Salt,Ink, & Soul

A blog by Kyle J. Hayes exploring Black identity, soul food, memory, family, and legacy through powerful, introspective storytelling rooted in culture and truth.


About :

Kyle J. Hayes

I am a writer, a thinker, and an unapologetic seeker of truth. My words live at the intersection of culture, history, and personal reckoning, where storytelling is not just a craft but a form of survival. I write because silence has never saved us. I write to be seen.

This space is where I document my obsessions—music that moves, food that tells a story, and the weight of history on our shoulders. I believe in the power of a well-crafted sentence, a perfectly seared steak, and an album that leaves you forever changed. My influences range from the lyrical intensity of Ta-Nehisi Coates to the raw honesty of Anthony Bourdain, and I navigate this world with equal parts curiosity and skepticism.

Likes? Music that doesn’t just play but demands to be felt. Food made with soul, with history, with a story worth telling. Writing that stings, that unsettles, that makes you sit with it long after you’ve turned the page.

Dislikes? Art that asks for nothing. The overhyped, the overprocessed, the sanitized. Safe music, safe food, safe stories—the kind that pass through you without leaving a mark.

This blog is an evolving conversation—about what’s worth remembering, what’s worth fighting for, and what’s worth letting go. I don’t claim to have the answers, but I promise to ask the right questions. If you’re here for the easy and the agreeable, you might be in the wrong place.

Please Enjoy

Kyle Hayes

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