My Ode to Self-Care 46: “Perfect Timing”

This is another one of these where I am simply writing whatever comes to mind, how it comes to me… One of the idiosyncrasies I have picked up from my experiences is hyperawareness of time. I view almost everything through a lens of everything is finite. I could be having the greatest experience in the […]

An Ode to Self-Care 43: “Ribbon in the Sky”

In the summer of 1991, my aunt told her five-year old niece and nephew she would be away until they were in fifth grade. My sister and I did not quite comprehend what she meant about college or time apart for a period equivalent to our lifetime. Without allusion to anyone’s age, my aunt was […]

My Ode to Self-Care 42: Right On Time

Dozens of essays ago, I wrote about my college roommates, Devin and Walter. In 2005, Walter was a recent seminary school graduate, was 11 years our senior, and worked as an administrator at Morehouse College. Despite our difference in age, the three of us got along. One night, the three of us sat in our […]

My Summer Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 11-“Palmolive”

“Palmolive” by Freddie Gibbs featuring Killer Mike and Pusha T puts me into a zone. It’s easy to get caught up in the perfect vibe as the emcees to wax poetic about their past pursuits to make money over super producer Madlib’s sampled-soundbed, “Cry of a Dreamer” by the Sylvers. The lyrics sound like the […]

The Tale of Two Tapes Turning Twenty-Five

Pretty good alliteration, ain’t it? Hip hop historians, scholars, and followers of the culture often cite 1988 as the genre’s greatest year in music. There was a seismic shift in which almost any and everything that came before it, was history. Run DMC may have been and still seen some success with Tougher than Leather; […]

HBCU’s, Homecoming, and Nostalgia

The smartest decision I ever made was attending Morehouse College. I haven’t been able to make the trip to Atlanta for my alma mater’s homecoming since Obama’s first term in office. I hate not being able to attend; but I absolutely love seeing everyone’s pictures on social media. I don’t have too much of […]

My Life in 100 Songs: Let Me See It by UGK

This is the first of three posts that are linked together. With as much as I write about being a single father, very rarely to I divulge in detail about my dating life. I have alluded to, given general information, and so on, it isn’t something I talk about in an active capacity. But I’m […]

Growing Up and Springtime in the Atlanta University Center

It’s the first day of spring, it’s snowing in New York, and it’s that time of the year when I miss living in Atlanta badly. In Georgia, the “out like a lamb” portion of March is seventy degrees, and the dogwoods have begun to bud leaving that weird floral smell in the air. The thought […]

9/02/10: Leaving Georgia Behind

September 2, 2010. Timile and I were all packed up with our lives and cats in a U-Haul truck. We moved out of our apartment in Smyrna, Georgia and headed to New York. I never wanted to leave Atlanta. I felt like both of our families had a little crazy in them and if people […]

Dear Old Morehouse

On this morning ten years ago I was up after a restless night wondering what the next chapter of my life would be like. I was seventeen years old and at around 11:30 AM I was flying to Atlanta for college. I hated my senior year of high school and was ready to leave Long […]