At Work

Places | At Work
Honesty Is the Best Policy—Especially in Focus Groups

There will always be liars in the focus group, but Fred was never one of them.

Feb 21, 2019
Places | At Work
What Happens When You’re in the Elevator with the Boss’s Son

It’s happened for the past three days now. A three-day streak definitely qualifies it as A capitalized Thing.

Feb 19, 2019
Places | At Work
What I Learned from My Father, the Pink-Collar Worker

As a black man in the field of social work, my dad was, as a white female coworker of his once put it, “like a fly in buttermilk.”

Aug 8, 2018
Places | At Work
When You Have to Quit Your Dream Job to Pursue Your Dream

After I left, everything became clearer, in the way that a breakup can clarify a toxic relationship; put things in sharp relief.

May 17, 2018
Places | At Work
Stitches of Love: Photographing Deceased Neonates

“I take these photographs so she’ll be able to remember the time when she had two heartbeats. Tears bucket down her face.”

May 8, 2018
Places | At Work
Five Rhythms: Dance Class in a Dallas Jail

Dance is about freeing ourselves, finding a secret space inside our bodies that no lock can close.

Apr 25, 2018
Places | At Work
When Women Approach and Men Receive: Masculinity and Sexual Subjectivity in the Strip Club

When we conflate men’s sexuality with harassment and violence, we don’t ask much of them. Masculinity doesn’t have to be toxic.

Apr 11, 2018
Places | At Work
Adventures in Coffin Making

“What leads a man to transact with death for his daily bread?”

Feb 8, 2018
Places | At Work
The World of Transshipment, Where One Glitch Can Lead to Chaos

I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would do if something went wrong. If I made a mistake, my son and I might go back to being homeless.

Jan 25, 2018
Places | At Work
Working on ‘The Post’ Helped Me Pay Tribute to My Father the Newspaperman

I wish I could tell my dad that I worked to recreate the newsroom. That people still think newspaper stories—and stories about newspapers—are worth telling.

Dec 18, 2017