I always hated the name - especially when I learned at age 16 that I could not get electric or cable services in my name when I moved out given the back bills. Not to mention I was jealous of my 6 sisters who all have the coolest names - Junelle, Valerie, Penelope... come on?!
I hated it more as I grew into my adult self. The Kady part was always beautiful to me, the choice of my bio-dad. Apparently he used to always say, “Kady the beautiful lady.” I would laugh that maybe I prayed for the wrong thing - always wanting to be known for my work - maybe I did not give the lord enough details because the name got famous.
I took the name on for years until I got to high school where my best friend Caitlin said I could change my name, so I used Katie and ran for president of the student body. I used that name for a year, you can still see it marked on some of my old exams and papers I saved.
The darkness continued when in 2009 I was driving to school at Binghamton University in red chevy S10 truck and heard my name through the radio. I thought I won something.
That was the year Katy Perry came to light and my life was never the same. I was in college too so when they did roll-call I wanted to die. The list of moments like this are too long for a short blog - I could write a coffee table book on all of the responses I got. I thought - do not worry you will be married soon and was always so excited to take a man's last name! Well, that was not going well - at all - so in 2015 I started using the name Ydak (Kady backwards) and then went on to choose Kady Yellow in 2017 since my very first placemaking project over ten years ago was called Quarter Yellow Studios. July 12th 10:30AM - I just got out of court - super embarrassing because I cried (hard) the entire time and if you’ve ever been to court - they need to hear you loud & clear.
The judge said he is seeing more of these cases and I understood what he was saying because in 2014 I met who I truly felt was my soul mate who later transitioned male to female in and it opened me up to a world of non-gender conforming individuals who taught me a whole lot about life. While my case had nothing to do with gender it had everything to do with identity.
While my case had nothing to do with gender it had everything to do with identity.
Judge said he has 4 daughters and knows Katy Perry and then said once I’m famous he will be proud to play the role he did. It made me a laugh cuz I feel famous in Flint and told him to ask around or google me - I can’t even walk down a random side street here without someone pulling up to say hi, beep, or scream my name because we are all working so closely together. Thank you for reading & stay tuned!
Ms. Yellow
Hello Ms. Yellow! 👏👏👏