IN "RAIDING PARTY," POLICE SWEEP CATHEDRAL
Boston; November, 1994

In a collaborative effort, police officers from several law enforcement agencies swept through the Cathedral Housing Development Tuesday, arresting about a dozen suspects believed to be involved in drug trafficking and other illegal activities. [more]

I walked into the room angry because six of the boys did not come back to work after cashing their checks the other day. Now they were back.

I sat in a chair outside their semi-circle. A few of the boys tried to talk to me but I ignored them. "She’s mad," one of the boys said under his breath. I was glad they could see that I was upset.

In my head I was fussing, "Why do I continue to do this?" [more]

There is a code in the hood: you stay true to where you come from.

The people expect it. Loyalty is not allowed to fade. You love that world and all that comes with it. When you are not a part of that world, then you must be an outsider. [more]

“Employees-at-will,” the professor said, “What does that term really mean?”

The class sat silently. The question was rhetorical, I assumed. “We are going to watch a video,” he said. He pressed play.

The video gave examples of employees-at-will principles. Can an employer really terminate you at will? “For any reason, or for no reason at all,” I thought. [more]

The project hallways were oddly structured, each floor like a maze, with passageways that confusingly led to unexpected places.

I hung in the hallways when I should have been in school. Yet, in part, the hallways were like school, the graffiti an essay of street names, gossip, and slander. “D-Nut,” “T-Bone,” “White Boy Bobby,” “Bedrock,” “Monique fu#*! Dwayne,” and “Nicole is a hoe.” I tagged “Talia was here.” [more]