Celebrating Our Differences
I was born and raised in Germany. As a child, we learned a lot about the horrors of the Holocaust in history class. It was hard to believe that this had happened in my country. I couldn’t even fathom how people could do such evil things to each…
On January 21st 2017, I will release the person I have carefully created into the world, or rather into Washington D.C. I have been preparing for this ever since I first said the word divorce out loud in relation to my decaying marriage. I have been stockpiling domestic…
As an African American woman who has witnessed the ebb and flow of my people in this country, I’m reflective as we move from one year into another. I’ve reached the conclusion that our rocky tenure in America has caused us to think short term, and we need…
The Ambiguities of Race and the Permanence of Slavery: A Look at George W. Farris, Escaped Slave Homer Plessy Newspaper accounts from across the nation in the 1850s tell the tale of an escaped slave calling himself George Washington Farris. The story detailed by these accounts highlights…
For many years I have wanted to visit a country in Africa but could not decide which one I wanted to visit first. After months of pondering and researching multiple countries I decided Kenya would be my first African country to visit. After weeks of research on Kenya…
Our identity is a specific marker of how we define ourselves at any particular moment of life. Discovery and claiming our unique identity is a process of growth, change and renewal throughout a lifetime. This is my story – a brief part of what I call the projection…
This was a lesson in the process of managing fear so I can hear what I need at all times. We must learn to capture these understandings for daily use…maybe even to save our own lives. I wasn’t afraid but cautious and vigilant. I surveyed the room again…
It is said that it takes an average of about 7 years to get a proper bipolar disorder diagnosis. Mainly because people only seek help when they’re depressed. I believe it. I first went to therapy when I was 17, in 2001, and was told that I have…
“I don’t know what to do… can you help me? “.. were the words spoken to me from a lady whom I had just hired and who was living with a partner threatening physical & sexual abuse. My immediate response was, “YES!” I had no idea how this…
Remembering Peter Still There is a historical marker on Pine Street in Florence commemorating a building where Dred Scott lived and worked as a slave in the 1820s. Scott of course gained much notoriety when he attempted to purchase his own freedom in 1846, an event that…