blackvegansrock.com

I am poet, spoken word performer, and human rights activist Christopher D. Sims aka UniverSouLove. My journey started at Rust College in Holly Springs, MS in 1993 when two friends and I decided to stop eating red meat-we had already stopped eating pork. Also, viewing documentaries and the like about factory farms and animal cruelty has encouraged me to not only live a vegan lifestyle, but to write about it and become an advocate and educator for healthy living. I've written poems and recorded songs about healthy eating, sustainable living, and environmental justice.

I began researching PCOS and found overwhelming information on the negative effects of dairy on women’s bodies and the healing benefits of raw fruits and veggies. Within a few weeks of living on a raw vegan diet, every single PCOS symptom vanished. After being vegan solely for health reasons for a few months, I came across a film called Earthlings on YouTube, which opened my eyes to the realities of how humans use and abuse animals for profit. Although no longer completely raw, I’ve maintained a whole foods vegan lifestyle for one year, and have decided to never touch animal products again.

I am a vegan, environmental and health activist, a journalist, editor of Health Africa Vegan Magazine, an interpreter and graphic designer. Then I also read the book of Supreme Master Chin Hai (a philanthropist, spiritual leader and vegan activist) entitled ‘From Crisis to Peace: The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer’. The goal of this global campaign is to encourage the adoption of plant-based diets at least once in a week for non-vegans, thus making them appreciate the need for veganism and gradually leading them to being vegan. I had a vegan pregnancy, and I am on an exciting journey of raising my daughter as a proud vegan.

Something I hadn't realized until four years into my grade-school education when one day I asked my third grade teacher, Mr. Sullivan, about his colorful lunches (I've always studied everything about my teachers) and he explained to me that he was a vegetarian and didn't eat meat because he didn't want to hurt any animals. And like that, a profound new connection was made: the meat on my plate was a result of hurt, dead animals and I didn't want this. In fact, I've eavesdropped on plenty of conversations where I'd hear her randomly exclaim, ‘yeah girl, you know my sons a vegetarian',or an, 'uhn-uhn, my son ain't about to eat no meat'. My mother never verbally admitted to me that she was proud of my decision to not eat animals, but every time she would squeeze my vegetarianism into her conversations when she didn't know I was listening, showed me she was proud.