Angie traveled with her family to various parts of the globe- in Africa she visited: Congo RDC, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Congo Brazzaville and has lived in Angola. In Europe she’s visited: Switzerland, England, Spain, and Portugal, and has lived in: France, Belgium, and England. In the Caribbean she’s visited: The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, and has lived in Haiti.  Tanks to her many travels she is fluent in French, Portuguese, Creole, Spanish and Of course English, though she does not speak Lingala (Congo RDC’s native dialect) she is able to understand it fluently.

 

Due to her Sickle Cell Disease, she’s suffered and survived 5 strokes before her 17th birthday. After undergoing a bone marrow transplant, she went from having Sickle Cell Disease to having Sickle Cell Trait. Though no longer affected by the illness, Angie still battles the after math the disease left behind.

 

She began writing at the age of 14 when her illness left her numb and voiceless. Her brother came to her rescue by taking her under his wings, and simply offering her a journal where she could voice her pains, hurts and joys. When he took the time to teach her all he knew about poetry and how to express oneself in the genre, he did more than give her an emotional outlet, he gave her a love for words while returning his little sister her “joie de vivre”.   

 

She has since embarked a part time writing career, publishing her first book ( a limited print edition): LEGACY OF A POETIC SOUL in Angola in 2001 ( This was a collection of 60+ poems she’d written since she first began writing, this collection included French, Portuguese and English poems alike ). Her second book LIFE THROUGH POETRY-A SURROGATE VOICE-VOL.1 published in June 2009 is currently available online at www.xlibris.com/lifethroughpoetry

 

Today, Angie is a U.M. Graduate. She studied general psychology with an emphasis on Behavior Modification, while specializing in Addiction counseling, Domestic Violence, AIDS/HIV counseling, and Crisis Intervention Therapy.  

 

After working 4 years at a Crisis Intervention Center (THE SWITCHBOARD OF MIAMI), Angie quit to devote herself full time to the founding of   mental health/education center for former child soldiers and labor and sexual slaves due to the 27 year civil war her country suffered O CENTRO DAS CRIANCAS DA MAMA NZINGA.