Ukwangala kwachila ulupwa. Friendship surpasses family. Bemba proverb My sister came to me a few months after I turned two, right in…
“Curse this damned place. I don’t want anything to do with here.” Holson, my best childhood friend, slammed the door and headed…
I typed the letter on a regular morning. But obviously, it was a courageous morning. I typed the letter in the dark…
If I walked to the window in the kitchen, the little one right above the creaky sink, I could look out over…
I can clean my entire apartment in under two hours. That’s two podcasts or one catch up call with a dear friend…
I am embarrassed to admit that I loved Levittown even when it didn’t love me. It was my first home, and like…
My mother never gave me the family recipe for candied yams, so I gotta figure it out myself. Everyone else already has…
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.…
On Christmas night, I found peace in my mother’s rendition of a Jody Watley song. Only inches from the speakers, Mama sat…
My mother was born with one kidney when most of us are born with two. This sole organ singlehandedly cleansed her system,…
337. It’s the number of miles from New York to Virginia. It’s approximately 3 two-hour movies or a season and a half…
Behind them, the sun is rising. They’ve been crammed in the car for hours. Jimmy and Josie shouting about castle building and…
I like to find myself in works of art. Sometimes I see my sister in them too—our relationship at different times captured…
Sean is not you. Sean doesn’t drag me from bed at three in the morning, mouth pasty, eyes red, to marvel from…
The past sticks with us forever, even when we change names or give up our brains to be wiped out. I have…