Marasha Love is a Mixed Race, former ward of the state of Texas and domestic adoptee, born to a White mother and previously unidentified father. Adopted as a toddler, her adoptive mother (a Chinese-Jamaican immigrant) and father (a Native Texan) changed her birth name. Enabled by the state, they raised her as their bi-racial child, attempting an erasure of her adoptee history.
While the non-White half of Marasha’s racial identity was unknown until age 35, she remained dedicated to finding her biological roots, and eventually pinpointed her paternal race: Chăm. She advocates for the abolition of sealed adoptee/foster records by all states and countries, knowing every human has the right to their original birth certificates (OBC) and unredacted records.
Her most recent writing reflects on the multi-decades-long navigation of searching for real-world answers to what her soul and ancestors have always known. Ever-present in her work are themes on the marginalization of her adoption experience; trauma and abuse during adolescence; and exploring the American constellation with mixed, even ambiguous racial and cultural identities. Her work has appeared in Quarterly West, The Ex-Puritan, Ragazine, and The Santa Fe Reporter, among others. She previously published under a different name.
She received her MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in 2017, where she was an Assistant Professor, Developmental Education and Summer Bridge Coordinator, and received the honor of American Indian College Fund (AICF) “Faculty of the Year” in 2019.
She has taught middle and high schoolers in rural and urban New Mexico; Khayamandi, South Africa; and San Carlos, Mexico. From Creative Writing camps and gatherings to SAT-ACT tutorials, she mentors students to develop their own voices, advocate for themselves, explore and find inspiration in others’ writing and art, while integrating Executive Functioning skills and individualized learning modality awareness.
Frederick Douglass, serves as her North Star, famously writing, “It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men,” (My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855).
Marasha Love 