Showing results for "Brilliance" in Emigration & Immigration

What if the traditional narrative about immigrant women--that those who come to the United States will succeed as long as they work hard, stay focused, and have supportive families--is a lie? Of the 73 million women in the US workforce, 11.5 million are foreign-born. The truth is--even in the...

Out of a harrowing childhood in the Philippines, Cinelle Barnes emerged triumphant. But as an undocumented teenager living in New York, her journey of self-discovery was just beginning. Because she couldn’t get a driver’s license or file taxes, Cinelle worked as a cleaning lady and a nanny and took other odd jobs - and learned to look over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t get caught.

It wasn’t surprising when the first abandoned bicycles were found along the dirt roads and farmland just across the border from Tijuana, but before long they were arriving in droves. The bikes went from curiosity, to nuisance, to phenomenon. But until they caught the eye of journalist Kimball Taylor, only a small cadre of human smugglers - coyotes - and migrants could say how or why they’d gotten there. This is the story of 7,000 bikes that made an incredible journey and one young man from Oaxaca who arrived at the border with nothing, built a small empire, and then vanished.

Writer Kovie Biakolo became inspired to publish Conversations for Smart People while having rooftop drinks in Brooklyn with a few of her colleagues. In her classic uninhibited style, Kovie deftly weaves through such topics as: being a woman, growing up African, the meaning of beauty, and love. And of course the essay collection includes thoughtful commentary on sociopolitical issues--like race--that Kovie often finds herself discussing in her work.