The Lo Zone

...or not.

The Shakeman

The Great Ms. Morrison

Mary and her husband Gareth

Sand…I 'memba I used to hate when niggahs called me dat. My moma name me Vincent. Dat's probably why scary shit always happen to me, name me after that ol' crazy assed Vincent Van Gogh, dat artis' dude who cut off his ear fo' a dame. Mu'fuckahs say I do some wil' shit, but dat niggah was off da chain to do some shit like dat. Come to think of it, Ma named all us after some wil' cats whose names started with Vs. Big bro' Vee was named after some writer dude, Voltaire. Dat niggah got teased all through school---which is probably one reason he quit after da sixth grade. Anybody call him Voltaire now, better be ready to defend hisse'f. So, you know a niggah like me uses his name sometime to rile him. Vasco, come after me. Dat pretty mu'fuckah always tellin' chicks he was named after a explorer so he can take dem 'roun' da worl'. I think Baby boy got da smoovest name, fo' real. He da only one named after somebody black, too; dat photographer dude Van der Zee. I seen some o' his pictures and black folks was smoove back den.

I 'on't think Daddy liked all dem big time names Ma gave us. He used to always grab my curls, tease me 'bout my light brown hair and light brown eyes, said I look like da grainy color of sand. Started callin' me Sand and now it feel funny when anybody call me Vincent. I tried to be cool once and make people call me Vinny, but dat didn’t last too long. Sand just stuck to me like dat gritty shit do from da beach.