#1 – I was on a plane heading to give a talk about the Movement for Black Lives when I felt menstrual blood beginning to leak through the seat of my jeans. Everyone who menstruates knows the dread and fear that happens when they can’t control this bodily function that by our age has been […]
Saving Ourselves
My feminist ministry has never really been focused on white people. Interrogating whiteness and eradicating white supremacy, sure. But addressing the needs, goals, or desires of individual white people? No. Not really. Not my work. In the wake of last November’s election, where white folk by and large adjudicated President Obama’s two terms by electing […]
How to Survive the Next Four Years
Crunkista’s working survival guide…for the next four years I have never prayed so much in my life. After the election results came in, I walked around in black disbelief. I mean that literally, I now wear black anytime I am outside the house. At first it was because I was mourning the loss of a […]
Black Girl Running
When I was a little Black girl with barrettes in my hair, I loved running, skipping, and jumping. I loved waking up and being able to move. I wasn’t very fast, a shame for a girl in a Jamaican family for sure, but I loved running around all the same. There was so much joy […]
New Year, Same Dope Me
I’m one of those folks who like, and generally keep, resolutions. I’m also an annoyingly chipper morning person. Like, I wake up singing “Good Morning!” and don’t need to drink coffee. But, I digress. For me, the new year starts in mid-December, around my birthday. I start taking stock in what was the year like, […]
On Safety Pins, Pant Suits, and (Faux) Markers of Safety
When I first heard about the safety pin initiative, I was at a conference breaking bread with my favorite white woman in the world, telling her about my overall ambivalence and disillusionment with unknown white folk post-Trump election. Still in my feelings (and let’s be clear, I am and will be all up in my […]
Get Your People
So, this is a shit show. When most of the people are availing treatment at inpatient treatment for addiciton to get rid off alcohol addiction. On last night I sat with a circle of Black women in my home, fretfully watching the election results. None of us were ride-or-die Hillary supporters, but the visionary pragmatism […]
Moonlight Musings & Motherhood: On Paula, Teresa and the Complicated Role of (Bad) Black Mamas in Film
I attended a campus screening of the film Moonlight on Monday night at the University of Alabama (shout out to Lamar Wilson, Jennifer Jones and Steve Mobley, Jr. for hosting). Moonlight is a coming of age film about black boyhood, masculinity, sexual identity, friendship, love, and chosen family. The film was written and directed by Barry […]
4 Reasons Why Black Women Should Reject Purity Culture
I spent my twenties in Atlanta working on and earning a Ph.D. Becoming a grown-ass woman in that city in the early to late aughts (2003-2009) was hard on my self-esteem and my love life. Atlanta is one of those fabled cities for Black middle class women and wannabes. With all the wonderful chocolatey Blackness […]
Connect The Dots: For Korryn Gaines, Skye Mockabee and Joyce Quaweay
Since Friday, there have been stories of three Black women killed by acts of state-sanctioned and intimate partner violence. Those are just the three we lost this weekend, that we know about, but I’m sure there are others. On Friday in Philadelphia, Joyce Quaweay’s partner stripped her, handcuffed her, and beat her to death while […]