My First Grays

It is startlingly appropriate that I was introduced to my first gray hair this past evening, at about a quarter to 7 p.m. in the basement of the Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus right around the corner from my home. I came out of a bathroom stall to wash … Continue reading My First Grays →

The People Like Us Who Live in Places Like This*

6-month old Jonylah Watkins, shot to death 5 times in Chicago, March 11, 2013 My mind hadn't really caught up, yet. If not for my new early evening coffee habit, I still might not know that the 6-month old child who was shot to death in a Chicago drive-by suffered her fatal injuries right around the … Continue reading The People Like Us Who Live in Places Like This* →

Women Should Tell Women’s Stories: on the films of the capital punishments of Wanda Jean Allen and Aileen Wuornos

In 2002, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus was forced to end her documentary on the last three months of Oklahoman Wanda Jean Allen, a twice-convicted murderer. Allen was the sixth woman put to death in the United States after the 1977 reinstatement of the death penalty. The Execution of Wanda Jean depicts the frantic and pathetic clemency pursuit in the Bible … Continue reading Women Should Tell Women’s Stories: on the films of the capital punishments of Wanda Jean Allen and Aileen Wuornos →

Good Job Goodreads…

My self-preservationist tendency is to spurn online social media as much as humanly possible for my generation. It seems that Facebook is the new way to pass the kids' school pictures around...you know, those goofy and darling snapshots stuck on little squares with jaggedly scissored edges? I miss those. Now, I must log in and … Continue reading Good Job Goodreads… →

Black History Month

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In Search of Our Daughters’ Gardens: A Meditation on Hadiya Pendleton’s Life*

She was 15. She was an honors student. The shooter remains at large. Her parents live in shock. Her school is in silent mourning. Residents of Chicago are outraged. A nation is unaware.

Where Are Black Americans in Lincoln?

Here, even Frederick Douglass could not muscle his way to a significant part. I could be missing an artistic point. Or, I could be being honest: after so much has been done, Black Americans just may never satisfied with anything done about it.