A few months ago, I had the incredible good fortune to visit the Smithsonian Museum of African American History in Washington, DC. The place is an awe-inspiring testament to the deep wounds, trauma, resilience, power, culture, magic and beauty of the Black...
I have a memory from when I must have been around seven or eight years old. My mother and I lived in South Jamaica, Queens in an apartment that we rented upstairs from a very large family on the ground floor. I think we were sitting in the kitchen. I remember that it...
This may be a contradiction but I love to travel and I hate being a tourist. My best travel memories are sleeping in the living room of someone's (if not my own) extended family or sitting cross-legged on a mat around a cooking-fire. I prefer to be somewhere as an...
Two moments touched me in my identity feels at the airport in Goa: 1) I saw an ad for sunscreen with a very pale woman (at least ten shades lighter than nearly any locals I have encountered since I have been in Southern India) promising to let you enjoy the sun...
I have what I refer to as the “universal brown girl” look. I have caramel brown skin, dark brown eyes and black curly hair. As far as global diversity goes, I may posses some of the most geographically non-specific physical traits possible. If I keep my...