ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First to the Source of this book and me. I only pray that you are pleased.

Nene and Baba, thank you, foremost, for teaching me how to pray, sacrificing so that I could dream, and convincing me that the world is truly mine.

Cecelia, Elsie, John, and Quincy: Thank you.

Kumba: What do you say to your life force, to your first friend? To the one who taught me the power of imagination? Remember how we used to dream of worlds together? This book is as much yours as it is mine. It only exists because you believed and kept believing even when I couldn’t.

Dr. Linda Wharton, a.k.a. AL: You anchor me, affirm me, sustain me, love on me in ways that have brought me into myself.

Kamau, thank you. You made the call that sparked the completion of this book. I would have given up if you had not proposed those writing sessions. Thank you for the music all these years. And the love.

Vernon and Cynthia Hubbard: You will always be my second parents. I will never forget the way you kept me safe, loved, and affirmed in the place where my writing dreams first started.

Auntie Kathy and Uncle Rasool: Thank you for the journals every birthday. I’ve filled every single one.

Yaa: Thank you for building with me. Now we can all stand tall as the fab 4! I love you.

Lisa: Thank you so much for the love, the support, the sisterhood all these years.

Idriss: Thank you so much for joining the movement that is TDIG!

Tyehimba Jess: Thank you for seeing the merits of this story in its earliest iteration and publishing what would become the first version of its first chapter in the African American Review at JHU Press.

Mariah: You saved this novel twice. The first time with your willingness to take a chance. The second, with your patience as it revealed itself to me. People talk about the work of diversifying publishing, but you’re actually doing it. Please keep going, against all odds. You’re needed.

Allison, Khalid, and the Trellis team: Thank you for breaking barriers and helping this novel find its home

Jane Finigan, thank you so much for taking a chance on this book and finding it such a lovely UK home.

Caolinn: It is uncanny to have your work seen and known so clearly by someone you’ve never even met in person. From the first time you shared your vision for this novel, it aligned so well with mine that I felt like you were in my head. Thank you for stewarding a different kind of story into the world.

Anne: Your taste! Your sensibility! I have felt so seen by you, and so heard, and so encouraged. Every time I worried if my little word experiments would work, you got it—always got it—and that gave me courage to power through this transformative journey.

Mr. Wesley: You saw the work first. Thank you for launching me into my purpose.

To my favorite teachers: Ellen Krich, Maria Hampton, Dr. Ezekiel Vifansi, Dr. Lisa Wilde, Lonnie Carter, Dan Pulick, Beth Kurkjian, Liza Blake.

Greg Tate: For affirming me, and for convincing me to write women like the ones I know.

To Morgan Jerkins, for the gift of your work and your endless generosity towards your fellow writers. Thank you.

Halima Taha, for your support and your sisterhood at a critical time in my journey.

Rashida Ismaili: For hosting my first-ever staged reading in your beautiful apartment. I haven’t stopped, and never will.

To the New York theater community, to the friends, supporters, and artists who helped me grow. Thank you.

To the experts who lent their time, resources, network, and kindness to me to make this book the very best it could be: Dr. El Hadji Dièye, Dr. Saliou Dione, Dr. Sylviane Diouf, Jocelyn Dubin, Dr. Michael Flynn, Dr. Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, Dr. Serge Slama, Audrey Henry, Alexis Perryman, and Maryse Petasis.

Chloe, Sara, Amelia, and Emily, I deeply admire your cool and calm approach to such a tremendous task! Thank you for all that you do.

Molly Stern: Thank you for daring to innovate in this industry. I am so excited and honored that this book is part of your vision.

SJP: That you are shepherding this into the world is right in line with the theme of dreaming. No one would believe that I was binging SATC on Prime in the earliest days of this manuscript. Your reverence for craft, your integrity as an artist, and your love of reading are a gift to us all. Thank you.

And last but not least to my Senegalese family. The dearest love is the love we choose. That is what we have.