Lip piercing

filed into the locker room which every one of these men had once spent every day of fall in. Walking through the doorway felt like entering into a whole world of emotion, every feeling from my four years of football hit me at a single moment with a piercing wave of nostalgia. Every feeling was centered in my stomach, which became so heavy with feelings of pain, victory, and defeat creating what felt like a bowling ball inside myself weighing down my whole torso. I thought of every pregame and…

I am black, and even worse, I am a woman. The black race, expects up to take care of our own, your elders, men and youth, in fact the race is entirely reliant on us yet they hurl insults at us. I am told, I’m not pretty enough, if I change my lips, hair, nose, but keep my hip and ass I can be. I am the receiver of insults, better yet they are hurled at me by those who I wish to protect and wish well for. I incessantly make allowances for the black men when they need saving, even after they…

The stillness of the air seemed to suck even the sound of my footfalls into the nothingness of a graveyard. Even the trees seemed not to rustle as if they were tense with nerves for what was to come. I could describe it as creepy, but eerie was closer to it. Everything was the same yet different. The fall trees stood naked as they had before, but their twigs curled in a distorted way, as if the tree itself screamed in pain. The sky was a mass of grey cloud, again so ordinary for October, but…

In the essay “How To Tame A Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua the author touches upon issues like the division within and between languages and how an attack on her language is an attack on her as a human being. The author overcomes much adversity as she is not only prosecuted for her language by English speakers but by some people within her own culture.Her own mother had told her that without learning to speak English without an accent she would never be able to amount to anything worthwhile in…

The gazpacho soup downstairs would have to wait until later. It was not often that Eutropio would reject his wife's simple cooking, but there was an urgency in his eyes that told of trouble. Seeing this she'd approached the window beside him. Peering out, the loving couple gazed down with a plummeting sensation in their empty bellies, acknowledging the three soldiers climbing off their magnificent stallions and turning with a look of disgust to the front door. He told her, not in any manner…

Her. Her eyes were piercing, almost like a cat. Absolutely beautiful. She never ceased to amaze me, and frankly, it always made me wonder how she lived so long without being killed. Every time she and I make eye-contact I only fell harder, I can’t help but want.. No.. Need…

The moment you step into the exhibition “A New Republic” by Kehinde Wiley on the fifth floor of the Brooklyn museum, you are embraced with a sense of equality. You look around and all you see are black men and women captured in various mediums by the artist where you can clearly see the uniqueness. At the center of the exhibit are glass stain portraits; sculptures surround half the room and the other half has 22k gold leaf, oil on wood panel or oil on linen paintings. The paintings are large in…

It was a weekend the girls had been looking forward to for a long time. Phoebe, Betty and Reagan had organized a short camping trip at a state park not far outside of their town. As soon as the choir rehearsal ended on Friday afternoon, the girls hopped into Reagan’s car and began their vacation. All three of the girls were talented and passionate musicians, ranking highly in the top choir and band of their school, and would never dream of missing a rehearsal. After an exciting hour in the car,…

The two characters that I choose to analysis was Rose Maxson, who was a woman from 1950 in the story Fences by August Wilson and Mrs. Mallard a woman from the 1860 from the story of an hour by Kate Choppin. Who are both marriages, while Rose and Mrs. Mallard are suffering in their marriage and pretending to be happy, but rose love Troy but Mrs. Mallard doesn’t love her husband. Both rose Maxson and Mrs. Mallard are married women who are suffering in their marriage and pretending to be…

This Summer, the biggest change happened to me. My mom got a new job halfway across the country. I used to be living in West Point, New York on Benedict Road, which is known as “Sesame Street” because every house has at least one kid, where my dad worked at the military academy, but ever since he got sick we were everywhere. Most days in New York were exceptional! The sun gleamed for 12 hours of the long complicated working days down on the city below. The towering trees reached up to the…