by Benie Hallel


“The universe, which is not merely the stars and the moon and the planets, flowers, grass and trees, but other people, has evolved no terms for your existence, has made no room for you, and if love will not swing wide the gates, no other power will or can. And if one despairs-- as who has not?-- of human love, God’s love alone is left.” - James Baldwin

A gunman opened fire in a queer Orlando nightclub on Saturday evening after reportedly becoming irate at the sight of two men kissing in Miami a few months prior. The media has, of course, sensationalized this tragedy to be an act of “Islamic terrorism,” without making much mention of the sustained, engrained homophobia embraced by American culture that feeds a beast of this sort.
The bodies that were slain in that club were not just white bodies; they were queer women and men of color who were targeted for their sexual attraction. Religion alone did not do this. We did. Every word that we have spoken in hatred and condemnation of queer folks, every time that we listened as LGBTQI identities were mocked and demeaned without saying a word, has done this.
On the Sunday following the shooting, I was driving in my Boston neighborhood when I overheard the car next to me blasting Buju Banton’s “Boom Bye Bye.” Every Caribbean kid who has ever attended a cookout or endured a mass house cleaning on a Saturday morning knows this song, and we know it well. For those who don’t know, the lyrics go something like, “boom bye bye in a batty boy head, rude boy no promote no nasty man, them haffi dead.” I wondered if the people in the car next to me had heard the news, or if they cared. I wondered why our community continues to normalize messages of hating and abusing queer identities as if there are no consequences for these words. Black people, it is time we get serious about our homophobia. It is time that we address and challenge the ways that our culture, music, and conversations serve to isolate and terrorize queer and trans folks of color. This starts with us- we have a responsibility to deconstruct our own bullshit before we can even begin to challenge it in the society around us. It isn’t funny anymore. It isn’t benign. It is deadly and our brothers and sisters continue to pay with their lives.

I am a West Indian born immigrant and the daughter of a christian pastor. We immigrated to the U.S. from Dominica when I was five years old. For me, and many West Indians, black Americans, and christians alike, homophobia is cultural. I was taught very early on that same-sex attraction was a sin, and that participants would be condemned to death and hell fire if they neglected to repent for their lust. No mention was ever made of love. For a long time, I believed my parents and I believed the Bible. I mean, it’s right there in the text. Admitting that homosexuals are not mortally doomed to the flames of hell meant facing the possibility that parts, or all, of the Bible may be an inaccurate- that they are the result of subjective human bias, and not of transcendent wisdom and love. This is a conversation that most christians are not ready to have.

At the risk of sounding like a cliche coming of age novel, I began to change my opinions on homosexual partnerships when I began making gay friends. A critical step in this process was a close friendship that I formed with an openly gay male during middle and high school. We had many things in common and were able to speak openly about our attractions and romantic relationships. I like to say that this was the beginning of a budding awareness, but in retrospect, there was always a part of me (and all of us, I think) that knew better. The supposed homophobia that I had previously embraced collapsed way too quickly to have ever been real. Within seconds of forming a bond with this person, I thought “okay, there is nothing wrong with him.” It was a light-switch turned on, an understanding that attraction is attraction, feelings are feelings, love is love, and his were all very real and very valid.

The deconstruction of my homophobic feeling did not happen all at once, and learning to be aware of gay consciousness and prioritize their struggle is a process that is still ongoing for me.
It took time. It took a lot of listening to queer voices, reading queer perspectives, and seeking the Creator to provide answers that never explicitly came (I am aware that all of you may not value a spiritual connection with a deity- I am speaking only of my own journey). As a former christian and the daughter of a pastor, reconciling my acceptance of and love for queer identities with my belief in the Bible and christian dogma was difficult. God never gave me an answer on whether homosexuality was “right or wrong,” but I believe that She transformed my heart to walk a continuous path of loving better, more freely, and without judgement.

Love is a word that our society throws around loosely. Let me be perfectly clear as to what I mean by love; when you love a population that is oppressed, targeted, and terrorized, you love by accepting them. You love by reminding them that they are whole, okay, and that there is nothing wrong with them. You love by using your privilege as a heterosexual, cis gendered person to make space for them. As in usual tragedy form, I see a lot of people “praying for Orlando.” I urge you also to pray for yourselves, your families, your friends, and your communities. I urge you to ask whichever God you believe in to touch your heart and reveal all fear and loathing of difference that lies there. I am praying for a love that will swing wide the gates of hatred, connecting us to a world where LGBTQI identities are safe, seen, and valued just as they are.


Photo: iStockPhoto


Benie Hallel is a Master's student in English Literature at Carnegie Mellon where she studies postcolonial literature and intersectional identities. She is a freelance journalist, radical black feminist and superhero.

by Nyah Levone Molineaux 

No, your religious beliefs do not give you the freedom to discriminate.

Religious freedom in the United States particularly of the Christian variety mostly is engrained, respected, and often unquestioned. The government allows for the free expression of religion under the first amendment. Church finances are not taxed and audited. Movies like War Room, Miracles from Heaven, and Tyler Perry’s The Passion have been praised and very profitable. Black people take part in this freedom every week by being one of the highest church attending groups in the United States.


When religious freedom can negatively affect the lives of marginalized people, where does the unquestionable respect stop and the critical inquiry begin? There is a law in North Carolina that bans cities from enacting anti-LGBT discrimination laws and reduces the humanity of transgender people by not allowing them to use the restroom that aligns with their identity. There is a law in Mississippi that gives government, businesses, and individuals the right to deny LGBT people housing, employment, and other services if it is for religious reasons. Then there is a law that was signed by Tennessee's governor just last week that allows therapists to deny potentially life-saving counseling services to LGBT people under religious beliefs. As a queer person, I would have committed suicide if I was denied valuable coping skills and insight from therapists and counselors
We have to collectively stop and realize a few verses in a religious text, in this case the large source of it being the bible in the United States, can not always guide us in how we should treat a person who may be different. Furthermore, we have to let go or revise certain religious beliefs in order to have peace in a diverse society.

We need to face the reality that the bible, which is the inspiration behind these religious freedom laws, is not a completely moral book. For many, it is the “Word of God” and inspired men of God wrote it. Since men are fallible, their creations are fallible.

by Anna Gibson

I’ve always considered myself “woke.” I’m an avid reader of history and because of this, I became aware of the forces that oppress black and brown people at a very young age. My parents introduced me to books like Introduction to African Civilization by John J. Jackson and From Babylon to Timbuktu by Rudolph R. Windsor when I was just ten years old. I thrived on the information I found in these books. However, at some point, I lost my way, and I can’t say that life in my teens and early 20’s was a reflection of the ideas I learned back then.


I decided to dive back into what it truly means to be conscious in the past six months. I’ve devoured books like When the World Was Black by Dr. Supreme Understanding and Maat: Guided Principles to Moral Living by KMT University Press. It’s like I’m a kid again. I can’t stop reading about my history and speaking to people of like minds who are interested in eradicating racism and all its subsequent effects on our people and our communities.

However, I was hurt by what I found in many of the major texts of the conscious community. Much of the community didn’t seem to accept me as a lesbian woman and would regulate my black womanhood to a secondary role within the movement. Many men in the “conscious” BLM community are masterful at hiding deep-seated homophobia and misogyny behind their “concern for the state of the black family,” avoidance of the “effeminization of the black man,” and protecting their “Queens” at all costs.

On the contrary, what I’ve found is that men in the BLM movement only define me as a queen when I fit into their narrow idea of femininity. They only find me respectable if I maintain a standard they can control. I’ve found myself in a number of perplexing situations. One brother practiced polygamy, but the moment one of his wives decided to get another lover she was a whore, simply for doing the same thing he did. I’ve been told I needed “correction,” as though I were a child who is disgraceful and completely out of line because I’m attracted to women. I’ve been dismissed, disregarded, and held in contempt. I’ve been judged and told I need to repent by the same individuals who claim that black and brown people need to throw off the religion of their slave masters and embrace who they truly are.

As this clip from Umar Johnson demonstrates, many of the foremost leaders of the black community would attempt to prove that we (women and the LGBTQIA community) hate the opposite sex for being who we are. Johnson often speaks about “treating” people in the LGBTQIA community as if we have a disease. He also makes hateful comments toward single black mothers, saying that they “castrate black boys and wonder why they grow into gay men.”

However, despite his rampant homophobia and misogyny he claims to love all African American people. This fear lies in the inability to understand the contributions that LGBTQIA people and black women have made to the civil rights and black power movements.

An interesting dynamic reveals the origins of misogyny and homophobia in the community. It illuminates a deep-seated fear of black men in the “conscious” community. I think Dr. Umar’s comments against single mothers and lesbians reflect a question that seems to be implied in black male anger against black women: What about me?

You see this question in many forms in the black conscious community, whether you hear about black men disparaging trans women, black men condemning lesbians, or black men hating gay men. A man is hated if he “behaves like a woman,” on one hand, but if a woman isn’t “his” it also becomes a serious problem. This is an issue of ownership and contempt, both of which serve as the foundation for misogyny, and the rejection of the LGBTQIA conscious community. This hatred is what’s REALLY meant in some of this discourse when we hear “Black women NEED black men,” and why men feel rejected enough to feel castrated when they aren’t involved.

If you need an example of this misogyny all you need to do check out articles on For Harriet’s comment threads, specifically the ones about LGBTQIA issues and love. You’ll see that while many men are completely silent about articles on the deaths of black women, they will come up at arms when conversations around LGBTQIA love and identity are centered and the discussion isn’t about them.

Dr. Umar Johnson’s misogyny and homophobia isn’t an isolated case. The issue is much bigger than him. The truth is, you can’t be concerned with the freedom of our people from oppression while excluding a large portion of our people. Black Lives Matter explicitly means that ALL black lives matter. If you throw out any portion of our people based on fear and ignorance, YOU don’t belong in the movement. For years LGBTQIA people have fought for have our freedom from the labyrinth of structural racism, and we will continue to do so because people of the Black diaspora need us.

Because of the ignorance outlined above, it’s understandable that many LGBTQIA people and women (God forbid if you’re both) may enter the Black Lives Matter movement and feel attacked on all sides. This is incredibly damaging, because quite frankly, we love our people and want to make sure they know who they are and how much of a powerful impact they can have on the world. I know how easy it is to become discouraged. You shouldn’t internalize misogyny or homophobia. Instead we should take time out to understand the common arguments against women and LGBTQIA community as well as further outline the origins of homophobia and misogyny within the movement.

People in BLM claim that the LGBTQIA conscious community are a “danger to BLM” and promote “black genocide.” On the contrary, I would posit that our unity can only be a danger the very establishment that oppresses us. The civil rights and black power movements didn’t collapse just because they gave LGBTQIA people a platform. LGBTQIA inclusion actually strengthened us. This can be proven by taking a look at some of the elders that helped place black liberation at the forefront of America’s consciousness.

Bayard Rustin was a prominent organizer that helped organize many of the events that made Dr. King’s platform possible. He was the mind behind the March on Washington and many of the sit-ins that occurred in the 1960’s civil rights movement. He wasn’t in the closet either. In an era that openly criminalized the LGBTQIA community and shunned women, he openly advocated for the rights of both. That level of fearlessness and tenacity in the face of adversity is exactly what we need in the BLM movement.

Alice Walker is another prominent writer. Her seminal work the Color Purple centered on such issues as bisexuality, domestic violence and revolution. Walker was also known for participating in the March on Washington and makes it a point to put out the inequities experienced by black community in her poetry and public speeches. Should her work be thrown away because of who she loves?

Some would claim that others would have come along and done the same thing if these powerful men and women didn’t, but this is a logical fallacy. We can’t deal with what could have been, since it didn’t happen. It can’t be denied that the elders I just mentioned—and many others—made extensive contributions to the movement, and we wouldn’t be where we are without their influence. If we’d rejected them on the basis of sexual orientation, identity, or gender, we would be missing out on a huge aspect of the liberation of our people.


Our ancestor Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, offers us insight into the primary insecurities that drive most “conscious men”. In his speech, “A Letter to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters About The Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements,” he states:

We should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion, whatever your insecurities are. I say ‘whatever your insecurities are’ because as we very well know, sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth, and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the woman or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with. 

We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and feelings for all oppressed people. We must not use the racist attitude that the White racists use against our people because they are Black and poor.

Newton was one of the few people in the Black Power Movement that openly reflected on its homophobia and misogyny. He even went as far as recognizing his own bias in the same speech and recognizing that rejecting us will do more harm than good.

In short, I would urge many members of the BLM movement to take an honest appraisal as to why they feel so threatened by the LGBTQIA and feminist communities, as Newton did. You aren’t protecting the conscious community. Instead, you’re wasting valuable time and energy rejecting a part of our people who contribute gems to black liberation and perpetuating the same cycles of oppression that holds us back as a people.

To my LGBTQIA brothers and sisters, let the track records of our elders speak for themselves and empower you to further action. You have a place in the BLM movement, even if you’re ridiculed for being who you are and loving who you love. Continue to lead our people to liberation and serve as an example to our brothers and sisters in the movement. Let it be known that unity is the key to success, and division will only lead to failure in the struggle against white supremacy.

Photo: Shutterstock

Anna Gibson is a student at Wayne State University who’s currently immersed in African Studies. You can catch up with her on Twitter @TheRealSankofa or on Facebook where she’s hiding in plain sight.

Today, and everyday, I am thinking about what it means to engage in transformative, Black queer love.

Engaging in queer black love means not only surviving your own trauma, but holding the paralleled trauma of your partner and navigating the ways in which that trauma collides. In existing, navigating, and surviving as queer Black folks within a white supremacist patriarchy, it feels impossible to heal our own selves, yet alone offer healing to each other. In seeing each other, holding each other, and loving each other, we must engage in community practice and dialogue around what transformative love looks like beyond survival. Revolutionary Black love is often praised within our organizing and activist spaces, yet rarely engaged in practice enough to garner understanding of how our mental health, political growth, and prospering are cultivated within our intimate partnerships.

By Dr. Lexx Brown-James

The premier of T.G.I.T. did not disappoint with Shonda Rhimes capturing us yet again with the romance, drama, and suspense built into ShondaLand. Shonda knows how to deliver and we were not disappointed.

by Jasmine Alvarez

About two months ago my boo and I decided to go see the movie Dope. As Black queer women, we were excited to see a movie with an all Black cast, an authentically Black storyline, and of course A QUEER BLACK GIRL CHARACTER. How could this movie not be freaking amazing?????? Welp, unfortunately there was something that really ruined the entire film for me, and yes it has everything to do with the queer character, Diggy. (Warning: major spoiler alert ahead.)

by Anna Gibson

After SCOTUS made marriage equality legal across all 50 states, conservatives, fundamentalists, and a variety of other bigots came out of the woodwork to spew hate and express their irrational viewpoints across a number of news outlets.

by Charmaine Lang

I saw her sitting in the room during a morning break at a conference. Beautiful, with big hair framing her face. I was drawn to this woman. I had, before then, never been instantly drawn to anyone, especially a woman.

by Anna Gibson

When I first came out of the closet, I was shunned almost immediately. I attended Detroit’s Mumford High School in 2004. Back then, the kids attached a negative stereotype to each of the public schools. These associations were often exaggerated and not true, but the schools were still spoken of by their nicknames. Murray Wright was known as “Murder Wright” because of the violence that occurred there. Pershing High was said to be overrun with students who had STDs. Finally, Mumford was nicknamed “Dykeford.” It was well known that there were a ton of gay and lesbian students who attended the school. As the name implies, the stigma toward black LGBTQ youth was real and it often spilled over into violence.

On Friday morning, June 26th, the United States Supreme Court made history by declaring that it is legal for all same-sex couples in America to marry.

 by Aisha N. Davis

by C. Imani Williams


Last week, WNBA stars Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson were married. The celebrity couple had been in the news two weeks prior when they were both arrested on assault charges following a physical altercation between the two at their Arizona home. As various professional sports associations crack down on domestic violence, it was confirmed on Friday, May 15, 2015 that both women will be suspended for record number of seven games during the upcoming WNBA season.

by Candace Simpson


I attended a conference in February that gathered pastors, seminarians, professors, and lay people. The yearly conference is meant to provide resources for people of faith as we seek to make sense of the task of social justice.

In 8th grade, I was part of a teen panel that traveled across the state promoting abstinence. If this group had any value, it began my understanding of the differences between gender and sexuality. During this time, I was taught that gender is how a person identifies as male or female; and sexuality is how a person identifies as a sexual being, either heterosexual or homosexual. While this helped me understand the difference between gender and sexuality at a young age, I came to see that this is a woefully inadequate and incomplete look at gender and sexuality.

I have since come to understand the there is a lot more to sexuality than binary gender identity and sexual orientation. Many cisgender, heterosexual (definitions below) people do not realize that both gender and sexuality fall on a spectrum and are often fluid. Accepting this is crucial to being a better ally to LGBTQ (or QUILTBAG) sisters who face unique experiences, oppressions, and issues due to how they identify in regards to their gender and sexual identities.

Below, I have included a few terms to describe orientation, attraction, identity, and relationship status. This is not an exhaustive list, as there are subcultures within many identities—and still, many people reject formal labels altogether—but it may work as a primer for those unfamiliar with the various types of sexual and gender identities throughout the spectrum. Also, please know that I welcome any corrections, clarifications and additions.

First, it is important to give more comprehensive definitions of gender and sexuality, than what many of us were taught in sex-ed classes:

Gender is how a person identifies and expresses themselves as male or female, or—for many—somewhere in-between. This relates to social and cultural norms, expectations, values, attitudes, and behaviors. Gender is not the same as biological sex, but many conflate the two.

Biological sex describes the kind of sex organs, chromosomes, and hormones a person has, and thus how they are often described: male, female, or intersex. Gender and biological sex are separate from each other.

Intersex refers to someone born with genitalia or sex characteristics not classified as male or female. It may also refer to someone born with genitalia or characteristics classified as both male and female. An intersex person may identify with any gender on the spectrum as well as intersex.

According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), sexuality is defined as:

encompass[ing] the sexual knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of individuals. Its various dimensions involve the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the sexual response system; identity, orientation, roles, and personality; and thoughts, feelings, and relationships. Sexuality is influenced by ethical, spiritual, cultural, and moral concerns. All persons are sexual, in the broadest sense of the word.

Queer refers to when a person identifies as non-heteronormative. This can be gender or sexual identity, so I include it as a standalone term as an identity here.

Types of Attraction

An aesthetic attraction means a person has an impersonal attraction based on an appreciation of someone’s physical attributes or demeanor.




A romantic attraction means a person has an attraction based on a desire to experience a romantic relationship with someone.

A sensual attraction means a person has an attraction based on the desire to touch someone, but not necessarily in a sexual way.

A sexual attraction means a person has an attraction based on a desire to participate in sexual acts with someone.

Sexual Orientation and Romantic Attraction

(Note: Some people use the "-sexual" term to indicate both romantic and sexual attractions.)

Aromantic means a person does not experience romantic attraction.

Asexual means a person does not experience sexual attraction.

Autosexual means a person experiences self-gratification rather than other types of sexual activities.

Biromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to their own gender and a different gender(s).

Bisexual means a person experiences sexual attraction to their own gender and a different gender(s).

Gray-romantic means a person rarely experiences romantic attraction. It is sometimes used as an umbrella term for demi- and lithromantic.

Gray-sexual means a person rarely experiences sexual attraction. This means a person identifies in the gray area between asexuality and sexuality. It is also called semisexual, asexual-ish and sexual-ish. It is also sometimes used as an umbrella term for demi- and lithsexual.

Demiromantic means a person experiences a romantic attraction after developing a strong bond. This type of attraction usually occurs more often in romantic than sexual relationships but it occurs in both.

Demisexual means a person experiences a sexual attraction after developing a strong bond.

Heteroromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to gender(s) different than their own.

Heterosexual means a person experiences sexual attraction to gender(s) different than their own.

Homoromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to the same gender as their own.

Homosexual (most commonly referred to as gay or lesbian) means a person experiences sexual attraction to the same gender as their own.

Lithromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to others but does not desire reciprocation.

Lithsexual means a person experiences sexual attraction to others but does not desire reciprocation.

Panromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to all genders or regardless of gender.

Pansexual means a person experiences sexual attraction to all genders or regardless of gender.

Polyromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to multiple genders but not necessarily all genders.

Polysexual means a person experiences sexual attraction to multiple genders but not necessarily all genders.

Skolioromantic means a person experiences romantic attraction to non-binary gender individuals.

Skoliosexual means a person experiences sexual attraction to non-binary gender individuals.

Relationship

Monogamous means a person desires or seeks having an intimate and/or sexual partnership with one person.

Polyamorous means a person accepts, desires, or seeks having more than one intimate and/or sexual partnership with the consent of all individuals involved in the relationship.

Gender Identity

Agender refers to a person who does not identify with any gender.

Androgyny means a person has characteristics and/or a gender identity regarded as both masculine and feminine.

Bigender refers to a person who identifies as a combination of both binary genders.

Cisgender refers to a person who identifies with the gender assigned to them at birth.




Genderqueer refers to a person who identifies outside the gender binary and may include different genders like agender, bigender, pangender, and third gender.

Gender non-binary refers to a person who does not identify within a gender binary.

Neutrois refers to a person who does not identify with gender and falls neutrally between male and female.

Pangender refers to a person who identifies as all genders including non-binary genders.

Third Gender refers to someone who identifies as a gender part of a ternary gender system.

Transgender refers to a person who identifies as a different gender than the one assigned at birth.

Trigender refers to a person whose gender changes among female, male, and third gender.

Two Spirit refers to someone in an Aboriginal or indigenous culture who takes on multiple gender roles within that specific culture. Non-Aboriginal people may not identify as Two Spirit.

We should never assume a gender identity or sexual orientation for anyone and definitely should not use being cisgender or heterosexual as a default identity. It is important to respect the identities of non-heteronormative people and refer to them by the names and pronouns with which they identify. We must also accept and respect that gender identities and sexual orientations may change over time as they are fluid, but remain valid.

Photo: Shutterstock

Inda Lauryn has previously been published in Blackberry, A Magazine, Interfictions, The Toast, and Callaloo, as well as had her work featured on blogs such as Black Girl Nerds, Bitch Flicks, and AfroPunk. She is currently working on a novel and countless other unfinished writing projects, occasionally blogs at Corner Store Press and shares music playlists at MixCloud.

It’s a well-documented fact that shared oppression does not always foster a supportive and united front. Black women are super aware of the ways in which Black men—despite our joint experiences under racism—are often all too quick to step on us; perpetuate and dismiss our experiences of misogynoir; and gloss over our specific problems under white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy. This can be viewed in a nutshell by the current swathes of classist misogynoir being directed at Amber Rose by her ex-boyfriend, Kanye West, who has previously been vocal on issues of white supremacy both through his work and his words. Whilst the hate thrown at us by Black men is straight up abominable and is rightly a source of much frustration for Black women, we must remember that those of us who are cisgender and/or straight are not exempt from the ability to step on, degrade and oppress those who are meant to be our kinfolk, just like Black men do to us. That is, queer Black women are routinely let down by our heterosexual and/or cis sisters who are meant to have our backs.

by Brittany Dawson


Azealia Banks recently argued in an exclusive interview on Sirius XM’s OUTQ radio, a channel centered on exploring topics of LGBTQ interest, that the public is misinterpreting her use of the insufferable homophobic slur f*ggot.

by Brittany Dawson


Atlanta, Georgia couple Kordale and Kaleb Lewis posted a photo of them doing their daughter’s hair on Instagram last year, sharing a glimpse into child rearing in the Black LGBTQ community.

The image paints a morning routine I’m sure most parents or caregivers recognize. From the hazy glare of a child uneager to start the day to full-fledged irritation as you realize coaxing them to pick up the pace isn’t working, the Lewis’ image dispelled myths, misperceptions, and negative stigmas shrouding the community as a whole.

I recall a protest I recently went to during downtown Detroit’s annual Noel Night, a Christmas themed celebratory event hosted by the Detroit Institute of Arts. It’s huge—most residents from across the Detroit metro area attend it. Unlike the hundreds that milled around outside the DIA however, I was one of a hundred or so others lying on the ground looking at the stars.

by Brittany Dawson


My first kiss: We stood in the back parking lot of the mall. Donned in an apron slathered with chunky patches of dried flour and salt, I reeked of butter, pretzel dough, and curiosity. Working at a pretzel kiosk reaped its reward; I saw my prize waiting in front of my car, wearing a timid smile, long-sleeve checkered flannel, and dark washed jeans from American Eagle.