One of the first articles I wrote for Motif, years ago, was a review of Heather Rigney’s debut novel, Waking the Merrow. I was immediately locked into the humorous story of Evie McFadden and Nomia, her mermaid nemesis. The Pawtuxet Village setting gave a sense of familiarity that enhanced my enjoyment. Rigney followed that up […]

Entering New Age Barbering Co. at 8 Freebody St in Newport comes with a feeling of relief that many women wish was more familiar to barbershops everywhere. Rather than walking into obnoxious chatter and intimidation, I was greeted with soft music and a cozy waiting room that immediately quelled my anxieties about entering such a […]

When I moved to San Diego, I decided to attend one of the area’s popular group rides, which typically attracted over 100 participants every Saturday. With multiple ride categories — A, B, C, D, and two developmental groups — I carefully chose the D group to avoid the pressure of keeping up while I was […]

Just about a year ago, the North Burial Ground cemetery’s most-visited gravesite was burglarized when two copper medallions were stolen from the memorial of Edward Mitchell Bannister, a prominent Black artist who resided in Providence throughout the late 1800’s. On February 27th, 2025, two community leaders and kickass women, Ulli Ryder and Victoria Gao, reignited […]

It’s late afternoon, the light is glinting off the snow and beaming directly into my eyes. Irritated, I spin around in my chair, turning my back to the window, hunched over my laptop. Instead of doing the 10+ tasks I need to be doing today, I am deep in the r/tradwives subreddit. User WildMaineBlueberry87 comments: […]

At just 13 years old, Phillis Wheatley published her first poem “On Messrs, Hussey and Coffn” in 1767, in the Newport Mercury, a well-known Rhode Island newspaper. Wheatley’s early publication marked the beginnings of African American poetry. She would later go on to write about her experiences as an enslaved woman in New England. Her […]

As of 2016, there were 5,712 cases of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-spirits (MMIWG2S) in the United States, only 116 of which were logged in the US Department of Justice database. This is a commonly referenced statistic when discussing the nationwide crisis of violence against indigenous women, and as one would expect, […]