Oct 27, 2021
Every House Is a Haunted House
Everything present is made of the past—the cities we inhabit and the language we use and the clothes we wear and what they make us feel.
My Father, the Slingshot Master
For my father, the slingshot seems to offer a moment of creative flight, a brief escape. It isn’t the solution, but it keeps everything balanced.
May 25, 2021
In the Shadow of Saris: Exploring Identity Through Memory and Dislocation
Only after I left a home where there were many women who might have helped me did I realize the sari represented more than a cultural announcement.
Jan 26, 2021
An Ode to the Kamenoko Tawashi, the Turtle Brush
Natural, natural, everything natural. I’m a sucker for it, Shinto-ish environmentalist and object-worshipper that I am.
Jan 04, 2021
My Bicultural Comfort Food is the Spicy McChicken Sandwich
Both the sandwich and I were ‘made in China’ but with an undeniable Americanness.
Dec 09, 2020
I Hate This Peloton That I Love, or I Love This Peloton That I Hate
Everything I do is done behind a desk. And now, now? Now I can even use this Peloton. I don’t even need to run in the rain.
Dec 08, 2020
Las Cosas, Cosas Son: The Things We Give Up to Be Here
At detention centers, these prized possessions go straight into the trash. A devastating omen for the way immigrants are treated in this country.
Nov 16, 2020
Building a Home Used to Be Easy—Especially in ‘The Sims’
To me, these never felt like steps to sprint through on the way to simulating life, but life itself.
Jul 02, 2020
You Can Do Anything in Animal Crossing Except Escape Productivity Dread
As cliché as it’s become to say, I found myself needing this game in a way I could have never accounted for, even with all my years of fanboying.
Apr 23, 2020
Why I Love Terrible Kosher Pizza, and Other Mysteries of My Jewish Life
I am no gentile, but a Jew, with chill Jewish parents, who loves the pepper-and-onion slice at Alfie’s.
Feb 05, 2020
Finding My Inner Piece: How Puzzles Ease My Anxiety
It’s very calming, very methodical, very good if, say, someone you love has died, but you know the world cannot stop, and you can’t either.
Nov 13, 2019
For Sale: Wedding Dress, Worn Once
There’s an irritating coyness to the language around wedding expenses: they’re not expenses at all, they’re “investments.”
May 13, 2019
The Tiger in Harlem Who Helped Me Heal
All the buildings I walked by each day and thought nothing about now seemed like they contained the answers to questions it hadn’t occurred to me to ask.
Feb 26, 2019
Why I Turned to Candy-Making as My Family Fell Apart
If I was in the kitchen making candy, usually my mom wasn’t in there screaming or throwing a butter dish at my dad.
Dec 05, 2018
Should We Stop Using the Word ‘Pariah’?
What do we do with language that is steeped in colonial history?
Aug 14, 2018
“A Modern, Up-to-Date Young Woman”: Shopping, Fashion, and the Rules of My Girlhood
All the fashion rules I learned as a girl were informed by the view that women’s bodies are never okay as they are—they always need fixing.
Jul 26, 2018
Take You Me For a Sponge?: How My Marriage Survived Illness and Caregiving
Sea sponges lack heart, lungs, and the ability to move. They perform their ancient tasks because they must.
Jun 06, 2018
Flour, Yeast, Water, and Salt: How Breadmaking Helped Me Get Through My Divorce
Breadmaking made me feel purposeful, instead of feeling as if I scarcely had control over anything.
Jun 05, 2018
Get Down to Work or God Help You: Reading Etty Hillesum
When Etty wrote to herself, I heard her speaking to me, and I took her words to heart.
May 22, 2018
