When Style Becomes a Question of Origin

Black dandyism carries history in its seams. Long before it appeared on red carpets or museum steps, it emerged as a response to dehumanization. Enslaved and colonized Black people took imposed forms of dress and turned them into dignity. Clothing became a language: I am here. I am refined. I am not what you say […]

Not Just a Celebration

Juneteenth Is Not Just a Celebration For Black folks, Juneteenth doesn’t land like most holidays. It carries weight. It stirs memory. It can feel meaningful and hollow at the same time. That’s not contradiction—that’s truth. Juneteenth marks a moment when freedom was announced, not created. When people were told they were free long after freedom […]

4th of July in Chi town

I sat on the couch of our 17th floor apartment, staring out the floor to ceiling windows and seeing a sea of fireworks that stretched across the city of Chicago. A city I had never seen before, where my first memory of it is glowing and lit up with vibrant color. 4th of July has […]

Black Joy & Genius Tour 6.29.22

Next stop NC. I stepped off train, and was greeted by my parents. No sooner than I got to their house, did I test positive for the Rona. After all this time living in my redwood cloaked, clean California bubble, I figured it was only a matter of time before la covida loca got me. […]

Black Joy & Genius Tour 6.20.22

Sitting in Union Station, in awe and digesting my DC experience, I drifted off and missed my train to NC. I rebooked on a later train, but the only seating available would be in a sleeper car. I interpreted sleeper car as a kind of luxury. Maybe I’d have that first class experience I wrote […]

Black Joy & Genius Tour 6.16.22

After being in NY for 11 yrs, my move to the redwood forests of Northern California was an extreme switch. After NY, I couldn’t just go to an in-between suburban bardo. I turned in my Dockers and desk for MUCK boots, thirty chickens, two cows, six goats, a mini donkey and a gang of friends […]

Booorn to be Wiiiild

It looks like acknowledging the genius in people who have done things that we hate. It looks like respecting the decision of a homeless person who has chosen a life in the wild over the trappings of a mortgage and a nine to five.

Black Joy & Genius Tour: 6.09.22

I visited the Ruby and Calvin Fletcher African American History Museum in Milford, CT. My 97 yr old grandmother loves it. She loves taking anyone who visits her there. They’ve done a really nice job with the museum, in a historic New England house. At my Age (47), I’ve seen various versions of this collection. […]