 Hi everyone, my name is Kalechi Ubozo and I am a trauma survivor and a mental health advocate and really excited to be part of this collection and See all you beautiful brown faces This piece is called Lost and Found When you arrive in San Francisco a Rebirth happens not that you are becoming someone new Sometimes you're becoming who you were always meant to be Maybe you're the black poet going through a never-ending goth phase like me Or you could just be a black artist stifled by her strict parents idea of success like my mother Mama arrived in San Francisco 37 years ahead of me Growing up in an all-white neighborhood in Long Island, New York was painful For her older siblings being part of the only black family in the area was glorious They were invited to the best parties everyone wanted to watch them dance Touch their thick afros and be their best friend None of this was extended to my shy frumpy lackluster mama. She was a hidden gem that no one was looking for When I asked her why she traveled across the country to a place. She'd never seen outside of magazines She'd sigh and wistfully gaze toward the closest windows It's a place where the lost go to find themselves My mom landed in San Francisco in 1976 be friended by a Haitian diplomats daughter Angeline They built a home for themselves in the Harlem of the West known today as Fillmore in San Francisco She transformed something woke up inside of her that inner light was fed and the glow was born I imagine those two were quite a pretty package and my mom had endless stories from their gentlemen callers Though thinking on it. Now. I'm sure those stories were heavily censored At night. She painted skyscrapers or audited art classes at San Francisco State University Angeline took her to poetry readings and jazz clubs Mama fell in love with the old gray ocean lifted herself outside of her thick fog During the day she worked for the Black Panthers teaching English at art Sorry teaching teaching English at the Oakland Community School English would she would recall from her privileged Oberlin education really she teach them anything sometimes it was English or math or art Anything she could do to help these kids with a fair since they'd have to buy their own way out of poverty Her time in California was brief one day. She was working with kids and she got a call I'm not talking about the one on the phone Despite her college major of English with a concentration of African-American studies a voice inside her was telling her It was time to serve black folks differently Something very loud was telling her to become a doctor The voice wasn't her parents her siblings or even her neighbors I doubt she'd ever been far enough from home and that the noise that allows one to truly hear the message was clear She returned to the East Coast attended medical school and eventually Built a primary care practice in Atlanta, Georgia. I Am my mother's daughter when I got lost. I started dreaming of foggy mythical kingdoms a call from my outside Whispered that I needed to go west. I wanted purpose and radical change I wanted healing for black people who had experienced trauma like me. I needed to live in a space that invited innovation I envisioned stardust littered streets and finding my missing family Imagine a place where no one would call me white for simply reading in this city by the Bay Maybe black was not a synonym for uneducated When you arrive in San Francisco California a rebirth happens not that you are becoming someone new sometimes you're just becoming who you were always meant to be So I traveled to California Partially confronting fate and hiding from the theories here. I am in the land of outsiders and no one is laughing at me I'm not unlovable Healing the hatred of myself that I've been taught for eons dancing in a crowded house party in the mission I'm working in mental health advocacy and preaching about trauma-informed care Sometimes people hear me when I tell my story from coming back from the dead. They always listen Mama was right location is everything But acceptance is expensive and the city is fluid. There are times this place steals my breath I gasp when I see the blue-green ocean and the lights from the hills like grounded stars. Thank you