Safe, affordable housing is a fundamentally feminist issue and, without a doubt, a fundamental human right. Yet so often, access to secure and affordable housing is a struggle for many of our most vulnerable communities. Navigating the legal and financial complexities of property transactions can be daunting, but a qualified conveyancer plays a crucial role […]
Ben Carson’s Shame
When I was in the seventh grade, the Scholastic Book Fair came to my school. Books had always been my safe haven, but in the middle of seventh grade I had recently moved from the northeast to south Florida and I needed books more than ever. My mama gave me a couple of dollars—enough to […]
Being Reflected in Moonlight
February 26, 2017, Moonlight won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. February 26, 2017, marked the fifth anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death. In my mind, these two things are not random coincidences. Both Trayvon and Chiron, the protagonist of Moonlight, are Black boys from Miami who were trying to make a way in the world […]
Petty Is As Petty Does
Scene 1: Six of the eight members of the CFC gather in Atlanta, GA, birthplace of the collective. We are celebrating the launch of our book! We read selections from our book (available online and in fine independent bookstores everywhere) and chop it up with our local fam at Charis Books & More, North America’s […]
Pussy Don’t Fail Me Now: The Place of Vaginas in Black Feminist Theory & Organizing
#1 – I was on a plane heading to give a talk about the Movement for Black Lives when I felt menstrual blood beginning to leak through the seat of my jeans. Everyone who menstruates knows the dread and fear that happens when they can’t control this bodily function that by our age has been […]
Saving Ourselves
My feminist ministry has never really been focused on white people. Interrogating whiteness and eradicating white supremacy, sure. But addressing the needs, goals, or desires of individual white people? No. Not really. Not my work. In the wake of last November’s election, where white folk by and large adjudicated President Obama’s two terms by electing […]
How to Survive the Next Four Years
Crunkista’s working survival guide…for the next four years I have never prayed so much in my life. After the election results came in, I walked around in black disbelief. I mean that literally, I now wear black anytime I am outside the house. At first it was because I was mourning the loss of a […]
Black Girl Running
When I was a little Black girl with barrettes in my hair, I loved running, skipping, and jumping. I loved waking up and being able to move. I wasn’t very fast, a shame for a girl in a Jamaican family for sure, but I loved running around all the same. There was so much joy […]
New Year, Same Dope Me
I’m one of those folks who like, and generally keep, resolutions. I’m also an annoyingly chipper morning person. Like, I wake up singing “Good Morning!” and don’t need to drink coffee. But, I digress. For me, the new year starts in mid-December, around my birthday. I start taking stock in what was the year like, […]
On Safety Pins, Pant Suits, and (Faux) Markers of Safety
When I first heard about the safety pin initiative, I was at a conference breaking bread with my favorite white woman in the world, telling her about my overall ambivalence and disillusionment with unknown white folk post-Trump election. Still in my feelings (and let’s be clear, I am and will be all up in my […]