When I was about eight years old, my mother decided it was time for my sister and me to enter the world of pop music. Raised on old show tune CDs and Dido albums from the 90s, Taylor Swift’s “Fearless,” which had been released the year before, was an unabashed exercise in acoustic guitar and […]
Archives for February 2022
The Warped Love Languages of the Bachelorette
The first date is supposed to be about love languages. At the start of the second episode of the sixteenth season of The Bachelorette, nine men follow a trail of heart stickers to some unused alcove of the Palm Springs La Quinta resort where 39-year-old Clare Crawley, their leading lady (for the time being), gazes […]
Black is Front Lines
(The names of key individuals in this essay have been removed for the sake of anonymity.) I survived. I felt the pain of an unsolicited knife and fought back. I gave myself credit for my resilience. Throughout hardship comes strength so I can achieve happiness and I can love and care for myself in the […]
The Losers of Climate Change
Russia wins the climate crisis. At least, that’s what Abrahm Lustgarten of the New York Times argues: as the climate continues to change, and temperatures rise in the global North, Russia will see its climate become more agreeable. If you concede the point about it being a competition at all, there’s a lot of truth […]