Black feminist writings gave me the will to live, pushed me towards collective thinking, expanded my capacity to love, and so much more. By Breya M. Johnson TW/CW: This essay contains discussions of suicide Black people are all survivors of some type of violence. I have survived many unspeakable acts of cruelty in my own...
Category: Love Is As Love Does
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My Mom Won’t Leave My Abusive Father and I Still Love and Miss Her
I’m learning to acknowledge the love that I still feel for my mom, even if it is technically in conflict with my palpable resentment of her. TW/CW: this essay discusses family trauma and mentions emotional and physical abuse. May is an extremely weird and emotionally painful month for me. On one hand, while spring started...
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Honoring Queerplatonic Relationships To Better Honor Ourselves
There is a whole world of possibility to be found in queerplatonic relationships. We do not have to, nor should we, stifle ourselves or our capacity for variant, multifaceted expressions of love. By Sherronda J. Brown Throughout my life, many things and people have worked to convince me that my lack of interest in or...
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Re-Learning Radical Softness and My Capacity to Love
I used to believe that displaying any kind of vulnerability—particularly love, which I believe to be the pinnacle of radical softness—meant getting hurt. By Clarkisha Kent Trauma has made me a cold bitch. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Being raised by ultra-strict [Nigerian] parents meant that no iteration of softness was...
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To Love and To Be Loved From The Fat Perspective
This is my personal reckoning with the idea that I may never see love in the way that I want to, but also that anyone who reads this has the ability to change that. By Da’Shaun Harrison I lay awake at night thinking deeply about love. What it means to love someone romantically and how...
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Healing Is Not Linear And Sometimes That’s Not Comforting
Healing is a messy journey, and journeys—sometimes long and unbearable—do always lead to a destination. My favorite album by Beyoncé is Lemonade. A Black Southern gothic masterpiece, the album is an ode to Black women who experience heartbreak, who mourn, who explore, and who heal and grow in Love. A Love story; not only to...
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Love: A Dish Unpleasant Without All The Ingredients
Love is a journey. And just because it did not exist in one moment does not mean it never can. The perfect dish takes practice, time, and skill. One of my favorite songs growing up was “God Favored Me” by Hezekiah Walker, inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. The start of the first verse of that...