DANGER OF DESIRE
LONGREADS APRIL 2020
“Throwing my head back, I left behind the part of my day that had been filled with judges, sheriffs, the DA. I turned the music up, grinding my pelvis to the tempo, shuddering in spasmodic rhythm to twerk.”
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
AFRO Blue
POETRY MAGAZINE JUNE 2020
“For our June 2020 playlist, we asked contributor Faylita Hicks, whose poem “Photo of a Girl, 1992: Gremlins” appears in the issue, to curate a selection of music for us. Click here to open the playlist in your Spotify app.”
A History of Ghosts
BARRELHOUSE FEBRUARY 2020
“A ghost of a womxn, I still think it is a right to celebrate the small deaths of my body: the gratifying end of disconnection from others; coming to an epiphany about my own power and resilience as a survivor; to pursue my carnality the way one might choose to pursue any other sort of passion; to enter into the night an ache, and leave the next morning covered in a salve of my own making; to be allowed to fall apart—finally.”
Road Trips in the Red: Freeing My Queer Black Self From the Responsibility of Being Acceptable
COLOR BLOQ 2019
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Op-Eds
Why a Small Offense Shouldn’t Have Life-Altering Consequence
“Nearly 10 years ago, I was arrested and detained in jail for 45 days after failing to appear in court for a low-level, non-violent offense. Today, I’m fighting so that others don’t have to go through what I did.”
Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail
“The cold bit through the thin wool blanket and climbed up the short sleeves of my Women of the World Poetry Slam T-shirt as I lay on the cement floor of the Hays County Jail, confused how I had ended up here. Brought in during the night, I was exhausted and agitated by the time I was taken into a small room to stand before a judge via TV monitor, and told that I would be held in general population until an undetermined court date.”
The High Cost of Hays County’s Decision to Keep Prosecuting Low-Level Marijuana Cases
“Crime labs across the state didn’t have the proper equipment to test for this level of THC, and consequently, prosecutors decided to drop hundreds of cases involving low-level marijuana charges. Hays County District Attorney Wes Mau was not among them.”
More Essays
Why I Gave My Baby Up For Adoption — And Why It’s The Best Decision I’ve Ever Made
“In October 2012, the day my daughter was born, I lit several candles and whispered all my love for her into her ears. I pulled her against my body and tried to memorize her scent. I stared into her eyes. She stared into mine.”
How I Went From Graduate School Student to Amazon Warehouse Janitor
“When the temp agency called to tell me that there was a full-time custodial position open over at a 24-hour facility in San Marcos, Texas, I was both relieved and, to be honest, a little bit indignant. I was going to be able to eat this week, but after having spent the past 14 years of my life getting a bachelor’s degree in English, getting a master’s degree in creative writing, and starting my own entertainment company, I was going to be a janitor.”
Life Sentence
“Months later, after she’s died, someone posts a video of her from that night. It’s her last performance before the chemo becomes too much for her to move around or talk. In the video, she’s on stage reading a poem about what it means to suddenly be dying and not know when the end is coming.
Then she says my name.
And then she says “Don’t you dare waste your fucking time.”
And it becomes an ethos, a way for me to live.”
