The FlyGirl Chronicles

You might be nosy but what you know about ear hustlin??? 😂 Do you know why conquering this skill will help you write better dialogue? . I’ll be teaching a class September 25, 2024 from 6:30pm-8:30pm at @literarycleveland explaining the art of ear hustling and how it can lead to writing short, snappy dialogue for any genre . This class is inspired by my grandma, old Katherine Hepburn movies & celeb Twitter beefs! It’s for all levels of writing, is multi genre & is a mix of lecture, writing exercises, collab & group discussions and will be held in person. . Tell a friend, tag a friend! Find out more info & sign up on the @literarycleveland website 💜💜💜💜 . . . #writingcommunity #writingclasses #literarycleveland #clevelandwriters #clevelandwritersworkshop

Still in awe of this year’s @clecrownconvention presented by @mocacleveland 🤍🙌🏾 be sure to read this AMAZING article by Silk Allen. Thank you for promoting community and covering stories that reflect that.. truly for us by us as a black woman journalist! The entire article here: /stories/cleveland-crown-convention-celebrates-passing-of-the-crown-act/ #cokoscrown #clevelandcrownconvention #thelandcle #hair #naturalhair #crown #forusbyus #crownadvisoryboard #mocacle #community #impact #cleveland #cuyahoga #crownact #cokoscrownessentialoilblend #councilmanhouser #workenlightened #natashalovelace #dayjasmith #dayja1 #silkallen #adovacy #excuzedbyzah #glolocs #joshhill #aawfulaaron

Its that time again !! Date: Friday, September 26 📍 Location: ThirdSpace Reading Room (1464 E . 105th St, Cleveland, OH 44106) Doors open: 6:00 PM 🎤 Stories begin: 6:30 PM Story Length: 7 minutes or less 💲suggested donation : $12 Tell It is an evening of live, true storytelling- open mic style. Guests are invited to share 7-minute story- funny, moving, reflective, or just surprise us, in a welcoming space. Come to tell, to listen, or to connect.

Give a warm welcome to Silk Allen @idoflythings who will facilitate our GLAAWC 2025 writing workshop “Street Lit”!✍🏾 Silk is a Cleveland-based storyteller, 📚journalist, 🎙️and personal stylist whose creative vision is shaped by a chaotic mess of influences— fashion, pop culture, and nostalgia— while echoing the poetic prose of Iceberg Slim and the unapologetic lyricism of Lil’ Kim. 🗣️ Her writing has appeared in local publications BFly Magazine, The Plain Dealer, The Plain Press, Destination Cleveland, and The Land, often writing about the local fashion, shopping, and entertainment.  She was awarded the Twelve Literary Arts Baldwin House Urban Writing Residency in 2021 and participated in Literary Cleveland’s inaugural Breakthrough Writing Residency cohort for 2022-2023. 🏆 Silk is currently working on completing two books- a memoir titled ‘I Write How I Talk’ and a hybrid collection of essays called ‘Spit’. 📚 In Silk’s workshop, “Street Lit” learn to craft an engaging tale complete with Urban Street dialogue, plot, setting and more. Create Black stories rich with culture and diversity shouting to the world that our stories matter.✊🏾 Street Lit tells our stories with unfiltered truth. It captures the pulse of the streets, the struggles, the triumphs, and the real talk that mainstream fiction often misses. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting, Silk will help you find your voice and tell stories that matter to our community. RSVP for the Street Lit Workshop at #GLAAWC2025 . Limited spots available. Separate Link in bio. FREE RSVP for #GLAAWC2025 with a bundled tix for Keynote Speaker Diane McKinney-Whetstone’s “Family Spirit”! 📚 Link in bio.

So anyway, the rest of my 20s & 30s were all about the grind. I graduated in 07 & came home to a recession but I didn’t know what that meant, for me. . . I went back to the same gig I’d had since hs, an office job at a mental health agency where I got away with a lot because my mom worked in the payroll department lol. But I was miserable af & getting called in to HR every week cause my hair was too purple & too unprofessional & my jumbo earrings, clunky jewelry and fly ass vintage plus size style BOTHERED THEM FOLKS on a daily basis 😂😂 . . I got hired at Dots & customers would tip me to pick out outfits for various occasions. I learned about women’s body shapes & sizes & how insecurities & influence can effect the way they dress, it would mainly be plus sized customers coming to see me. But helping women of all sizes look good for $20 or less was my origin story! . . I enrolled in fashion school the very next fall after my Central State graduation & attended classes, worked both jobs, attended fashion shows around the city & ofc continued my duties as a mother to a rambunctious little boy that was into everything 😂 . . While in fashion school I was volunteering & attending every fashion show in Cle networking my ass off to make my way into this industry- freelance writing for publications, styling for local photographers, working under the table at boutiques, fashion blogging & consulting & I snagged a few costume gigs too. I begged to join fashion shows that would only have designers & boutiques & had to learn how to sell myself without losing myself. . . I also joined a fashion collective of likeminded designers, stylists, models & photogs that were trying to do the same thing. Design Lab was legendary & really helped push me into Cleveland’s fashion scene. . Obviously shit was sacrificed. The biggest thing being romantic relationships. Many men admired it but none really understood the reason behind my grind. I knew what I wanted to do & that’s where most of my energy went… . . I have no regrets, just an overwhelming sense of pride cause I can look back & say I built my life brick by brick the way EYE wanted to

I left for Central State with a trunk full of clothes, a case of bootleg CDs, a half oz of weed & ALL my 2pac posters. I was nervous af cause I didn’t know anybody, not even one person from all them damn hs I attended lol & I was prepared to do 4 yrs at school by myself. . I was always the new girl but this time would be different cause I was a pothead & potheads don’t go to college fr. . Sheeeeiiit everybody in that bitch smoked 😭 Hanging out in different hoods at home prepared me for my HBCU cause I met Black people from everywhere & smoked with everybody. . I was all in the Natti, CO, Youngstown, Dayton, Toledo, Flint, Detroit, Kentucky- on the weekends we all went home with each other! My 1st yr was a fuckin blur of weed smoke & lit experiences lol. I gotta skip a lot when I get to the college experience part of my book cause we all went too hard . Those stories will have to be written in a fiction series . I got pregnant like a mf tho. My ex came to live with me on campus 🫠 I quietly dropped out . Had my baby stayed home for a yr & had some tough decisions to make that I don’t regret. I also had a breast reduction, started wearing less & hanging out more 😂 . I was serious when I went back- became the 1st female editor of our newspaper, did music internships with Warner Bros & Atlantic & was handling my business. But then I got in trouble again. . I got locked up. Briefly. I don’t talk about it. Damn near ruined my life tho, my mom still thinks it did . Came back again cause I ain’t no quitter & FOCUSED. Learned how to balance it all while becoming who I was. I did all types of shit on campus. My style changed drastically from freshman yr to senior yr just wearing ANYFUCKINTHING😂 . I made friends for life, found myself, received deeper knowledge of self & my degree (finally!). . I have to look at pics to remember graduation cause we had all partied hard the night before & me & I had to tie up some uh loose ends…All I remember is hearing my roommate screaming at me to wake up cause I was late to graduation. I ran stumbling across the field barely making before the ceremony started. We all had on sunglasses 😭😭😭 . But we did that shit 🙌🏿💅🏿

I came to Cleveland with my border collie Jebriel DeAutri Reid & took him everywhere I went. That’s how I met all the niggas lol. . I was 14/15 & had recently just got phone privileges with boys (ha!) before I left Ga but me & my homegirl used to skip school & call random #s to talk shit to boys that were also skipping school. Wild times 😭 . I gotta bestie out of it tho- Tim, & I used to go back to the A & visit him a few times. I think we were at Avondale Mall.. . That 1st yr was quiet. My first homeboy who I’ll call 227 for right now inspired the essay I’m currently working on called Strictly 4 My Niggas cause he put me on game all from his porch lol. I learned about everybody in the hood since they all had to pass his porch to get to the corner store 😂 . Another porch where I spent alot of time was @_she_definitely_pisces who I met after I left Glenville for the Cle School of Arts. She was the first serous writer I ever knew irl & put up with all my shenanigans. We bonded over music & writing still till this day ♓️ . None of my homegirls smoked back then but best believe I KEPT a badly rolled blunt 😭 . I started kicking it & chilling all over the city, mostly on 10-5/St Clair but you could catch me in the projects DTW, in EC, the Heights, Solon, baby I was here there everywhere all I needed was a bus pass, some weed, Flamin hots & a ginger ale😭😭 . I couldn’t roll tho and would have to get my cousin to preroll for me but anytime I did roll my own raggedy ass blunt best believe I proudly took a pic 😭😭😭 . I made that cannibus shirt with iron on letters from Walmart immediately after seeing a Trina interview of her rocking a black tee that said it in sparkly letters. They sent my ass home from school so quick my mf head was SPINNIN😭 . I would skip school to go anywhere tbh lol. The lake, the duck pond, the museum, bus stops just explore the city freely smh idk how tf I graduated from Kennedy but I did that shit s/o to Upward Bound cause they kept my ass on track with them lil stipends 😭🙌🏿 . That man was the picture man downtown & took framed poloraoids for $5 from my HS days to my college days, before digital cameras took over

When we left Alabama for Decatur, Ga I was still in my weird music listening, bball playing, card trading era & I quickly found out how “different” I was that summer before 7th grade. I looked different. Talked different. Did different things for fun. I used to play ball by myself on those courts all day in my apartment complex & that’s how I made friends, niggas first lol. . I got jumped at the park, held my own & showed up the next day at the same park cause my dad told me to. I’m glad I did cause I quickly realized I was jumped “in” & I was embraced… . I met my homegirl Jessica at Atherton Ele in Ms Dowies 7th grade class, compared to a Ga accent I sounded country af & my dark skin clearly meant the sun in Alabama was different 🙄😭 . My mom accidentally took me & Jess to Freaknic- she thought it was a parade & found it wasn’t 😭 . I’ll put the pics in my stories but it’s funny to see what all caught my eye back then lol . We took “that’s my car” to the extreme & used to flex taking flicks in front of nice cars & trucks. This belonged to *redacted & a yr or two later he let me sell drugs for him with disastrous results 🥴 . . I was on the back of the bus with the cool kids getting shipped to a white school 2 hrs away for 8th grade. Peachtree Middle School. M to M minority to majority but no white kids ever came our way lol . 9th grade Towers/Dunwoody High so much shit went down you just gon have to read my book since this is actually where my memoir starts. That summer before I came to Cle was wild. The pic with my bff Steph was taken the morning I got in so much trouble I had to leave my mama house & the reason I ended up in Cleveland. Let’s just say it was a skip party gone wrong. I’m literally writing out the agenda on that pad right there but it all went so so so sooooo wrong 😭😭😭 . Me & Steph used to hitchhike & jump MARTA rails to meet niggas in other places lol. This was my Scottsdale bae, we were pen pals for a little minute before life got in the way… . A few weeks before I left for my new life in Cleveland… . . . #storytime #writersofinstagram #igotastorytotell #memoirs_of_childhood #clevelandwriter #blackwritersofinstagram

I had a small gap that closed up on its own but not before my older cousin nicknamed me “BG” 🙄😭 . Also had a problem with ash that caused my grandad to call me “Dusty” from the time I was yay high til damn near my senior yr in college when my grandma made him stop 😭 . We’ll stop there with the nicknames lol. Just know I had a FEW 😭😭 . Girls had to wear dresses and skirts at the private school I went to except for field trips & dress down day. It took yrs for me to voluntarily wear them after the 6th grade . I was a BALLER! I played on a traveling softball team & we had high stakes tournaments every weekend. My bball team consisted of all the best Black girls in Gadsden & a cool ass white girl & we dominated thru racism. Y’all wouldn’t believe the stuff they did & said to us 😔 . My class pic with me, my silk shirt and thrifted blazer 😭 . Not all my classmates were racists, some were just prejudiced a small difference, but still very noticeable . We would have days like “cultural day” where the kids of missionaries (my classmates) would come in wearing African garb and other “costumes”… I blanked all that shit out. . My mama got me up outta there after graduation, divorced old dude and we literally fled to Atlanta. Some shit happened in between but that sums up my six yrs in Gadsden, Alabama

I stayed in Cleveland until I graduated from kindergarten, my mom got married and we left to go down south. . The blur starts here cause I was happy spending time with my cousins, family down stairs, up the street, around the corner… . But then we had to pack up and leave to go live in Gadsden, Alabama… . My stepdad was rich. He was older & a shrewd businessman but I didn’t know what that meant until much later in life. . There were always tense moments in that house & I would beg to call my grandmother “long distance” to come get me but she couldn’t. I think I was sad a lot those days… . My mom must have felt something cause she involved me in everything she could to keep me out of there. . I was a Brownie, the prerequisite to a Girl Scout . I played tball with the Gadsden Fire . I met white people for the first time and learned the difference between poor southern whites and rich religious ones . Because my stepdad “had money” I did have access to certain luxuries but that meant nothing to my mama who was still from the hoods of Buffalo/Cleveland so I think that kept us from going too far. . But stepdad was all about looks and the status of having money and niggas knowing it. So when I got my period in the 4th grade & had to carry a purse for the very first time, it was designer. A Dooney & Burke bucket bag that I knew nothing about but the girls at my school did & broke they necks trying to give me a seat at a table I didn’t know existed. . I hated that shit . How it took a label to signify that I was good/rich enough to be one of them. So much so that I have always stayed away from designer labels, 30 yrs later. . If you know me in rl & have seen me dressed in my wild colorful #alphits you ain’t never seen me in designer logos which was hard especially in HS. I purposely shopped at thrift stores & fast fashion to avoid that shit . I always think of the of Pimp C’s verse “I been at the top of the world & at the bottom too. When you up you got lotsa friends but when you down it’s few” cause it was true even then.

“Pretty lil Black baby” my aunts were calling me that practically straight out the womb, sealed with a red lipstick kiss on my chubby cheeks lol… . I’m currently writing my first set of memoirs but I’m cheating a little bit cause I don’t talk about a huge chunk of my life from like birth to about age 11 for various reasons. The main reason is cause it was all a blur, not in the sense of “I smoked too much weed in my life & can’t remember” but because certain parts of my life that I did not like- I just pretended they never happened 🤷🏿‍♀️ . Probably not the best way to deal with trauma but by the time I learned any new ways it was too late. We were not talking about trauma, healing, doing the work or none of that shit in the 90s & 2000s. . But pictures immediately bring back memories. The ones I thought I had buried so deep but were really just underneath some other stuff… . Anyway, family was all I knew! Easter and Christmas were the best cause it was always a big huge event in our family- we didn’t go to church at all but do you think my grandma didn’t hand sew every single piece of our clothes every year just for the hunt and pictures?! 😭😭 . And we always had to coordinate in the pics so she picked out the accessories too 😭 . Being the only child AND the only girl meant I didn’t have to share shit and I did not 😭 . Not even my bday cake lol . . -My mom single handedly kept Olan Mills photography in business from 83-88 at least lol . -Legendary Easter egg hunts in grams backyard. Sometimes I needed extra help cause the boys would find the eggs faster than me and I would cry about it🥴 . -I HATED bday parties, being around too many kids, sharing my Cabbage patch cake etc and did not mind showing it pouty lip and all 😭

I took a break from my own show yesterday to style scenes for @msindependentalane annual play and fashion show #DeathJailorChange! . This is like my fifth or sixth yr working with her on this awesome production about domestic violence and it’s consequences. It’s powerful and entertaining and the fashion show scenes are always on point! . We all worked on this for months, my job is to read the script, identify the looks or give them to each character and work to coordinate looks on stage for each scene for each actor. And the narrator cause he had to look good too lol. . The cast was awesome and I can’t wait to do it again next year!