Short Story

A Black Woman Goes Shopping

The automatic doors spring open for me, the only welcome on this chilly grey morning. Hot air blows briefly…

What Fatherhood Looks Like (And Doesn’t)

A Holiday Lesson Learned

You wonder if growing up without a father will make you less of one to your daughter.

ON BEING A SISTER

For Alicia

The other day my sister drove for over four hours to treat me to a movie and when it was over she drove the four hours back home. I didn’t ask her to. She just did it and it was one of the kindest, most genuine things anyone has ever done for me.

My Mother Was An Undertaker

Lessons for The Living in A Dying Time

My mother was an…

YOUR FATHER, THE FUGITIVE

When your father is a fugitive, it doesn’t matter what he did. He didn’t do it to you. You want him home. Your…

The City That Her Conversation Is

It is a magnificent city that feels eternal.

ME AND THE OTHER JOEL

For My Cousin in Prison

I sent him a phone.

It was the old joint I had with a crack in it. I dropped it at my man Joe’s Room 17 studio in Brooklyn. We had been putting the finishing touches on my songs for…

I’m Not Going to Jail, But My Life is Still Fucked. . . Kinda.

How “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When Popeye’s Chicken Was Enuf” Ended

The Day I Came Up Missing, I Was At Work

A TRUE STORY