Apr 26, 2021
What Home Staging Showed Me About Housing in America
Home staging is a privileged kind of precariousness.
I Loved My Job as a Bookseller—Then Covid-19 Transformed It
Every time I tell a customer that we’re not open for browsing, I know I am reminding them of how Covid-19 has disrupted our rhythms and routines, robbed us of numerous small pleasures.
Sep 16, 2020
Why We Need Hospitality—Before, During, and After the Pandemic
As someone with over ten years in the industry, I still make $4.95/hour—plus tips.
Apr 22, 2020
By Us, for Us: Why WOC-Owned Bookstores Must Survive
When this pandemic is over, we hope to reopen our doors and offer comfort and sanctuary to our communities—as women of color so often have.
Apr 06, 2020
At Sea with Scientists, I Learned What It Means to Be an Explorer
We think of explorers in terms of what they discovered—the Eureka moment, not the search. The search is imperfect and frustrating and owes you nothing.
Sep 11, 2019
Leaving the Sisterhood of Women Writers
The more I wrote about women, the more distanced I felt from the figure I saw in the mirror.
Jun 26, 2019
As a Teacher and Writer, It’s Not My Job to Manage the Feelings of Men
It’s not my job to absorb every feeling a man has. In my classroom, I am the one who decides whose feelings get airtime, and how they are shared.
May 20, 2019
How My Parents, Who Loved Grapes, Lost Their Love of Winemaking
Others began to intrude in what had once been a mom-and-pop operation. The conversion from hobby to profession had been made.
Apr 25, 2019
Honesty Is the Best Policy—Especially in Focus Groups
There will always be liars in the focus group, but Fred was never one of them.
Feb 21, 2019
What Happens When You’re in the Elevator with the Boss’s Son
It’s happened for the past three days now. A three-day streak definitely qualifies it as A capitalized Thing.
Feb 19, 2019
What I Learned from My Father, the Pink-Collar Worker
As a black man in the field of social work, my dad was, as a white female coworker of his once put it, “like a fly in buttermilk.”
Aug 08, 2018
When You Have to Quit Your Dream Job to Pursue Your Dream
After I left, everything became clearer, in the way that a breakup can clarify a toxic relationship; put things in sharp relief.
May 17, 2018
Stitches of Love: Photographing Deceased Neonates
“I take these photographs so she’ll be able to remember the time when she had two heartbeats. Tears bucket down her face.”
May 08, 2018
Five Rhythms: Dance Class in a Dallas Jail
Dance is about freeing ourselves, finding a secret space inside our bodies that no lock can close.
Apr 25, 2018
When Women Approach and Men Receive: Masculinity and Sexual Subjectivity in the Strip Club
When we conflate men’s sexuality with harassment and violence, we don’t ask much of them. Masculinity doesn’t have to be toxic.
Apr 11, 2018
Adventures in Coffin Making
“What leads a man to transact with death for his daily bread?”
Feb 08, 2018
The World of Transshipment, Where One Glitch Can Lead to Chaos
I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would do if something went wrong. If I made a mistake, my son and I might go back to being homeless.
Jan 25, 2018
Working on ‘The Post’ Helped Me Pay Tribute to My Father the Newspaperman
I wish I could tell my dad that I worked to recreate the newsroom. That people still think newspaper stories—and stories about newspapers—are worth telling.
Dec 18, 2017
Women at Work and Other Tales of Survival
“So long as men can harass women without consequences, they will continue to do so.”
Dec 13, 2017
Failing My Father and His American Dream
“All I knew was that if my Pops could work hard and pull himself up out of poverty, I could, too.”
Aug 24, 2017
