December 5, 2023
The Tornado
We first hear about the tornado from Chiu Ayi, who comes by our house with a bag of frozen dough so heavy it must be a descendant of the meteor […]
December 5, 2023
Prolonged Exposure
I couldn’t figure out how to be miserable in a way that would persuade someone to intervene. I started the descent into hell every morning at seven: one hundred eighteen […]
November 28, 2023
No Fury
Long vowels, short fuses. “‘You look like you could use a glass of iced tea’ ? An iced tea? I’ll get him something, and it won’t be an iced tea.” With […]
September 14, 2023
Sa Ki Pi Bel
Lionel Repons. Won 909,888 votes. Pierre Boucher. Won 23,524 votes. Granma Nisette’s radio man calls them, the presidential election results for the département Nord, with such conviction. His voice sticks […]
September 13, 2023
Sho-Gang: The Legend of Black Fandom
FADE IN: A single plume of smoke rises at the edge of a steep, rocky cliff. We ZOOM OUT to see the land in the valley below, a camp of […]
September 11, 2023
Gila
1. “Cheer up, girlie. Gila’s a diamond in the rough.” The paramedic wore all navy—a wrinkled shirt tucked into slacks, punctuated by shiny black boots. His sandy hair was gelled […]
September 10, 2023
Possession
I wanted to worship Black gods. Had paid hundreds of dollars and driven hundreds of miles for manic, promiscuous, messy, sometimes-wise, sometimes-foolish gender-fluid divinities who looked like me. And so […]
September 7, 2023
The Broken Window
Under the shadow of an international hotel chain, in a playground for Abuja’s wealthiest and whitest, where they go to buy meat pies and Cadbury chocolates and red seedless grapes, […]
September 5, 2023
The Knee
The Kenyon Review · “The Knee” by Mathapelo Mofokeng The orthopedic surgeon hangs up the telephone long before Maki, who sits in silence, frozen in her chair. He called to […]
September 4, 2023
Which Turtles Saved Themselves
Granny kept a closet for when we would die. It was a linen closet halfway through our hallway that reeked of mothballs and once-freshly-washed towels. And stacked on every shelf, […]
September 3, 2023
Mother Water, Mirror Mother
Yemi remembered when the scales first appeared. She was sixteen. Eczema ran in her family, so she thought she just needed a stronger moisturizer for her legs, but then the […]
September 2, 2023
We Think of Our Mothers like Trees
“” Toby reads the headline like he’s a news anchor. He rattles the paper at us, and I wonder for the second time tonight why he is in my house. […]