May 30, 2022Member-onlyIs Your Best Friend an A***hole? They Should Be.You don’t need nice friends. You need honest ones. — “And tell everyone how cool I am. Without telling everybody how cool I am.” These are the words spoken to me by my ace-in-the-place, my one-and-only-like Sony, my best friend. He told me to say all that. His name is Joe. He’s an asshole. Like any asshole in your life…Friendship3 min readFriendship3 min read
Apr 23, 2021Member-onlyThoughts On That Time We Almost Got Shot While Doing Improv.After Casey Goodson was murdered, but before Ma’Khia Bryant was shot down, I went to an event space to rehearse with my improv troupe. We are a bunch of still-kind-of-young professionals who enjoy playing onstage together, and over the past couple of years we have built a nice following and…Police2 min readPolice2 min read
Feb 25, 2021Member-onlyYoga and The Angry Black ManIn the fall of 2002, I was 220 pounds, starting a new career as a performer, freshly dumped by my upwardly mobile girlfriend, and kinda homeless. It was a confusing, disappointing time in which I was either regretful or worried at any given moment. Oh, and angry. Constantly angry. So…Yoga3 min readYoga3 min read
Dec 7, 2020Member-onlyYoung Love, or Some Junk.A Poem — I wasn’t cool enough to make a mix tape. I never knew what songs to put on it To tell you how much I wanted You, Needed You, Baaaaaabyyyy! (You’re supposed to sing that last line like you mean it.) I made radio shows with my cousin, Cracking jokes and…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Published inAn Injustice!·Nov 1, 2020Member-onlyOh, He Didn’t Mean ItWe spend a lifetime forgiving racism, but we never forget — One glorious elementary school morning, I was playing with my friends Shannon and Shawn by the big-kid swing sets. It was a sunny day, and cold. I can’t remember if it was that November cold that feels like the beginning of more cold, or the March cold that whispers of…Racism3 min readRacism3 min read
Sep 18, 2020Member-onlyOn Books, and How I learned to Hate MyselfSometimes, we fail our kids by helping them succeed. — In elementary school, I was in a special program for gifted kids — a group of adorable little nerds who were much more inclined to read the encyclopedia than play street football after class. We met every other week with an advisor to work on fun projects that would challenge…Learning3 min readLearning3 min read
Aug 27, 2020Member-onlyMy Pie Crust is Life.Do you want to make a great pie crust. I used a period there because this really isn’t a question. Of course you do. So do these things I’m telling you to do here: Get all these things: 2 cups flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons of…Food2 min readFood2 min read
Aug 4, 2020Member-onlyFacts Suck. So Hide them in Stories.The world is telling us something right now. It’s an ugly, terrifying truth that has become prevalent faster than, I think, we have come to realize it as a society. Oh, we’ve had harbingers of this truth before, but just like Cassandra of Troy, their cries of danger fell on…Writing1 min readWriting1 min read
May 4, 2020Member-only“Quiet Time:” A Black Grandmother’s Introduction to MindfulnessMy Grandmother was meditating before it was cool. I spent a lot of my childhood at my Grandmother’s house. It was as fun as any Grandmother’s place — there were trees to climb, neighbor kids to battle in street football, and sidewalks for optimal Big Wheel riding with my cousins. And of course, there were rules. Many of…Family4 min readFamily4 min read
Published inLEVEL·Mar 27, 2020Member-onlyThe Confusion of Being Black but Told ‘You Talk Like a White Boy’Because without context, this hurts — so think about the impact of your words — When I was 16 years old, I worked at a video store. Instead of cutting lawns or flipping burgers like many kids my age, I wore a snazzy polo and stood behind a big counter. Four days a week, I watched movies and convinced people to buy a family plan…4 min read4 min read
