Brooklyn (the black)
2015

...Eighty-five pairs of kicks on three silver racks outside our front door told on me and my ladies as not being 'made in Brooklyn' originals, worried about our dancing heels or street sneakers getting stolen. A black American girl with two Long Island Koreans. We ate Halal buffet and bean pies from the African Arabs to the left. We ordered vegetable rice and deep-fried chicken wings from the Chinese takeout on the right. One block over, we shopped for food at our neighborhood's big grocery store, the one where black music played from speakers tracked along the ceiling. Black, like me and de la hip hop, black like a beat to turn around.

Paperback, hardcover, 75 pages.

ROLE: writer
DESCRIPTION: excerpt pages
IMAGES: courtesy of the author
SITE: Chicago / New York
COLLABORATORS: My project Brooklyn (the black) (original prose edition 2015, myself solo; and illustrated revision 2020, collaboration) tests what I've learned about how personal stories of identity and experience can be shared with public audience through many forms.

"It can’t just be the same people writing about race all the time. We need to hear from new people—especially young people who have grown up with the whole notion of multiculturalism."
—Hettie Jones, phone interview with the author 2007

​An an interview (with me) about the wider project of Brooklyn (the black) is available to view here and below.