I don’t have much of my grandfather. In fact, I have next to nothing. It’s not hard to understand why; Solomon “Big Daddy” Harris lived in the rural, segregated town of Bracey, Virginia until 1987 when he passed – a number of years before I was born. Even then, his existence and relation to me […]
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Three weeks ago, in New York City, as I rode the 4-5 train downtown, I was shoved, cursed at, and spun around by an angry young man. The altercation began when he moved my friend, a young woman new to the city, aside, and declared, “I am not going to get fucking stuck.” When he […]
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The latest Facebook trend to make the rounds is “Me too,” an exercise in solidarity where women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted post those two simple words in order to demonstrate how widespread the problem really is. Here in Florence, it’s hard to see these words and not think about the last month’s […]
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They’re ambitious, collaborative, individualistic and 80 million strong. They created a platform where we can keep in touch with friends and family, a way for us to get from point A to point B and a place for us to find love online. They’re the infamous millennial generation vying for a chance to become a […]
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Driving alone eight hours at a time, gorging oneself on bean tacos, Krispy Kreme donuts and Mountain Dew Code Red isn’t the sexiest way to conduct a road trip. But I’ll tell you without shame… it was certainly my way. Two weeks ago I packed my beat-up, old car with two suitcases, one box of […]
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New Orleans is magic. You either get that or you don’t, so I won’t waste time trying to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat if you fall into the latter camp. Unfortunately not all wizards are forces for good, and for every Dumbledore there’s a host of house elves scrubbing floors and cooking […]
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I don’t live where I was born. But that’s exactly why I’ve been so creative the last few years. I was born in a small, New England town in western Massachusetts. And for the most part, it lacked a certain identity. We hosted the women’s LPGA tour, we have a few popular eateries around the […]
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Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we want. It comes at us fast, and we’re left to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. There are times when we want the world to work in a certain way. When we wish the universe could throw around some magic that may work in our […]
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I recently got involved in a weight-loss contest with my boyfriend because I’d been experiencing some joint pain (and I respond “well” to competition). He was super supportive, but he also wanted to add all these extra rules, like a week with no sugar and a mandatory half hour of exercise every day. “No, no, […]
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I think that many of us can understand how easy it is to get trapped inside of the persona we create for our professional lives. To a certain extent these…let’s call them ‘personality tweaks’, are a defensive measure. They shield us from the claws and teeth of judgement from our peers. They function as walls […]
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