#BlackChurchSex, Best Of, Love Single Life and Marriage, Pleasure, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex, Womanism
In 2015, I had a farewell dinner with a friend a few nights before I left Louisville. As we sat inside a dark restaurant filled with families but better suited for couples, awaiting our order of Indo-Chinese fusion dishes we had never heard of, my friend asked,...
Best Of, Black Diaspora, Feminism, Gender, History, Pleasure, Rape culture, Research and Scholarship, Respectability, Sex, Travel, Trigger warning, Yes Means Yes
Originally published August 2, 2014 I spent a portion of my last day at 33 dancing and thinking about the messages in the dance. On July 30, our study abroad group had a wonderful lecture on traditional dances of Trinidad and Tobago. Because there are so many people...
Best Of, Black Love, Feminism, History, In the News, Pleasure, Race, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex, Social Justice, Tyranny, Writing Intimacy
For two weeks after the election, I wrote nothing. I was enrolled in two writing workshops for my MFA, and I wrote nothing. I submitted a poem I had written over the summer and didn’t bother to revise for my poetry workshop that week. The following week, I skipped my...
Feminism, Gender, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Reproductive Justice, Sex, The Bible
In my early and mid-twenties, I wrote several drafts of a screenplay in which a modern-day Virgin Mary who received word the second coming of Christ would happen through an immaculate conception in her womb essentially says, “No thanks. Find someone else.” I wrote the...
Best Of, Black Love, In the News, Pleasure, Race, Sex, Tyranny
Like many people, I spent most of Saturday at my computer and on my phone reading and re-tweeting updates about the white supremacists who had descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia. My emotions ranged from anger to sadness to disgust. And try as I do to promote...
Best Of, Black Love, Feminism, Pleasure, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex
I attended a conference session called, “Defusing the Power of Toxic Religion for Sexual Advocacy,” because I’m writing a memoir about intersections of faith, family, and feminism in my life and of my experience with black female sexuality within the context of the...
Best Of, Black Love, Pleasure, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex
How is a church like prison and being incarcerated like belonging to a church? Both have a way of asking, “How do you plan to handle potentially lifelong, involuntary celibacy?” Read more. ← On my bicycle, at the intersection of blackness and...
#BlackChurchSex, Best Of, Love Single Life and Marriage, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex
Originally published Dec. 22, 2014 “A Southern Baptism,” Detroit Publishing Co., ca 1900. Library of Congress. One of the reasons I stopped working on my memoir was because when an agent strongly suggested I adapt my essay collection into a linear...
#BlackChurchSex, Best Of, Feminism, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex
Originally published Aug. 8, 2014 I hate when I think of a snappy comeback three weeks after a discussion ends. That’s happening right now, as I think of a coversation I had with another American student in our group in Trinidad. I’ll call her...
#BlackChurchSex, Best Of, Beyonce, Feminism, Gender, Pleasure, Pop Culture, Race, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex
Originally published Dec. 27, 2013 I said I wouldn’t write about this because I knew I wouldn’t download the album until after Christmas and my commentary would be late and go largely unnoticed, and what more could I add to all that’s already been said anyway? But I...
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