Category Archives: Writing Life
Redbone Afropuff is Moving – Thank You and Farewell

Dear Readers, I’ve been blogging at Redbone Afropuff & Black GRITS since 2009. It’s been a great run, but as…

Stories I Finish: An Epiphany (Essay 19 of 52)

I had an epiphany the other day about the way I tell stories and about the stories I like to…

Storytelling is God’s Work (essay 15 of 52)

I’m a storyteller. By the time my next NCR column is published, I will have successfully completed my thesis and…

When the Pen Tips the Scales (Essay 14 of 52)

My thesis is submitted(!) and now … there’s summer clothing I can’t fit into. Most weeks, I spend more hours…

An Intangible Finish (Essay 13 of 52)

This was first posted to Instagram on April 27, 2017. Submitted my thesis today. Digitally. It felt incredibly anticlimactic. I…

Holy Week Worries (Essay 12 of 52)

It’s Holy Week, and I’ve been spending it the way I normally do: working, grocery shopping, exercising, traveling among all…

How do you write like you’re running out of time? (Essay 10 of 52)

The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton has been in rotation on my Tidal playlist since early January. That’s when…

The Never-Ending Work of Creative Labor (Essay 9 of 52)

I feel like I should write this in a whisper lest some enemy of joy hear my fingers pressing the…

We are Writing History (Essay 8 of 52)
dark brown library card catalog

I want everyone to care about stories that aren’t their own, that aren’t necessarily what they think they could relate…

Peace in the Abundance of Choices (Essay 6 of 52)

I spent this past Thursday through Saturday at AWP17, the 50th annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing…

Writing memoir, rewriting memory (Essay 5 of 52)

Thursday and Friday allegedly are my writing days, and finishing my thesis is taking priority. But these essays are to…

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…

Stagnation or Spinning Out of Control? (Essay 2 out of 52)

I started unpacking at 11:00 pm, almost as soon as I walked through the door. And as the contents of…

Yes, I’m Still Writing (1 out of 52)

Since I’ve been staying in my home town with my mom for the holidays, I’ve had exchanged pleasantries and had…

The Summer Part is Over, but Writing for Freedom Continues
The color of freedom

  My Writing-For-Freedom Summer has come to an end. I learned under instructors I would like to take back to…

Writing-For-Freedom Summer

Today I begin a month-long series of summer workshops in essay and poetry that I hope will focus me for…

Faithfully 2015

Last night, as I was wracking my brain to come up with an end-of-year post that was reflective, inspirational and…

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…

Recovering from Spiritual Perfectionism and Searching for Divine Guidance
Illustration: white boy on green chair, little brown dog sits next to him. Text reads: "My trouble was I had a mind. But I couldn't make it up."

In my last column for NCR, I wrote about my somewhat surprising desire to find a church home in my…

Not Alone: Why I Wrote for ‘Faithfully Feminist’

Around this time last year, I was parked in the lobby of a hotel in Tobago (the smaller island of…

The Best of Me Will Live

On September 1, 2015, I will begin the master of fine arts program in creative writing at Rutgers University-Camden. This…

A Working Faith

  Earlier this week I wrote in my journal that I need a spiritual practice that includes faith and hope,…

Feminist Masquerade
Mardi Gras type of mask

  I envy Ann Bauer’s life. I began reading her piece for Salon, “‘Sponsored’ by my husband: Why it’s a…

What’s Up with the Blog and What’s Next?

I wrote my first post/essay of the day at about 2:00 in the afternoon on yet another day that I told…

On Maya and Vincent

Some context: 1. It’s really late. 10:57 central time. 2. I’m at a social justice conference structured to commemorate the…

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