“You were ashes.” As I stood in the doorway of my sister Everette’s bedroom just past midnight, tears were warm and sticky…
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…
“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…
Musu sat on a big rock. A beige bar of caustic soap stood vertically on the pile of dirty laundry at her…
Fresh Fear In Chicago, death smells like fresh grass and barbecue. When that last school bell rang at the end of the…
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…
The Mole arrived in the summer of 2020, the same summer I dropped out of film school and then went crazy (in…
TGIF. LOL. BRB. TTYL. OMG. These are just a few of the text abbreviations that helped to maintain a character limit. Way…
An old black and white photograph of seven smiling Black women posing near the rear of a car is one of my…
The clock on the kitchen wall said 8:45 pm. Fifteen more minutes and Trysten would be in bed. I stood in front…
My grandma’s house was always full. The hinges on the front door were almost invisible. In the heart of Cleveland, Ohio, not…
“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…