Should I Be Flattered?

Woman V Patriarchy Once Upon A Yesterday… I had to deal with a man’s inappropriate behavior at work.  Last week I went to a business to shoot some interviews for the company’s rebranding. It was all men except for me, which is not unusual. I showed up alone because there was no need for an...

Honoring Her Inner Superhero

“The US economy lost 140,000 jobs in December. All of them were held by women.” This is the headline that caught my attention. As a working mom in a pandemic, it required no further explanation for me to process, then nod in understanding.  In a society that tells little girls we are to equal to...

Perpetual Beginner

It seems no matter how old I get I always feel like I’m beginning again. Out of shape? Start working out, despite body’s protests. Publish a novel? Start a new one. Career disappears with global pandemic? Start over with a whole new business plan. Divorced? Start dating.  Bonus level: date a woman for the first...

Catharsis Through Creativity.

This has been a big week. For the country, for our collective sanity, and for Bernie memes. How good does it feel to have social media feeds filled with fluffy memes rather than yet another humanitarian crisis? While I’m breathing a sigh of relief along with so many others, I’ve also reconnected with a familiar...

Quarantine: A Love Story

In an era unlike any other in our collective experience, I’ve found personal solace in storytelling. Consuming and creating stories—as a way to commiserate, learn, and sometimes, to escape.  Last March my career as a music photographer disappeared before my eyes. It was terrifying and demoralizing and brought on an existential crisis, making me question...

Invisible Illness: Heartbreak, Healing and Being Enough

I’ve been sick for nearly a decade. But it’s only been in the past two months, since I have finally recovered, that I have come to understand the depth of the ramifications of having an invisible illness. So to all those who suffer from invisible pain, I hope that this makes you feel a little...

Sharisse Coulter Has Awkward Conversations (So You Don’t Have To)

https://youtu.be/zqhCkWwzurw I started a web series of interviews with my friends from diverse backgrounds as a way to resist the current administration's attempts to divide us. There are a lot of challenging conversations to be had and we don't all have to come from the same backgrounds or even ever agree on everything. What we...

Want to Have Better Sex? #MeToo

In this MeToo/Time’s Up era and especially since the Aziz Ansari story broke, there has been a lot of discussion about the distinctions between sexual harassment, assault, rape and impropriety of varying degrees. These are important distinctions and I hope much thoughtful conversation goes into parsing them out. But I want to talk about where...

It Starts With You

I've been thinking a lot these last few days about the state of the world and what we can do about it. And then a friend challenged me to come up with THE solution. Rather than dismiss it as merely an insane idea, I took my own advice: I tried. It's not THE answer. There's...

I Had a Sleepover at a White Supremacist’s. Here’s What I Learned.

When I was in third grade I had a sleepover at a white supremacist’s house. His daughter and I were school friends and she invited me over. I didn’t know who her dad was, but I did know that she and I both liked tetherball and reading. That was more than enough for eight-year old...