I write about dating, beauty, advice, black women and dining.
At O.School, Queer Women and People of Color Are Changing the Meaning of Sex Ed
According to a 2017 report by the Guttmacher Institute, only 22 states in the U.S. mandate sex education, and only 13 require those programs to be based on “medically accurate” information. In 2016, the nation spent $85 million on domestic abstinence-only education programs, despite research suggesting these programs don’t work, as 95 percent of Americans have sex before marriage. On average, Americans begin having sex at 17 years old, but don’t get married or become parents until their mid- ...
“Rainbows”
In January of 2017, James Lindsey performed at the ninetieth anniversary party for the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. It was appropriate that the performance doubled as an album release party for his EP Same Sky, containing the first new tracks from Lindsey following a four-year hiatus. The museum, the largest art museum in Kentucky, was reopening after a major remodel and expansion, and it had been closed for as long as Lindsey had been quiet. I’d followed Lindsey’s career from California b...
4 Ways to Hustle Even When Times Are Good
I knew this phase couldn’t last, and that it was in my best interest to be proactive. Instead of coasting when times are good, I got to work finding things to do with my free time that would keep my career moving forward.
Naming the future of freelance
The independent workforce is evolving fast, so this platform to manage freelancers is following its workers’ lead
Upgrade You With Level Up Lou - The Voice-Tribune
Midway through a Level Up Louisville floral watercolors class led by Lauren Dahl, who happens to be an elementary school art teacher, I look up and think, “This feels like adult kindergarten – in a good way.”
Storytelling That Sets You Free - The Voice-Tribune
The last Thursday of every month, Chris Vititoe and Mandee McKelvey turn Decca’s cellar into a “cave for secrets.” The pair co-hosts a storytelling series that originated in Chicago, “We Still Like You.” “WSLY” bills itself as an opportunity to tell stories from your past that “make you feel weird” to a room full of “friendly strangers” – Trust me, it’s a lot of fun and a great way to see some of Louisville’s funniest comedians out of their element.
The 3 Successful People You Need to Have in Your Corner ...
They can help you realize your career potential and get you there faster.
Listen: There Is No Shame in a Day Job | SUCCESS
Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, and that’s OK.
Meet the Cast of ‘Angels in America’
A rare opportunity awaits as “Angels in America” lands at Actors Theatre. Set in the midst of the AIDS crisis, this provocative production has moved and inspired audiences for nearly two decades. Both parts of the play will premiere at Actors this fall with a stellar cast and production team prepared to tackle its many difficult components. We had the good fortune of meeting the ensemble cast to learn about their roles, their backg...
How to Maintain Long-Distance Friendships
Don't let distance keep you away from your friends. Use these tips to stay close, across miles.
Existing while black
It had been three years since the last time I was pulled over by a police officer.
That last time was in Fontana. I was going like two miles over the speed limit in a school zone. The officer was a young dude who looked like he’d probably pledged SigEp in college and acted like writing me a ticket was a total hassle: “Sorry, the parents in this neighborhood have been complaining.” I could almost hear the “bro” on the tip of his tongue. He told me to fight it because the...
“Angels in America” More Timely Than Ever
Rising from our seats and making our way out of the theater, my sister asked me if the script for Actors Theatre’s production of “Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches” had been updated. “No,” I told her. The play simply holds up—both a sign of Tony Kushner’s exceptionalism as a playwright and our troubling times.
Part One premiered in 1991 and Part Two followed a few years later. I first encountered the play more than a decade later in my early twenties as an unde...
The solar eclipse, civil unrest and what comes next
During the partial solar eclipse of 1993, I was 8 years old and in the third grade. I remember my teacher helped our class rig special viewers out of aluminum foil and shoe boxes. A way to see something without looking at it directly. A way to protect ourselves as the moon passed over the sun and cast us into a bright darkness.
For this year’s solar eclipse, I’d planned on traveling to St. Louis to visit some friends and then head to a tiny town south of the city to exp...
'Insecure' makes me feel confident
A few years ago, one of my grad school professors asked me if I’d like to interview Issa Rae at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival for the Los Angeles Review of Books. This was pre-Cover Girl and before her hit show Insecure, but I’d already been a fan for years. In a weird way, it felt like I’d ripped a hole in the space-time continuum and rigged things so Future Me could meet a Black creative she greatly admired.
Months earlier, I’d pitched this same professor on doing a book review of Rae...
The Southern Yogi - The Voice-Tribune
For most of her adult life, Morgan Haley had been holding her breath. Haley, known as the “Southern Yogi” to her 361,000 Instagram followers, dedicated 10 years of her life to competitive swimming with the goal of making it to the Olympics, “In swimming you hold your breath… I was doing the only sport where you actually can’t breathe.”