My first 5K was the NIKE Run Hit Wonder in Portland. I was not (am not) a runner but I joined the NIKE running club in the heat of a Portland summer to prep for this race. I didn’t have the right running shoes and my feet burned with each step but I ran from […]
In 1936 Victor Hugo Green, a mailman from New York, created the Negro Motorists Green Book. As a postal worker, he knew where Black folks could travel, eat, and rest safely. His idea to create, publish, and sell this book protected many a weary traveler in search of gas, food, and lodging. For $0.25, a […]
allyship. the toothless tiger of the diversity & inclusion movement posited to encourage black people to think that the conversations are leading to change. with every text message, email, and social media post of “i’m so sorry” and “what can i do?” i am reminded that the allies are in the shadows. they speak in […]
i’m in the archives. this is a post from a few years ago that i never published. it’s still relevant. how many of us are afraid to ask for what we want? then complain when we don’t get it? we owe it to ourselves to ask. push past the fear of “no” or of rejection […]
In May 2020 I left my corporate job. It was toxic, I was stressed, and I was furloughed. Rather than wait around for them to tell me they weren’t reinstating me, I made the decision to leave. I had a fair amount of documentation about their practices, had done some research on separation packages, met […]
Guide me O ThouGreat JehovahPilgrim through this Barren LandI am weakBut Thou art MightyHold me with Thy powerful Hand I can still see and hear my dad and the other deacons singing this at the altar on Sunday morning. Dad often led morning devotion and this song was part of the repertoire. If the Pastor […]
Pain and trauma are prominently displayed in Black families like matching mid-century modern chairs with spindly legs upon which no one rests. The set are carried from house to house, woven into the fabric of the family. If company comes, make sure they don’t mess with those chairs. Friends and guests move to settle into […]
Forty is said to be the period of testing. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, Jesus was tested in the wilderness for 40 days, Noah and his family were cooped up in an ark for 40 days. Wait, let me stop there. Can you imagine being locked away with your family for […]
My friends and family know about Sacred Friday. It’s my one day out of each week when I don’t answer my phone and I rest from external media. I eat food I didn’t cook and pour glass upon glass of Truth and Valor, whilst seated in front of the tele. Or not. Sometimes I settle […]
i cannot explain the emotional schizophrenia of anger, pride, and hope, as i watched “freedom summer” on amazon prime. listening to fannie lou hamer tell her story, one chapter in a library of injustices black citizens endured in the jim crow south, my eyes burned and salty tears rolled down my cheeks. when she was […]
Single.Black.Female 