It's Personal

It's Personal / By Nancy Short

Kambing and Kennedy

(November 23, 2023) It was probably early morning but it felt like the middle of the night when we were awakened by the guards. We had only been in bed a few hours because...

It's Personal / By Linda Stansberry

Lobster Girl Finds the Beat

(November 9, 2023) For three glorious months in 2019, it seemed like it was finally going to happen for me. I was attending a dance fusion class at the Arcata HealthSport led by...

It's Personal / By Thadeus Greenson

My Grand Uncle Leon

(January 19, 2023) I never met my grand uncle Leon, at least not that I can recall. He died when I was 9 years old and all I remember knowing about the...

It's Personal / By Louisa Rogers

One Couple's Abortion Story, 45 Years Later

(May 12, 2022) Last week's leak of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion on Roe v Wade took me back more than four decades, when, in the space of six months, I had...

It's Personal / By Sara Autumn-Breeze Smith

My Dad

(February 17, 2022) This is my dad, Ricky Smith. He's been living on the streets of Arcata for over a decade. On Feb. 2, he was murdered just feet away from the...

It's Personal / By Louisa Rogers

Six Strategies for Breaking A Bad Habit

(January 20, 2022) When I decided to give up smoking in my 20s, I resolved to enjoy my last cigarette the night before my birthday and turned my final smoke into a...

It's Personal / By Annie Kassof

A Week in the Hospital

(January 20, 2022) The specter of COVID-19 is everywhere. It's the elephant in the room, the new "C word." But it's not the reason I'm here. It's my sixth evening in the hospital....

It's Personal / By Henry Ellis

No-Thanksgiving

Advice for trans folks at the table

(November 25, 2021) When I started writing this piece, I had grand ambitions of opening a conversation for cisgender readers. After several drafts, I decided the internet was offering plenty of organizations, memes,...

It's Personal / By Louisa Rogers

Our Affordable Housing Neighbors are the Best

(November 11, 2021) As my husband and I walked over to the boardwalk, a man standing on the balcony of a building opposite our Old Town apartment called over to us. "Who's that?"...

It's Personal / By Iridian Casarez

Across Miles and Borders: Ripple Effect

(July 15, 2021) By Iridian Casarez We had just finished eating our plates of mole Poblano and rice when my abuelita began telling us of her recent month-long trip to Mexico. She began...

It's Personal / By Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

Across Miles and Borders: A Friendship, Vaccination and Worry

(July 15, 2021) Coming from a long line of people who leave the towns and countries where we were born, I've always been comfortable with separation (the exception being my husband, without whom,...

It's Personal

David's Out

(June 24, 2021) The first time I walked inside Pelican Bay State Prison I met David Nguyen. He was one of the first two graduates (along with Larry Vickers) to earn their...

It's Personal / By Robert Stockwell

Playing On

Good Company through loss and lockdown

(April 22, 2021) In the old days, when the band was four people strong and the coronavirus was a distant nightmare waiting to happen, any Wednesday evening would find Good Company at rehearsal,...

It's Personal / By Iridian Casarez

Saving the Discovery Museum

(February 25, 2021) Wednesday afternoon was their scheduled weekly supervised visit with their mom; every week they'd come into the same room with the same books and toys, while I sat on an...

It's Personal / By Annie Kassof

Living Tiny in Turbulent Times

(February 18, 2021) Our life is frittered away by detail ... Simplify, simplify. — Henry David Thoreau I lived in my first tiny house — so to speak — in the mid-1980s when...