social justice | Essi Speaks

Nov 7, 2024

I Woke Up in America.

I woke up in America today. I woke up to the sound of my husband retching. He was (is?) having a flare-up of his unexplained cyclic...

Mar 10, 2024

FREE(DOM) WRITING! #1

I haven't posted anything on this blog in 9000 years, and we are going to focus on something else because aren't there more important...

Mar 26, 2023

The Role Grief Holds in Our Movements

(This is a post I started to write months ago as we were going into December, hence the discussion of weather and timelines that may not...

Jun 10, 2022

Community Health Series: More Than a Harpoon

I don't think I can fully put into words how frustrated I have been lately. But here I am trying. After slouching Chad's tired body off...

May 26, 2022

What Can We Do?: Desire for Action and Thoughts on the Roles of Policy and Public Health Research

I've always thought that research was a "cool" and essential way to prove that we need certain systems-level and community-level changes....

Mar 24, 2022

Community Health Series: Funding Structures

What does soft money mean? Hello, welcome back to my bi-monthly blog post (as in I post every other month, not twice a month). No, but...

Nov 15, 2021

Community Health Series: Liberation in Action Memo

Hi, everyone!! I wanted to share this little memo I wrote for a group that I am helping to start within my grad school cohort. We are all...

Oct 14, 2021

Community Health Series: Intersectionality & Liberation

Thoughts on community and liberation.

Aug 19, 2021

Community Health Series: Understanding the Value of Community Health

I have had an increasing urge to justify and explain to everyone the importance of my values, one of those being public health and health...

Apr 13, 2021

[Black] Girl Travels: MPLS

Welcome back to the blog, friends. I would love to say I am coming at you on an extremely high note, but as I sit in the airport with my...

Mar 25, 2021

The Value of Nuance

I have been in the middle of a lot of discussions lately that have made me value my lack of confidence in my opinion. Why? Well, because...

Feb 21, 2021

Reflections: ASSATA, An Autobiography

Coming at you live from my childhood bunk bed at 3 am. One thing I love about writing these blogs is that even if no one reads it, I...

Feb 3, 2021

Read This If You Can't Make a Decision

If you grew up like me, you were led to believe that your whole life is a conglomerate of all of the decisions you make. Make the wrong...

Nov 21, 2020

Reflections: Letter from a Birmingham Jail

I recently had a mentor tell me, "It isn't about you".