Ghost Of: Reflection

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…

Somebody’s Daughter: Reflection

Typically, when reading for the Book of the Month Club, I finish before my partner. I have a strict timeline for finishing. My partner, not so much. Sometimes, if he’s unsure about a genre or author, he’ll wait for me to finish first. When I finished Somebody’s Daughter, my bookmark was the only one wedged…

The City We Became: Reflection

“Don’t sleep on the city that never sleeps, son, and don’t fucking bring your squamous eldritch bullshit here.”N.K. Jemisin I’ve lived within train distance of Chicago my whole life. None of the towns qualified as suburbs (the people who live in the suburbs would have my head if I’d claimed that). Most don’t even qualify…

Americanah: Reflection

About halfway through Americanah, we see the origin of Ifemelu’s blog, “Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black”. She makes her first post and checks the stats a little later. Nine people have read it. She panics and takes the post down, editing and modifying it…

The Collected Schizophrenias: Reflection

“In my peer education courses I was taught to say that I am a person with schizoaffective disorder. "Person-first language" suggests that there is a person in there somewhere without the delusion and the rambling and the catatonia.But what if there isn't? What happens if I see my disordered mind as a fundamental part of…