Protected: This Bitter Journey
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Category Archives: Non-Fiction
Hamtramck Water Woes
Also published in the Hamtramck Review One thing that unites all Hamtramck residents is our distress over our water bills. Bills seem to get higher and higher every year, even as we confront challenges to the quality of our water. This year, Hamtramck has simultaneously shifted toward automated water meter while reducing our ability to […]
Election Day
I woke up at 6am. Very tired. I had gone to be at 2 or maybe 3 while Molly, Evan and an affable neighbor sat at the dining room table stickering and cutting papers like elves and manipulating spreadsheets. One of the elves left me a present at the bottom of the stairs- it was […]
Wire Nuts
I think of my dad as an accidental feminist. He has five daughters, so he didn’t have much of a choice. With that gender distribution, it was inevitable that he would witness his female progeny carry out multiple acts of intelligence and feats of competency. Practicality alone led him to avoid “traditional” paths wherein each […]
A Torturous Trap: Water Shutoffs and Tax Foreclosure
Originally published in Riverwise Magazine The dual issues of water shut-offs and tax foreclosure are well-known causes of individual and collective harm. In both cases, bills are inflated beyond reasonable or affordable levels. In both cases, those high bills can lead to people living without the basic human rights of water and shelter. In both […]
Check-Save-Buy
Previously published in the Free Press with minor unapproved edits. Original below: It started with a Facebook post “77-year old women needs help immediately!” The woman was a renter of a tax foreclosed home, and a stream of well-meaning friends offered their advice about what she should do. There was fear that she would face eviction, […]
Beneath The Steam
Originally published in Hour Detroit An iconic image of winter in Detroit is the columns of smoke spewing from sidewalks. Steaming streets are part of the landscape, but few know the answers that lie beneath this mystery in plain sight. Below our sidewalks, there’s a vast infrastructure that includes electricity, water, sewer, and fiber optics. […]
Hamtramck Love Letter
Reflections on my journey to stay in one place I never imagined I would be washing his dishes: the remains of some crusty casserole, six or eight months old; a mystery Tupperware; a rimmed teacup. I’m sure that if he had could have known that I, a woman he met only once, would be cleaning […]
Myth-busting the Detroit tax foreclosure crisis
Detroit is Not for Sale Originally published by Metro Times At the time of this writing, Detroit is in the midst of yet another round of the staged cage-fight that is the tax foreclosure auction. In many ways this feels like an individual fight — one home at a time fighting to mitigate the harshest consequences […]
first memory
At the event when I couldn’t help but stand up and talk too much, I opened myself up to judgment in order to speak the burning necessity that was bubbling up my throat, determined to be shared. Taking my seat for the forth or fifth last time, a woman two rows back lifted her head and her […]
OberDoIt 