Author | Lightnews

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · 15h

Some of us were raised by love that sounded like fear. But I wrote this piece, “The Sky Ain’t Scared of You,” as a reminder that protection isn’t the same as belief. Let your children dream beyond your worry, because wings don’t work in cages.

🔗 aorridge.com/TheSkyAintSc...

The Sky Ain't Scared of You

I grew up around folks who dreamed too small,

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · 1d

When you remember who you are, discounts expire. Your love, your time, your energy…all full price now.

No More Discounts on a Full-Price Soul

Get into it!

🔗 aorridge.com/NoMoreDiscou...

#SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #Substack

No More Discounts on a Full-Price Soul

There comes a moment when you can feel your spirit sigh.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · 4d

Leadership isn’t about control.
It’s about contribution.
It’s about love that tells the truth even when it trembles.

This piece is a love letter to transformation, service, and the sound of becoming.

🔗 aorridge.com/FinallyFree

#MomentumEducation #LT223 #FinallyFree #Substack #SipThisSlow

When Love Leads, Freedom Follows

Two weeks ago, I completed staffing my tenth Leadership Team for Momentum Education.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 26

This week, VP Kamala Harris walked on stage in NYC with her head high and her spirit steady.

We live in a world that tries to bury Black women under critique and impossible standards, yet she still stands. She still tells her story.

✍🏾 aorridge.com/TheCalling

#107Days #KamalaHarris

The Calling That Cannot Be Buried

Titles fade. Cynicism shouts. But calling does not die. Kamala Harris is proof of that.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 25

Too many tried to sideline her, dismiss her, minimize her. But she stood. And she told it. And in that moment, I saw why she was the right choice all along. Not because it was convenient, but because she was chosen for it.

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 25

Vice President Kamala Harris reminded me of something. Truth does not wait for the “right time.” Truth breaks in and demands to be heard. She carried herself with a power that shook the room and a grace that could not be denied.
#107Days #KamalaHarris #MadamVicePresident #BlackWomenLead

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 17

America baptizes devils in holy water the moment the coffin closes. I will not mourn #CharlieKirk who mocked our pain, excused our deaths, and dressed white supremacy in the language of patriotism.

This is the truth as I see it. And I stand on it.

🔗 aorridge.com/NoTearsForSu...
#SipThisSlow

When Death Finds a White Supremacist, Don’t Ask Me to Cry

Last week, I was alerted while working that Charlie Kirk was murdered.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 17

Receipts do not lie. #Slavery was not a mistake. It was not two percent. It was the blueprint. The operating system. The business plan that turned America into a superpower.

The truth cannot be erased.

Read it and let the truth move through you.

🔗 aorridge.com/AmericaLedger
#SipThisSlow

Slavery Was America’s Business Plan

America does not get to play innocent.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 17

Some love never leaves.
It lives in your bones.
It hums in the quiet.
It walks with you, even when the world can’t see it.

This is for my daughter.
The one I never got to hold.
The love remains. 🧡

🔗 aorridge.com/TheLoveRemains
#SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #Substack #Daughter

The Day I Lost Her

Some dates do not fade.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 17

Have you ever noticed how you’ve been editing your story to make others comfortable? Shrinking your truth just to keep the peace?

What if it’s time to stop apologizing for who you are…
and start reclaiming the pen?

🔗 aorridge.com/ReclaimYourP...
#SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #Substack

You Can’t Hold the Pen and Blame the Plot

You ever wake up in the middle of your own life and realize…

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Sep 17

Some of the most powerful acts of love are the quiet ones.
No fixing. No centering yourself.
Just presence that says, I see you. I hear you. I am here.

Check out my new post!
🔗 aorridge.com/HoldingSpace
#SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm

The Ministry of Showing Up

There is a quiet ministry in loving people well.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Aug 12

You can be excellent and still be overlooked.
Talented and still stuck.
Grateful and still grieving the dream.

This piece is for the overachievers who keep showing up even when the room won’t open.

🔗 aorridge.com/BoxedBrilliance
#Excellence #SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm

When Excellence Become a Cage

There’s a weight that brilliance carries.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Jul 7

You don’t owe your power an apology.
You don’t owe your purpose any more excuses.

This second half of the year isn’t about hustle. It’s about alignment.

🔗 aorridge.com/WalkingInPur...

#TheSecondHalfIsSacred #SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #Substack

The Second Half Is Sacred

This Monday morning, we’re not clocking in like robots.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Jun 26

🕊️You cannot bury the song if the spirit still hums.

I wrote this for Arrows. For AJ. For Ari. For every trans person fighting to be seen, protected, and free.

🔗 aorridge.com/SpiritStillH...

#TransRightsAreHumanRights #SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #YouCannotBuryTheSong

You Cannot Bury the Song if the Spirit Still Hums

This weekend is the NYC Pride March.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Jun 22

Sometimes we survive things that we were never meant to carry alone.
Sometimes we write because silence is too heavy.
Sometimes the other shoe never drops—We just rise.
🔗 aorridge.com/TheOtherShoe

#SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #SaturdayReflections #ISketchedMySoulInColor

Why Are We Always Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop?

A Saturday Morning Reflection

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Jun 17

They gave us Juneteenth, then banned the truth.
But we still here. Still dreaming in color. Still building what they can’t imagine.

I wrote this for the visionaries, not just the survivors.
🔗 aorridge.com/JuneteenthUnfiltered
#Juneteenth #SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm

The Retaliation Will Be Televised: Juneteenth and the Black Imagination

Can we not pretend we don’t see what’s happening.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Jun 8

In honor of Tyler Perry’s #StrawNetflix, I wrote about the real cost of poverty. Not the kind that shows up on balance sheets, but the kind that breaks you slowly and silently. This post is for the ones holding on with bruised hands and borrowed faith.
🔗 aorridge.com/IfItWasYou

The Price of Being Poor: If It Was You, Would You Still Judge?

I was watching Tyler Perry’s Straw on Netflix last night starring Taraji P.

aorridge.com

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · Jun 3

For the ones fighting alone…in love, in family, in spaces that stopped seeing you.

You’re tired. That’s not weakness. That’s truth tapping your spirit.

Choosing yourself doesn’t mean you didn’t love them. It means you finally started loving you too.

🔗 aorridge.com/OnlyOneFighting

If You're the Only One Fighting...

I feel like someone needs to hear this.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 25

Five years ago, George Floyd was murdered. Five years of remembering. And for me, five years of knowing how close that could’ve been.

This piece isn’t just reflection…it’s survival, grief, and resistance in one breath.

🔗 aorridge.com/NineMinutesStolen

#GeorgeFloyd #BlackLivesMatter #SipThisSlow

Still Can't Breathe. Still Black. Still Here.

Nine minutes stolen.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 22

I’m just going to say it…Some of y’all don’t like women. I’m convinced!

You want their bodies, their brilliance, their loyalty but not their full humanity. And it shows. Especially on these damn podcasts

🔗 aorridge.com/PodcastPatriarchy

#SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #MicCheck #ProtectBlackWomen

Mic Check: Podcasts, Patriarchy, and the Men Who Don’t Like Women

This is something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 21

Just days before the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the Trump administration moved to end federal oversight of police departments that kill us.
🔗 aorridge.com/ConsentToKillUs

It’s a white nationalist rollback. 😒

#GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor #BlackLivesMatter #PoliceReform #SipThisSlow

The Consent to Kill Us: A Reckoning With America's Rotten Soul

I saw the alert on my phone and had to say something.

aorridge.com

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 21

Black men deserve more than a shape-up and a “stay strong.” Healing doesn’t start with a lineup. It starts with truth. It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and this was on my spirit.

🔗 aorridge.com/BeyondTheFade
#BlackMenHealing #SipThisSlow #TheWordsAreWarm #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #Substack

Black Men Need More Than Barbershops to Heal

It’s May.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 12

Wrote something for those of us who give love freely but still struggle to receive it. When kindness feels unfamiliar, we choose to love anyway.

Check out my new post
🔗 aorridge.com/HoldKindness

#SipThisSlow #HoldKindness #TheWordsAreWarm #Substack #EmotionalTruth

Some People Don’t Know How to Hold Kindness

The other day, I reached out to someone.

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🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 10

And for anyone whose relationship with their mother is complicated...please know I'm sending love your way too. Your journey is valid. You're still here. And that alone is worthy of celebration.

Folks take care of your heart this weekend, however that looks for you. 💐

🇯🇲Tony Rebel 🇩🇴 @aorridge.bsky.social · May 10

To those who've lost their mothers or are navigating life without them, I imagine this day might feel tender. I hope you can wrap yourself in the memories, the love, and the lessons they left behind.

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