Comline Blog

Reflections on Crosstalk

Reflections on Crosstalk

For me, this sacred element has been the single most important tenet of this program. Crosstalk absolutely hinders my recovery no matter how benign. I had my feelings, thoughts co-opted in childhood and in my closest relationships as an adult, in the name of...

read more
Lush Life

Lush Life

In college, I majored in Voice, but my studies took a backseat to a steady diet of cocktails and cigarettes. The school’s music program had a distinguished opera faculty that took the train from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie each week to give us lessons. I didn't care...

read more
Racial Trauma Inventory

Racial Trauma Inventory

Coming into ACA meeting Zoom land, I was initially reticent at putting on my camera in a mostly white environment, ashamed of my face. On a few occasions, when I have switched on my camera mid-share, others have been abruptly turned off. Having said that, I have...

read more
This is a first telling of my story.

This is a first telling of my story.

This is a first telling of my story. Nine images and two poems. When combined sequentially they illustrate the "big picture" while each individual file offers a specific slice of life. My voice was stolen from me as a child and at 50 I am finally learning how to...

read more
Filling the Hole

Filling the Hole

It was 2004. I was incarcerated in Wisconsin’s Dane County Jail. I had forged checks on the account of my seventy-year-old friend, Miss Milele Chikasa Anana, one of the most prominent, renowned, highly respected members of the African American community, Madison,...

read more