Latest Essays

Summer is in full swing and with it has come all the joys of the season:Lightning bugs on full bioluminescent display.Lips stained purple, red and blue from frozen popsicles sucked lazily through a plastic case.Bike rides, jump rope and asphalt turned a temporary chalky rainbow if it’s not too hot out, and hours indoors spent […]

My earliest memories of Ghana are centered the market. “They” must’ve taken me there often in order for these memories to be so indelibly printed in my mind. Or perhaps a singular visit left such an impression that my imagination has created multiple visits. I have memories of a muddy ground.Nkatie cake cut into sharp-edged […]

“Are we the Gatekeepers of the Great Negro Library?” “What?!?” “The Negro Library. Are we the Gatekeepers?” “Malaka, what are you talking about???” “Oh, God. No! I’m gone again…” Whoosh! Off I went to the next corner of space.  I may – or if I actually had some shame – may have not told you […]

I was doomscrolling Twitter yesterday while waiting for my daughter to finish her hair at the salon. My Twitter feed is usually a mashup of human rights violations out of West Africa, Eskom plunging Mzansi in relentless darkness and food preparation videos. It can get really heavy, but at least Twitter’s algorithm gives me some […]

Cagney was incensed. “You mean to tell me these people can’t tell the difference between me and my boojie behind and these ghetto birds strolling around here in their socks and fuzzy house shoes?”She was reacting to Enrique’s analysis of events. I hate to categorize people one way or another, but her description was not […]

I woke up the next morning with a burning throat and the flames of my compassion doused. I was sick; my body reacting to the numerous allergens in the hotel room and my psyche affected by the series of quarrels the evening prior. The Fellowship had been broken. Frodo had lost his damn mind, Legolas […]

This story concludes the events of Day 3 For the first time that we’d been in San Juan, I didn’t notice the side cut eyes, the inhospitable nature of the hotel staff or the way locals looked through you as you walked by. You have to understand: I’d lived the majority of my life in […]

Trauma bonded. That’s how our quartet described itself after we’d spent the day together. We’d been corralled together by one person’s inconsideration and neglect and would remain tethered to one another for…God knows how long? Individually we’d imagined a long time. “Last night I told Cagney that you two better be our friends after this!” […]

“The girls will meet us at El Jibarito for lunch. Then we’ll figure out what to do next.” My sister was standing on the balcony overlooking the lagoon. In 24 hours we’d been in Puerto Rico, the balcony had become the place that she retreated to when she felt angry, despondent or disappointed. She spent […]