Memoir
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A Year of Violent Living
The following poetic memoir is part of an upcoming chapbook titled “Walking Backward over Broken Glass.” In 1968, I was nineteen, living in Da Bronx. It was the year of cities burning. New York. Baltimore. Boston. Chicago. Detroit. Kansas City.… Continue reading
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Creating Dangerously
Being honest with my own memories. This week, I finished the last of four Zoom workshops sponsored by the Bronx Council on the Arts on memoir writing. It was a heartfelt and supportive experience, with people from around New York,… Continue reading
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The Art of the Bronx
My world at fifteen was a mix of innocence and naiveté, threatened at times by what seemed like the start of a world gone mad. It was 1964, and I was living in the John Adams Houses in the South… Continue reading
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I Am All of Them
diaspora(n.) 1825 in reference to Moravian protestants; 1869 in reference to the dispersion of the Jews; from Greek diaspora “dispersion,” from diaspeirein “to scatter about, disperse,” from dia “about, across” (see dia-) + speirein “to scatter” (see sparse). – etymoline.com… Continue reading
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The Second American Civil War
Let’s get straight to the point: the Second American Civil War, fueled by the right wing of the Republican Party (GOP), found its beginnings with the election of President Barack Obama. We can debate (I enjoy a good debate) whether… Continue reading
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Sober x 14 Years
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I can see clearly now. I can feel life now. I know my… Continue reading
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A Supreme Love
September 3, 2025, Sumire Gant and Antonio Ruiz celebrate thirty-eight years of commitment and their marriage in Kaua’i, Hawaii. September also marks forty-two years since they first met in a hotel lobby in Baltimore, Maryland. September 3, 1987-September 3, 2025.… Continue reading
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Something Happened
A long read inspired by Jill Talbot‘s “Emergent.” Something happened to me at the Catholic seminary—seventy miles northwest of the Bronx in Middletown, New York. I changed forever. Life before the seminary was not idyllic, but it was simple. 1948-1962.… Continue reading
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The ‘Where Are You From?’ Question
The question is always the same. The speaker is different. “Where are you from?” In the beginning, dating back to the sixties, I would say proudly, The Bronx. And I would think, that was enough. But, the questioner, sometimes some white guy… Continue reading
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Fat
I was inspired by “My body is a cage of my own making” by Roxane Gay. This essay is about me and no one else. There was no disputing the blood test results. I am more than pre-diabetic. I’m on… Continue reading
