THE WEATHER WAS GETTING HOTTER and Ronald was down to a light T-shirt and shorts in the truck. He never wore what some people called a “wife-beater.” For one thing, it was a terrible name. And for another, he just felt as if there was something disrespectful to have that much skin showing as aContinue reading “The Long Way: a Short Story (conclusion)”
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The Long Way: a Short Story (part 3)
It was always green salsa for her. That was how Toni was raised. Her uncle would make both red and green for big parties and holidays, but for the most part on the dinner table each night was salsa verde. And the Valentina for heat. She kept a bottle of it in her desk now,Continue reading “The Long Way: a Short Story (part 3)”
The Long Way: a Short Story (part 2)
EDWARD MET RONALD IN A HOME DEPOT parking lot in Burbank, standing with a group of men waiting for day’s work. The two started talking about their home countries, about cooking, about soccer…and they hit it off. Edward was still doing construction a year later, after landing a union job that kept him busy buildingContinue reading “The Long Way: a Short Story (part 2)”
No Free Rides
I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO…FIRST. Call and email my representatives demanding that they grow a spine and stand up to the madness in DC; prep for my African-American studies film class; cook dinner for one of my friends displaced by the fires; listen to the news; turn off the news; meditate; reach out toContinue reading “No Free Rides”
Not This Time
ALTADENA. A TOWN THAT HAS BURNED, BUT NOT DISAPPEARED. So many of us, in our own ways, plan to make sure in fact that Altadena does not disappear, does not go the way of Seneca Village in New York City, for example, or Morrisonville, Louisiana. There are still edifices standing here and there among Altadena’sContinue reading “Not This Time”
Memory and Fire
FIRE GETS SEARED INTO PEOPLE’S MINDS. The vision of fire, the smell, the heat… And even just the stories that include fire can often make deep inroads into the imagination. So much so, in fact, that some people even remember fires where there were none. This is the case around the narratives of urban rebellionContinue reading “Memory and Fire”
Hoping to Learn & Learning to Hope
“OVERHAULING THE AMERICAN PRISON INDUSTRY: A View From 20 Years of Incarceration” is the name of the seminar that my co-author Maurice Tyree and I appeared on this morning. Hosted by our publisher, Lived Places Publishing, it was an opportunity for people to learn about our book, hear Maurice’s thinking, and simply understand why weContinue reading “Hoping to Learn & Learning to Hope”
World on the Move
WORLD ON THE MOVE: 250,000 YEARS OF HUMAN MIGRATION is a traveling exhibition made possible through the partnership of the American Anthropological Association and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. So believe me when I say I was thrilled when the principal librarian of Piscataway Public Library, Joy Robinson, contacted me to speak about my newContinue reading “World on the Move”
Not On Her Watch
BLACK WOMEN ACTIVISTS still don’t get enough play in our country’s historiography. But slowly their stories are being foregrounded, such as in my colleague Hettie Williams’ new book, The Georgia of the North: Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey. My recent book, Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark alsoContinue reading “Not On Her Watch”
Katie Singer 