Montreal Windows

A Vignette

Hello fellow creatures of the lagoon, today, I bring you a brief scene, a character study of sorts inspired by my recent visit to the Honeyrose Hotel in Montreal. This is a shorter edition of my newsletter today because I’m still working on Part 2 of 25 New Words You Need this Summer. ICYMI, part 1 is here.

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(All art and photos taken/made by me.)

Montreal Windows

A photo I took in Montreal of windows.

In the hushed confines of the hotel’s ground-floor cafe, there sits a beautiful African woman with perhaps the darkest, most flawless skin I’ve ever seen. (Is that okay for a white woman to say in 2023?) She sips milk tea from a glass mug and wears a wax print blue and yellow head wrap and a matching Kitenge sundress dress, an eye-catching palette in an otherwise beige space. Opposite her, there is a bald kumonde, and she scowls at him, her eyes laden with disdain. She crosses her thin arms over her ample chest, but he is buttering a halved croissant, oblivious, staring at his own plate as if it owes him an explanation. A kumonde is not a word that everyone knows, so allow me to explain.