This piece works to contextualize aging in the queer community, the complexities of developing trends in spectacle versus intimacy, the depth and shallow natures that are found in performance, as well as the fear and hope that can be found as a queer person.
This autoethnographic narrative describes the growth and development I experienced once I found mentors who, despite my lack of “natural musical abilities” or “talent,” believed I could learn.
In this 2nd of my Processing Parental Grief series, Calliandra receives a letter from her mother weeks after her death.
The otherness is not somewhere out there. It’s in me. Still, my search did not stop to this discovery. It took me profoundly even further. It took me to love and poetry.
It grew out of my personal experience researching Black history museums; but in reality, it began a lot earlier, maybe before I was born.
In this story I shifted my attention to the young woman –a nurse or a volunteer– who sat beside me and held my hand throughout abortion.
“Cold Snap” is about two disparate adults, caught in the tumult of abrupt weather change, caused by the accidental detonation of an experimental meteorological weapon.
"As a female gamer, being able to play a game where the female characters/toons aren’t dressed as sexual objects is refreshing."
Humor acts as a defense mechanism, a pressure release valve, a teaching tool. As a heart surgeon, I have used laughter for all these reasons.
""Mourning (Unfinished)" is an essay about the way my experiences with farm animals helped me come to terms with a miscarriage."
I wrote a study of my own faith, bankrupt as it may be, using story of my father, through the lens of Jewishness as I define it for myself.
"Because I was so immersed in both history, bound in good-smelling leather, no less, and in beautiful and evocative little bottles around me as playthings, I guess it needed no further prompting. It was within my blood before I could think about what I wanted to do with my life!"