Resilient Helen Gardiner-Parks
When I asked my friend Helen Gardiner-Parks to sit down and tell me her story, she put me off. Her gut reaction was that she didn’t have a story. I get that a lot. It’s [...]
When I asked my friend Helen Gardiner-Parks to sit down and tell me her story, she put me off. Her gut reaction was that she didn’t have a story. I get that a lot. It’s [...]
Julie learned that I worked in Nashville as a reporter for the ABC station, WKRN, and she asked me if I knew her father. How could I not? He has an absolutely wild story. He [...]
I didn’t meet my mother until I was 45 years old. She gave me up for adoption the day I was born. She and I have been in reunion for more than 15 years. We've [...]
Sarrah Rose’s teenaged son was hanging out in front of the home west of Phoenix when I drove into the gated community. I was there to talk to his mom, the sex coach. Don’t make [...]
We met up at the Starbucks over by the liquor store in Cotswold. The first time I met Susan Anderson I gave her $1,000. A year later I gave her another thousand. It was a [...]
I notice they didn’t call it “EX-Hoookers for Jesus.” OK OK, I’m succumbing to a little bit of clickbait in my headline. Janet was a volunteer - NOT a hooker - in the Las Vegas [...]
Kenya Templeton breaks into song the way some women switch from Spanish to English and back again. Like the smell of your mama’s cooking or a song on the radio, Kenya’s voice is somewhere between [...]
It was dark and raining when I pulled up to Paul and Jade’s high rise apartment overlooking a twinkling Austin, Texas. I’d been on the road since early morning, pulling out of New Orleans long [...]
Ethel Smith uses the “N word” with a whole lot of personal history behind it. She has placed it in context for generations of students. She spent a career teaching African American literature to mostly [...]
Ten days ago I hit the road for California. Friday night I hit a big rock. Nailed that sucker dead on. My front right tire immediately popped FLOP-FLOP-FLOP-FLOP-FLOP-FLOP. I limped up the emergency lane to [...]