In addition to my work as a performer, I write regularly for Six by Eight Press on the intersection of sports, masculinity, performance, and the complexities of Southern culture.
Life Below the Mason-Dixon
If home is tied to place, then I can’t really say I’ve ever had one. I’ve never lived anywhere long enough that’s transcended to that status. See, I was born in Decatur, Georgia, a place I don’t remember because my family moved to South Carolina around the time I was two. And much of the time since was spent moving around the state, following my father’s vocation as a Methodist minister. It wasn’t ’til I went to college in D.C. that I lived anywhere longer than three years. Throughout my childhood, though, I got to know the different parts of South Carolina. I’ve lived in a home surrounded by fields and forest. On Main Street in a one stoplight town. In the boonies on the side of a rural highway. And in the downtown of a Southern city. I saw what the South had to offer, and how its landscape was integral to its identity, from the swamps to the mountains. |
Welcome to the Church of Sport
Try to recall the last time you competed in a sport or a game. Did you do anything special before it started, just for you? Maybe you made sure to wear a particular item of clothing. Maybe you repeated a mantra or said a prayer. Maybe you made sure to do a specific warm-up. Maybe you did something altogether different. Regardless of what you did, chances are you had some sort of pregame ritual. Congratulations! You are an initiate in the rites of the church of sport. |
Olympic Peak
Simone Biles was glorious! Wasn’t she? Really think back to it. And if you weren’t watching her in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, then I beg you on my hands and knees to go back and watch the highlights. My god. Remember the way she flew? Really flew. She would lift up off of the ground and you would wonder if she was ever going to land. It was as if at any moment she could decide to just keep rising and soar into myth, finding a home among the gods on Mount Olympus. |