Therapy is the supportive process of accompanying one’s journey of transcendence from darkness to light to darkness again, ultimately landing somewhere in…
Part I: Just For Me I look forward to the tri-annual ritual. My mother prepares to sacrifice her firstborn to the white…
“If y’all weren’t so difficult, maybe it’ll be easier to get a man.” “Y‘all? Difficult?” I repeat the triggering words as if…
The day Chiamaka disappeared, her father left the house in precisely three pieces. The first piece left at sunset, when the world,…
The Ointment That Makes You Glow: A Reflection on Race, Immigration, Religion & Jollof Rice

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…
“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…
The girl you ask to dinner will never show you her true face. Her deep, caramelized skin is carefully concealed beneath layers…
I guess I’ve been an art historian, informally I’d say I’ve always “geeked out over art,” since my teens in San Francisco.…
I hear my student say that word and I’m not surprised. I knew this student was going to say it because this…
“Good lord, girl. You swelling!” The girl looked down at her belly, then beyond it down to her shoes, at this she…
Shattering glass echoes in my ears, snapping my head up from my phone. Right across the street, the front window of Diaz’s…
Trina, I need you to stay inside for recess today. You are a little Black girl in a world that’s White. You…