Category Archives: In the news and on our minds
The Night My Body Meant, ‘No’

In a recent interview on All Things Considered, Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on…

Why the Time for Pleasure is Now

Like many people, I spent most of Saturday at my computer and on my phone reading and re-tweeting updates about…

Anti-Blackness and White Blindness: A Tale of Two Sessions at #SFS17

Legal scholar and author Geoffrey Stone delivered the keynote address at the 2017 Woodhull Foundation Sexual Freedom Summit. Entitled, “Sex…

The Gospel of Reproductive Justice – #SFS17 Day 1

  At a table on the quiet side of the room, five black women are talking. Sex. Helping a friend…

Radical Self Love: Writing Intimate Spaces in the Era of Tyranny (Essay 3 of 52)
Grayscale image. 2 fists raised in the air, against the clouds. Hashtags resist, radical, selflove, and subversive. quote by Mariam Williams

    This week’s essay is posted on The Thought Erotic for its inauguration issue, “We the People Won’t Be…

My Unpopular Opinion on ‘Birth of a Nation,’ the movie I made an unpopular decision to see
movie poster Birth of a Nation 2016

I took myself to see Birth of a Nation earlier this week. (I told you I would.) Short review: well-acted…

Being single shouldn’t feel like punishment, but for black church girls, it often does

How is a church like prison and being incarcerated like belonging to a church? Both have a way of asking,…

On my bicycle, at the intersection of blackness and womanhood, with feminism crossing diagonally

“If a woman says she was raped, I believe her, because for all she has to go through, why would…

How the Orlando shooting is just like the Charleston massacre

… there is nothing new under the sun. –Ecclesiastes 1:9 When I heard about 50 people at a gay nightclub…

Stunningly Beautiful Blackness

The morning after Muhammad Ali died, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the times he called himself “pretty.” A corner…

What I’m Still Learning from Prince

I’ve been trying to process why Prince’s death feels so much worse to me than Michael Jackson’s or even Whitney…

A Black Family Memoir from A Different World

Since I see no reason to add to the thousands of think pieces EBONY magazine’s November cover story, “Cosby vs. Cliff,” undoubtedly…

Radical Love is Intersectional

I came across the above quote last semester in my academic research but returned to it in June, when the…

A lesson from the Catholic Church: Demand change, believe survivors

Similar to how priests who abused children were shifted from parish to parish but never disciplined. Systemic. https://t.co/87lcN7n0mN — Mariam…

Mad at Bill but Still Wishing for Cliff and Claire
Screenshot of a Cosby Show episode featuring Cliff and Claire snuggling on the sofa

“He is guilty of self-confessed crimes against women such that we should break his albums, burn his tapes and scratch…

Anger is Better

On the Sunday following the Charleston massacre hate crime, those who hadn’t reached the point where they could forgive the…

A House Divided Against Itself: An Open Response to Louisville FOP 614

I’m willing to let this one go. Earlier this month, Louisville Metro Police Officer Nathan Blanford shot Deng Manyoun, a…

For Mother Emanuel

   Though I am often critical of the Black Church, my criticism comes from a place of love and fondness…

Finding a Personal Mission

This summer, I’m finally making time to go through Javacia Harris Bowser’s e-course, “How to Write and Have a Life.”…

Let Us Seek True Justice

Note: I wrote the following passage for Sowers of Justice 2015 Stations of the Cross, an annual Good Friday walk…

I Know I’ve Been Changed

One of the reasons I stopped working on my memoir was because when an agent strongly suggested I adapt my…

Repentance is the answer (when Jesus is the cause)

I’m among the million or so people who have seen NFL player Benjamin Watson’s Facebook post about Ferguson, but in…

A 1954 Case in Defense of Black Womanhood

Blogger’s note: This post was originally published in the Courier-Journal on Sept. 28, 2014 and edited by Pam Platt. For the…

When the message reinforces fear

“If you had a little girl right now, how would you discipline her?” a friend asked me recently. “I don’t…

Two Things about Tipping Points

Someone asked me the following question in a Facebook comment when I posted this article on the similarities between domestic…

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Next Page