We have a culture in wallowing in negativity. I am currently fighting to change my mind, literally, change my daily and hourly thoughts. I’ve always based my writing on negativity. It’s how I coped with issues I didn’t have anyone to talk to about. It’s so hard. Negativity is […]
Being Creative without Being Negative Read More »
Some of my earliest hair-related memories involve my mom washing my curls in the kitchen sink while I lay on my back on the counter. Water sloshed down my back and splashed my face. I remember the heat of the blow dryer and the burn of the hot comb
Hair Story: A Quest to Minimize My Blackness Read More »
I’ve been blogging for more than 10 years. If you’d like to count my free open diary days, it’s been about 15 years. When I started, blogging was a way to relay my day-to-day experiences, and feel like I had someone to talk to. I hoped the world was
I read the 2018 version of this book by James W. Loewen. Every single page. Well, not all the footnote pages. But the intro and the afterword. Coming up, I was an American History hater. Dates, War Generals, Battle of Blah Blah Blah. Slavery. Boring. Was I really supposed
Review- Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Read More »
I have a confession to make: When I was in high school and college, I tried erasing as much of my blackness as possible to “fit in.” Let me start at the beginning. I was acutely aware of race as a young child. I can’t say that it had
The Unintended Consequences of Assimilating as a Black Girl in America Read More »
Our lives are easily lost in the hum-drum shuffle of everyday life. The most casualties occur, not in actual death, but when we march along mindlessly, unhappily, making ends meet and tying up loose ends; finishing this, and finishing that and just trying to make it to the weekend.
I Hope You Dance– Inspiration from my Grandmother Read More »
Twenty-Six Students in a Mixing Bowl Twenty-Six students in a mixing bowl, boiling to escape They’re sliding cards and “f*cks!” across the table Public Displays of Affection without discretion “It’s not just a kiss,” I say. There’s confrontation: a girl about to beat the sh*t out of a boy
Twenty-Six Students in a Mixing Bowl Read More »
This is a new poem… second draft. Being I stand, admiring the edge of clouds along the sky but I can’t connect to their certainty of being, and action. I’m floating like an air molecule, “invisible to the naked eye,” but I’m here. Fluid like ocean water and
This is another old poem I wrote in college… undergrad maybe. I think it’s strange how I wait years and years to share things I’ve written. Do you other writers do that? Anyways here it is South Beach Lavender moonlight nudges sun rays creeping behind the horizon. But a
Black people who consume mainstream media are bombarded with negative images about themselves. Unless making a proper effort, black people won’t see positive representations of themselves in books, movies, and other media. Everyone, under the right conditions, is susceptible to feeling inferior to others. But Black Americans are particularly
The Black Writer’s Inferiority Complex Read More »
