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Step: Black Girls Stomping All Over Adversity to Create a Rhythmic Safe Space
On the totem pole of society, black girls are distributed at the bottom. The magic within us is an unmatched recipe consisting of our resilience, perseverance and love. No matter the adversity and hate hurled at us, we rise from the ashes like an intoxicating phoenix. And this is the feeling you’ll get while watching…
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This Man Cooking On A File Cabinet Grill Is The Blackest Thing I've Ever Seen This Week
I love us. “Us” being Black folks. And there is no greater time than today to flaunt and celebrate it. We are swimming in the ocean of the Black TV Renaissance resurgence, we’re the driving force of social media, our music (as always) is the soundtrack to everyone’s lives, and well… the Carter twins are…
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Why Casey Affleck's Win Aint A Defense Against Nate Parker's Loss
A few months ago, widespread rumblings about Casey Affleck’s sexual allegations began to surface in my social media space. To be completely real, my very first encounter was when someone dropped a NY Mag link in my women-centric industry Google Group. Not on my Twitter timeline, not on my Facebook feed, not via Instagram scrolling.…
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That Time I Decided To Move To Los Angeles To Chase My Dreams
It was December 2014. A highly emotional and stressful year was met with a last punch to my gut when a significant friendship ended. I felt worthless, burdensome, insufficient, and abandoned. And, frankly, I was tired. I was tired of crying every day and every night, sneaking away to bathrooms to delete my cache of…
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I Came, I Saw, I Conquered Caribana
***Disclaimer: The official name for Caribana is The Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival. Scotiabank doesn’t even have the rights to the name, “Caribana,” but it’s one of those things that just stick. Kind of like how no one in Chicago calls The Willis Tower by its current name, we still say Sears Tower. So… yo mama…
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Dear Respectability Politics Brigade: This Is Time For You To Shut The Fuck Up
In the wake of the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, this letter is equally outdated and timely. In what seems like the unsavory mixture of an eternity and “just yesterday,” Black people have been murdered (again) by a White person (again) for the crime of “existing while Black” (again). As I struggle to…
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Cheekie Does SXSW: Part 1
South By Southwest has always been on my bucket list. And since you’re never too young to start checking things off of the bucket list — and since I’m a filmmaker myself and shit — I decided to go this year. One of my friends suggested that I write about my experience and Damon one-upped…
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On #BlackBrunch And Bottomless White Tears
Earlier this week, NYC protesters supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement decided to take it up a notch and encroach upon “White spaces” in order to express their outrage over police brutality against Black folks. I thought it was a splendid idea. More often than not, creating awareness about an issue to facilitate change means making folks…
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My Name Is Tonja. And I Think About Committing Suicide
“Ain’t too much sadder than…” I was a Robin Williams stan growing up. And, yes, most of that had to do with his voice work as “Genie” in Aladdin. But, when I saw that, I had to see it all. Mrs. Doubtfire. Hook. Good Will Hunting. Ferngully. Jumanji. The Birdcage. Even a little ‘Mork & Mindy.’ He was…
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When Creatives Collide: Run You.
Writers tend to find inspiration in a variety of sources. Hell, I believe this is true for all creators. The venues in which I call my muses are infinite in that I really do view any and everything as a potential story to tell. From an exchange between commuters that I witnessed on the train…
