PinnedSystole…Some time ago, back in 2019, I found my way into the National Gallery of Art in search of a painting whose title I did not recall by an artist whose name I did not know. I had started hearing music in my head again after years and years of…Art5 min readArt5 min read
Jul 20, 2022Tips to Look After Your Kindergartener(adapting a purported excerpt titled “Tips to look after your husband” from a 1950s Home Economics Schoolbook. Edited and updated for the 2000s) After a rough day at the sandbox, every kindergartener needs a haven where they can renew themselves in body and spirit. 1. Have snacks ready “Plan ahead, even…3 min read3 min read
Nov 26, 2021Affirming the Consequent: A Syllogistic Fallacy for Racializing AuthorityGloss: “Mzungu” = “European/Caucasian” “Mweusi” = “African/Negro” We might wonder whether universality is more rightfully the province of one literary Spirit and not another, one poetic Sensibility and not another, one authorial Voice and not another. I believe that Wambui Mwangi’s questions about Alexander Opicho’s article, “White African Writers Can…Colonialism10 min readColonialism10 min read
Apr 2, 2021“For God so loved the world…”The first spiritual awakening I can remember experiencing occurred when I was eleven years old. It happened on Easter Sunday, somewhere in the course of the school term, some time after the morning’s worship service. It was a boarding school and I was on the second floor corridor of my…Empathy8 min readEmpathy8 min read
Mar 29, 2021Decolonizing Language: Unshackling “Dark” & “Black” from Metaphoric Representations of Negative AttributesDoes the way we use words really matter? How often — while reading a written text (news, or analysis, or even fiction), or while listening to somebody speak (in conversation, on tv, on the radio), or maybe even talking yourself, telling stories, sharing thoughts, or trying to teach something new…Black9 min readBlack9 min read
Nov 28, 2020I finally watched “The Queen’s Gambit” & it was cathartic!The following post discusses details from “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix and contains spoilers throughout. Everyone around me was raving about “The Queen’s Gambit,” the Netflix series that, according to summaries, tells the story of a chess prodigy, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), struggling with addiction. I confess that I am…BlackLivesMatter6 min readBlackLivesMatter6 min read
