Literature

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....
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...
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...
New literary author Kelis Rowe fondly recalls the days as a young girl walking to Crystal Palace, the once-popular Whitehaven-area skating rink that closed in 2017.  That same roller rink would serve as the backdrop of her debut novel, “Finding...
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...
by Terri Schlichenmeyer -- That’s just the way it was. People did things differently in times past. They were a little more likely to judge others, a little less apt to open their minds. They had notions we might think are...
by Terri Schlichenmeyer -- You used to like to skip. Filled with delight, you danced down the sidewalk, not minding at all who was watching. Back then, your body moved with exuberance, your legs took you everywhere fast, you jumped and...
by Terri Schlichenmeyer -- The grab was savage. You yelped because you weren’t expecting it. Because it shouldn’t have happened. It was rough enough to leave marks on your skin, little round marks like fingertips; for sure, it left marks on...
by Terri Schlichenmeyer -- You'd like an explanation, please. Why something is done or not, why permission is denied, you'd like to hear a simple reason. You've been asking "Why?" since you were two years old but now the older you...
Opal Lee – known widely as the “grandmother of Juneteenth” – will be in Memphis Sunday (Aug. 29) to sign copies of her children's book, “Juneteenth: A Children’s Story,” at the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. The book-signing event is...