Journalism
Published Works
Click the links below to read my published journal articles, written and edited during my time as a Civic Reporting Fellow with City Bureau. Special thanks to everyone who gave their voice and experience to this reporting project, and the wonderful team at City Bureau for stewarding these stories!
How Two Public Health Crises Fractured Intergenerational Black Queer Mentorship
Forthcoming in March 2026
Audio Portrait Collage - Earthseed Black Family Archive Fellowship Exhibition
This soundscape is a collage of family interviews I conducted in search of information about my transcestor, Ray, who has virtually disappeared in the archives. The last trace of him was his mother’s death certificate, no birth certificate places Ray in my lineage. No death certificate to mark his ending or chosen name. What emerged from these interviews not only answered my questions about Ray, but these responses raised new questions around racialized gendered experiences of Black folks living under white supremacy. This audio portrait collage is my attempt at answering the call of erasure of Black queer folks in the archives, an essential component of my body of work titled “The Afrotransfuture”.
Sources/Attributions
Hello by Erykah Badu
Caint Use My Phone by Erykah Badu
Eli’s Disappointment from the movie Daughters of the Dust
Various Sound Effects- Walking on Gravel, Running on Gravel, Outdoor Nature Sounds
Many thanks to my family for being open and honest about their lived experiences: Freda Howard, Timothy Davis Sr., Tamira Davis, and Mary Wilson
Audio Portrait - Invisible Institute and University of Chicago’s Audio Storytelling Initiative
From 1995-2010, The Chicago Housing Authority facilitated the destruction of project buildings and their communities across the city leaving thousands of displaced Black families and false promises in its wake. These communities were often the safe place to land for families turning North for something better, as opposed to the terror of the Jim Crow south during the Great Migration. What was once a new promise, quickly became a series of communities that began to trade communing and protection for self-preservation and coping with yet another false promise. This sound portrait is narrated by my father, who grew up in the Henry Horner projects on Chicago’s West Side before my grandmother found them a way out to pre-gentrified Logan Square, where I spent most of my childhood.