HAMPTON RENAISSANCE

       It was a nickname she gave herself: Queen. Growing up, she found her teachers wrestled to pronounce her name. Even Black teachers whispered to each other how ghetto her name was, wondering if her mother had just made a portmanteau of her favorite celebrity names. Graduation was the last straw, though. After the principal pretended to mess up her name, she told people to call her Queen.

       Throughout college and graduate school, people knew her only as Queen, and for every snicker, every comment made in jest, every roll of the eye, the world was forced to recognize her royalty.