First Person Archives

first person

All Girls Want To Eat Each Other

Cannibals, like lesbians, are feared for their selective appetites.

Mallory

Oct 14, 2024

FIRST PERSON

I Was Naive To Think I Could Shape It More Than It Could Shape Me

“Young and naïve, I looked towards magazines, media and the Internet to tell me about…

Bee Beardsworth

—

Oct 7, 2024

instagram posts that visually reprseent the algorithm

FIRST PERSON

The Gay Algorithm

What if TikTok really did make us all gay?

Tylea Simone Richard

—

Sep 17, 2024

FIRST PERSON

Play Parties Let Me Explore My Asexuality

Maybe I didn’t always know I was ace, but I can’t say there weren’t signs.

Abbie

—

Sep 11, 2024

FIRST PERSON

Twenty Years Later, Still Haunted by ‘Super Size Me’

Super Size Me really fucked me up as a kid. I am a fat, bummed…

Gyasi Hall

—

Sep 5, 2024

first person

I Was Naive To Think I Could Shape It More Than It Could Shape Me

“Young and naïve, I looked towards magazines, media and the Internet to tell me about the world. I imagined what it might look like when I grew up and became…

Bee Beardsworth —

Oct 7, 2024

first person

The Gay Algorithm

What if TikTok really did make us all gay?

Tylea Simone Richard —

Sep 17, 2024

first person

Play Parties Let Me Explore My Asexuality

Maybe I didn’t always know I was ace, but I can’t say there weren’t signs.

Abbie —

Sep 11, 2024

A black-and-white photo of Michelle Tea seated in a room full of books with a large-format book in her hands, leaning back and laughing; the photo is juxtaposed with the cover of the book This Is How We Come Back Stronger

first person

Four Months

“This was after that night, when I moved into the guest room with the little bathroom, when I moved my toiletries onto the shower floor, when I moved all the…

Michelle Tea —

Apr 6, 2021

covid-19

quarantine

A photo of a series of colorful cloth face masks pinned to a clothesline against a background of trees in the distance and a blue sky

first person

What a Long Strange Year It’s Been: A One-Year Quarantine Reflection Roundtable

We were hoping not to have occasion to revisit this conversation as a one-year anniversary, but we do, so here we are, exploring the question: What do you feel like…

the team —

Mar 26, 2021

personal essay

trans women

a purple dildo lies in a bouquet of dead roses

first person

This Is an Essay About Penises

“I spent years not thinking about my penis — or, at least, thinking about it as little as possible. After I transitioned, my penis became the most important part of…

Drew Burnett Gregory —

Mar 25, 2021

black history month

black history month 2021

Carmen's Aunt Lorna smokes a cigar. She's a light skin Black woman in her late 60s. She is cut out against a black starry sky and there are purple rose petals growing out of the side of the image like a vine.

first person

Everything That Matters Is Stuck in the Back of My Throat

All I have is an ellipsis. Grief is a flat circle. And I never imagined I would have to live through grieving her.

Carmen Phillips —

Feb 27, 2021

audre lorde

black history month

Two hands are covered in darkness as they finger deep space, the space is in purple starry skies and it drips over the index and pointer finger of one hand facing upwards.

first person

Queering Faith: Reclaiming the Holy of Sexuality

How do you tell them your poem about pussy doesn’t negate your love for God? That your spirituality isn’t separate but an extension of you?

Khalisa Rae Thompson —

Feb 25, 2021

black history month

black history month 2021

first person

Wrestling With Kamala and Beyond: Reckoning With Blackness, Womanhood, and What Comes Next

I am ready to be fearless. To dream beyond Black womanhood and know that I — Black, queer, and not-quite-sure — am worthy, so worthy of all of the love, affirmation, and…

shea wesley martin —

Feb 23, 2021

black history month

black history month 2021

A black outline of a body floats in the blue and purple waves of the ocean. The ocean is covered in sparkles, like the stars of a night sky. Everything feels all-encompassing, full, and at peace.

first person

Gender Fluidity and the Black Atlantic

I always wonder what words my ancestors had for someone like me. In embracing my genderfluid identity, I’ve found great comfort in the deep and wide of the Atlantic —…

Lazarus —

Feb 18, 2021

personal essay

the speakeasy

first person

Making Amends with Valentine’s Day

I hid behind instruments, computers, Whitney’s voice, Prince’s guitar. I sat in front of my computer surrounded by cassettes, illegally downloading songs, awkwardly whispering “I love you more than I…

shea wesley martin —

Feb 11, 2021

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First Person

first person

All Girls Want To Eat Each Other

FIRST PERSON

I Was Naive To Think I Could Shape It More Than It Could Shape Me

FIRST PERSON

The Gay Algorithm

FIRST PERSON

Play Parties Let Me Explore My Asexuality

FIRST PERSON

Twenty Years Later, Still Haunted by ‘Super Size Me’

first person

I Was Naive To Think I Could Shape It More Than It Could Shape Me

first person

The Gay Algorithm

first person

Play Parties Let Me Explore My Asexuality

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