About gotp

My Story

My mother who is from Holland, a Holocaust survivor and Jewish met my father, a young black musician during the 60’s. They married in 1965, so my sister and I were born during the height of the civil rights movement in Newark, NJ. As you can imagine, finding our way in a world that wasn’t ready for us on either side was quite challenging. My childhood was filled with people from all walks of life, different colors, and rooted in both my Jewish/African American heritage. However, it wasn’t all good. My father, the first man I loved, was also the first man to break my heart, which is a big part of why I found myself on the porch so many years later. He suffered with drug and alcohol abuse his whole life, and the effects of this on our family, and my individual journey was monumental. My mother who did a remarkable job of raising two black girls alone, suffered great loss and never fully recovered from the pain of her past. I’ve learned to accept this part of my journey with authentic clarity, celebrate the strength I gained from learning to accept my parents in all of their imperfection, and the power I inherited to break out of the box the world attempted to put me in!

The teenage years were tough. I was always searching for somewhere to fit, someone to be there for me, and something to hold on to. This existed through college, but it is in college I met my best friend who was also searching for something…someone. We were both broken, but in different areas, and our friendship helped to repair and rebuild those pieces.