In this month’s book, All About Love: New Visions, author bell hooks writes, “Creating a false self to mask fears and insecurities has become so common that many of us forget who we are and what we feel underneath the pretense. Breaking through this denial is always the first step in uncovering our longing to…
I’ve always found winter to be a miserable season. The cold, sunless skies and the frigid temperatures don’t agree with me, forcing me to wear robes, slippers, and blankets around my shoulders even as I sit next to the heating vents in my home. Nothing I do is enough to warm me through. I’ve only…
Over thousands of years of human evolution and technological innovation, there are a few pieces of humanity that persevere through the ages: the love of a good meal, the appreciation of beauty, and the need to tell stories. Stories in particular are interesting in the way they’ve evolved alongside us. From ancient oral traditions to…
Passion: it’s what so many of us crave and what so few of us pursue. Sometimes it’s a lack of self-knowledge– after all, you can’t chase something you don’t know exists. Others find there’s just not enough time in the day. So much of our lives are taken up by family obligations, errands, chores, and,…
54 years ago, a gay bar in Lower Manhattan was raided by the police. Tempers flared. Handcuffs were pulled out. People were beaten. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last, but what happened when the police wagons were late was unique. Bystanders intervened and fought back. Police…
It’s nearing midday, though it’s hard to tell. Any time you look up through the trees to the gray skies above, you’re greeted with a face full of the fine mist that’s been falling all morning. You’re telling time not through the sun or your half-dead phone with no signal but with the rumble of…
There’s a prevailing idea in the literary scene that comics and graphic novels have no place amongst capital “L” Literature. It’s not surprising– after all, these are the same people who turn up their noses at genre fiction and romance, even though many of the books they venerate fall into the aforementioned categories or founded…
Like many Americans my age, one of my first introductions to tea was the Starbucks chai latte. Before that, I’d only ever begrudgingly drank Lipton iced tea and the occasional Earl Grey or Irish Breakfast tea bags I’d find scattered in the kitchen cabinets. After such a shaky start with tea, the Starbucks chai latte…
A confession: There is nothing I dislike more than not understanding something. Last April for National Poetry Month, I took on Terrance Hayes’ Lighthead. I hadn’t had any exposure to poetry since I’d left college and found myself floundering within the first few pages of the collection. Sticky notes were everywhere. Too many tabs were…
When we left off in Fanfiction, Part 1: A Brief History, we’d just discovered the wonders of a centralized fanfiction hub: FanFiction.Net. While a great boon to the fanfiction internet landscape, it invited many more eyes– and more scrutiny. Copyright holders only had to type in a single web address or search their property’s name…
Tea Reads 