There’s Always a Girl Story: Afrique Doe, Pt. 1

“If the kid at 25, living in Buffalo only knew how good life would get…” Almost every night, after I put Cydney to bed, I sat on the steps of 271 Norfolk Ave, on the east side of Buffalo, looked off at the four lights-ECMC-shown in the visible distance. I raised my gaze above Eerie […]

There’s Always a Girl Story: The Crystal Merchant

In the summer of 2020, I started an essay series entitled An Ode to Self-Care. A couple years removed from my 2000-words-a-day regiment, I felt an intuitive urge to get back into shape. I used the My Summer Rewind, a 50-song playlist curated by Spotify, created by tracks I played the most between June and […]

There’s Always a Girl Story: Chocolate Croissant, pt. 1

“What did Cydney call you for?” Courtney asked. I had been in a studio session in Queens with my sister and longtime friend, Kristen all day. It was almost midnight and my daughter had not heard from her dad in almost 12 hours. “She called me to ask “Daddy where is my black and white […]

It’s Time to Sing a New Song…

“Ayo, quick, give me a topic to write about,” I said to Genevieve at her workplace in Queens. Despite a fortnight of experiences to expound on, I had yet to make my way to the proverbial chair and needed a challenge-or prompt-to coax my thoughts into words onto this very page. Genevieve was quite the […]

How Love Story and its Sequel Mirrored My Life

This essay contains quite a bit of adult language, and by adult language, I mean the words “shit, fuck, and bullshit” fly throughout this piece. I watched Oliver’s Story, the 1978 sequel to Love Story, a film often considered one of the most romantic movies of all time. For years, I put off the hour […]

Getting High and Watching Yo Gabba Gabba!

For almost three years, I have had a standing date night with my daughter, “Pit Stop Fridays.” We kick our weekends off at a nearby eatery in Merrick called The Pit Stop, order the same food, go home, and watch Netflix until we pass out. It is a rare occasion for one of us to […]

My Ode to Self-Care 47: “Friend Zone”

This essay was the fourth on my playlist and was supposed to be written in June. However, I could not find the words and vowed to come back when the muse hits me. Forty-two essays and three left after this one, today is the day (Editor’s note: I wrote the first two sentences on November […]

My Ode to Self-Care 45: “Here I Come”

In the spirit of vulnerability, I’m not editing this piece at all… There is always a girl story. Amongst my friends and I, the previous sentence is a common expression because in all honesty, there is always a story about some girl and me. It never fails and has become a running joke. If you […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 41-“Sugar”

This is one of-if not-my favorite essays I have written, ever. By far, the stories with the greatest entertainment value over the past nine years have been the ones I have accrued as a widowed man, back into the dating world. As I have stated earlier in this series, somehow, when I came up with […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 31-“Bring Dem Things”

“F**k with me this summer” I shot as a response to her text message on a late-June morning. After four years of ups, downs, false-starts, double-backs, fights, sentimental moments, and a shit ton of drama, enough was enough. In this time, there were many others-for both of us-there was no better time to give us […]