Book Review 📚 Kindred: Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same

Kindred is important in helping us think about our humanity and the systems we establish in our societies today, and at any point in history. It helps us think about the roles we are expected to play and how they vary across time and space, yet still remain the same in various ways. Finally, to me, Kindred is an intimate metaphor for race relations in the United States.

Decolonizing our Ayitian Heritage: Writing About Vodou in the Academy

Being an Ayitian academic means that I get a chance to stand and fight for my freedom, to liberate my mind and illuminate others, using the measures and institutions within my reach, imperfect as they may be, to attempt to redress some of the wrongs done to my culture, some of the inaccuracies maliciously planted in my stories.

Labels and Boxes: Ramblings on Self-Sovereign Identity

I remember the day I told her like it was yesterday; I can still taste the anxiety. I can feel my clammy palms as I sat in my car, chainsmoking, Sa-Roc’s “Forever” on repeat, texting my then too busy ‘girlfriend’ who wanted to be there for me but didn’t want me to do it for …

Code Switching: Social Survival or Cultural Suicide

We raise children and tell them to look around the world. Everything that the light touches could be theirs. What we willfully neglect to tell them is that they’ll never access these lands by being themselves. Imagine a bedtime story from Mom: “And the princess lived the rest of her life worried whether her hair …

Ayiti ak Vodou: Kiyès Ki Aprann ou Pè Pwòp Tèt ou?

Ki moun ou ye? Kibò w’ soti? Pale m’ de lakay ou. Tout kote m’ pase nan lakou Lafrans, se kesyon sa tout nèg nwa ap poze m’.  Lè m’ di America, yo gade m’, epi yo mande m’ anko. “Kibò OU soti wi m’ mande w’? Byenpetèt de lane anvan, si w’ te mande …

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in the US Education System

I wrote this post back in 2014 for a blog that was part of a class. The recent "revelations" of elaborated schemes allowing rich parents to bribe and cheat their children's way into prestigious universities reminded me of it. What are you supposed to do when they don't even need to be half as good …

Maternal Shortcomings: An Essay

When I was four years old, I had an almost inappropriate obsession with Lauryn Hill. At the time, she was singing with The Fugees alongside Wyclef Jean. They had this popular video filmed in Haiti for the song “Yele”. I still remember butchering the lyrics, desperately trying to stay on the beat. I was mesmerized …

On Adulting: A Mission to Unlearn

“Emotional.” As women, we’ve heard that word often uttered with judgment or paternalistic benevolence. We choose early where we’ll fall on the spectrum. Some figured out balance and went on to live well-adjusted long lives. Others overindulged, while I personally went the other way, the repressed way. Emotions are those things that you simply can’t …

Cancel Culture: A Discussion on Boundaries

I rarely use Twitter. When I do, it’s mostly to stalk my favorite authors and scream into the void. Despite my unfamiliarity with the idiosyncrasies that govern the Twittersphere, the think pieces written about the think pieces about “cancel culture” have managed to reach my exasperated eyes. Just what is cancel culture? As Robinson Meyer …

Independence or Death: An Oath Worth Revisiting

This is my favorite time of the year. I have a thing for endings. It is the time when the lesson is learned, the cord is cut. And somehow, it is where one realizes that nothing ever ends, as much as nothing lasts forever. Once the choice has been made, you’re condemned to remake it …