Featured in the NY Daily News | 2/20/2025 “The occupants lay, resigned and silent, decaying in succession…One after another, ashen-faced men with skeletal bodies reclined, their bony knees pointing upward sharply under their blankets like stakes under a tent. Each had an IV pole and blood pack, wires and hoses attached to the backs of…
featured in the NY Daily News | Abortion. The word itself elicits a visceral reaction. It stirsthe images, rhetoric, and experiences that have shaped our responses. It evokes fear, outrage, heartache, loss. It recalls physical pain and emotional torment. But it may also signify relief, healing and restoration. I am particularly sensitive to the word at this moment because an abortion could have saved the life of a dear friend. Whitney…
featured in ChalkBeat March 30, 2023 It was my older brother who turned me on to books. His enthusiasm for “Huckleberry Finn” came first. Then it was “The Swiss Family Robinson,” “The Outsiders,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “1984,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Great Gatsby.” When he burst into my bedroom…
featured in the NY Daily News | Dec. 5, 2022 I shut myself in my office, hoping to avoid teary goodbyes and my own inevitable breakdown. It was the last day of my career as a teacher and administrator. I opened my desk drawer to gather my personal belongings, aiming to pack quickly and dash…
featured in the NY Daily News | October 4, 2022 In 1950s America, my mother was given the care she needed to survive her miscarriages. In 2022, in some parts of this country, my mother might be considered a criminal. It has been three months since the Dobbs decision, yet the shock continues to reverberate.…
featured in NY Daily News | January 18, 2022 My brother died in 1994 of HIV/AIDS during what, for me, will always be the firstpandemic. Now, in 2021, I wait, hoping no one in my family will die in the second. The day before my brother died, my mother and I made our daily pilgrimage…