Bio

“My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” -Maya Angelou

Kaveena “Vee” A.S. Bullock, M.A., was born and raised in New Jersey. After graduating with her Bachelor’s Degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, she continued her studies by attending Kean University. She is now an alumna of the English and Writing Studies M.A. Program from Kean University, where she graduated with honors after being inducted into Alpha Epsilon Lambda (Alpha Phi Chapter) in Spring 2019. During her time in the M.A. program, her research interests were Black American Empowerment, Issues, and Politics (ex: language politics, sociolinguists, general linguist studies, and racial injustices). Her intense studying and hard work allowed her to produce outstanding research and projects such as “Blackfishing”: Unfolding the Issues of Online Appropriation, Cherry Blossoms: An Interactive Romance Story, Small Bites of Knowledge, and How the Representation of African Americans on Television Affects the Mind in Reality.

Upon the completion of her Master’s Degree, Kaveena wrote her thesis, “You Sound Black…”: An Academic Dive in Black American Vernacular English and Reclaiming its History, where she presents five chapters (History, Education, Community, Power, and Identity), to unfold the issues concerning Black Americans’ language. In her thesis, she discontinues the terms Ebonics and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). She presents her new definition, “BAVE (Black American Vernacular English): a way of communicating and connecting in a comfortable or familiar setting among family, friends, or other speakers of that dialect. It is often used by a person who code-switches, code-meshes, is bilingual, or trilingual. A variety of English of which one applies to converse and interact through BAVE by using lexical terms, grammatical structure, phonological strands, and rhythmic tones” (Bullock, 12). Not only was this thesis presented in White Paper form, but also in an atypical “online newspaper” where she created a multimodal thread of information, text, video, and images to give readers a new insight to the language of Black Americans.

After receiving her degree, Kaveena decided to brand the phrase “You Sound Black” and reform it into “YouSoundBlack…” as a way of reclaiming her culture’s history of language. Her brand extends beyond language and captures Black Americans’ beauty through research, art, photography, and more. Growing up, she struggled to find her place in American society as a Black American female. “YouSoundBlack…” gave her the platform she needed to tell her story and hopefully help others like her. Kaveena’s goal of “YouSoundBlack” is to reconstruct Americans’ minds of all races to view not only language but class, ideas, and education in a more positive light. As a world traveler, she intends to use her international experiences to her advantage to enhance her knowledge of other cultures and languages. Because of her love for traveling and learning, she will be teaching abroad as an English instructor to begin her career as a teacher research scholar.

Some of her academic and personal influencers include Maya Angelou, Ava DuVernay, Debbie Allen, Lisa Delpit, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Sonja L. Lanehart, John R. Rickford, and Alice Walker. Because of these authors, scholars, and media creators, Kaveena continues to create a new and exciting path for the next generation.

She will like to thank God, her family, Akeem, the Millers, Dr. Zamora, and fellow classmates for being with her throughout her personal academic journey!