He made his name in Chicago investigating racial violence, solving crimes, and exposing corruption. But America’s first Black private detective was hiding secrets of his own.
Feature
Posted inFeature
Cracking the Family Codes
A stash of encrypted diaries raises questions about the secrets we carry, and how they are revealed.
Posted inFeature
Thank You for Finding Me
As a teenager, I met a stranger who changed the course of my life. Twenty years later, I went looking for him.
Posted inStory
Disneyland of the Dead
London’s Highgate Cemetery shows us just how hard it is to keep the dead buried.
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Bread and Honey
Sometimes, marriage is about learning how to braid the bitter with the sweet.
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Eight Limes, No More: The Accidental Poetry of Found Lists
A found list is a rare analog window into someone else’s needs—an accidental autobiography, a blank space to be filled with one’s imagination.
Posted inNonfiction
When the Hit Man Starts Talking
“A former FBI agent traveled to Louisiana to ask a hired killer about a murder that haunted him. Then they started talking about a different case altogether.”
Posted inFeature
There’s Gold in the Hills
In the wide, quiet spaces of BLM land, I heard echoes of a past we’ve buried—and a future we still might save.