“Unsure of what the balance held, I touched my ‘Bible’ overwhelmed, by what I had been chosen to perform. But then Ms. Rhonda came one day, told me to knell down and pray for unto to me this business would be born.” If you have seen any change, any grace in me, in the last 3 years, it truly wasn’t me. I can’t clean up that ...

There had been rumors for months on social media that the legend had died. Disturbing posts that we had lost the iconic figure weeks ago. So when I saw similar posts yesterday I just chalked it up as a cruel troll trying to get attention but unfortunately this time it was true. You see I’m actually from #strongisland, where our teachers&n...

I can live in this country,  I can turn from this flag,  I can take a knee like Kapernick,  Even if it makes you big mad,  I can speak against the President,  I can March in your squares,  Especially after your oppression,  Counted me out when I was there,  My grandma picked yo cotton,&nbs...

Beloved Queen Mother, Phylicia Rashad, comes from the cloth of my grandmother, my mother and even me in a sense. A cloth woven by the threads that loyalty is royalty and that we handle our business behind the thrown and glimmer a smile, even while the crown cracks. What gave way for the Michelle Obama’s and Kamala Harris’s ...

From the moment Bill Cosby’s conviction was overturned, that Busta Rhymes beat from, “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See”, has been in my head (Boom a, boom, boom, boom, boom a, boom, boom, boom). I just couldn’t get those tribal sounds of my ancestors out of my mind. Like they were speaking to me. Now I am a di...

AsDear Dearest,  I have an issue that is really getting next to me emotionally. I am a consultant and I met this 16 year old young lady. We discussed some issues in regard to her family that were confidential and concluding our encounter, I needed her signature on a document. She proceeded by printing her name. I asked her again for her s...

Female as she exited the womb. Woman was the cosmic boom. Death came upon her as she gave all she had. Resurrected into god, when I say, some get mad.  She no longer hangs around empty tombs, dead relationships, what you may assume. She's not caught up in incomplete projects, financial dreams, your fake respect. Her death was intentional ...

Dear Dearest,  I have a 19 year old daughter that I adore more than life itself. Her mother and I never got along; a street gutter woman with a hot temper that would keep me away from my daughter at the slightest missed payment of child support.  But my child always wanted to be with me, so at 16, she ran away and...

Dear Dearest,  I have raised my daughter along with her mother since the day we brought her home from the hospital. My love for her is unconditional but it has been rocky for me and her mother. During our turbulent times she has thrown in my face that I am not the father to my beautiful baby girl who is now 7. I am planning on leavin...

Today I woke up excited about being Black.  As festivities all over are getting started, I’m going to try to drop into a few. As our white counterparts are literally forced to hear stories of the enslave like we were in European History class, I am glad now you may know. As classism, racism, sexism, homophobia, can be distracted by the be...

One of my majors in undergrad was the African Diaspora. And for about 30 plus years I’ve studied the historical plight of melaninated individuals in America and beyond. I’ve written numerous pieces about the disenfranchisement of our people even before ABC news deemed Juneteenth as popular culture. And I’ve  honestly become frus...

It's Not Enough By Dearest PriceJuneteenth is not only a day to celebrate but to commentate. Commentate the ancestors. And although 14 voted nay to such a holiday because of their denial of the American Holocaust, we are the patriots for not destroying a country that in its greatest move of evil left many Texans enslaved long after the so called Em...

Dear Dearest,  I contracted COVID in March of this year. I was very resistant to go to the hospital when I began to get sick but my son insisted because of my age and health. I tested positive and immediately was admitted. During the 3 week stay in the hospital I may remember two days. But it was the most horrifying experience I...

Dear Dearest,  I’ve had a period where I ran the streets and messed with drugs. It was due to a rough upbringing by an abusive mother. I have two sons and they were put in foster care, reported by my mother. I can’t seem to forgive her because she put them in the system when she could have taken them in herself. She says she raised her ki...

I’ve been wanting to write this piece for a long time; especially for my young sisters starting out. This piece is for the ones that are discriminated for wearing their naturals, braids or locks to work, the ones that rock that blond like a rockstar but are labeled for their crown, the ones that adorn their beauty with lashes li...

Dear Dearest,  I am a single co parent of four. I met a beautiful lady that I thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. She has 3 kids of her own. After two years of dating we moved in together. She does everything for me but since we added the kids it’s been a disaster. My children can not stand her and...

Dear Dearest,  My daughter is a beautiful, chocolate, 18 year old whose personality just glows. But she recently told me that she never had a boy talk to her and that most boys she knows just don’t like Black girls. I asked her what she meant and she told me most Black boys are not attracted to Black girls unless they ...

Dear Dearest,  My husband can’t respond to me without being verbally abusive. He humiliates me in public and private. He yells at me in front of our children like I am a child. He is so mean. We have children from different partners but he is especially cruel in front of his own children. Most of the time it’s over the simplest ...

This is the “No-Judgement Zone”, where  culture will be explored, discussed and hopefully understood but never exploited. I have read and watched the posts of Auntie Mo’Nique talking to the babies about wearing the bonnets, slippers and head scarfs in the airports. I laughed because when my 17 year old daughter and I went into t...

Dear Dearest,  I am 37 years old and like many others, I am consumed with social media, especially FB. According to a phone app, my usual time on exceeds 8 hours a day. That’s more than I work. Posts and comments literary make me sick. I feel like folks are always insinuating something about me. I take and post picture...