Selected Non-fictionIt's Okay To Love 'Bad' Art
We are the stories we tell ourselves, and the art we love is a huge part of that. It is an extremely vulnerable act to admit that a show, book, movie, or video game helped you understand yourself in a better way. We don’t talk enough about the imperfect things that made us who we are: imperfect people. Earnestness and honesty aren’t just diametrically opposed to the chaotic laissez-faire vibe of the modern internet, they’re also a hard check to the idea that anyone is “self-made.”
The Games That Make Me Feel Free
I have told the story of my first video game hundreds of times, and only recently have I considered that it’s been an apology, a shorthand way of valorizing my passions as coping tools. Another way to turn my love for my second-oldest hobby (I will die with a well-read book in my hand) into yet another parable about Black Sadness, the most enduring and popular lens through which the world demands to view Black Lives. When you only describe someone’s life with the language of trauma and suffering, you in turn curtail your own ability to comprehend them as capable—or worthy—of more than misery.
Black Panther marks the end of Marvel’s quest for an unpunchable villain
I spent my childhood in an apartment like that, asking similar questions about where my black relatives came from. I saw myself in the foundations of Killmonger’s struggle. We tend to be drawn to characters we can see ourselves in, after all. It’s the most obvious reason why diversity and representation matter: If you can watch someone who looks like you doing the impossible on screen, it makes everyday life a little bit more possible in turn.
How voice casting for video games has made the Canadian industry more homogenous than ever
Matters of diversity and erasure in the media are only fringe issues if you’ve never felt erased before. Those who have understand the slow insanity of watching shows and movies, reading books and graphic novels, and playing games where there’s no one like you. Unlimited imagination, infinite worlds—and not one where you exist.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: The Kotaku Review
Superhero stories have always struggled to effectively portray problems that can’t be punched in the face, usually only acknowledging real-world societal issues when they’re inescapable or undeniable. To be a Black fan of comics, you have to calibrate your expectations on the low end and expect to deal with stereotypes and gaffes from even your most beloved creators. I truly didn’t expect Miles Morales to approach even half of the issues it broaches, ending on a note that I can only describe as a celebration (and lowkey analysis) of Black Excellence in several forms. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.
What Your Least Favorite Final Fantasy Says About You
One day you’re going to bring your grandchildren to the edge of the ocean as you tell them about your first love and slowly, dramatically, drop an old, weathered SNES cartridge into the waters below.
We sent an Android user to the Apple Event and this is what happened
A helpful Apple employee (spoiler: they were all smiling, helpful, and literally cheered and gave us high fives when we arrived) told me that every tree on campus was transported from local California farms at the request of Steve Jobs. In fact, there are 37 kinds of fruit trees on the Apple Park grounds that get harvested in two-week cycles depending on which one is in season. So if you ever wondered if the minds at Apple put the same extraordinary amount of curation and care into their workspace that they do into their products, locally-sourced fruit trees can serve as your answer.
What a Twist: M. Night Shyamalan Doesn’t Deserve to Be a Running Joke
I remember when I realized M. Night Shyamalan was doomed to become a stereotype. First, there was the agreed-upon mockery of his name: Shamalamadingdong. I don't know who started it, but here's Quentin Tarantino casually dropping it in 2009, while at the same time praising Unbreakable as a masterpiece. (Maybe not unrelated.) The nickname persists to this day, in the same way that Harinder at the office gets renamed "Harry" by his managers because it's easier for them to pronounce. (Or the way that "Manoj" becomes "M. Night" for the sake of marketability.)
Medium
My Medium account currently exists as a monument to my year as a travel writer, and the series of articles I wrote for myself during my time abroad.
Some of those pieces, like my personal essay about travelling while Black or the story of how I met my wife, are some of the most widely-read works I’ve ever written.
published FictionHiking Is Just Walking Outside (PRISM International 59:1, Fall 2020)
FIRST RUNNER-UP, THE GROUSE GRIND LIT. PRIZE FOR VERY SHORT FORMS
A (very!) short work of fiction about hiking and the people who love it.
The full issue can be accessed via The University of British Columbia’s Open Collections directory. (Thanks, academia!)
