For as long as I can remember, my great-grandmother never let a night go by without turning on the electric candlesticks perfectly…
I can’t remember ever not wanting to be a mother. The lullaby to first tuck itself into my memory was Rock-a-Bye Baby.…
“Wòch nan dlo pa konnen doulè wòch nan solèy.” The rock in the water cannot know the pain of the rock in…
My mother was born with one kidney when most of us are born with two. This sole organ singlehandedly cleansed her system,…
Grandma. I always just referred to her as that without any qualifiers. I said Grandma Sarah whenever I referenced my paternal grandmother.…
2011. The first boy I ever loved had dimples in both cheeks, a passion for basketball, and a smile that could melt…
Fresh Fear In Chicago, death smells like fresh grass and barbecue. When that last school bell rang at the end of the…
The Mole arrived in the summer of 2020, the same summer I dropped out of film school and then went crazy (in…
The David story is now a bit I have down pat. First, I paint David in broad strokes—forty-four years old to my…
Part I: Just For Me I look forward to the tri-annual ritual. My mother prepares to sacrifice her firstborn to the white…
My grandma’s house was always full. The hinges on the front door were almost invisible. In the heart of Cleveland, Ohio, not…
“If y’all weren’t so difficult, maybe it’ll be easier to get a man.” “Y‘all? Difficult?” I repeat the triggering words as if…
The day Chiamaka disappeared, her father left the house in precisely three pieces. The first piece left at sunset, when the world,…
I. Places that I am terrified of returning to: Shitty $49-a-night motels with dingy sheets and showers overrun with mildew smelling of…
At the produce markets that populated Church Avenue, if someone cut in line or pushed her while trying to squeeze past, my…
It’s late afternoon as we climb into my father’s gray Mercedes. As we stay stationary in the garage, I lean my fro…