I can’t get over that, & wonder if it’s true,

$ · June 23, 2019

On a whim on Friday I left work and headed to a literary event at which I was (surprise!) surrounded by people whose books and poems and essays have long...

I am scared / is not a good enough reason to not get out of bed

June 16, 2019

I have not been closely following what is happening in Sudan, and I have been tangentially (at best) paying attention to what is going on in Hong Kong, and...

Eventually it comes to you:

$ · June 9, 2019

On Friday I got home from work before 9pm for the first time in a while; that is to say, with enough time and enough energy left to do laundry and cast an...

i can’t stand your ground.

June 2, 2019

It’s June. If you’re involved in corporate rainbows this month, consider this. Because I am finding it hard to provide answers right now, I have been...

I say I, too, am a romantic,

$ · May 26, 2019

As part of my “force myself to make decisions” strategy, I am two days into a longish-temporary-stay and being confronted with the reality of housemates for...

The press is so powerful in its image-making role

May 19, 2019

Internal monologue, Sunday. There are two options when you are moving: give everything away before you attempt to move, or move and then give everything...

To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.

$ · May 12, 2019

I’ve been considering putting an out-of-office reply on my personal email. By “personal” I really mean the email address not given to me by my currently...

“I did know, though, and I was silenced.”

May 5, 2019

Is there a better feeling than “no more events today”? Every 9-12 months I realize (admit) my life has become an unrelenting paen to being a workaholic and...

May you be comforted

April 28, 2019

I think a lot about the responsibilities I have to reduce and prevent harm in the world. Which is sometimes, but not always, similar to using my skills and...

If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.

$ · April 21, 2019

This weekend I watched Homecoming, a testimony to work and creativity and art and brilliance and blackness. I bought a new bicycle, my very first ebike, and...

Your silence will not protect you

$ · April 14, 2019

When I am stuck, I read. This week I mostly read Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry and Red Rising by Pierce Brown (both of which I borrowed as e-books using Libby)....

I didn’t know and nobody told me

April 7, 2019

I’ve been thinking a lot about the kinds of people to whom resources are not readily given, because those are so often the ones we know should be running the...

Decide, or the world will decide for you

$ · March 31, 2019

I made time for a yoga practice after work last week, a Jivamukti session with a teacher who always inspires and challenges. It felt like a small victory,...

"Hey, what's keeping you busy these days?"

March 24, 2019

“Federal officials at the Mexico border detained a 9-year-old U.S. citizen for 32 hours without her parents in order “to perform due diligence in confirming...

And you will ask: why doesn’t his poetry speak of dreams and leaves

$ · March 17, 2019

There’s nothing you can say that will bring back people who’ve been murdered by exactly the same kind of person who has murdered exactly the same kind of...

Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart

$ · March 10, 2019

I buy most of my clothes online, because I have structured my life in a way that makes hitting brick-and-mortar stores difficult. And because I loathe public...

The way to grow your power is to give it away

$ · March 3, 2019

Over the past few days, thanks to the generosity of colleagues, I attended the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit. I got to hear from Bishop Vashti...

They call you black because

$ · February 24, 2019

Sometimes words flow out of me, and this newsletter writes itself. Sometimes, like today, I’ve stared at the blinking cursor on the white screen for 45...

The dwarfs found out how to turn lead into gold by doing it the hard way.

February 17, 2019

It is easy, these days, to give up. Everywhere you look: horror, tragedy, violence. It is easy to despair. It is human to despair. Have I mentioned the...

Self-awareness is not the same thing as peace

$ · February 10, 2019

This weekend I got to spend an unusual amount of time in the company of people I love, and the notion of showing up came up over and over again. I am trying...

Somehow, blackface wasn’t even the worst of it

February 3, 2019

There are weeks (months, years) when you *gesture broadly at everything* *make glib comments about challenges being great for building character*...

Never again is now

$ · January 27, 2019

It’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which means I am thinking more than ever today about all the people who died because their neighbours looked...

Instructions for living a life

$ · January 20, 2019

Every day, every day a reminder that people in your industries, people you know by professional association, are more likely to defend and excuse casual...

What is the work that moves you?

$ · January 13, 2019

Today I got to talk to someone, let’s call him David, who is both one of the best listeners I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting and one of the most...

Imagine everything you ever wanted

$ · January 6, 2019

I have on my desk a notepad, a gift from a friend; on each page is the prompt: “imagine everything you ever wanted below”. I have not written anything on the...

Bask in your own heartbreak

December 30, 2018

I cannot remember when I first began to hate December, but it was at least a few years before the Counting Crows released their interpretation of that...

"What if everyone disobeyed the law?"

$ · December 23, 2018

I am packing for 9 or so days in Mexico, which means there are bags and clothes and shoes strewn about as I whittle the options down into whatever will fit...

we protested but not enough

December 23, 2018

It was one of those weeks when I didn’t so much consciously leave the office as find myself collapsing into my apartment at 9pm, 10pm. On Friday night I...

To all the tweets I didn’t send before

$ · December 16, 2018

And in their mentions, well you can guess. I will never forgive the “well it would be an interesting thought experiment if someone who campaigned on explicit...

i'm just doing my job

$ · December 9, 2018

“Why are you doing this?” someone asked me today, at the beginning of our conversation. “Why are you reviewing people’s resumes for free?” Suspicion, sure....

if you can’t make your own neurotransmitters

$ · December 2, 2018

I baked those cookies again, one of my contributions to a friendsgathering / strategy session I have had the privilege of sharing with a handful of brilliant...

Good year to hate lettuce

$ · November 26, 2018

I have three strong cues that I am successfully taking a vacation: no alarms setno smart devices on my person; especially not one that doubles as a “fitness”...

these are the answers, you feel me?

$ · November 18, 2018

I spent this week wearing a mask, trying to avoid an asthmatic spiral despite the smokiness of the California air. I was mostly successful; and I have...

what are you doing to make revolution irresistible

November 14, 2018

Sometimes the answer is one cup of tea after another and the songs that remind you your grief is not novel. Sometimes the answer is books and poetry....

& who, this time, will serve the reminder

$ · November 11, 2018

I said last week that I’d tell you about a lie I tell myself, that I have recently stopped telling myself. That I have mostly stopped telling myself. It is...

are you ok is code for we are not ok

$ · November 4, 2018

What you do, when you are not allowed to vote and the issue at hand is whether you deserve to live, is buy art that reminds you how to survive. What you do,...

The striking aphorism requires a stricken aphorist.

$ · October 28, 2018

For some weeks I have had in my head a quote, “It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it”. I cannot...

Go the way your blood beats

October 27, 2018

Still in bed, barely awake, I realize my heart is thrumming in my ears. I am reading the notifications about a fatal shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. I...

I am splintered by great waves

$ · October 21, 2018

Some years ago I decided to retrain myself from reflexively and excitedly asking the question, “oh boy or girl?” whenever a friend or colleague announced...

Instead of stressed I lie here charmed

October 20, 2018

I’ve spent several hours of the past two nights sleeping on the floor. Not because of visiting guests or temporary domestic dysfunction, but because of my...

Do inconvenient things

$ · October 14, 2018

In 2017 the San Francisco Public Library chose Black Against Empire for their “One City One Book” campaign. A year later I am finally getting around to...

Let the horizon be what it is

October 11, 2018

.Issue One. You may have the privilege of deciding what you will risk. Or you may have no such agency; losing everything, regardless. Sometimes these look...

Welcome to the Main Event

July 1, 2018

Hi. Would you like to stay awhile? If you’re getting this, it’s very likely because you’d previously subscribed to #awesomewomen. I’ve sunset that newsletter...