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This year, my words left me for months after my father's death. I wrote pieces that I reminded me why I write. And I edited many things that I loved. I'm going to call the names of editors and writers who let the light in. Can't include you all, but thank you.
First, I'm not a machine. Productivity metrics don't move me. After becoming fatherless, I became wordless. Then, I began writing again from grief's compulsion. My hustle came from hurt. You don't need big bylines to write. You just need to feel and think. And work at it.
I loved my piece about Black women changing their hair game during the pandemic for the New York Times. My words, @miabirdsong styling and profiling, amazing stories from @_Hotpeeznbutta and @thewritefolks, and @AlexandraJacobs' editing made it sparkle: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/style/wigs-coronavirus.html
This just out in the Washington Post: It's about my air fryer. But it's really about my emotional life through the pandemic. The appliance is a vehicle for the story. It's what I like to do: meld humor and pathos, and blend the personal and collective. https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2020/12/21/air-fryer-pandemic/
Need a feel-good story? This one got Liberation Station bookstore oodles of media coverage. Even though those outlets didn't cite me (*sucking teeth*), I set it off. And BEST kid story ever inside: https://wapo.st/2WF5HHz . Glad editor @amyjoyce_berg took it.
I hesitate to add this piece because I can't read it. It's about my father's dementia and racial realities and delusions. It defined my year. It was the piece that broke my writer's block after his death. Thanks to @GuardianJessica for compassionate edits: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jun/25/trauma-and-triumph-my-father-his-dementia-and-surviving-segregation
And this piece I co-wrote with @reportermike at my new gig, @TheCounter: https://thecounter.org/joe-biden-donald-trump-gretchen-whitmer-dinner-table-issues/
I wrote a few pieces for The Nation, including this view from my home of Durham, North Carolina, where I waited for the city to combust during this year of anti-Black violence and horror. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/durham-north-carolina-police-protests/
A bit of research showed me that two UNC-Chapel Hill presidents died during last century's flu pandemic. Didn't stop the school from reopening (and then closing after mass COVID infection and criticism). @ddguttenplan was the steady editing hand here. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/universities-reopen-campus-coronavirus/
Published this Vox interview with @DrMChatelain about her excellent book, "Franchise." It's a must-read in food, business and political history. @baggageclaimed edited. https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/1/10/21058393/mcdonalds-fast-food-black-franchise-marcia-chatelain
Speaking of history, appreciate @MorganJerkins asking me to write on one of my areas of scholarly expertise: reproductive health and racial justice. https://zora.medium.com/the-long-and-sordid-history-of-forced-sterilization-programs-e9e33d849893
I also did this @SCquarterly oral history with Rep. @RenittaShannon, about how she stood her ground when Georgia's legislature passed anti-abortion legislation in 2019. Shoutout to @Dr_JessieW for inviting me to contribute. https://www.southerncultures.org/article/no-youre-not-going-to-shut-me-up/
Always a pleasure to work with @iolabhinton and @LoveyCooper @scalawagmag. You better recognize the South and their work! They stay changing the journalism game. They also published this short piece from me about voting (and my father).
https://scalawagmagazine.org/2020/11/black-southern-fashion-election-day/?
https://scalawagmagazine.org/2020/11/black-southern-fashion-election-day/?
Scalawag made possible the distribution of the summer 2020 issue of the food journal Gravy that I edited during a short stint at the Southern Foodways Alliance. That issue was mostly writers and others artists of color — and it shows many of them on this cover by Rachelle Baker.
I've tweeted about these before, but I still rock with these pieces. So if you're tired of seeing them in my feed once a quarter, just chill and read something else.
Dr. Kinitra Brooks' story about baking for her deceased grandmother and diasporic religion gets me in my soul. Loved helping @k8dee16 do this piece that she didn't know was a piece. Love the miniature in the pic, love that I literally dreamed the headline. https://www.southernfoodways.org/the-dead-still-crave-dessert/
I appreciate Dr. @anthonyocampo's writing so much I've commissioned him for several different publications. This piece — about his feelings as he visited a Filipino restaurant as a Filipino American and scholar — holds so much. So rich. https://www.southernfoodways.org/on-adobo-and-anxiety/
Anthony killed it in this piece I edited for @Colorlines (and it was one of the site's blockbusters). We hit the timing just right pre-election, but this hit a nerve with readers making sense of loved ones on the "other side" of the political aisle. https://www.colorlines.com/articles/i-went-filipinos-trump-rally-heres-what-i-found
Back to the Gravy contributors, still feeling this walking meditation on Savannah history by Dr. @imaniperry. https://www.southernfoodways.org/pleasure-and-prohibitions/
. @afrosypaella (or someone) should really do a full-length book on the history of Black "meat craft." https://www.southernfoodways.org/savannahs-black-maestros-of-meat/
Oh, and not a food thing, but happy to have helped Dr. @LaurenLaFauci write for a broader audience in this @ThePublicSquare piece about Sweden's approach to the pandemic. https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/10/12/letter-from-sweden-covid-coronavirus/ideas/dispatches/
Wrapping up 2020, I adored working with @sfambul on how this joy-snatching year robbed her of her West African jollof-rice joy, smack-talking and coveted in-person opportunities to love on her community. https://thecounter.org/covid-19-essay-aunties-jollof-rice-stole-from-me/
Future tense: The @EchoingIda anthology I co-edited with @JannaZinzi and @kemiaalabi of Black women and nonbinary people writing on reproductive justice will drop January 12. Thanks to @jamiaw for loving the work of the EI members-contributors. https://www.feministpress.org/books-a-m/the-echoing-ida-collection
