DEDRIA HUMPHRIES BARKER

On Octavia Butler's 72nd birth anniversary, June 22, 1947, let me tell you how the personal finances of the visionary writer  reminded me of my Irish great-grandmother, Alice.

Game tape replaces video games in Mom's house when her son's team goes to the play-offs.

On the field, which was too green for August, our team stretched. Our Trojans looked just alike in helmets and blue jerseys, except for numbers on the back.

 “I’m watching number 35,” said Don standing next to me at the fence. He was referring to my son, David....

Meet me at my web site for words and images of

Aretha Franklin's Homegoing service.

I do not like cats, but when Le Chat Noir disappeared, it grieved me to see Black Mama Cat and Figo fight for their survival. 

Le Chat Noir was the biggest of the three cats who roam the house. They are black cats. Le Chat Noir was the big cat, a tom cat....

If I could believe my eyes and ears, a meal of insects could be in my future all because I wanted to eat beef and drive cars. 

For two months, all anyone at Can Serrat talked about was an exhibit in Barcelona about humans doing an outstanding job killing the Earth,...

 The black hair products I needed were available in a Barcelona neighborhood, I just didn’t know which 'hood and how far in.

Too bad for me. 

I found the name of the black hair products shop on the internet: La Bella Cosmetics, and got instructions to their locatio...

I was foaming at the mouth when it happened, but I cut her some slack because the French are like that, a nation of high-strung poodles. 

At one sink, I brushed my teeth and next to me at the other sink was one of my new friends. Nolwenn is classic French, slender,...

Little did I know how soon on my mountain hike I would wish I had the safety bolt called "Life Saver."   

I came to the mountains outside of Barcelona to write. The ground is hard-packed red clay and over that a layer of rock. It’s mountain, so the earth undul...