It wasn’t easy growing up so far away from close family. All of my mother’s siblings and her parents lived below the…
I have big breasts, but no real figure, unless I suck in my stomach and pull my shirt tight at the back…
I don’t know how to swim. And funny enough, a little under 70% of Black people don’t. To make things interesting, my…
In the summer of 2018, when I was studying in Paris, a scam artist robbed me of five hundred dollars outside of…
Clumps of wrinkled, white flesh hang from grandmother’s face and pool in the nape of her neck like turkey waddle. Her eyelids…
The e-mail message was as jarring as the sound of an alarm clock on Saturday morning. Especially since I didn’t know the…
The clock on the kitchen wall said 8:45 pm. Fifteen more minutes and Trysten would be in bed. I stood in front…
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…
It is 2014. You are a Nigerian living in the United States. You are the parent of a U.S.-born child. The immigration…
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…
“I love your hair. You did it yourself?” “Aww, thank you. I wish. I can’t cornrow.” “Wait, you’re a little Black girl…
“Then [Noah] sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.” Genesis…
Hair like strong twine, sweet like the harvest of a California grape vine, to stop the spread of your smile is the…
“My name is Tavonne Carson. I’m six years old.” If she hadn’t said my name, I wouldn’t have believed the little girl…