In the early seventies, husband and wife, Carl and Arlene Offord, published a Jet-sized publication, The Black American. Despite my lack of experience, they invited me to write for the magazine.
I had a byline but no pay; nonetheless, I loved the excitement and variety of reporting. I wrote news and feature stories, attended movie and theater openings, covered community events, and profiled celebrities, Harlem politicos, and local activists.
In 1979, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Media from City College, part of City University of New York.
My first first full-time reporting job was with the now-defunct Community News Service, a daily compilation of stories about the city's black and Hispanic communities.
I worked with some of the finest journalists: Gil Moore, former Life magazine writer; Bob Collazo, former reporter with the NY Daily News; and the late Annette Samuels, who was assistant press secretary in the Carter administration.
I have held positions as writer or editor for Newsweek, The New York Amsterdam News, Essence, Food and Wine, The NY Beacon (formerly Big Red), The Allure Woman, and The Village Voice.
My articles have appeared in Fun and Fit Life, POZ, Black Enterprise, Today’s Black Woman, Modern Black Man, The Minority Business Quarterly, Beauty Digest, The City Sun, and the St. Petersburg Times.
In 1980, I was among 10 journalists nationwide selected as Ford Foundation Fellows in Educational Journalism.
In 1988, I received an ONI Award from the International Black Women's Congress for publishing Best of Health, a newsletter for African Americans. (Back issues are archived at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.)
I am working on a memoir (titled One Mother’s Voice: In the Name of Justice) about my son's 15-year incarceration and eventual death in prison.