For as long as I can remember, my great-grandmother never let a night go by without turning on the electric candlesticks perfectly…
It was a terribly hot September. Though it drizzled now and then, the thick stagnant air of summer refused to give way…
What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers’ time? In our great-grandmothers’ day? It is…
Visiting my grandfather in North Carolina was nothing short of a civic wonderland. Before my feet had even crossed the flaxen welcome…
It wasn’t easy growing up so far away from close family. All of my mother’s siblings and her parents lived below the…
The VCR The day has come. Mama and Papa brung the box in the house. Me and Yannie are upstairs listening to…
“You were ashes.” As I stood in the doorway of my sister Everette’s bedroom just past midnight, tears were warm and sticky…
Thousand Oaks, California I flew from coast to coast when I was nine years old. My father found work in August and…
Grandmothers Some little girls, with plaits and blemishes, cook rice and jerk chicken as the heat crawls down their spine in the…
I grew up in the heart of the Midwest during the 1970s, the era of peace, love, Vietnam War protests and what…
It was cold on the way to Grandma’s house. Mom had plucked Tye and Jordan from their beds at some still-nighttime hour…
“They’re making fun of my Arabic,” whispers my cousin as he squeezes next to me. I roll my eyes, unwilling to move…
I don’t like the gloves the nurses leave here. They’re rubber and have powder on the inside. The powder cakes up when…
For seven days straight, I’d dreamed of snapping green beans at my Nana’s feet, on the floor in the dining room, up…
My favorite book as a child was The People Could Fly. I stared with fascination at the illustrations of people with backs…