Herb garden I’ve taken all the plants I brought in last winter out and have planted my tomato and pepper seedlings that I started from seeds indoors out in their permanent containers. I did much of that two weeks before our frost date which was risky but I had the time and my tomato seedlings […]
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
The title of this book evokes the image of the eponymous red and blue striped waterproof plastic bags ubiquitous in Ghanaian households. They are so called because in 1983 Nigeria sacked a couple hundred thousand West Africans from their country, the majority being Ghanaian, giving them only a couple weeks to make their exist and […]
Hey Baby! A Special Case of Street Harassment in Washington D.C.
I was recently walking down a street in D.C deep in multiple streams of thought. One, that Eden Hazard goal against Manchester United is indeed quite sweet for Chelsea but oh so painful for me to see. Manchester United, when will we recover? Two, where am I now and where am I walking to? Three, […]
Spring Showers Mean a New Growing Season
It’s Spring! I’m coughing, sniffling, sneezing, and tearing up. But I’m also enjoying the new blooms. I did suffer casualties though. For example, I killed my jasmine plant with the dry indoor air. I attempted to overwinter pepper plants in order to jump-start this years fruiting season but was unsuccessful. My lavender did not survive […]
The African Migrant Crisis Is Not Solely the EU’s Cross to Bear
How many capsized boats in the Mediterranean this year alone? How many lost African souls? Why is the rhetoric that European countries, specifically the Mediterranean ones, are not doing enough to rescue these migrants? Why are we blaming Italy and asking what is Europe going to do? What about the African countries themselves? Those who […]
Xenophobia in South Africa
The murders of African foreigners in South Africa at the hands of Black South Africans is so troubling, vile, barbaric, and cowardly. I thought we were all “brothers”, fellow children of Mama Africa, yet here we are being persecuted for our nationality as they were once persecuted for their race. More shameful that President Zuma […]
The College Admissions Mania
No, I’m not secretly the mother of a college-bound high school student, though I dare say these days it seems you have to start thinking of and preparing for college as soon as you have popped out that baby. Nor am I thinking of applying to college. Been there, done that. I recently had a […]
Gender Fluidity and Women’s Colleges, Part II
Gender fluidity at an institution whose mission is to empower members of a single sex, in this case female, can only be an end to said institution whose beginning came from an era when gender was binary – male or female.We no longer live in such a world. When Facebook decided last year to be […]
Gender Fluidity and Women’s Colleges, Part I
We are in the midst of a gender revolution. No, not the male versus female one. But the one about those in between. Recently, it forced Wellesley College, my alma mater, into the news when the New York Times published an article titled When Women Become Men at Wellesley. I was startled, not because a […]
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
Strength in What Remains was a book recommendation for physicians. It tells the story of Deogratis Niyizonkiza who leaves what would have been a promising life behind when as a 24 year old medical student he has to flee war-torn French-speaking Burundi for the streets of New York City with only $200 in his pocket […]
A lover of mangoes. A woman - smart, without pretense, lefthanded, Afropolitan - navigating this thing called life. An unapologetic believer in social justice and karma. Choosing to radiate positive energy and be true to myself. Here, my musings.