Far Away from Close to Home: Essays: A Black Millennial Woman in Progress

“Where was home?” asks Emmy-winning actor and television writer Kelly in her searching debut. Seven essays capture her life as a Black woman living in various Los Angeles neighborhoods: “Stop” sees the author riding the bus to work in order to “experience the city,” which reminds her of a time in her life when her car was impounded and she couldn’t afford to get it out. “Sybrina, Gina, and Me” shows Kelly’s work in community organization after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and in “Miracle of Black Love,” Kelly sees “a story in every square inch” of her home and reflects on her divorce. The concept of “home” runs throughout: Los Angeles, for example, is Kelly’s “forever home,” and she writes of gentrification and the city’s homeless population, which people “learn to see through.” Laced with acerbic humor­—she describes a professor’s voice as “resting bitch face of the larynx”—the pieces shed light on the value of community, the intense pressure on a successful Black woman to keep her family together, and the importance of feeling at home. Full of heartfelt insight, this is a powerful collection. (May)