful for endings and the little promises of fresh starts that they bring!

We need more wellness

Thursday, January 8th, 2026

By Aya Black

The chaos that has happened in Minneapolis is telling us that collectively as a society that we need more wellness and less ice agents terrorizing our communities. Last year I ran a 5k back in March. It was the best $45 I have invested in my health in a long time at that point. After the 5k the City that hosted the wellness event (my hometown) had a staff yoga professional on site and led a large group of people who opted into a free yoga flow that was healing, relaxing and helped tremendously with decompressing after running 3.1 miles. I believe the City of Miramar is a shining example for other governmental entities across the country.  

We desperately need more cities, government agencies and businesses investing in wellness and we need to defund ICE agents terrorizing our immigrant communities as well as the people who support these communities. 

As a Black woman who is a daughter of an immigrant I know all too well the tactics that ICE is doing is identical to what police departments have historically done with murdering innocent and oftentimes unarmed Black community members. 

What if instead of having ICE agents we deployed trained professionals that could help people on the spot with their immigrant process?  We need better, affordable and more humane pathways to citizenship instead of raids and throwing people in detention centers. Detention centers, raids and ICE agents demonizing innocent & peaceful protestors are not solutions to our immigrant and refugee issues in our country. 

How our government spends money matters. The woman who lost her life in Minneapolis should be alive. The amount of money going to ICE agencies is unacceptable. I want to hear more stories on affordable housing, livable wages and universal healthcare in addition to having more licensed mental health professionals and wellness practitioners.

Our communities need more healing resources and less cruelty!

Sending Love to All That Need It

Posted - Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 Updated - Thursday, January 8th, 2026

By Aya Black

I am sending love to everyone who has reached out to someone for comfort and instead got a cold shoulder. I feel like I have been in constant loops of one way friendships that when seeking comfort they were seeking to teach me a lesson and trying to bring back old, expired and toxic versions of myself back to the surface. Those old versions of me are dead in my current universe and I hope you seek to kill the version of yourself that you no longer identify with. 

You deserve positive validation even if you are the person that has to give it to yourself. Nobody should have to do life alone but I hope this serves as a source of compassion for you, you still deserve to clap for yourself even if nobody else does. 

At first I was against watching the show How to Die Alone because I hated the name but overall the series taught some very life important lessons. Sometimes you do have to learn to do life alone and the journey can still be filled with joy, humor, simple pleasures and connection along the way. Now me, I am no angel. I lost a lot of people I thought I was going to do life with when my mental health has taken dips in the past but I am on a healing journey and I deserve to honor my progress and opt out of experiences that seek to drag me back into toxic cycles. 

So I am dedicating this year to standing up for myself, clapping back, and being my own biggest cheerleader. I will acknowledge how far I have come in my journey even if nobody else does. This is a love letter to me but to everyone else who needs to hear this message. This is a note to everyone else who believes you cannot hold anyone accountable but you can support, love and uplift your loved ones through accountability. 

Accountability can only reach me this year through compassion, kindness and authenticity not through harsh lessons and tough love. I just hope to keep my peaceful warrior spirit strong through the process and find endless ways to be humble through the chaos and the journey along the way. 

So my assignment right now is to remain consistent with my wellness through journaling and doing my affirmations as well as to get more serious about doing my mantras, positive self talk and speaking life into myself. What does your wellness journey look like right now? 

Why I Believe in Rejection Therapy 

Monday, January 5th, 2026

By Aya Black

I love rejection therapy and I believe everyone should engage in this practice more. I recently saw a beautiful queen on Instagram that said one of her New Year resolutions is doing rejection therapy and I was immediately tuned in because this is something that I have done in the past and I want to be more intentional about going forward. Rejection therapy is when one intentionally makes themselves resilient to rejection by unapologetically asking for what you want. Rejection therapy seeks to desensitize hearing the word no and to build up confidence skills. 

I believe everyone should engage in rejection therapy. Chasing the life you desire in the year of 2026 takes a certain level of boldness and audacity. In society that loves to put people in their place it takes a lot of guts to tune out the naysayers, haters and negative energy coming at you constantly. Believing in yourself is a full time job. Going after the life you want requires you making a commitment to yourself daily to not settle, have a strong faith, and keeping an optimistic attitude despite the challenges you may face. 

Rejection therapy requires a high level of consistency and discipline. It’s to look at your current conditions, be grateful for what you have but to also be brave in admitting that you want more. Rejection therapy also requires you to be gentle with yourself, to honor your humanity and your flaws and know you are still deserving despite it all. 

Cheers to everyone on a journey to a better life. I will be outlandish with my requests. I cannot wait for anyone to save me, I have to prioritize saving myself. If you are doing rejection therapy this year feel free to connect with me. Let’s get free together!

The Universe Is On Our Side But We Must Still Apply Ourselves

Friday, January 2nd, 2026

By Aya Black

People who love justice, peace and freedom I am speaking to you. Back in November, right before Thanksgiving I lost my job that I moved across the country for. Recently, I have been stuck in a cycle of feeling resentment for the sacrifices I have been making in the continued pursuit of financial freedom and not losing progress of the gains I have made in 2025. With this most recent job, I was able to increase my credit score of over 100 points in less than six months, pay off thousands of dollars of debt all while doing what I loved but I couldn’t stop an organization that wasn’t ready to tackle their anti-Blackness and how it showed up every single damn day. I was the only Black person working in my department and at the organization and unfortunately speaking truth to power got me the ax. 

However, I wasn’t prepared to be back on the job market again so soon after only 5 months.Last year I was so ready to get out of the rut I was in that I applied to over 100 jobs in two months. Having to do that all over again less than a year has instilled a level of resentment and rage inside of me I am still trying to unpack and comprehend. This is the journey that 600,000 Black women have also had to face as we are being systematically pushed out of the job market at disproportionate rates that should be sounding off fire alarms across the country but unfortunately because it’s us it isn’t. 

The system wants the labor of Black women but doesn’t want to pay us for it. Even with all of this and knowing that the odds are not in my favor I am still fighting for my liberation. I took my time to update my resume for the second time since November and applied to a career job after making myself breakfast this morning. My resentment was replaced with gratitude that I was able to see and apply to this job posting 3 days before the application period closes and the skills that they were asking for is aligned with the skillset that I have. I am grateful that today alone I have been able to see more opportunities that I can apply for and if it takes me applying to 100 jobs again then so be it. That is my fate that gratitude has helped me accept. 

I still desire to have a soft life, to be a homeowner by age 40, to update my passport and travel the world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice.” I wholeheartedly believe that, after applying to this career opportunity I continued my studies in my journey to become a registered Yoga Teacher and after my yoga & chakra meditation class I felt even more gratitude. 

Every time I continue to commit myself to consistency and my goals, I am rewarded by the universe. Meditation is helping me replace my lingering resentment with gratitude as I am in this waiting period in my life but I still believe in financial freedom and I want to be the shining example for everyone who looks like me. 

The Universe is on our side but we must still do the work in fighting for what we deserve! Much love to you in your journey. May 2026 bring more peace, justice, light and freedom to the whole world! 

a long walk movie review

Monday, December 29th, 2025

By Aya Black

Spoilers Alert

If you need a good movie to rent on Amazon Prime, I would definitely recommend A Long Walk. It's in the thriller/horror category so you also have to have a strong stomach to watch it. Society is currently in economic turmoil and sends 50 teenage boys on a challenge to walk to victory, whoever walks the longest distance without stopping and maintaining a good pace wins. The theory is that the annual walk helps spark hope in a society where there is not much hope left! 

One of the main characters mentions to the group of boys that doing the Long Walk is really not optional, especially in a society that gives young men very few options for a successful future. He puts the competition in perspective especially because the challenge gives the young men an illusion of choice to sign up and make them feel special to be one in 50 chosen to participate. 

Whoever doesn't win is shot and killed on the spot. Walking too slow? 3 warnings and you are dead. Need to poop in the middle of the road? You better do it within the 3 warnings period or you are shot and killed. 3 warnings is all you get. 

During the walk, the young men share their wishes of what they want if they win. Having the Long Walk have two winners instead of one is thrown out by main character David aka Peter another wish is to be surrounded by 10 sex workers from one of the Asian walkers. However, nobody wishes for the Major (one of the walk organizers) or any of the generals to stop the killings overall. Why kill the losers? Every time someone is shot and killed it causes agony for the remaining walkers but not once is this a wish that is even considered for the remaining walkers. 

I wonder if the walk allowed teenage girls if the outcomes would be different. If you ever ponder about the economy and living in dystopian times then A Long Walk will help you put things in perspective. I won't ruin the rest of the plot for you but the ending is not completely horrible. 

BEING PRO-BLACK DOESN’T MAKE ONE ANTI-BLACK

Thursday, December 11th, 2025

By Aya Black

I believe it's a gift to be a Black Woman in this world. Every day, I am grateful for this gift. I am Pro-Black as I believe in reparations and that every single person who is a descendant of enslavement should have access to jobs that pay a livable wage, affordable housing and to thrive not just survive. 

I currently live in King County in Seattle that is named after Martin Luther King Jr. I think it is completely warranted to be exhausted by things being whitewashed. I am grateful for the strides that the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movement have made while also acknowledging that our country has a long way to go to do right by Black people. The other day I decided to visit the MLK Jr Memorial Park which is nearby my apartment and there were a few bronze statues that was missing which quite naturally would make anyone upset. I know if this was an attack on historical white men in this country this situation would've been rectified already, something like this would not be happening at Stone Mountain Park in GA, and if so a resolution would've already happened. 

I met a white man who is an army & navy veteran at the memorial park that was alleged there when the stealing of the bronze statutes happened. Instead of what I thought was going to be fruitful conversation of solidarity and solutions, it turned into a conversation where he centered himself and said he doesn't see color. I want to live in a country that believes in giving veterans access to good quality mental health resources and more and not choose to emotional dump on Black women because we are perceived to be strong. 

Needless to say, what I thought was going to be a 40 - 60 minute walk was cut drastically short but that still doesn't change my overall beliefs which leads to my next point. I still believe that the current prison system, that disproportionately impacts Black people, needs to be abolished. The recent news story about the viral prison father / daughter dance (where the majority of fathers were Black by the way) was cute for like two seconds. Why are we not working harder to free these men so everyday can be a father / daughter dance? Prison Abolitionist scholar, Angela Davis, said "prisons do not disappear societal problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages." 

I believe that right now white people need to work harder at being anti-racist. We need to start asking more critical questions in the workplace, in our communities and in our homes. If Black leadership is missing at the table at work then you need to speak up and ask why especially if you have privilege. If your elected officials are not looking as diverse as the people that live in your city then it is your duty to help change and transform that. If you know Uncle Joe is racist and he is coming over for Christmas dinner you need to start challenging his beliefs. We got to do better and it shouldn’t take waiting for the next “No Kings” parade to do so.

automated intelligence versus artificial intelligence

Tuesday, December 9th, 2025

By Aya Black

I am not the biggest fan of Artificial Intelligence. I believe a heavy reliance on Artificial Intelligence leads to a society that is racist and recreates the environment of enslavement. Whereas, Automated Intelligence is more humane, supports workers rights, and sustainable. Automated Intelligence asks where are there opportunities for deeper equity, racial justice and fairness and looks to fill those gaps. Artificial Intelligence recreates red lining, erasure and a slew of other societal harms. 

Automated Intelligence seeks to repair and restore. For example, I love grocery shopping at Whole Foods but I cannot but help to notice that there is rarely any cashiers on the registers whereas when I go shopping at Trader Joes there is an ample amount of workers on the sales floor and on the registers. The workers are diverse and I see people who look like me which makes me happy to spend my coins there. 

My local grocery stores across the street is the same way. I wish more stores adopted the Trader Joes employment model. I will always prefer speaking to a live human when trying to resolve issues over the phone and chatting with an actual representative versus a bot. This website would've been finished a very long time ago if I went the Artificial Intelligence route but it was more aligned with my values to pay a website developer for their expertise in bring my site to life. Having access to a full time job gave me the resources to be able to afford to do so, so I am eternally grateful for that. 

Which AI side are you on, Automated or Artificial? 

never let go movie review

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025

By Aya Black

This is another movie that I definitely wanted to watch when it came out in the theaters last year but I am grateful I got the opportunity more recently to rent it for a really affordable price on Amazon Prime to help pass time after not being able to fall asleep. Halle Berry, the main character, lives in the woods with her two sons after a major apocalyptic event has turned most of society into homicidal monsters. Not too far of a stretch from our current state of affairs as a society right now but I digress. 

In attempt not to fall ill to the evils, every time Halle and the boys leave their home they have ropes that tethered themselves to house, the number #1 rule is to never let go. Letting go, according to Halle, is the difference between life & death. The trio only leave their home to find food. 

As time goes on, the food sources dwindle which causes a whole host of issues. Starvation causes things to take a turn for the worst. Trying to sleep is getting more difficult, falling sick is becoming more common and the family has to make difficult decisions. These decisions causes Halle's youngest child to doubt his mother and start to act out. 

First, he wants to untether the ropes when leaving the house. Second, he believes the world is back to normal. Third, he rebels against his mother when she makes the executive decision that they must kill & eat their dog in order to survive. 

This rebellion causes him to chase after his mother into the greenhouse that is adjacent to the main house &  where she decides that is where she is going to kill the dog (with a lot of tears and doubt in her heart btw). The youngest child chases after his mother and in a fit of rage untethers her from the main house, after being untethered she succumbs to the evil energy and kills herself in order not to turn & kill her children. 

I am going to stop the spoilers here and encourage you to watch the rest the movie unfold for yourself. However, the core theme is what I want to discuss. When I thought about the family starving it made me think of the most recent SNAP benefit cuts. When you are not able to have nutritious meals, it impacts the way you are able to show up in the world mentally, physically and emotionally. 

The family was suffering from psychological warfare. A lot of issues we are currently facing in society. I do not have all of answers to society's problems but I do appreciate media that directly or indirectly, addresses the issues that we are collectively facing in the world.

Tupac was definitely ahead of his time when he said "They got money for war but can't feed the poor." How as a society, do we turn away from killing each other en masse (wars, gun violence, etc.) and address some of our more pressing issues more head on such as food access, affordable housing, and mental health support for example? 

Those are the questions coming up for me after watching Never Let Go. If you watched the movie please reach out so we can discuss further. Let's get free together.