The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

I had a lovely conversation with a sister the other day and it was almost as if we had known each other our entire lives. The topics melted into each other and before either of us knew it, over two hours had passed. Neither of us was trying to impress the other, the very fact that we were both in this restaurant at this little corner table, comfortable in our own being, was more than enough. We had only met a few times before through those intersecting ways that women's lives often do. Before this engagement, I was interviewed by a member of my sorority whom I hadn't met. Her topic was about the ways we encounter and are empowered by Sisterhood. It is one of our founding principles, so I was eager to be a part of her national conversation.   It was another one of those kindred spirit moments where even through the gaze of the computer, we felt the energy of the other and as women do, made declarations of seeing each other at the next conference or event. About a year ago, me wi...

  I am the wife of an important man. He is a humble man who has done a lot in the span of his career. There is hardly a place in this country where we have traveled without someone knowing him. Well, ok, maybe The Dakotas and Wyoming, maybe Utah, but he is well known. Known as a scholar, advocate, mentor, and leader. I am lesser known, except in those spaces whereupon they meet me and only think, "oh, that's his wife." I've been called that so many times that my name was not used at all. Not disrespectfully, but in a way that my only identity was as his wife. Now, to be very clear, I am incredibly proud of my husband and so honored to stand beside him as he uses his gifts to transform education for so many young people. I remain in awe of this man who met me at the challenge of my faith and has been a steady hand in our life. You already know my story because while they are my pearls, I have shared that we met when we were in our thirties, we were each pursuing our ca...

 I was sitting in the Performing Arts Center of CT State Community College at Housatonic, listening to a brilliant art scholar tell about her fifty year career that many are just now discovering because well, the appointed time. She was always and already painting, as she told us, she had earned the requisite degrees, her title was Dr., she was a lecturer all over the world, and to so many, she seemed to come out of nowhere. Dr. Cheryl Miller is a woman, like many of us whose ancestry is traced to the horrors of the TransAtlantic Trade, whose being is a mixture of time and place. She has Danish, Filipino, and Ghanian heritage as well as Portuguese and the nuance of the Dutch West Indies as heritage. With maternal ancestry in the U.S. Virgin Islands and an African American father who was a renowned Howard alum, she has a pedigree that was more common that understood in the Washington D.C. of her coming-of-age. A college education was expected, she being a high school graduate in 197...