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Like many queer immigrants in Berlin, I came here searching for meaning, a backbone, and safety. While I knew Berlin was a queer city I was ignorant of the queer history that has enveloped this city for over a century. I didn’t know that Berlin has over 170 queer bars and venues or that the first openly gay and lesbian organization, The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee by Magnus Hirschfeld, was founded in Berlin in 1897. As a theatre queer I am embarrassed to admit that I di

A Poem for Freedom Freedom is what freedom does. Freedom does what freedom says. Freedom preaches, as tears pour. Freedom feels like open wounds and bloody sores. Freedom screams from its throat . Freedom marches, freedom votes. Freedom throws hands, and freedom revokes Privileges when freedom is denied to everyday folk. Freedom be for all Or freedom be for none. Freedom rises and sets on everyone. This day shall pass The oppression shall too. Freedom come You’re overdue

Two weeks ago, I stopped scrolling when I saw the heaviness in Sherrilyn Ifill’s eyes. The former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was speaking after the Supreme Court’s decision in Callais, the latest ruling dismantling the Voting Rights Act. Before she answered the interviewer’s question, she exhaled deeply several times, as though she was trying to steady herself against history repeating in real time. I felt that grief immediately. Ifill was born just before the

My work involves curating cohorts of civic leaders– mostly women of color, and creating spaces for them to collectively explore a higher vision of democracy. Some of us are elected officials, some government administrators, some community activists, most of us work at the local level, mostly in hostile environments where the daily goal is to prevent even one terrible thing from happening in our communities. Having a space where we are asked to think aspirationally about democ

“You are just gorgeous! Look at you... Have you ever thought about a modeling career?” The back of my neck prickled. She was a blonde, pretty woman not much older than us. I had moved to the US just a couple of months earlier. It was 1989 and my friend and I were 16. My first time at a giant American mall, looking at records, and crystals. Getting some Taco Bell and an Orange Julius from the food court. “Ummm, no…” my friend said. “Well, I think you two have what it takes…”

Amid a sea of alarming headlines, waning government accountability, and militarization on the streets that once connected us, there is one word that unites us all: action. This year, American voters have the opportunity to gather the remaining threads of democracy and weave together a tapestry of change — if we can muster the courage and the agency to do so. With a series of state primaries coming up over the next few months and the midterm elections slated for Nov. 3, it i

As we await the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, I can’t help but notice the broader context in which this moment is unfolding.