"I have a deep fear of hurting people…I don’t want to be seen as this kind of person. I don’t want my work to be seen as this type of work."

“Many cities are predominantly white in America, many larger cities; but with Pittsburgh, the whiteness there is a bit thicker, that it’s almost atmospherically white, spiritually white…”

“I’m not this MFA or this academic. I didn’t come through a New York Times or New Yorker pipeline or whatever. I started a blog…Now I’ve written for some of those publications I’ve named, but I wasn’t brought up and groomed that way. Since I haven’t been, it would be fraudulent for me to try to be less accessible just because … that’s just not me.”

“…You have to intentionally seek out community. You have to intentionally seek out spaces that are comfortable, that are welcoming. And I think that intentionality just bleeds into the work of people who are from Pittsburgh. It's not a place where you could just laze into blackness. You have to be hyper-cognizant of it…”