Ifirst fell in love with My Bronx in April of ‘97. I was wrapped up in my mother’s love and her protection at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. I didn’t know this would be the same hospital I would be diagnosed with asthma on my 10th birthday, or even watch my aunt take her last breath. Bronx Lebanon Hospital might run in my veins, but the home plate for me is Walton Ave. This is the place where my mother nurtured me and molded me like a sculpture into the woman I am today.

On Walton, either you are dropping street knowledge or going to school we got ghetto superstars here too.

Now let me take you somewhere close to my heart. Mount Hope Playground was my jungle when I was here, I felt like a Queen. I even got the scars to prove it in this very holy ground my dad used to pick me up so high the clouds even tickled my nose, but now I went from playing on the monkey bars to playing with gel nail polish at New Nail World on Jerome. Shoutout to my nail tech Jackie, he got my nails feeling like they are movie stars on the red carpet. When I first walk in, I am just Jackie but when I step out I am Jackie the plus size Queen. The next two stops are Bronx Community College and Lehman College, here lie two educational institutions that helped me to explore my brain by discovering a world hidden underground with education. These two colleges helped me irrigate my dreams but for those lost dreams piled up on Burnside and Bedford Park, their dreams smell like meat left out in the sun too long and then have to be thrown away.

My Bronx is the proud parent of Hip Hop, if I was music I would be the offspring of Hip Hop and R & B.

My Walton streets have music that causes me to dance in my sleep, My Bronx is a canvas in motion, and when the masterpiece is completed our art speaks for itself. My Bronx is my fairytale story and of course what is a fairytale story without a girl and boy who falls in love over trials and tribulations?

That is love in The Bronx for you. What will your story be when you come to my Bx?