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shawn 🪽🤎

@swilliamsj

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around the way girl realness
@sprblooom
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@sprblooom newwave zine fest afterparty!! all my friends are beautiful and joyous 😝

tysm to @benphaan for the awesome photos!!

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I'm still coming down from the high. 🥹❤️✒️

Last night, Wild Ink Literary Salon came to life, and I'm still taking it all in.

What started as a little idea became a room filled with stories, vulnerability, laughter, and a shared love for the written word.

It was intimate. It was intentional. And it was everything it needed to be.

It was so beautiful being in a room where our words didn't simply echo off the walls. They ricocheted. From one person to another. From one story to another. Sparking thoughts, inviting conversation, and reminding us just how powerful words can be when we give them somewhere to land.

We caught a vibe, y'all! We listened. We laughed. We leaned into the literature and simply enjoyed being in each other's company. No pressure. No pretense. Just good people, good conversation and dope art.

And I have some flowers to give! 💐

🥂 @socialmobilebarco thank you for keeping our glasses filled and adding to the experience!

📸 @urban.nature__ & @raleighmarketing thank you for capturing the moments that I'll get to relive long after the evening has passed.

❤️ @authenticallysharonoliver thank you for lending your hands, welcoming our guests, and helping everything come together.

✒️ To our incredible Featured Readers @flofuensa, @littlepisuniverse, @swilliamsj, @nickgeorgethepoet, @roscoeburnems, THANK YOU for trusting this new space with your words, your stories, and your energy. You each brought something uniquely beautiful into the room.

And to every guest who chose to spend their Sunday evening with us, thank you. Your presence, curiosity, and willingness to engage made the evening what it was. An intimate gathering, but a mighty exchange of words.

I'm proud. I'm grateful. And I'm still smiling.

Wild Ink was never about filling a room. It was about creating a space where words could fill us.

And last night, they did. ❤️

Here's to the first of many.

Stories that stay. Thoughts that grow. Words that root. 🌿

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✨COVER REVEAL✨

We are beyond excited to share the cover of Lampblack Magazine Vol. 6! Available on November 14th, this issue features contributions by Trinity Battle, Marcus Clayton, Lyndsey Ellis, JP Infante, Ola Osaze, shawn williams, Annell López, K. Desiree Milwood, Shy-Zahir Moses, Chisom Nsiegbunam, and Audrey Obuobisa-Darko.

We respect the diversity, challenges, and triumphs of the entire African diaspora. Within the last six years, we have presented readings, facilitated acts of mutual aid, hosted workshops, and published zines in an effort to sustain the vulnerable, secure, marginalized, empowered, prodigious, and mature—all of which are members of our community. In a world where the United States’ Empire wages war across both hemispheres, tears nations and communities apart, we have chosen this year to remind ourselves, and you, of what binds us. That which forms the basis of our resistance.

If you would like to preorder your copy, use code PS2026 to get a 25% discount. Be on the lookout for our upcoming magazine launch at MoCADA Museum on Saturday, November 14th.

Cover 🎨 by @mij.0uu

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THE VOICES OF WILD INK ARE HERE! ✒️🔥

I am BEYOND excited to introduce the Featured Readers for our inaugural Wild Ink Literary Salon!

The interest, support, and submissions received for our very first gathering have been incredible. And this lineup?! WHEW! 🔥

@flofuensa
@nickgeorgethepoet
@littlepisuniverse
@swilliamsj
@moeflowz
@roscoeburnems

Six incredible voices. Different perspectives. Stories waiting to be heard.

Swipe through, get acquainted with our Featured Readers, and then come experience their words in person. Listen. Converse. Mingle. Connect.

Sunday, October 18 | 7:30 PM
LaLovely Studio | Richmond, VA

🎟️ Tickets are LIVE! $10 admission, with light refreshments included. Seating is limited.

Reserve your seat at the link in bio.

Stories that stay. Thoughts that grow. Words that root.

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As an air sign, my thoughts always feel like they're floating away, and I won't know what to do with them until I catch them. But, like the air, it cannot be contained.

Introducing it's still up in the air my first chapbook published by yours truly Superblooom*!

Using various poetic forms such as free verse, epistolary, and lyric poetry, readers will see how experiences can be left up to chance, never forgotten, and ultimately inspired by imagination.

Interspersed with various pictures from my own familial archive, I hope you enjoy and don't forget to keep your heads up in the clouds. ☁️📝

As presented at Printed Matter's NYABF & available this weekend at @richmondzinefest!

Writing/poetry by shawn williams (@swilliamsj)
Cover design by Brian Le (@balladsoldier)
Spread design & production by Jenn Bui (@3nsoi)
Risograph printing by District Riso (@districtriso)
Photos by shawn williams & Jenn Bui

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look and see the angel is you!

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It’s all about being in the moment , so you know I had to capture it 🤭❤️🏆📸

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Summer ‘26 Vol. 1
As Told By Ginger 🧡

📸 @reyreyfernandez always gets the BIGGEST smiles out of me 🥰🥰🥰

Catch the joint slay! And we all locked in like Demi Lovato for this picture.

😄 personified

The Xtravaganza Times Square Mini Ball. The Calm before The STORM⚡️❌🙌🏾♥️

Thee!

Mi hermanita para siempre 😘

When Madonna calls, you answer! EVERYBODY GET UP AND DANCE! 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾

Don’t. You deserve as much of it as you can take and THEN some!!♥️🥰

Mount Zion Heaviside Baptist Church of Jellicle in Christ

First Broadway cup! They do free refills? That Marg was fab.

804 Agents!! Cast us in Charlie’s Angels

Big smiles cuz we KNEW we was finna do our big ones! 💖

Yup. *nods* Yup.

“Ooooo Bratz!”💋💅🏾💖

BUUUUUNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAA♥️🥰

Basically what we’re gonna do is dance. 🤪🫶🏾

Can I see you over here for a second?

“Shawty what yo name is?”

And Miss Allen, werk.

☀️😊💚

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Honored to have made my @54below Debut in “Black, Bold & Beautiful”✨

“Her Name’s Jazz” written and performed by Asé Micah Tyler.
Accompanied by the incredible @funkarunk

I love my sistas down. I thank y’all for making this process so liberating, collaborative, and healing, and I can’t wait to ki with you again!! Virginia SHOWED OUT!!!

Muah,
Asé.💋💕

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Bestie Pic Recaps 🫂🥺 these events ain’t nothing without of closest friends attending

please send more

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she tryna embrace it 😭😭😭😭😭

my friends are tew cutee

#fortnitefridayforever

ashley took this pic of my bongos at the dinner table..

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This is the joy of meeting one of your readers.💛

I can't fully express how it felt to receive the email that @swilliamsj sent after reading Blackinese.

"I wanted to reach out and express my joy and pleasure at reading your memoir. It led me back to some of my own childhood memories and current ideations surrounding my own identity and pride in all facets of it. Truly a great book that I'll have to recommend to others."

I had the joy of meeting up with Shawn today to hear her stories of growing up Black and Vietnamese in Virginia, and what it has been like for her in her adult years here in Richmond.

These conversations are why I wrote this book. To help people embrace the many parts of their identity and reflect on the experiences that have shaped who they have become and how they see the world. What a joy and privilege it is to know that Blackinese is doing exactly what I hoped it would. I'm grateful that this book brought us together, and I'm inspired by the work she's doing to support young people as they navigate gender identity.

Did I mention that she discovered my book browsing the collection at @rvalibrary ?! 💛

#MultiracialVoices #Bookstagram #MemoirCommunity #RepresentationMatters #libraryfinds

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