The Woman in the Mirror


So what’s that have to do with the Woman in the Mirror Tetralogy, you ask?


Each of these four independent works symbolizes a different level of the thesis. (Independent because I did not plan for these to be in dialogue with one another—I only saw they were connected in July!)


Visions (Internal)

Siren (Relational)

Roots Torn, Routes Chosen (Generational)

The Solars Book 1 (Systemic)


And, each work demonstrates all four levels of the thesis despite having a place in the meta arc. The goal? Everyone will arrive at the same thesis in the form that resonates with them the most. The Woman in the Mirror is me in this regard (or my subconscious because she did all this somehow). I reflect back a truth you haven’t sat with at whatever level you’re able to sit with it so that you can one day recognize the treadmill and house and do something about it. 


Fun fact: I don’t yet know what happens after we go outside—I haven’t lived it yet! This tetralogy is only Act 1 in the meta arc. (I’m only 29, so we got plenty of time to see it all play out.)



  • Visions is my one woman show for tuba, voice, loop pedal, and spoken word (narrative performance prose poetry if we’re being precise). 


    It’s composed of works I wrote from 2016 - 2026 for survival in real time (that magically formed the thesis’s narrative arc! Whoa!).

    It’s 90min in three acts, following my journey to psychological liberation:


    Prologue: 

    Why Am I Black? (November 2016)


    Act I: The External Fight

    Gateways (February 2022)

    Reflections (April 2023)

    Foundations (April 2023)


    Act II: The Collapse

    Fire (June 2023)

    Be Anything But Angry (July 2023)

    The Snake (July 2023)

    I Choose You (August 2023)

    INTERMISSION 

    Armor (October 2023)

    I Am Angry (February 2025)


    Act III: The Rebirth

    Woman in the Mirror (December 2025)

    WitM Sequel (December 2025)

    The Wave (January 2026)

    Integration (January 2026)

    The Cage (January 2026)


    Epilogue 

    Phoenix Manifesto (June 2026)


    As the internal level of the tetralogy, Visions focuses on my interior battle to recognize and face the internalized voices after years of letting the fire burn inside of me. 


  • Siren is a dual POV literary gothic thriller novel. It’s epic length at almost 275k words. 

    Siren was started in May 2015 a month before I graduated high school, and I whittled away at it slowly until leaving my marriage allowed me to finally write the ending in April 2026. 

    Basic premise: Mary Shepard has been setting three plates for years, running through the motions of her domestic life as she prepares for her husband to return home. When a demolition crew arrives to knock the house down, she’s thrust into reality where she meets assistant Mayor John Reynolds who agrees to help her get back on her feet. But she quickly realizes the things she thought she left behind aren’t done with her yet. 


    Siren is currently in beta reading stages and seeking representation for traditional publication. 


    As the relational layer of the tetralogy, Siren is about coercive control and how it takes hold in relationships with people in our lives to keep us stuck. 


  • Roots Torn, Routes Chosen: A Story of Black Migration (2024) is a 30min work for wind ensemble or concert band and griotte, in a genre I coined a narrative symphony (I made the box this time). It’s a story told in five different movements of the different stages of Black migration throughout history. It starts in Pre-Colonial Africa, takes the listener through the Middle Passage and slavery in an enslaved woman’s perspective, goes through Jim Crow and the Great Migration, incorporates Caribbean migration in the mid 20th century, and resolves in modern day resilience and perseverance of Black Americans against all odds. 


    Roots was originally premiered in 2024 (it happened…) and re-premiered in February 2026 by the Keene State Concert Band. It is currently available for programming in its wind ensemble and concert band variations. At this time, I am the only griotte licensed to perform the work. Please contact me directly for more information. 


    As the generational layer of the tetralogy, Roots examines the deepest rooted (punny) form of generational trauma that has had a collective impact on all of American society. Without understanding our history, it is doomed to repeat. Without seeing what built the current structure of society, we cannot begin to dismantle it. 


  • The Solars is the first book in an adult dark fantasy trilogy with a celestial cosmology. It is a 190k word rewrite of my first self-published work from 2011 (thirteen-year-old Jazzie. could write outstanding architecture with her age appropriate craft). The rewrite was started in June 2014 and its first draft was finished in June 2026. It is currently under revision. 

    Basic premise: Sol Everlast has been homeschooled in her apartment, isolated by her mother for her entire life. One day, she has had enough and escapes to see what else there is to life and bumps into Matt, a red-eyed boy with fire powers who takes her to the Agency: an organization for young people with powers. She learns, however, that her power was hidden for a reason, and with a prophecy to be fulfilled by her birthday, things never get to be simple. 


    As the systemic level of the tetralogy, The Solars is about how systems function in complex ways to predetermine our paths and make it difficult for anyone to get ahead.