Recent Posts:
Watching Girls for the first time at (nearly) 39
Sorry to add to the Lena Dunham this, Lena Dunham that discourse BUT Lena Dunham has a new book out about her experience working/starring on Girls. During its original run, I remember catching bits & pieces at friends’ apartments but never really taking to it myself. Watching Girls for the first time as I hedge…
Pinworms
At a party, my friend says having a kid let her re-parent herself.She’s a little high when she says it.We laugh, then don’t. When I was little,it sometimes felt like my momthought I should prove that I deserved to happy. I learned not to ask.I learned to watch her face,to get there first.If I was mean,it was…
FAQ
Q: Who are you?
I’m an Afro-Puerto Rican writer who thinks about religion, power, race, intimacy, and what we do with language when we’re no longer trying to impress anyone.
Q: Who is this for?
Mostly me and possibly you (Not: hiring committees, algorithms, professional development). If you’re here looking for polish or expertise, you may be disappointed.
Q: What do you do?
I read, I write, I notice patterns, and I revise my thinking in public. Sometimes that overlaps with my professional life but often it doesn’t. Here is where I let the overlap be messy.
Q: so, you have a question about what happened to the mammies…
Once upon a time (& by that, I mean until quite recently), this site was fronted by a banner of Black maternal figures: Black madonnas, mammies, Kara Walker’s sugar sphinx. That visual language came out of my master’s thesis and dissertation work on Black motherhood, altar-making, the visual afterlives of slavery, and how Black women are both, rendered sacred and made to carry impossible weight. They were chosen carefully and held their place here for seven years.
Those images did real work as a fixture on this blog, and I stand by their presence here. The blog has since outgrown being a container for a single academic project, and the banner no longer matched what’s happening on the page. Its removal isn’t a disavowal (though a redesign, to be sure). For those curious, my master’s thesis remains available through the Digital Archive tab and I’ve written on this topic in 2023 for Catapult’s now defunct online magazine (essay linked in the Elsewhere tab). Kimberly Juanita Brown’s The Repeating Body: Slavery’s Visual Resonance in the Contemporary (Duke University Press, 2015) is still essential reading alongside both.
Q: so, you’ve found my blog & we happen to know one another…
If we know each other personally or professionally and you’ve found this blog, I beg you: let’s not talk about it. To me, announcing you’ve read my writing is like announcing you discovered that vibrating thing in my sock drawer—technically true, deeply unnecessary, maximally embarrassing. But, thanks for visiting. I hope it was worth your time!
All that being said, if you feel so inclined…
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