People
Whiteness Can’t Save Us
Whiteness cannot give us what we need, and this is not a disappointment. This is a testimony.
Murder Nights
It was as if I needed a third surgery, a reconstruction. I needed the surgeon to rebuild what he tore out.
Playing Ophelia Helped Me Navigate My Own Grief
She sings and speaks in lewd riddles, mourning her father’s untimely death and her abandonment by Hamlet, her lover.
Scabies Taught Me Social Distancing Doesn’t Mean Disconnection
I wasn’t alone in this experience that had made me feel so isolated, so removed from everyone.
What Reality TV Taught Me About Ending a Friendship
I’m coming to terms with the fact that—whether it ends in an unfollow or in a blow-up bash in a house in Malibu—sometimes the kindest thing we can give one another is a goodbye.
Finding Myself in the Museum of Chinese in America
Chineseness became a part of my heritage I could name but didn’t really understand.
It Took Me Ten Years and a Church Hall to Love Dance Again
It was never about exercise, nor changing my body. It was about doing something my body felt comfortable with.
Finding God in Science
The grounding I felt in organized religion was substantial: the loss, acutely painful. I found temporary relief in all the ways nature found me wherever I lived.
Falling in Love With a Balloon Artist Taught Me I Never Wanted to Be “Normal”
My future was uncertain . . . A balloon dinosaur was tangible, even if it withered away in a week.