You are not a label

You are not a label

I don’t mind labels. I actually like them. A label is just a sticker. It can be removed. It can be moved around. It can stay on indefinitely. Labels and…
Continue Reading
Post-Racial America? Ha!

Post-Racial America? Ha!

Post-Racial America? Ha! I can’t help but scoff at the notion of this term whenever it’s uttered. We live in a post-racial America in the same vein that god exists:…
Continue Reading
disambiguation: black is a color; Black is culture, history, music

disambiguation: black is a color; Black is culture, history, music

I’ve been sitting on this piece for quite some time. It’s witnessed two Black History Months pass by, actually. After the resurgence of racial upheaval and tensions (e.g. Trayvon Martin),…
Continue Reading
Love to travel? Love me? Support Nomad•ness Travel Tribe Kickstarter

Love to travel? Love me? Support Nomad•ness Travel Tribe Kickstarter

I love to travel. Being the ever curious one, a veritable sponge, i’ve had the bug since i was a child—always wanting to see the sites and distant lands i…
Continue Reading
my individualist manifesto, of sorts—more a personal declaration

my individualist manifesto, of sorts—more a personal declaration

Here lie meandering thoughts along pathways unlaid by others, but known to me nonetheless My goal in life, my destiny (eh), if you will, is to be a bastion, a…
Continue Reading
Filling a need (i hope): i'm creating a WordPress theme & plugin for scholars

Filling a need (i hope): i’m creating a WordPress theme & plugin for scholars

During my continual galavanting across the Interwebs in search of cool shit, i’ve yet to come across a WordPress theme (or plugin!) that is both aesthetically conducive and appealing to…
Continue Reading
Personal Book Embargo

Personal Book Embargo

I have to do this. It’s a necessary evil, a vital push towards chopping down this never-ending tree that sprouts books as fruit. I need to do this. Mantra! Lol.…
Continue Reading
Individuals have power, too—not just gods

Individuals have power, too—not just gods

Far too many times people use (g)God(s) or religion as a crutch more than as a springboard. Owning up to one’s prowess and greatness takes courage. Dr. Cornell West maintains…
Continue Reading
an introduction to Mental Ephemera

an introduction to Mental Ephemera

I had totally forgotten about this post, written almost in its entirety during January. It was supposed to be the new About page, but clearly that didn’t happen. I think…
Continue Reading
noshing of Sacred Cows: a tirade, of sorts

noshing of Sacred Cows: a tirade, of sorts

I cannot for the life of me, even when i begin to have some thoughts of, and i cannot call it acceptance, but maybe respect or leniency (i guess) for…
Continue Reading
i choose deaf

i choose deaf

A few months ago, a question was posed to someone on my Twitter timeline: which would you choose?—to be blind or deaf. Allowing myself to step into existentialist and hypothetical…
Continue Reading
entrepreneurs ... must read this book: Rework

entrepreneurs … must read this book: Rework

Counter-intuitivism has never been this appealing or enlightening. Urging someone to listen to uncommon advice and tips would normally be considered crazy talk, but in Rework, the approach and delivered…
Continue Reading
the Proust questionnaire

the Proust questionnaire

Thursday, while still awake at 3am with my sleep routine out of wack from the mid-week snow day, and excited from finishing the design for version 3.0 of Mental Ephemera,…
Continue Reading
zodiac signs, The Game and unique Internet IDs

zodiac signs, The Game and unique Internet IDs

I decided to wait until today to post this, in hopes after the Zodiac dust settled, people would be less concerned with something that has always been inconsequential (Celebrity Apprentice…
Continue Reading
marriage name-taking: a patriarchal anachronism

marriage name-taking: a patriarchal anachronism

Several weeks ago, during a Twitter conversation with a group of friends, we discussed the traditional practice of a woman taking their husband’s last name after marriage. It was asked…
Continue Reading
darling Nikki (Giovanni): your transparency should be lauded

darling Nikki (Giovanni): your transparency should be lauded

When encountering an artist’s work for the first time, especially one who’s lauded doubly for her writing ability and Civil Rights activism (and the coupling of both), it’s dismaying when…
Continue Reading
thoughts of self: conventions of naming

thoughts of self: conventions of naming

Conventions of naming: You’ll notice that anytime i write in the first person or refer to myself, it is a lowercase ‘i’ and not the normal ‘I’ that everyone (in…
Continue Reading
Latest Ephemera
i embody the nomad life

i embody the nomad life

Even if you’ve only known me for ten minutes, let alone ten years, you will understand that i live the nomadic lifestyle–vagabond, wanderluster, constant-jaunter, etc. I love being on the move; i dislike staid or static existence. New experiences, new lands, new people are what get me going in the morning–even more so than coffee—and i LOVE coffee. Over the past year and a half, i’ve been introduced and bonded with a tertiary family: the Nomadness Travel Tribe, most commonly referred to as The Tribe. We are a global collective of world travelers, of nomads, of folks with the wanderlust affliction–we do not stay still for more than…
Continue Reading
You are not a label

You are not a label

I don’t mind labels. I actually like them. A label is just a sticker. It can be removed. It can be moved around. It can stay on indefinitely. Labels and categories are only measures of identification. They make things easier to sort through, to know what might occur. A label is not a scarlet letter branded into your flesh, an Auschwitz tattoo pricked into your arm. People get riled up, proclaiming, “I hate labels!” or “Don’t put me in a category.” Bro, you’re a human being, there’s no singular definition. You’re not pigeonholed or limited to just one label for the rest of your life, sister. Only time…
Continue Reading
Post-Racial America? Ha!

Post-Racial America? Ha!

Post-Racial America? Ha! I can’t help but scoff at the notion of this term whenever it’s uttered. We live in a post-racial America in the same vein that god exists: it makes for a cool story, bro—something soothing yet entertaining enough to tell the kids while tucking them them in; a story of hope, possible triumph, leaving them with a smile and no ill-thoughts brewing nightmares. But it’s all a fallacy, a charade, smoke & mirrors—as real as having rocks as pets. One should not be a grown adult, experienced in the world and still believe as truth faery tales, crafting organic life and companionship from inanimate objects.…
Continue Reading
disambiguation: black is a color; Black is culture, history, music

disambiguation: black is a color; Black is culture, history, music

I’ve been sitting on this piece for quite some time. It’s witnessed two Black History Months pass by, actually. After the resurgence of racial upheaval and tensions (e.g. Trayvon Martin), racist ideologies and commentary spewed forth, tipped over by yesterday’s Gawker post regarding the outrage of the Hunger Games’ casting of Black folks for—get this—Black characters, a piece indicative of a large slice of mainstream America, its pop culture and racist attitudes, i figured it was about time i published this. Let’s put this out there from the jump: black is a color; Black is an embodiment of culture, of history, of music—a people. Black people: we are…
Continue Reading
Love to travel? Love me? Support Nomad•ness Travel Tribe Kickstarter

Love to travel? Love me? Support Nomad•ness Travel Tribe Kickstarter

I love to travel. Being the ever curious one, a veritable sponge, i’ve had the bug since i was a child—always wanting to see the sites and distant lands i read about, whether fantasical or real, didn’t matter. As a kid i wasn’t presented with the opportunity to travel outside of the Tri-State often. Before i was 19 the farthest i traveled that i can recall was to DC. I believe i went once to North Carolina with my god mother, but i vaguely remember it, i may even be making it up. I didn’t get on my first plane until i was 23—i went to Lexington, Kentucky…
Continue Reading
No, Rihanna is not responsible for your child

No, Rihanna is not responsible for your child

With the recent social media mosh pit over Chris Brown and Rihanna’s rekindling, at least for music’s sake, i’ve seen the word “responsibility” thrown around all willy-nilly. It has been said that she is not upholding her responsibility to her impressionable young fans. Ummm. Wait. What!? Since when did releasing music come with the caveat that someone must now be given extraneous responsibilities? Ahh, probably when Americans began to blame others for their faulty parenting. Every human being is responsible for, in order: self, child, family. That’s it. Now, if you want to rebuttal with, you’re not a parent or else you’d know children come first, well, you’re mistaken.…
Continue Reading