Art is Liberation
Mosaic Community Essays Art, to me, is liberation. This is really important because I am a woman of color. My mother is Puerto Rican, and my father is Cape Verdean. I am someone that was raised in various institutions in this country and never quite felt like I fully fit in. There are a lot […]
A True Anchor Baby
Mosaic Community Essays “Who is it?!” Mom stood silently, with her face turned towards me and her ear towards the door. BANG. BANG. BANG.“Open the door ma’am, it’s the NYPD. We just want to ask you some questions.” “Questions about what? I’m a single woman down here and I don’t open the door to nobody, […]
Growing in Sankofa
Mosaic Community Essays I am a child of South Asian immigrants, studying art and design at RISD. Out of the need for survival and success, much of Asian American values are based on hard-work, following a “stable” career path, and instruction, without question. But whenever I was forced to follow this status quo, whether that […]
On bearing witness to the costs of the post-9/11 wars, 20 years in
Mosaic Community Essays Twenty years. 929,000 killed. Eight trillion dollars. That’s a conservative estimate of the costs of America’s forever war on terror. When Brown University’s Costs of War Project, which I helped found 10 years ago, released these figures earlier this month, I was standing in my Maryland kitchen with my husband, a Naval […]
I moved to New York City in 1999 to chase my dream of becoming a writer.
Mosaic Community Essays I moved to New York City in 1999 to chase my dream of becoming a writer. I was 28 and broke and in love with the paradox of New York’s grit and polish and its chronic opportunities to reinvent yourself. I probably would have been leaving my apartment in Brooklyn – late as […]
Birds
Mosaic Community Essays It was 2020, the summer of COVID, when my parents, now in their 80s, decided to adopt baby birds. Here’s how it happened: in the process of cutting dead wood off a tree in my parents’ backyard, trimmers had accidentally sawed off a segment which contained a nest hidden in a cavity […]
COVID NY
Mosaic Community Essays March 3rd 2020World Wildlife DayAt United NationsNew York The last event there due to covidA whisper around townIs this virus for real?Dinner with GaryWants to meet me in LAI say – stay in NY – not safe to flyI’m going to family in RI not LAShrugs his shoulders, flies the next daycomes back […]
How Covid-19 Affected My Family
Mosaic Community Essays When people ask me what year I graduated college, my answer is “ 2020” with the accompaniment of the words, “during the pandemic.” I answer the question with a hint of sadness in my voice. I was disappointed. I did not get to walk across the stage on commencement day to the […]
Take it from me, I built the wall.
Mosaic Community Essays When an arrangement of words gains power it becomes a slogan. Slogans have moved from car bumpers to hashtags and beyond but the essential elements are still there. A good slogan has the power to oversimplify an issue and make it absolute. That’s why ‘build the wall’ is the battle cry for […]
Our American Constellation
Mosaic Community Essays Go back. You don’t belong here. It was the message many of us with dark skin heard on January 6th as we watched a mob storm our Capitol. It was the message broadcast across the world by all who actively or tacitly supported an illegal attempt to dismantle the foundation of our […]