I was in Magnolia Antiques the other day hanging posters for an upcoming Blues Brunch featuring Bobby Rush, the King of the Chitlin’ Circuit, and I spotted a turquoise hamsa pendant on a beaded chain. Ten dollars – that is what it cost. I was shocked. Well it was $12, but she took $2 off for me. While at a celebration of life, someone commented on my hamsa, and I told her about my good…
Every day, a new headline contains an egregious, outrageous and mind twisting claim that turns the truth inside out. And yet truth will out. One of the 100 WOMEN DBA members sent 100 Men Hall rack cards to Welcome Centers across Mississippi. A few of the centers are closed for renovation, and yesterday, I got a call from one in Natchez saying our rack cards arrived, the address had been incorrect, and she didn’t know…
Before Steve and I married, there were moments that have now become seared in my memory where he said something, I felt something, and yet we went on as if nothing had happened. One of these moments happened right after we had had sex in his bed on the floor, on Mason Street, with the foggy light of the San Francisco summer, and the noise of the trolley clanging its way up the hill. “I…
A recap of the last four weeks is contained in my buzzword: vulnerability. My community feels as if we are knee deep in troubled times, and I fall back on we’ve been here before – our shared history is resistance, and I believe in US. I am vulnerable to the fear I feel, they feel, we feel and I also know it is fear. In the last 30 days, I have met new people and…
I watched Questlove’s 50 years of SNL music history on Monday night at a friend’s house. I was 15 years old when the first episode aired. I realize it was radical television but hadn’t understood the groundbreaking thinking and eclectic music it introduced me to over the years. Songs of freedom, songs of resistance, songs of transformation. Prince was not Prince when he sang PartyUp on SNL then stormed off stage singing: You’re gonna have…
I belong to so many support groups, it is mind blowing. I’m in a parent support group, a parent coaching group, an alumni parent support group, a two-hour adult children of alcoholics group, my own therapy and then there is the improv class. The improv class is scary. Vulnerable scary. You get all your fears activated right up front – I’m not that smart, that clever, that quick, that creative – oh, the list is…
I moved to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi nearly two years ago. I had a strong yearning to be part of a smaller community, surrounded by nature, experiencing a slower rhythm, with space for my child to run on a longer leash. I had to juggle – I knew what I wanted, but making it happen took stacking uneven blocks on top of each other, not being able to connect all the dots in the future…
My mother was an enchanting beauty with her jade green eyes and thick honeyed hair. She turned heads. My sister with her high cheek bones and muscular petite frame has my mom’s looks. Growing up next to these beauties never fazed me. I didn’t compare myself to them or any of the other strikingly beautiful friends I’ve come to know over the years. I know beauty is luck and sometimes even a curse. But I’m…
I’ve been reading what the experts say and it appears this coronavirus might have the tenacity to stick around forever. There is hope that some of us become immune and hope that someone will find a vaccine. Today, I had to tell Tin that he is most likely not going back to school to finish 5th grade. Instead, there is going to be a lot more of me, the dog, the cat and the fish…