I’m a deeply Southern girl originally from Monroe, Louisiana, with more years spent between Savannah and New Orleans. I’m an independent anthropologist, writer, and educator interested in the things we learn from our families and communities, how they shape the way we live, and what we choose to keep or change.
I’m especially fascinated by people who refuse expectations that require them to say no to themselves. That fascination became Untamed Women, a series where I use literature to think alongside other women about love, freedom, identity, and the lives we’re creating for ourselves.
I take conversations deep QUICK. Tell me your contradictions, where your people are from, and how you really wanna spend most of your time.
I’m an advocate for not code-switching. Keep your culture in your mouth. Flash your gold teeth. Truly laugh out loud. Wear your hair however makes you feel like your best self. I’m just as serious about protecting our right to change our minds. You’re allowed to learn something, experience something, become somebody you weren’t before, and decide differently.
Work Stuff
My favorite people are under 18 and over 80, which explains a lot of my work. I founded Krak Teet to interview elders and teach teenagers how to do the same. That work gave me #WeAllCousins, my trademarked reminder that, across the African Diaspora, we’re more alike than we are different.
I write about food, art, history, and culture, and I co-write memoirs and cookbooks. My work has appeared in GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp, Southern Living, Savannah Magazine, IMPACT Magazine, etc. I’ve won a few awards and been nominated for more.
I speak about the things I write and research. And I build experiences—workshops, retreats, film-and-dining evenings, and literary lectures—that give us something to think about, something to talk about, and room to EXHALE.
Non-Work Stuff
Mothering is up there. One is grown and the other is almost there, and it’s been the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done—especially teaching ’em how to drive. I also don’t know many people who’ve learned to blend a family as expertly as I have.
I’m a birder, too. I started because I needed something to get me out of my head and off the screens, then got addicted almost immediately.
I’m fulla fun facts and will argue you down that soul food is traditionally local, seasonal, and built far more around vegetables, grains, and beans/peas than its modern reputation suggests.
Got two college degrees I loved earning and hate paying for.
I live in a river-and-beach town and love it, but the mountains have my heart.
I’m curious for a living.
Through all that questioning and changing, I move through life believing that all is well and will be.
Somewhere along the way, I made myself a lil benediction for that belief: Amen, Ameen, and Àṣẹ.