The Potty Mouth Granny

  • If I Was Black and Male For A Day

    First of all, before I write this essay, I would like to state that I love being a Black woman. I love the beautiful brownness of my skin, my hair which is a crown that has anointed me Queen of my universe, my full lips, slanted eyes, and the strength of my ancestors who endured…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Chatham: The Pride of the South Side

    When people talk about Chicago’s historic Black neighborhoods, places like Bronzeville and Hyde Park often dominate the conversation. Yet on the city’s South Side lies a community that has long represented stability, homeownership, education, and Black middle-class achievement: Chatham. Bounded roughly by 79th Street to the north, 87th Street to the south, Cottage Grove Avenue…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Pill Hill: The Quiet Crown on Chicago’s South Side

    There are parts of Chicago that never seem to make the national conversation unless somebody wants to talk about crime, dysfunction, or urban decay. And as a native Black Chicagoan, that selective storytelling has irritated my soul for years. Because this city contains multitudes. Beauty. History. Elegance. Complexity. Survival. Pride. And tucked quietly into the…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • My Secret Lover

    I met him 31 years ago while riding the bus. He was tall, light-skinned, and cute—at least to my eyes.Now, I’m not a flirt by nature. I’ve never been the type to chase after men or throw myself in their path. But that day, something about him made me step outside of my comfort zone.…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • The Older I Get, the More I Wonder

    I’ve never been a religious person, but I do believe there’s something out here that’s higher than us lowly mortals. Something. I don’t know what it is. Is it a person? Is it male or female? Is it both? Is it neither? Or is it pure spirit, moving through the universe in ways we can’t…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Learning to Let Go My Old Man🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛😢😢😢🌺🌺🌺

    Written with tears running down my face. I took my cat to the vet yesterday and learned that he has liver disease. The vet was a kind man who told me that he doesn’t know how much time Diddy has left. It could be months. It could be longer. Or it could be less. There…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Half a Nigga Blues (Until I Met You)

    Verse 1I was half a nigga, stumbling through life,Burning my biscuits and starting little fights.Couldn’t find my glasses sitting on my face,Had one shoe tied and the other unlaced. I was eating cold noodles straight out the pot,Forgot what day it was more times than not.My life was a mess, Lord, what can I say?Then…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • People of Earth (Black Folks)

    We are the people of the earth,born from dust, sunlight, water, and time. We are the color of riverbanks after rain,of cinnamon and chestnuts,of copper pennies warmed by a summer afternoon,of fertile soil waiting for seeds,of coffee, cocoa, amber, honey, and mahogany. We are not one shade. We are a thousand whispers of brown,a million…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Confessions of a Bookworm Who Turned Out to Be a Nerd

    For most of my life, I thought of myself as a bookworm, not a nerd. In my mind, nerds were the people who loved math, science, computers, and all the technical subjects that made my eyes glaze over. They were the kids building robots, memorizing equations, and spending their weekends at science fairs. I was…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • The Long Shadow of Patriarchy

    Patriarchy did not fall out of the sky one random Tuesday afternoon like bad weather. Human beings created it. Layer by layer. Rule by rule. Fear by fear. Property deed by property deed. And once you really start studying history, you realize patriarchy is not simply “men being in charge.” It is an entire social…

    thepottymouthgranny