My star day

DJ Daddy Rox (right) and me (left) at KRSM-FM studio during “The T” show

Tuesday, December 7, 2021, was my star day. After making up my face, wrapping my head in a sparkly green and black scarf, and dressing in a beautiful blue, red, black and green wax print top that once belonged to my late friend Amoja Three Rivers, my day of celebrity started with a session with a photographer from the Minnesota Women’s Press. The session was for producing an illustration for an upcoming article of mine in the feminist journal. The photographer, Sarah, and I planned to do the session in front of NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, a background appropriate for the subject of my article. However, Mother Nature put the kibosh on that plan with a sudden snow and big temperature drop. While Sarah was on her way to my home, I called two other institutions local to my neighborhood begging for a last-minute indoor place for the photo shoot. Both said they would call me back with their decision.

Meanwhile, once Sarah arrived with her equipment, we took a tour of my house for background locations since it looked like we’d be stuck there for the session. We decided to use my wood-paneled enclosed front porch that is used as a library; my wife fell in love with that room when she first saw our house for sale online. As Sarah was setting up for the shoot in my library, I got a phone call. The second institution I called, my local public library, was on the phone. They told me that because I’m a local writer, they were allowing me to use a meeting room in their building and to take off my protective mask once in it for my photo shoot.

With that news, Sarah and I rushed out of my house and headed to Sumner Library, where the librarian on duty showed us to the meeting room, told us we could move around any furniture we need to do the photo shoot, and then asked me — since I’m a local writer — if I had a book. I told her about Secret Insurrection: Stories from a Novel of a Future Time and gave her the spelling of my full name. She said she would start the ball rolling to get my book into the library’s collection! Sumner Library has a special collection of African American books and materials, so it’s not just a boost to my vanity to have a book I wrote in this library — it’s an honor.

So with a whole meeting room to ourselves, including a great accent wall covered with quotes from luminaries such as Anne Frank and Malcolm X, Sarah and I did our photo shoot. After getting great shots pretty quickly, Sarah said, “Let’s go back to the library at your house.” She, too, had fallen in love with my front porch library and wanted to get a photo with a different background for the journal’s table of contents.

Therefore, after saying many thank-yous to the librarian and her supervisor who approved the use of the meeting room, Sarah and I rushed back to my home to take more photos in my library. When we were done, Sarah told me I was one of the best subjects she’s had as a Minnesota Women’s Press photographer. Many women, thanks to sexism and other ‘isms, are not confident with their physical image or being photographed, so it takes a long session to get a good photo of them. She praised my confidence, my patience, and my looks — she said that I’m “gorgeous!” She also confided that she’s having a hard time in her personal life and that our photo session made her day. That was the best compliment of all.

Later that day, I made plans to catch a bus to the studio of KRSM 98.9 FM, a South Minneapolis low-power community radio station where I was scheduled to star on my friend DJ Daddy Rox’s weekly talk and music show “The T.” I texted Rox to confirm the location of the studio, letting them know that I was busing it there because my wife had our car. Rox offered to pay for a Lyft ride for me there and back home! I accepted their offer, and off I was to the studio in a warm and comfortable car.

On “The T,” Rox and I discussed my writing and publishing career and my recent success at getting a story into Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 6. The radio show was video streamed on Facebook Live; click here to see the show.

My star day ended with my free Lyft ride back home to my loving wife, who was watching me on “The T” with her laptop.