It’s a son forced to hold a stack of books over his head until he’s in pain as punishment for stealing. It’s a girl wearing a “shame shirt” to school for bringing home bad grades. It’s an old-man, Sherman Hemsley-esque haircut for a misbehaving boy. It’s an underperforming student strolling a busy city intersection with…

Moses couriered 10 commandments for every Christian to honor, but women in the black church have always operated under an additional set of implicit rules. The learning of them starts when we’re little girls: Don’t sit with your legs crossed because that’s grown, but don’t sit with them too far apart because that’s loose. Don’t…

I am the daughter of Marie. The granddaughter of Mildred. The great-granddaughter of Ida. The great-great-granddaughter of Lula Mae. The niece of Virginia, Barbara and Janet. The object of affections showered by no fewer than 10 church mothers who smiled encouragement during my garbled Easter recitations and put daintily folded dollar bills in my patent…

Black girl magic is a magnetic power. It’s the phenomenal-woman effect that draws attention and makes the world watch for us. What we wear. How we wear it. What we say. How we say it. What we listen to, what we watch, what we read, what we buy. Our brilliance shapes trends. Media industrialists who…

In Washington, D.C., as in many cities undergoing extreme urban makeovers, if you miss a week of moving about in certain neighborhoods, you’ll miss a whole heck of a lot. Sad times for you if you’re a landmark driver like I am, when even a short trip on familiar streets can induce a fog of…

When I told a friend I was writing a story on depression, he asked, “What about it?” I elaborated. “People can look outwardly successful and still struggle internally with chronic feelings of despair and unworthiness.” To that, he balled up his face in skepticism. “How often does that really happen? What do they even have…

Anacostia is a neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., where life spills unassumingly onto the sidewalks in front of barber shops and cafes, churches and liquor stores, schools and small businesses. It’s a working-class community alive with the synergy of folks just getting by, grabbing at pieces of joy along the way. Authenticity is its culture,…

There’s an ironic tragedy that accompanies the death of someone who brought so much good to the lives of others but could not maintain the balance of joy in his own. Robin Williams journeyed through the bulk of his 63 years heart first, making people laugh and giving to causes he cared about deeply. He…

Under an ombré sky on April 11, 2011, just before 8 p.m., LaShanda Armstrong drove her minivan into the dark, still-chilly waters of the Hudson River in New York. The decision to end her life—and the lives of her four small children in the car—seemed to be born more from consuming desperation than methodical malice.…