2022 is here! We’re are now two years in with having to deal with a pandemic that has truly changed the way we all live and interact with each other. COVID has taken a lot out of me, as it would many people. COVID is so much more than just a virus. COVID has crushed the notion of freedom to connect and commune with others in many ways, especially within dance communities. I am not sure where we go from here.

For four years straight, I produce and direct a production entitled the Kwanzaa Celebration. On Saturday December 11th, Kofago Dance Ensemble, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and Queensborough Community College presented Kwanzaa Celebration 2021: The Legacy Continues. Honoring the fifty-two year long tradition of Kwanzaa, Kofago Dance Ensemble and Queensborough Community College pulled together a performance that pays homage to this beautiful holiday. we even got coverage of our event from Channel 2, CBS News, which was truly appreciated. After everything was done, I couldn’t wait to take a much needed vacation to clear my mind and take a break from what was a truly strenuous year.

Unfortunately, that never happened. The Omicron variant had other plans. Flights were cancelled due to people getting sick in such large numbers. Lines for COVID testing were now hours long instead of the walk-ins we were used to just some weeks ago. Everything started to trend in the wrong direction.

COVID has truly taken so much from us. It seems that every day we lose something else; our sense of normalcy, our freedom to congregate and celebrate as we please, and sometimes even our lives.

I am tired. I hope that 2022 will bring some healing and a better outlook on the future but who knows what COVID will take from us next.

My hope is that my local community gets more proactive about delaing with this pandemic. There’s way too many people out here who are not vaccinated. I’m literally seeing people in my community lose their lives to this virus. Knowinfg that they could’ve been vaccinated and they chose not to is very concerning. In anideal situation, I would love for COVID to take a break and let me enjoy travelling again, but the pandemic seems to have other plans for now. I just have to accept it and keep going on with my life as best as I can until COVID decides that maybe 2022 is the year we all get our lives back.