ACKNO​WLEDG​MENTS

This book would have been impossible without our friendship, so first and foremost, thank you for the light and deep love that has been sustaining and life-giving throughout this process and beyond.

Thank you to our sweet families, biological and chosen, for having patience with us and loving us unconditionally and giving us safe havens to recover, recuperate, and dance (shoutout to Papi Juice & Gush and bklyn boihood) while we got through some of the thickest parts of this process. Thank you to our agent, Daniel Greenberg, who was one of the earliest people in this journey to believe in this book.

Thank you to Christopher Jackson, Cecil Flores, Nicole Counts, Mika Kasuga, and everyone at One World for your eternal patience, optimism, guidance, and support. Thank you for believing in us and in this. Every writer should be so lucky as to have a team with such an incredible commitment to their wildest dreams.

Thank you to Quinn Hearty for helping us establish a working business agreement to keep our most precious thing, our bond, intact, and for forming our LLC. To Treehouse Taxes for their continued commitment to tax justice and helping us make sense of the least sexy side of writing a book that is also a small business.

Thank you to Morcos Key for designing our book and the visual language to represent our vision.

Thank you to the first quorum of friends who gave us counsel and advice, held our hands, and encouraged us as we set off on this uncertain journey: Thelma Golden, Natasha Logan, Jason Parham, Justin Allen, Bsrat Mzghebe, Dr. Kellie Jones, Jessica Bell Brown, Hassan Rahim, Naomi Shimada, Jessica Lynne, Taylor Aldrige, Naima Green, Lise Ragbir, Taravat Talepasand, Anna Holmes, Wesley Morris, Claire Gutierrez, and Mary HK Choi. We are forever indebted to your early and continued support.

Thank you to our patient and persistent assistants, Kim Small and Sunny Azim, for all of your help with the details, the finest of the fine print, and transcriptions.

In gratitude to the generosity to all the spaces and places that were a refuge while we worked on this project, including Grandchamps, Brown Butter Cafe, Golda, Win Son, Playground Coffee, Saraghina, Mood Ring, Jack Jones Literary Retreat, The Wing, and the MacDowell Colony, where portions of this book were edited and updated.

And finally, last but not least: Thank you to all the writers, artists, and dreamers who gave whole-heartedly and without hesitation, and to every single person who opens this book.

This project is for all of us.