The College of

Arts and Sciences

 

MFA, Creative Writing and Environment, Iowa State University

BLS, Iowa State University

 

Areas of Interest & Expertise

• Creative Nonfiction

• Fiction

• Poetry

• Oral Literature

• African-American Literature

• Environmental Literature

• African-American History

• U.S. Women's History

• History of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine

• 19th and 20th Century Social, Cultural, and Intellectual History

Recent Courses Taught

Oklahoma State University

• ENGL 1113: First-Year Composition

Iowa State University

• ENGL 150: Critical Thinking and Communication

• ENGL 250: Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition

• ENGL 207: Introduction to Creative Writing

Selected Publications

Poetry

• “Mama’s Milk and Honey,” “Bird,” The Cities of the Plains: Contemporary Iowa Artists and Poets, an Anthology, April 2024

• "Ain’t What She Used Ta' Be,”The Radical Notion, Issue 9: The Mother, Spring/Summer 2023

• “To Glory,” Sinister Wisdom 125, Summer 2022

• “Magical Kitchens,” Awake, Lucky Jefferson, 2021

Creative Nonfiction

• “Skin,” Sketch Literary Journal, Spring 2022

Fiction

• “Make Me a Manhattan," Brazenhead Review issue #3, Spring 2023

• "Starchild,” South Florida Poetry Journal: Issue 22, August 2021

 

Selected Conference Presentations

• Off Our Curved Black Backs: Black Women Are Not Your Mammy, Jezebel, or Sapphire Stereotypes, 2023 Thomas L. Hill Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity

• Off Our Curved Black Backs: Black Women Are Not Your Mammy, Jezebel, or Sapphire Stereotypes, 2022, 7^th Annual International Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference

 

Professional Appointments & Professional Service

• Museum Intern, Greenwood Rising, 2024 - present
  

• President, Black Graduate Student Association, Iowa State University, 2022-2023

• Student Steward, Everett Casey Nature Center & Reserve, Iowa State University, 2022-2023

• Founder, Griot Gang, 2021-2022

• Book Reviewer and Column Contributor, Pennsylvania Diversity Network’s Valley Gay Press, 2007-2013

 

Awards and Recognition

• Outstanding Service by a Graduate Student, Iowa State University, Spring 2023

• The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 5 Certificate of Merit for Playwriting, Spring 2022

Residencies and Fellowships

• The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow, My Time Fellowship for Parent Writers, November 2024

Current Research

My current research examines the captivity narrative of trapped women and girls in conjunction with historical research on the slave plantation house as forced brothel.

As the Greenwood Rising museum intern, I analyze events surrounding, prior to, and following the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in relation to greater contexts such as World War I, the Red Summer, and sociopolitical systems in healthcare. 

I am the current Center for the Humanities teaching assistant where I assist with program development, program facilitation, website development, and event promotion.