What’s your favorite coffee shop order? Mine is a vanilla chai tea latte with almond milk. It’s warm and grounding, a signal that I’m doing something worthwhile. That’s what I ordered when I first met Lindsey in person at Philz Coffee in Bethesda, Maryland. We shared about puppies, working with tweens, how doing this work can be both rewarding and exhausting. She’s been a light as 2020 threw a shadow over all of us. After some time, I finally got to get her into my interview chair.

Some people surpass introduction.

I wanted to write something about the Black women sex educators I look up to.

What truly is power? Is it an action? A presence? A state of being.

Is power used to justify or villify? Can power be passed down, like a sacred heirloom only those trusted with the legacy can hold onto? Can abused power be reborn? I asked Nikkea Sharee and Shivawn Mitchell these questions and they provided me some thought-provoking answers. Read along with me.

Amanda Eaddy is not one you hold down for long. The deepest of sympathies to anyone who attempts to pigeonhole her. Underneath the monikers of mother, author, educator, lies flesh and bone, desiring all the best life has. And life has come through - bestowing a resonance of word and encouragement. I chatted with Amanda. Follow our conversation after the jump.

Ka’lyn is your grandmother’s favorite. She’s the cousin that, when she chooses to come to the function, makes the function worthwhile. She’s the professor that got you through that last semester by not coddling you, but by lighting a fire both under your ass and bright enough to give you a peek down the road. I got to chop it up with her recently. Keep reading to learn more about the Dr.

Connecting with someone online can be hit or miss; the persona doesn’t always match the person. Jade, however, is her truest self on and off these digital streets. With every inch of her humanity, she schools, edifies and teaches.

Dick is abundant and of low value.
I deserve peen attached to someone worthy of my time and energy AND who holds my time as valuable because it is. And I don't have to explain why.
Sis (I’m sis) has been traumatized by aint-shit individuals and constantly relearning how to trust herself.

Robin Thicke wrote a whole album named Paula. Not this Paula - another Paula. A Paula that is not this Paula. Because this Paula doesn’t require other people to write sonnets and ill-fated love ballads to her; she writes her own things. And not in a creepy, self-aggrandizing way. I sit down with Paula - again, not that Paula. That’s the other Paula. This is Paula Paula. Anyway, I sit down with her to ask a few non-Thicke questions.

My work is speaking. My work is writing. My work is empowerment. My work is advocacy. I am as board and specific as I need to be. I sit in hotel lobbies with the room paid for by those who requested my presence. I walk and talk my worth and my vulnerability. I change lives by simply being who I am.