Latest Essays

Cast your mind back to December 2019. It seems impossible to fathom now, but it’s fair to say most people began looking forward to the new year – 2020 – with optimism and enthusiasm. 12 months later, a quick poll might reveal that the majority of us are looking forward to putting this year in […]

“When I go to the movies, I go to escape reality… not to be confronted with more of it.” – Frances Scarlett When I relocated to Atlanta in 2000, I was coming into the discovery of my Blackness. And what better place to do so than in the nation’s Black Mecca? For the opportunities afforded […]

I rolled out of bed just before midday on Saturday, driven to the bathroom by a coughing fit. Saturdays are the only days in the month I permit myself the delight of complete mental barrenness; the days where I ignore emails, watch old episodes of Gummy Bears on YouTube and eat Kit Kats for breakfast. […]

Before ‘ally fatigue’ set in, back when brands across the globe believed in earnest that the best way to demonstrate their solidarity with marginalized groups was to post a black square on Instagram, or combat racism by renaming the ‘master bedroom’ the ‘main bedroom’ (not like massa was raping anyone in his private quarters anyways), […]

Close your eyes and think about the future a hundred, maybe a thousand years ahead. What’s the worst thing you can imagine? What event would you consider utterly catastrophic? Nnedi Okorafor puts forward an unutterable possibility. This week on my best friend’s podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, LeVar Burton (who is my best friend in the […]

Happy World Food Day! I love food. I love the taste of it; the sight of it; the preparation of it, and (when I could) the smell of it. I love how thousands of years of human history  – wars, migration, accidental discoveries and stingily guarded recipes – nest themselves on a plate before what […]

I know we’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating. Here’s some Monday Motivation for you: A friend of mine contacted me over the weekend because she really wanted to apply for a position in a field that she’s been interested in for years. She has lots of theoretical knowledge in said field, but […]

Kwame, if you’re reading, don’t think I forgot! Y’all swear “I never told you” so many things, but over the past 11 years on this blog, you’ve heard about the inner workings of my womb, mammary glands, follicles, nightmares… So what’s a story about the Big O between friends? If you didn’t hear me shouting […]

 I infrequently get asked why I started making jewelry. No actually cares why I make jewelry, and I understand why. We live in a consumer driven world and the assumption is that I (like many other people who rightfully to do so) am merely tapping into the $2.4 trillion dollars that the fashion industry generates […]