PublicSource (https://www.publicsource.org/category/first-person/)
Everyone deserves to have a safe, inclusive learning environment where they can find people to go to for information and guidance. That’s why it’s important for us to learn what rights all students have and how we can use them to ensure safety and understanding.
Being 17 and constantly making work a priority is tiresome. I’m learning that compromise is the key. I say this because I have found that most employers don’t care if you're sick, depressed or miss your family and friends.
I regularly see parents trying to provide for their families, only to earn just enough to lose eligibility for food stamps and other assistance.
In a city as diverse as Pittsburgh, it’s important to celebrate our unique cultures. Yes, you can pass down wedding dresses and diamonds, but perhaps what's even more valuable is passing down your heritage.
Last week, we received a death threat in the “most livable city in America.” It hung wrapped around a tree in front of our Regent Square home, visible from where we sit every day at our dining room table. The black cord was twisted into the shape of a killing device used to publicly hang the bodies of Black people for generations in this country.
The disrespect and harm fuel the larger problem of violence against trans people, especially black trans women in our society. Refusing to follow best practices is both unprofessional and presents a threat to the survivors who must add correcting these errors to their grieving process.
My life mirrors many of the youth I encounter every day in the City of Philadelphia and across this nation. My mother raised four African-American boys alone after my father left our home.
If I had put it all together sooner, I may have remembered pulling a tick out of my hair at 13 while in the shower during a family vacation.
Ashley is the only friend for whom I have invented a word to describe our relationship. It is “snarkmaste”: the divine snark in me recognizes and salutes the divine snark within you. When I sent her a text to set up the interview, our exchange went like this:
Me: Let’s go for noon on Sunday. Ashley: Deal. Where?
"@maranierae, have you seen this?" The Instagram post mentioning my name showed portraits of Syrian refugee children; they were familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. These were the children whom I had met and photographed while working in the Zaatari refugee camp last year. But in this photo there were Xs spray-painted across each of their faces. It was an image taken at the “Displaced” exhibition presented during the Three Rivers Arts Festival under the Fort Duquesne Bridge on the Pittsburgh riverfront.
