Chloe Dulce Louvouezo is a writer and advocate for women. From her life experiences as a Congolese American, Louvouezo has become a storyteller. As an anecdotist, she loves to encourage underrepresented women’s creativity and their sense of belonging.
Louvouezo’s passions inspired her to write and curate a book, Life, I Swear, that tells the stories of 20 influential Black women about womanhood and motherhood all while unpacking the nuances of what makes women who they are.
What is the story behind the title Life, I Swear?
My roommate, in our mid-20s, we were at that place in our lives between ambiguity and a really strong desire for what we wanted our lives to be as women. So we would have those long nights that were a mix of debriefs on the sermon we just listened to that Sunday crying over what did or did not work out, feeling pain and wanting to take over the world, but also feeling deeply insecure about where we were. And so we would end every night with [saying] “Life man, I swear.” It captured the heartbreaks, breakthroughs and the irony of life.
After writing and curating this book, what did you learn about yourself?
The essays in this book that I wrote personally, are a reflection on my path, but the writing and editing of this book are probably equally as significant as my personal journey. I did a whole lot of re-editing of my essays because I returned to the draft with more clarity, more confidence of things that I had grappled with. One, it scared me to put this in the book because I’m like, “What if I grow even more?” That was my perspective at one point in my life and of course, I will continue to evolve.
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