**This post contains references to physical violence and may be triggering to some readers. Take care should you decide to continue reading.** By now, you have no doubt seen or heard about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at this year’s Oscars. It was a moment that was truly shocking – unlike anything I’ve ever seen…
Category: uncharted territory
Out of the Wilderness
The Easter season always reminds me of frilly dresses and ruffled socks and memorized speeches recited on Easter morning. From Ash Wednesday somberly beckoning me to remember from whence we came, clear through to Resurrection Sunday’s triumphant declaration of victory over death, Easter brings with it a unique combination of holy contemplation and bittersweet joy….
Introducing: Matriarch
Last spring, I met my parents, great-aunt, and a cousin in Wortham, Texas, where my maternal grandmother and her siblings were raised. I did not know that by the end of 2021, my great-aunt, her sister, would perish – and that this trip would be her final trip back home. So when I recently found…
Word of the Day
Today has been a lot, youse guys. I found hella typos in a draft of something I freelance wrote yesterday, which nearly sent me down a shame spiral. But I had no time to spiral, because I needed to read a book so I could write its description, begin editing the book since I have…
Undeterred: Dr. Mae Jemison
When I think of Dr. Mae Jemison, the image in my mind is of a smiling young Black woman in an orange astronaut suit, possibly wearing or holding the kind of helmet that astronauts wear when they embark upon a spacewalk. The image in my mind is static, unmoving. It’s lovely and placid.
Run
After reflecting on “build” at the end of 2021, I began to pray again for what my word would be. And after a few short weeks, one word kept coming back to me again and again…
Launch Party
December 3rd is the day! Sly Girl Publishing will be celebrating the launch of Peace by Piece: Unlearning Racial Bias at Books and Barrels in Downtown Longview!
Pandemic University’s Teacher of the Year
In the future, may we find that the years we spent at Pandemic University taught us to replace popularity contests with support for each other that is so fierce that we never think to compete with each other. Instead, may we busy ourselves with making sure we never forget the fundamental lesson Pandemic University taught us: that we are enough just as we are.
The Call is Coming From Inside Our House
We cannot hide behind the cross of Christ and the promise of future spiritual unity and reconciliation, declaring thereby that we have transcended all the troubles of the world because Jesus saves. Because the call is coming from inside the church house.
An Open Letter to First-Year Teachers
It isn’t always like this.
