The Potty Mouth Granny

  • A Dedication to the Juke Joints of Chicago

    They don’t put you in the brochures,don’t line you up along the lakefrontlike polished teeth in a tourist smile—but baby, you are the heartbeat. You are where the city exhales. Down on the South Side,in rooms low-lit and thick with memory,where the floor knows more storiesthan any history book ever printed,you breathe. You hum.You testify.…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • The Origin of No-Fault Divorce (And Why Folks Love to Misunderstand It)

    Let’s talk about no-fault divorce—the thing folks, especially men online, love to blame for the downfall of the American family like it came through in the middle of the night and snatched stability right out the house. Now listen… I’m a history buff. And one thing about me? I’m not going to just accept a…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Are Women the Reason Marriage Is Dying?

    Every few months, like clockwork, somebody somewhere declares that women have “ruined” marriage. We’re too independent. Too educated. Too loud. Too unwilling to “submit.” And I always pause when I hear that… not because I’m confused, but because I’m fascinated. Because what they’re really saying is: Marriage was working just fine… when women had no…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Ain’t No Apology in My Story

    I can’t speak for all Black women, but I know this much—I don’t owe a motherfucker an explanation about anything in my life. I was a mother to two children by the age of twenty-one. I received welfare assistance. I didn’t get my GED until I was twenty-seven. I know what it means to start…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Happy Women’s History Month!!!

    History is full of women who kicked the door open, got told to sit down, and then quietly built a whole other house behind the scenes anyway. Let’s wander through a few of them—some loud, some hidden, all undeniable. A Chinese pirate commanded 70,000 people Ching Shih wasn’t just a pirate—she was the pirate. She…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Segregation Was Not Our Golden Age

    When I see Black people online talking about how segregation was somehow better for us as a people, I feel something rise up in me that I can’t ignore. Not just frustration—something deeper. A kind of ancestral irritation. Because what are we really saying when we romanticize a time built on restriction, humiliation, and enforced…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Pocket Town

    Pocket Town in Chicago is a place name for a very specific little corner of the city’s South Side — it’s not a restaurant or bar, but a neighborhood identity in its own right. This pocket of Chicago life has a rich and complicated vibe, stitched into the larger fabric of Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Hidden Gems of Chicago – Jackson Park Highlands District

    Tucked into the South Shore area like a well-kept secret with good manners, the Jackson Park Highlands District is one of those neighborhoods that makes you slow your car down. Not because you’re lost — because you’re looking. Developed in the early 1900s, it was designed as an upper-middle-class enclave. Tree-lined streets. Curving boulevards. Large…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • Why Chicago’s Architecture is the Best in the World!!!

    Since the election of former President Obama in 2008, folks who have never set foot on my block have had a whole lot to say about the city of my birth. Headlines dripping with doom. Comment sections full of experts who couldn’t find 79th Street with a GPS and a prayer. So I decided to…

    thepottymouthgranny

  • The Day Death Missed Me

    Today is the 32nd anniversary of the day I got hit by not one, but two cars — and somehow stayed among the living. I don’t remember the impact. Just crossing the street. Not the sound. Not the moment my body met metal. My mind keeps that door locked. What I do remember is waking…

    thepottymouthgranny