new york, new york.

birthday 2023 🎈

keeping in line with the promise I made for 2023, I have to be honest, this trip was more about getting out of town than it was my actual birthday. my birthday just so happens to be an excellent on-the-surface reason to go to nyc. i called up my gerls and we all made the trek to spend four days in my favorite city in the world. this wasn’t my first time in new york, but it has been quite some time since i’ve been there. i must say it didn’t take long at all before i blended in with the locals. maneuvering my way through the city as if I had lived there my entire life. hearing the heels clicking on the pavement, the countless cars honking would make any visitor anxious, annoyed, and exhausted, but it made me feel warm, at home. and on the flip side, It made me feel excited to be somewhere that was (still) largely unfamiliar to me.

there wasn’t much of an agenda on this trip, just vibes. on the first day we went to the color factory near soho. this was the best museum experience that i’ve ever had. it really is an explosion of color and I got some amazing shots with my girls. and although i enjoyed the experience, my choice in fashion really came back to bite me in the ass. about halfway through the exhibit, my heels were absolutely killing me. i was tip-toeing and i pray that you guys can’t tell when you see the photos. 😂 since we were staying in manhattan, we decided to use the second day as an opportunity to go sight-seeing. we explored three of the other boroughs - brooklyn, queens, and the bronx. i wanted to look cute, but i also didn’t want my feet to be the ones to have to pay for it, so i wore my best walking heels and immersed myself in the beautiful culture that each borough had to offer. in the bronx, i got to see the high fences of yankee stadium and get food at one of the most famous bodegas in new york. we then traveled to queens where i got to see citi-field and historic corona park. we then finished in brooklyn where i got some amazing shots and views of the brooklyn bridge. although brooklyn was my favorite borough to visit, it came with mixed emotions. i got to see first hand the gentrification that has been going on for years. and it’s just a sad reminder of how racism works and manifests in so many ways. i could finish this entire post talking about that, but i’m not gonna do that. moving on, chyle………we ended the our adventure with a short stop in harlem where I got to see the famous cotton club and apollo theatre. One thing i can appreciate about harlem and brooklyn is i felt so comfortable being around so many black people. staying in manhattan you don’t see nearly as many, so that was a great welcome. we finished our trip off with trips to central park and photos in times square, which is where we happened to be staying at.

from the sounds of the honking cars, and countless vendors vying for your business on the streets, to the smells of steaming hot dogs everywhere you go, this trip reinvigorated me in more ways than one (I’ll explain in a later post). This trip was exactly what I needed to get this year started. :)