On shifting roles in sisterhood, embracing silence and remembering (again) that growth is never-ever-ending… — “Did I just scream it’s getting a little too patriarchal in my head as Miranda July walked by?!” That was my sister in Washington Square park in what felt like the episode of Broad City where the protagonists trip on shrooms in New York —two women, hilarious to only themselves…

Personal reflections after reading GIRLHOOD and revisiting a few favorite Tiny Desk concerts helmed by bad ass women. — Who would I have been if I was rapping Chika in the mirror instead of Nas? Still embarrassingly corny (and unforgivably white), for sure, but otherwise, hard to say if it would have made a discernible difference in the development of my gendered personality or not. But then I watch…

Instead: relinquishing day dreams for the beautiful here and now, compelling subway strangers and the rituals of new tattoos. — Listening to this song, laying in the flatbed of a white truck bumbling along the pockmarked road, looking up at the miles and miles of perfect purple jacaranda trees brushing the bluest sky in the sunshine city. That is the scene I fantasized on my morning commute for the length…

Succumbing to COVID, the past six months on book tour, clarifying what I love and remembering, again, why I need to write despite what life throws at me. — After years now of dodging the beast, COVID got me, and it got me good. The Jazz said, stop scheming on poems and allow yourself to rest! He knows me. I was definitely scheming on poems from the sick bed where I am a convalescent (I just really wanted to…

Introducing “Flowers for Linda” Audiozine Episode 2 Skip the intro and listen here. Dear Friends, When I was asked to present a keynote speech in fall 2021 at the Transformative Language Arts’ Power of Words conference, alongside one of my inspirations, the astonishing poet laureate Joy Harjo, I knew I had to muster up the courage to…

Dear Friends, Over the past four months, life has taken me to various cities, stages, screens and platforms to talk up the book I edited, The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison, which has garnered a spread of impressive press that keeps rolling in. …

Music to facilitate catharsis, elevation of spirit + spiritual strength — I made something for a friend a few weeks ago who is facing serious illness in his family, and thought about how many others could use the gift, too. It is meant to be medicine. It is a mixtape with a very intentional flow. It is meant to facilitate catharsis…

A love poem to The Bay Area, with all its difficulties and persistent magic, whom I visited with last week — A question from Soph: If you could kiss any kind of bear, which bear would you kiss? Koala’s have nice breath because they eat eucalyptus is the appropriate answer. These are the kinds of questions I remember her asking at age 5, but now she is nearly 19 and still…

(Or how I re-fell in love with The Beatles, and their creative life lessons while watching Peter Jackson’s GET BACK film). — My sister has a crush on Ringo, that’s who — or at least she did when we were kiddos (“I liked the underdog!”), and once swore she saw him driving a mac truck on the highway (she was five, we laughed hard). These are the kind of anecdotes that populate…