the young people's professor

Every now and then we come across some delicious, devine, exuburent burst of light (in the form of a human being) that makes us proud to be alive, to be black, to be queer..... to be, you name the "etc." Everyone has met someone in their life who makes them think, "why arent you famous?"

For me that person has always been my dear friend Yvonne Etaghene, known among some circles as the "Nigerian dyke diva". I first met "Yvie" in 2002 when I was still an undergrad and she had recently graduated from Oberlin and moved to New York to study performance poetry. We later worked together as editors of the short-lived NYU queer literary publication Brownstone. Since then we've shared crushes and lollipops, books and chicken-wings, boys and pillows, poems and cuss-words.