Introducing The Scholar to Crack I was a 23 year old resident of Manhattan at the end of the 20th century. About halfway through my second year of teaching middle school & second year of grad school I met these people at a bar with a would-be boyfriend who was totally trying to ditch me…

Educated Escort? Yes, that’s what I became. No one expects someone with my skin color who works in my profession to begin an encounter discussing the three main ideas of The Art of War, by Lao Tzu. Sure I it is pompous to discuss ancient Chinese philosophy. Nevertheless, I like to introduce myself by going…

HOW GAY RELATED IS HIV? As a responsible adult I have always taken HIV tests every six months, regardless of my perception of personal risk. I have always feared AIDS, well maybe not in the early days when AIDS had nothing whatsoever to do with me, or so I was told. As a precocious child…

“Are you a boy or a girl?” The first time a man pulled over to the curb and asked me this question in Downtown Honolulu I was more than a little offended. Was he trying to say I was ugly? I angrily asserted that I was a woman, just maybe a little tired from “runnin’…