Here’s what to do when you suspect you’re being lied to.
Years ago I used to occasionally do readings at a local DC restaurant called Busboys and Poets, where they hosted an open mic night. Sometimes friends would come to support me but often I went alone. On one such night, I ran into a friend’s boyfriend at the open mic. Actually, he saw me first and waved me over. He was with two girls but I thought nothing of it. We spoke briefly and I went on my merry way. Later, when I mentioned seeing him to my friend, she was pissed. …
Here’s what I wish someone had told me before I became a mother.
When I was 21, a good friend of mine had a baby. Though we had not spoken in years, she invited me to her baby shower and I was excited to attend. Of course, one part of this was the delight of seeing a friend after many years but another part was that I was stepping into my own desire to be a mother, one day. I remember wanting to feel close to her — to be a part of her proverbial “village” — but not knowing how. …
I took a month off of writing on Medium. Now I’m back.
Welcome or welcome back! It is a new year and that’s as good a time as any to reintroduce myself on this platform. My name is Kesia. I’m a 30 year old writer from Washington, DC now living in the ‘burbs. I graduated from Boston University after studying English and creative writing and minoring in African-American studies. I’m also a mom of two boys.
I love writing and have from a very young age. This stemmed from a love of reading. Some of my favorite books include The Phantom Tollbooth, Ramona The Pest, Goosebumps, Played, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Waiting to Exhale. …
I’ll start this piece off with a disclaimer as many pieces about race tend to need: I do not question who anyone dates on a personal level. What I am interested in investigating are the assumptions, institutions and stereotypes that influence people’s dating habits, consciously or subconsciously, myself never excluded. I have multiple inter-racial couples in my own family and love these people dearly. This post is about recognizable patterns in society.
Last night I came across a tweet congratulating Gabourey Sidibe on her recent engagement to Brandon Frankel. Sidibe is a fat Black woman and Frankel is a slim white man and while most of the comments were celebratory, there were several people questioning why Gabourey would choose to date outside her race. More specifically, Black men were questioning why Black women give them a hard time for dating non-Black women yet celebrate Black women for doing the same thing. …
From YouTube to Instagram, couples are making money from their love, but what if things don’t work out?
We’ve all seen them and maybe even follow a few: social media couples who make a pretty penny from their relationship. The pros of monetizing your love are obvious. If you hit it big, it can lead to big checks. There’s plenty of examples, like R&B singer Queen Naija or De’arra and Ken. Even if you don’t make it big, there are a number of middle-of-the-pack personalities who are making a good living off of showing the daily ins and outs of romantic love. …
Thanks for the laughs, Saweetie. Lord knows, we need ‘em.
A few months back, I wrote about how our current pandemic has been killing celebrity culture. As time treks on, this seems to be increasingly true. Consumers have lost patience with flashy celebs who seemingly lack substance. There have, however, been a few beacons of comedic light and one of them is Saweetie. Sis has been consistently putting out humorous, or eye catching content this whole year so I’m taking a moment to shout her out.
Perhaps her ability to keep it cute during this trying time shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. Saweetie has a degree in communications from University of Southern California, so she understands the value of high quality content. …
It’s you who establishes your worth.
The more you write online, the more people will reach out to you with writing opportunities. I wake up to several everyday. Most recently I received a request from an up-and-coming rapper’s PR agency. There was no initial mention of compensation for the work they requested, and so I was already skeptical I would end up negotiating a fair rate based on freelancing standards. In the end, I was right. The rates they offered were simply too low, and while I appreciated the acknowledgment of my writing abilities, I had to decline.
As I said, I receive many requests for writing work, daily, even though I have no formal application for this and am very selective about what work I accept (a lesson learned the hard way). I know I’m not the only writer in this position. Our skills are highly sought after. Unfortunately, more often than not, these are requests for free labor. I write for fun, to share ideas and to express my opinions. I also write for money. …
Here are some of the signs I’ve learned from experience.
“When you look at someone through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags.”
Don’t you think the world would be a better place if people just said how they really felt? When it comes to romantic relationships, certainly a lot of hurt feelings could be saved if folks were more up front. Of course, there are selfish reasons why someone might not admit to how they truly feel about you — especially when they’re just not that into you. When I first began dating, I spent a lot of time over extending myself to men. Being overly willing to work to be in their space by providing support (both emotional and sometimes financial) ended up biting me in the ass. Quickly I realized sometimes people are not keeping you around because they like you. Sometimes they’re keeping you around for the sole purpose of using you. …
3 Questions For Writers to Reflect on Before Publishing Online
These questions will help you figure out where your work fits in on the World Wide Web.
The internet is a great place to grow as a writer. There are so many benefits like instant feedback and being able to network with other’s who enjoy the craft. If you’re thinking about becoming a person who writes regularly online, there are some questions worth asking yourself, to figure out where your work fits in on the vast World Wide Web.
1. What kind of writer do you want to be?
You have to decide what kind of writer you want to be. This is a decision we all make over and over again. Sometimes the answer changes. A person whose primary writing goal is to make money is going to produce very different work than a person who’s primary writing goal is to share information or make people think. There are plenty of different writers in the world — you and I don’t have to be the same kind. …
It’s almost as if fiction exists.
Over the past five or so years of actively using Twitter, I’ve noticed this obsession with “true” stories. If a funny story goes viral, the first question many people ask is, “did this really happen?” I can’t figure out why this matters so much to people. Recently I saw a comedian’s tweet go viral and several people alleged that the tweeter was lying or “chasing clout”. My question is…did you laugh though?
Twitter is a space that’s full of writers, both professional and non-professional. Some people tell stories that end up going viral by accident. The stories are funny and true and the tweeter has the screenshots to prove it. Some people make up stories for fun and admit that the stories are made up. They’re fiction writers and they have no qualms about it. Some people make up stories and pretend they’re real. Maybe they think people will think the story is funnier if it really happened. Maybe the story just helps them build on the public persona they’re crafting for whatever reason. …
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