The pleasure of being a polymath …
My editing
Gravy Issue 76, Summer 2020
I curated this issue of the Southern Foodways Alliance's Gravy journal. With a majority of writers of color, it made a point — and waves — in a food-media industry roiled by racial controversies.
“Sourced From Inside”
For The Counter, I edited this series about where prison-made food ends up, written H. Claire Brown. It was a finalist for an Online Journalism Award.
“The Echoing Ida Collective”
I co-edited "The Echoing Ida Collective" (Feminist Press), an anthology about reproductive and social justice with Kemi Alabi and Janna Zinzi.
“Reading Race, Reading Food”
I created this series on race, books and food for The Counter.
My writing
A Real Hot Mess: How Grits Got Weaponized Against Cheating Men
* James Beard Award winner in 2020 * (and also included in Best American Food Writing).
How Black Foragers Find Freedom in the Natural World
I wandered in the woods for this piece on foraging for the New York Times (NYT) Black History Continued project. * Nominated for a 2022 James Beard Award * (huzzah!)
A Priceless Archive of Ordinary Life
Some historian's hand-wringing for The Atlantic's Inheritance project.
Innovation and the Incinerated Tongue: Notes on Hot Chicken, Race and Culinary Crossover
This piece won * honorable mention * in the 2022 Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing contest.
Now’s the Time for Wigs. If You Can Get the Hair for Them.
Me on a special pandemic supply-chain problem for The New York Times Styles section.
The Word Is ‘Nemesis’: The Fight to Integrate the National Spelling Bee
This oldie but goodie Longreads jawn about spelling bees and Jim Crow got a * Notable Mention in Best American Essays. *
How to Cover an Uprising (Without Causing Harm)
How should journalists cover protests about racial justice? With conscience and to do no harm, I write in The Nation.
Documenting Racial Disparity and Covid
Showing my public-health writing chops for Colorlines.
Their Son Wanted to See More Black Book Characters, So They Created a Business to Provide Them
A feel-good Washington Post feature about a bookstore where Black children are always the main characters. (I do write feel-good things sometimes, I promise).
How Fast Food “Became Black”
A Vox Q&A with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Marcia Chatelain about "how fast food became Black.”
More-than-words storytelling
Original Comic: Too Much Water, Not Enough Water
A comic about a city water crisis you probably haven't heard about. Rewire News Group, Jul 12, 2018.
Adventures in Feministory
“They Called Her Dr. D. Part One and Two.” Bitch Media, January 25 and 26, 2018:
"Choice/Less: The Backstory"
I was story consultant and contributor to this four-episode podcast about reproductive injustice in the United States, produced by Jenn Stanley and Rewire.News. Listen to me do my historian thing on Episodes 1 and 3.
