Places
How a Black Girl Learned To Fly
As the plane began to taxi, the first line of the comic Riri Williams: Ironheart #1 danced in my mind: “I was never meant to fly.”
In Search of Wonder in Iseyin
It’s Nigeria, after all. Hope is what keeps many alive. In plethora of sufferings and fears, prayers abound.
For My Immigrant Parents, a Vacation Is a Reprieve from Labor—for Me, It’s a Time to Work
My parents wanted to give me opportunities that they never had, to let me participate in bizarre American rites of passage.
A Nigerian’s Field Guide to Survival in Positano
We pass other boats and, from each one, there is the double-take, a stare. Two boats full of only black people is apparently a rare sight.
Where Once Were Qilin: Return to Nanjing
What did it mean that now both the villages and the qilin were gone? This portal to the ancestors gone forever.
An Island of Trash at the Top of the World
On a remote island north of the Arctic Circle, several centuries’ worth of human-made pollutants have come to rest.
Why Do Borders and Passports Dictate What Country I Get to Call Home?
The contours of a border become a lot less rigid when you carry what are deemed to be the right documents.
At Sea with Scientists, I Learned What It Means to Be an Explorer
We think of explorers in terms of what they discovered—the Eureka moment, not the search. The search is imperfect and frustrating and owes you nothing.
The King of Florida and Other Roadside Attractions
Like much of Florida, it appears both ridiculous and dangerous and gambling is involved. I think. I still don’t understand it.
A Eulogy for All the Black Boys Who Loved the Sky
I’m longing for the day when folk like me and Trayvon and Korryn and Lennon and Aiyana and Botham don’t need to be lucky to stay alive.
