The Potty Mouth Granny

  • Dreaming in Crescendos

    I would have loved to have been a music conductor. I can picture myself standing on the podium, baton in hand, swaying with every note as if the music were flowing through my entire body. There’s something magical about guiding dozens of musicians and watching individual instruments come together to create one breathtaking sound. I…

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  • Some Humans Just Love to Fight: A Brief Look at the Hundred Years’ War

    The more I study history, the more I become convinced that some human beings simply do not know how to sit down somewhere and behave. Take the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, for example. It lasted from 1337 to 1453—about 116 years. The name “Hundred Years’ War” is actually being generous. The conflict…

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  • Soft Sheen: The Black-Owned Company That Helped Shape More Than Our Hair

    If you grew up in a Black household during the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s, chances are Soft Sheen products lived somewhere in your home. Maybe it was a jar of Care Free Curl moisturizer sitting on the bathroom sink. A tub of Sportin’ Waves on your father’s dresser. A bottle of Let’s Jam keeping somebody’s…

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  • George E. Johnson Didn’t Just Sell Hair Products. He Sold Possibility.

    A living icon has become an ancestor and his name was George R. Johnson. Every now and then, somebody leaves this earth, and you realize they weren’t just successful.They changed the damn landscape.George E. Johnson was one of those people. He didn’t build Johnson Products because it was trendy. Hell, back then Black folks weren’t…

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  • The Female Trickster: Outsmarting the Rules

    History remembers kings, conquerors, and warriors. But tucked into the margins of myth, folklore, and history is another figure who refused to play by the rules—the female trickster. She rarely possesses armies. She seldom inherits kingdoms. She isn’t usually the strongest person in the room. So she becomes the smartest. The female trickster understands a…

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  • Lost

    Today marks one month since you crossed over, and I still can’t believe you’re really gone. You were supposed to become the world’s oldest living cat, but your little body had other plans, boo. You really did us dirty with your lil’ funky ass. The house still feels different without you, but I believe you…

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  • The Everleigh Club: From Silk Sheets to Section 8

    Chicago has always had a talent for reinventing itself. Sometimes it builds a skyscraper. Sometimes it tears down a brothel. And sometimes it tears down a brothel…and builds public housing on top of it. You really can’t make this stuff up. If you had wandered into Chicago’s Levee District around 1900, you would have found…

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  • Zina Garrison: The Trailblazer Who Helped Change Tennis

    When people talk about the history of Black women in tennis, the conversation often begins with Althea Gibson and then leaps straight to Venus and Serena Williams. But between those eras stood a remarkable athlete whose contributions deserve far more recognition: Zina Garrison. Born in Houston, Texas, November 16, 1963, Garrison fell in love with…

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  • Hoard Park: Known as the Da Park

    Tourists will never find Hoard Park in a guidebook. It doesn’t have Buckingham Fountain or the grandeur of Jackson Park. It’s just a small neighborhood park tucked away on 72nd and Dobson. But for me and my childhood friends, it was our treehouse. Long before I knew anything about urban renewal or city planning, I…

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  • Kenwood: Where Chicago’s History, Culture, and Grace Meet

    On Chicago’s South Side, nestled between Bronzeville and Hyde Park along the shores of Lake Michigan, sits one of the city’s most elegant and historically significant neighborhoods: Kenwood. It is a place where stately mansions stand beside vintage apartment buildings, where tree-lined streets invite long walks, and where nearly every block seems to whisper another…

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