Florence Knights

I am a daughter, mother, sister, auntie, godmother, and friend. I am also a community leader, speaker, writer, and entrepreneur. I worked in beauty for more than twenty years as a cosmetologist, and I am an independent luxury travel advisor.

I was born and partly raised in Guyana. In the late 1980s, my family migrated to the United States and landed in Brooklyn, New York. In many ways, I grew up between those two places.

I will never stop being a student, and I learn first from the world around me. Guyana shaped me. Brooklyn shaped me. Faith shaped me. Motherhood changed me. So did the people I have met, the work I have done, the things I have gotten wrong, and the things life made me look at again.

I am blessed to have a brilliant, beautiful daughter, Gabrielle, who inspires me. She helps me stay open and not be afraid to look again. I served as PTA President at her school, Bushwick Leaders High School, and helped organize around needed school repairs in New York City, working with East Brooklyn Congregations, a Metro IAF affiliate.

My faith is still deep, and I still ask questions.

How much of who we are did we choose, and how much was handed to us through family, culture, tradition, religion, and the places that raised us?

My writing is where I look again. I return to memories. I question things I once accepted. I look for evidence, and I try not to pretend I know more than I know. Sometimes I change my mind. Sometimes I discover that something I believed years ago still holds.

I am grateful for the people who have loved me.

To my mother, Maureen, thank you for the lessons, including the ones that continue to unfold.

My sister-friends have walked with me through motherhood, change, and growth. They challenge me, teach me, and help me stay grounded and look at things from more than one point of view.

I love my siblings and the friends who became family along the way.

My Uncle Vernon keeps me optimistic about humanity. Ask him how he is doing and he will tell you every time, “I’m good. I’m above ground.” He is one of the most selfless and cheerful people I know. There is something about the way he meets life that stays with me.

And then there is my Auntie Leonie, one of the most influential people in my life. Recently, she gave me three words:

Just keep writing.

Those words will stay with me.