On September 15, 2016, Vanessa DeLuca, Editor-in-Chief of ESSENCE Magazine and I had a an amazing and thought provoking conversation at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. Charlene Carruthers, National Director of BYP100 read selections from Born Bright. To view a clip of the event, click here.
*Originally Published at marieclaire.com The expectations for my life were carved out before I could have ever begun to imagine what I might want for myself. I suppose this is true for all children, including those born into privilege. As a brown-skinned girl born to a teenage mother, I had a low bar of success. [...]
Writing can be a transgressive and political act. At its best, a well-crafted and finely told story can point the reader in the direction of her healing, her power and her connection to the world and others. In this interview with C. Nicole Mason, author of Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to [...]
The aspirational story of a young African-American woman’s rise from poverty. “I considered myself fortunate, but in no way exceptional.” So, toward the end of her memoir, writes Center for Research and Policy in the Public Interest executive director Mason of finding herself safely in academia and away from the fraught streets of the inner [...]
