Catherine Gigante-Brown

I left Cuba in 1949, when I was 11 years old. Back then, I didn't understand why my mother sent me away. I still don't.

You learn a lot about people when you live in their home. The Taylors seemed to lead a joyless, Spartan existence.

"Sometimes David wore his hair spiked like a cockscomb. Others, he wore it feathery like a baby chick. He wore his Mohawk to summer camp (exchanging encouraging head chucks with another older camper who sported one, too) and even to Vacation Bible School—no judgment there."

TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) has been around for at least five centuries –– there’s got to be something to it.

herbalist. shiatsu practitioner. healer.

sex sage. fetish specialist. author.

In the photograph, my great-grandmother, Margarita Cirigliano, is sitting at a small table on the front porch of the family home in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Alas, I am the lone female in a house full of men. Only two men, but they take up a lot of space.

Instead of categorizing people as different colors, I proposed we might begin to think of each other as Earthtones—because our skin colors are based on hues from the earth. Just as the planet is made up of a myriad of shades, it’s still one cohesive entity. We can be thought of as one entity also.

From New York to LA, this lady knows a good story.