For some reason this week I have been visited by and/or reminded of people who passed away over my lifetime. Their passing was sense-less so it hurt without boundaries or the protection provided by reason. Sharon was my stepmother and she was shot at my father’s work league basketball game while cheering for him in […]
so far to go: a mix on finding your way
Listen, this isn’t what I expected: adult-onset acne, speech and eating disorders. I would have been struck dumb had you asked me to forecast these grown-up times in my ponytailed private school days. I daydreamed a lot but my imagined life was clipped: a timid choose your own adventure whose stalled plot was as foreseeable […]
The Silliest Girl in Vagina Class, or Why Women’s Studies is Needed Now More Than Ever
In the past four years, I’ve developed a favorite pastime: taking advantage of all services covered by my tuition. To my delight, I discovered that my university offers free sexuality counseling. So after spending an hour with the local version of Dr. Sue, I was invited by my new sex therapist to join a three-week […]
Overcoming A-stigma-tism: (An Affirmation) For Blackgirls Who Have Considered Suicide When Closed Eyes Are Enuf
astigmatism: the inability to see clearly stigma: a mark of disgrace or infamy -ism: a suffix added to terms to reflect a symptom or ideology “Sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.” I see you. You are beautiful and you don’t even know it. I mean it. […]
She’s Not Heavy, She’s Our Sister: Love Notes for Sharmeka
Dear Sharmeka, I’m so sorry for what happened to you. I am sending you love. What happened to you has been a wake up call about the traumas of being multiply marginalized in this world. I hope you get exactly what you need. So much love, Moya Dear Sharmeka, Hey sis. I just wanted to […]
When the Hoodies Are White: Justice4SharmekaMoffitt
On Sunday evening, Sharmeka Moffitt went to a local park in Winnsboro, Louisiana to “walk a mile and run a mile.” Sometime later, she was approached by three men in “white t-shirt hoodies” who doused her with flammable liquid and set her on fire. For good measure, they scrawled “KKK” and “nigger” on her car. […]
Returning To My First Love
“Once you learn to read, you’ll be forever free” Frederick Douglass The idea that literacy is a type of freedom might seem clichéd or even a bit earnest and naïve. Still, it’s an idea that continues to resonate with me. Mine is perhaps a typical story. As a kid, I had an almost insatiable appetite […]
Armed and… Ambivalent?
Let’s begin with a confession: I was born and raised in the great state of Texas and prior to two weeks ago, I had never fired a gun. That will certainly be surprising to some folks as Texas often invokes images of shotguns, six shooters and gun-toting cowboys. For me, however, Texas is about home, […]
Learning Community with Black Girls
In a two-part series called Meet the Authors, the CFC talks to Drs. Ruth Nicole Brown, Chamara Jewel Kwakye, and Bettina Love about their recently released books, Wish to Live: The Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy Reader and Hip hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Identities and Politics in the New South. Both books describe Black girlhoodand hip […]
Happy Coming Out (and Going In) Day!
Today is national coming out day so I called my girlfriend early this morning. “Hello? Are you okay?” she asked, sleep and worry mixed in her voice. “I’m gay,” I said. “Today is national coming out day and I thought you should know.” “Goodbye.” She hung up. She’s not a morning person. She also “came […]