Aug 17, 2020We can be okay, even when things are not.One of my neighbours drives the same type of car as my ex-girlfriend. It is a car that makes a distinctive sound, three beeps in rapid succession, every time it is locked. In our year together, I learned to associate this sound with her. …Intimate Partner Abuse11 min readIntimate Partner Abuse11 min read
Feb 22, 2020A Bedtime Story for a Broken HeartOnce upon a time, there was a little boy named ****. Or there could have been a little boy named ****, but his mothers didn’t know how to hold each other. This little boy’s mothers loved each other very much, from a part of the heart so deep inside that…Black Queer Love4 min readBlack Queer Love4 min read
Dec 24, 2019Who is a real woman?If you’re invested in dictionary definitions, the gender binary and a social order regulated by violence, this isn’t for you. Last weekend, a very famous author posted a tweet in support of a woman who’d lost a court case in which she attempted to get legal backing for her transmisogyny…Feminism5 min readFeminism5 min read
Dec 11, 2018Member-only#WhoWillYouHelpI was on Twitter this morning when I stumbled on this video made by the Government of Ontario about the need for bystander intervention in instances of sexual violation. It made my heart stop. It almost made me cry. (It didn’t. Maybe that’s because I’m very, very tired of crying.)Sexual Assault6 min readSexual Assault6 min read
Jul 20, 2018There they are, those girls.2009 In my first year of university, I was generally naked or close to it in my dorm room, even though the windows didn’t have any curtains. My building was on a slight rise so no one outside could see in, and my roommates were almost always away. Mostly, I spent…Queer11 min readQueer11 min read
May 11, 2018VersusSo. In the fight to reclaim my body To redraw boundaries blithely bounded over (a body is a body, but a body can be burgled, broken and entered by men who pass by mirrors and have no reflection men who piss on the world and call it rain men who…Poetry2 min readPoetry2 min read
Apr 9, 2018Happy Birthday, Favour.Tina Houngbo is a pleasant, mild-mannered mother of five children. Laughing self-consciously, she says she isn’t quite sure how old she is because none of her mother’s children were registered at birth or went to school. …Otodo Gbame6 min readOtodo Gbame6 min read
Mar 7, 2018A Letter To My Teenage SelfI wrote this piece around this time two years ago. I come back to it — usually unintentionally — about twice a year, and it always feels like a long hug from me to me. I hope it feels at least a little bit like that for you too. The…Letter To Myself3 min readLetter To Myself3 min read
Jan 28, 2018Cusp“I‘m really just a good girl flirting with the dark side. I like how you shock me, how the undertones in your voice stir me, how laughing at what you say feels like I’m letting you touch me in ways that would first worry, then thrill me… I like how…Erotica2 min readErotica2 min read
Dec 23, 2017Remember ObiamakaObiamaka Orakwue was 14 years old on the night of July 10th when she left her brothers watching TV in the living room of her parents’ home and went to bed. For most fourteen-year-olds, the world is just starting to take shape. They are in the beginning of the questioning…Obiamaka Orakwue6 min readObiamaka Orakwue6 min read
