Stephanie Maria
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staylokey.bsky.social
Stephanie Maria
@staylokey.bsky.social
1.1K followers 540 following 290 posts
Poet | Writer | Filmmaker | Educator | 92%🔵
Mood Reader & Writer | Storyteller 🗣️📸📖🎬

I ❤️ reading 📖, writing ✍🏾, listening 🎧, & watching stories 📺 and giving my ✌️🏾cents.

I support:🧘🏾‍♀️🐦‍🔥✊🏾🍉💕🌈🏳️‍⚧️📚🧠👸🏾♈️🗳️

*All content is ©️ by me unless credited.
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staylokey.bsky.social
This was a cute age gap love story between a single mom and her kid’s coach. They both spend a beautiful vacation together during carnival, and spiciness ensues! You’ll root for the couple to get out of their way & simply love. 🥰 This was a really fun Summer read!

#bvm #blackbooksky #booksky
#books
The cover of A.H. Cunningham’s book, Ms. V’s Hot Girl Summer: A Harlequin Novel, and a portrait of the Author.
August 17, 2025 at 1:17 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
Y’all, this story felt SO real! I thought it was a true story! I’m over here googling, trying to figure out who the villain of the story is 😮‍💨 I was angry and sad, but I calmed down when I learned it was fictional. LOL 😅 But that lets you know how AMAZING this story is! 💕
#poetry #prose #bvm #booksky
A portrait of the author Safia Elhillo and the cover of her book Bright Red Fruit. 💕
August 2, 2025 at 4:38 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
“We Should All Be Feminist…” The author argues this point with precision…😌 A beautiful short read, listen, or TEDTalk watch that outlines, with witty commentary 😏, what it means to be a feminist from a feminist. No worries, all genders are called to the carpet for real talk.

#blackbooksky #booksky
Cover of book “We Should All Be Feminists“ By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and a portrait of the author. Photo credit: https://feminisminindia.com/2020/06/23/book-review-we-should-all-be-feminists-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/
July 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
THIS book is an entire MOOD!! 🥹 Warsan, whose poetry is in the interludes between songs in THE QUEEN 🐝’s Lemonade album, doesn’t disappoint!! Her words travel through love, loss, identity, and home, charged by her Somali-British heritage.

#blackbooksky #booksky #bvm
#blacksky #beyonce #poetry #poet
A portrait of the poet-author WARSAN SHIRE and the book “Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head”
July 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
As an educator obsessed with unknown or hidden Black history, I ADORED this read HON-EY!!! 😍 I wanted MORE STORIES!!! 😩 I hope there's a 2nd book in the making… 😏

#blackbooksky #booksky #bvm
#queer #harlem #book #LGBTQIA+
#blacksky #blackwriter #blackhistory

Photo credit: www.ebar.com/story/153643
A portrait of George M. Johnson and the book cover of “Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known” featuring a painting of Josephine Baker.
July 18, 2025 at 4:00 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
Another life-changing read!!!😌🥰 Radical self-love is the only path forward to healing mass insecurities, as well as arresting body shaming thoughts, and releasing judgment of other body types. Open this book and get ready to be lovingly challenged.💕

#blackbooksky #booksky #bvm #bodypositivity #love
A split-screen image of the audiobook cover and a picture of the author of “The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love.” The cover features the author Sonia Renee Taylor in the buff with butterfly wings and a sunflower crown.
July 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
If you're looking for a quick read to end June #Pride with pizzazz, enjoy Brontez Purnell’s book. They are a WHOLE MOOD! You feel a roller coaster of emotions. Just let your stomach flip & your hair toss in the wind. I guarantee it’s worth the wild journey. ✌🏾😘
#booksky #blackbooksky #poetry #bvm
The cover of the book “Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt: A Memoir in Verse” by Brontez Purnell who’s also the authored 100 Boyfriends.
June 28, 2025 at 4:18 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
This is an excerpt from the #poem “Home” written by Warsan Shire. Every word hit me like bricks! 🧱
🥺😮‍💨🫰🏾🔥 #human #home #poetry
Excerpt from the poem “Home” By Warsan Shire no one leaves home unless home chases you fire under feet hot blood in your belly it's not something you ever thought of doing until the blade burnt threats into your neck and even then you carried the anthem under your breath only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets sobbing as each mouthful of paper made it clear that you wouldn't be going back. you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land no one burns their palms under trains beneath carriages no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled means something more than journey.
June 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
Black women! Come to the front, let’s huddle up. Sisters of the Yam is THAT GIRL in the book world! This is the prerequisite read to cultural self-recovery & self-actualization. If you haven’t claimed it, this has the knowledge to free living Sis.

Happy #Juneteenth
#blackbooksky #bvm #blackskywomen
The cover of the book “sisters of the yam: black women and self recovery” written by Bell Hooks and on the cover is a picture of Bell Hooks.
June 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
This magically written modern-day poetic folk tale is laced with sisterly love, queer love, and shocking betrayal. No worries, the betrayal leads to a satisfying conclusion at the end. It is a cautionary tale indeed with a lovely lesson to learn. 😌👌🏾
#booksky #poetry #prose
#queer #folktale #pride
The cover of the book “The River Has Roots” written by Amal EL-Mohtar next to a picture of the author. Picture Credit: CBC Books
June 18, 2025 at 3:36 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
I almost forgot the feeling😮‍💨 I needed to recall for gratitude's sake. If you don’t remember, need to be reminded, or need to remind someone else about what it was like during COVID-19, read this! For Educators, there are good short stories for High School ELA lessons too!
#blackbooksky #booksky #bvm
A Picture of Mahogany L. Browne and her book “A BIRD IN THE AIR MEANS WE CAN STILL BREATHE.”
June 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
I see no king here
I see a coward taco
cloaked in fascism

#nokings #haiku #blacksky
#nokingsprotest #poetry
#bvm #skypoet #noking
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJWf7dnC1dP/?igsh=YmZwOXR1eWhzenp1
June 15, 2025 at 11:58 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
This book is a CALL to ACTION for undervalued people starting a #company or investing in one. It’s highly motivational & inspiring to Black women with Impostor Syndrome. This is the representation & roadmap into business you’ve been waiting for! Run, don’t walk! #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm #business
The cover of the book “It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage” is on a purple background with a photo of the author Arlan Hamilton in the foreground.
June 6, 2025 at 3:20 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
It has been a 🔪 murder and mayhem plot, neck-twisting reading roster in #May, with a splash of OMG Head-shaking Romance baes.💕 I might continue this momentum into June.😏😌

#readinglist #booksky #bvm
#blackbooksky #blackwriters
#romance #thriller #mystery
You Bet Your Heart by Danielle Parker; Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood; Rhythm and Muse by India Hill Brown; A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales; The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict; The Widow’s Husband’s Secret Lie by Freida McFadden; Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica; When We Talk to God by Sharifa Stevens; Write for Life by Julia Cameron; Brands and Bulls**t by Bernhard Schroeder.
June 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this Black Woman's practical #prayers and #poems appealing to God using the context of History, her People, & Personal Experiences. She challenges the Bible, her Life, & Culture while maintaining deep respect and reverence. #blackbooksky #blackwriter #blackpoet #bvm
The book cover of "When We Talk to God: Prayers and Poems for Black Women," written by Sharifa Stevens, adorns three Black women with different skin tones surrounded by colorful flowers that are pink, yellow, and orange.
May 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
I enjoyed listening to this book's culturally rich, bold, opinionated, unapologetic #LGBTQIA+ characters & allies who are figuring it out. Listening to teens discuss, defend, & define themselves for themselves was heartwarming. Read with compassion & enjoy the emerging lovers. #booksky #writer #book
The cover of "The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School" features a stylized image of a school building, likely a Catholic school, with a touch of vibrant colors and possibly a subtle LGBTQ+ symbol like a rainbow stripe written by Sonora Reyes, which is also boldly visible on the book.
May 8, 2025 at 8:19 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
This book is a cute teen love story between a high-strung, achievement-focused chick and a laidback, naturally academically creative dude as they compete for the title of Valedictorian. I love the message at the end after barriers no longer block them from being together. #blackbooksky #booksky #bvm
The book cover of “You Bet Your Heart” written by Danielle Parker. Six teen couples are featured reading, hugging, pinky swearing (making a bet) and taking pictures.
May 6, 2025 at 4:23 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
my sacred spaces
hold memories of our pain
and celebration

#haiku #poetry #blackpoet
#skypoet #celebration #vss
#photography by #staylo
May 4, 2025 at 7:59 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
who’s hurt?

you need me to be
villain, color of victim
looks better on you

#haiku #poetry #blackpoet
#poem #vss #hurt #skypoet
#photograpy by #staylo
A young tree split after a storm. photo by staylo
May 4, 2025 at 1:56 PM
staylokey.bsky.social
#April, my nose was stuck in stories! This month’s reads had some of my most top-rated unforgettable stories & life-changing advice to date. I lost, learned, laughed, cried, stood still stunned, uttered Amen, & cheered Yasss! Pick a book, any #book. 🫶🏾

#blackbooksky #booksky
#writers #bvm #books
Book titles are pictured as follows: flowers crowns & fear some things by Amanda Lovelace; Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender; Black in Blues by Imani Perry; The Lesbiana’s Guide To Catholic School by Sonora Reyes; The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins; You are a Bad Ass at Making Money by Jen Sincero; Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell; Long Story Short by Margot Leitman; When I Think of You by Myah Ariel; White Smoke by Tiffany d. Jackson.
May 1, 2025 at 6:15 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
in two days

watch me sky like May
embrace the overflow of
April rain, and live

#haiku #poetry #blackpoet
#bvm #skypoet #april #may
#photography by #staylo
A photo of a lake, a path, and the sky at sunset. photo by staylo
April 30, 2025 at 12:55 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
While reading, I experienced all the feels & fell in love with the Felix Love, who’s Black, Queer, & Transgender. Felix is vulnerable and annoyingly cute. I rooted for Felix even when they were wrong. Spending time in Felix’s world helped me connect with this beautiful community. #blackbooksky #bvm
The cover of the book Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender features a portrait drawing of the character Felix with pink, white, and flowers in their hair and background.
April 29, 2025 at 8:57 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
These characters are unhinged and I loved every minute of it! The mother/son partners-in-crime are the secret to the book’s success! Shenanigans are their middle name; there’s not a dull moment in their world. After a dual love betrayal, read how they Burn It All Down! #diversebooksky #queerbooksky
The cover of Nicolas Didomizio's book Burn It All Down is described by James Patterson as Audacious, Addictive, Highly Entertaining, and Unforgettable! On a blue background, the book's graphics include a silhouette of a pink house burning from the top down with the title of the book in the middle.
April 22, 2025 at 7:16 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
Read ‘Black in Blues’ with deep reverence. It takes us on a journey throughout history, exploring my people's special connection with the color #blue. The richness of indigos in our skin, music, fashion, etc., is astounding! Buy this #book bc you’ll keep revisiting these stories. #blackbooksky #bvm
The cover of the book “Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People” features a piece of art by Titus Kaphar, "Seeing Through Time," which depicts Black women in various poses and backgrounds of blue.
April 19, 2025 at 1:46 AM
staylokey.bsky.social
This book had me shouting out loud into the air, talking to nobody. Clearly, I was thoroughly invested in this story. 👀 I wanted to make decisions for the characters because I felt they needed to get it together! 😅 Needless to say, I enjoyed this romance immensely.
#blackbooksky #diversebooksky #bvm
The cover of the book “When I think of you” a novel by Myah Ariel. In the backdrop of a city skyline, two African American lovers embrace each other. 🥰
April 16, 2025 at 7:49 AM