Essays

1090 results
Page 6
Costumed actor plays Betsy Ross, smiling & holding a 1770s US flag while 2 young Black children point excitedly to its stars

On Independence Day 2022, is our democracy failing? Not if we listen to our children.

We have to grow up. So does our country.

SaraKay Smullens knows a thing or two about adolescence: she’s a social worker, a family therapist, and a mother. Things in the US seem pretty bleak, but she argues that this is our adolescence, and we can still seize a bright future.
SaraKay Smullens

SaraKay Smullens

Essays 6 minute read
A large photo of the writer’s dad, a white man with white hair, placed on top of a worn recliner chair and vintage typewriter

When home leaves you: a Father’s Day foray into holding on and letting go

Packing up my parents’ house

When Anndee Hochman’s parents moved to the Philly suburbs in 1965, it was a compromise. Almost 60 years later, the house holds a departed father’s heart. It’s time to say goodbye again.
Anndee Hochman

Anndee Hochman

Essays 5 minute read
Danie Ocean, a Black person in shorts and tank top, plays an electronic drum set at home, singing along to the music.

Losing your sight means adaptation, in life as well as music. I seize the rhythm.

A drummer’s Pride and joy

Delight is something writer and musician Danie Ocean wants more of, and that means picking up a new instrument. It’s a career move, but also a move for Black, queer, blind, nonbinary joy.
Danie Jackson

Danie Jackson

Essays 2 minute read
A fourth-grade classroom photo of a whiteboard with a collaboratively written poem about stars hand-written in black marker.

Children on the edge: a fourth-grade poetry teacher mourns Uvalde

They were fourth graders.

Anndee Hochman is a parent. She remembers what a horrible day for schoolkids used to mean: sniffles, the dentist’s chair, lima beans for dinner. Today, she teaches fourth graders. The fourth graders who are still alive.
Anndee Hochman

Anndee Hochman

Essays 6 minute read
Christina, an Indian American woman in her 30s, doing stand-up in front of a black curtain. She smiles and holds a mic.

My comedy career was taking off, but so was my anxiety. Here’s how I learned to handle it.

Losing sleep over laughs

Christina Anthony thought she was good at coping with stress, until she discovered she wanted to be a stand-up comic.
Christina Anthony

Christina Anthony

Essays 5 minute read
Four bagels on a small slate platter, one plain, two with sesame seeds, and one with poppy seeds, and a tub of cream cheese.

I just saved someone’s life. It’s easy if you know how.

A crisis at the kids’ table

The world seems chaotic and hopeless, especially over the last two years. It’s easy to feel powerless in the wake of so much grief, but Roz Warren discovered that being ready to save a life really matters in the moment.
Roz Warren

Roz Warren

Essays 5 minute read
A scene from Rent: 15 ensemble members in colorful 90s garb standing on an around a long table, raising one fist in the air.

The Kimmel Cultural Campus presents the Rent 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour

Why take Gen Z to a 90s icon?

After a BSR podcast conversation between Gen X and Gen Z Rent lovers, Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer takes her teenager to experience Rent live, finding out whether Jonathan Larson speaks to a new generation.
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer

Essays 5 minute read

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A photo from inside a scenic mountain cave in Puerto Rico, showing two people in silhouette in front of a grand tropical view

What happens when you’re living a story that someone else handed you?

Who’s really telling your story?

The painful end of a long friendship helped teach Michelle Chikaonda about the power of owning her own story—thanks also to a return to another favorite Hamilton song.
Michelle Chikaonda

Michelle Chikaonda

Essays 5 minute read
A smiling outdoor selfie of the three walkers. They are white and have short gray hair. Bare winter trees are behind them

What Walk Around Philadelphia taught me about our city’s borders—and my own

Here, there, home

Anndee Hochman’s Walk Around Philadelphia began as a refuge from the first year of the pandemic, but as her route continued into 2022, she remembered that living in Philly is a lifetime of crossings.
Anndee Hochman

Anndee Hochman

Essays 5 minute read
Hiller’s eyes are framed over a black background with the text I Am Not Your BIPOC.

Why terms like “people of color” are a dangerous de-evolution of language

I am not your BIPOC

“People of color,” “BIPOC,” “Latinx,” and others have become household terms in the last five years in America. But with their origins largely ignored, these terms are becoming dangerous to the people they represent. Kyle V. Hiller considers.
Kyle V. Hiller

Kyle V. Hiller

Essays 5 minute read