Terri Schlichenmeyer

At least you won't have to move. You keep telling yourself that, ever since the boss decided to downsize this year, workplace and all: a reduced staff and work-from-home options means a smaller office and big change, which is fine with you. In the new book "Black Folk" by Blair LM Kelley, your ancestors never had...

Someone who was older than you taught you to tie your shoes. An elder showed you around a kitchen, a car, a workplace, a classroom, and the inside of a library. A lot of what you know has thoughtfully come from someone with years –...

The celebration is coming soon, you can feel it in the air. Your entire family will gather together for one special day. There'll be picnics and tasty foods, dancing, and storytelling. No, it's not Christmas or your birthday, not Easter or Ramadan. It's Juneteenth and...

The month of February has whipped by so fast that you almost missed it.  It's true that the month is short, as compared to the other months, but no worries. There's still a lot remaining, surely enough left to catch one of these great Black...

The big red-brick building down the road is where you get your groceries. You have to drive there, past the shiny chrome car dealership, left by the green gas station. The yellow fast-food place is your kids' favorite; that's in the same block. And that...

One hundred sixty-three. That’s how many friends you have on social media and you know most of them, one way or another. There are colleagues on your list, and cousins, friends, and a guy you don’t really remember meeting. You connected to them all somehow...

In “Black Skin” by Dija Ayodele, you’ll see how you can best care for your skin. Short shorts, tank tops, bare shoulders, barely-there sleeves. You want to wear them all this summer, and you want to look good doing it. So how do you make...

After school and Saturday mornings were devoted to fighting crime. There you were, seven, eight, nine years old, hard-bodied, brave, and fireproof – at least, in your mind. Along with your ancestors and others with superpowers, you were invincible. And in “Black Panther” by Don...

You weren’t born knowing everything. People had to tell you what you needed to know, and that’s how you learn. You can guess sometimes, or figure other things out on your own but mostly, you’ve been told and then you know. So why not read these...

The pavement was hard. At that time of day, it still held the last of the sun’s warmth but that didn’t make it comfortable. Pebbles embedded in blacktop can bloody skin in a minute; bits of broken glass can scratch a cheek lying on the...