personal | political
Marcelle writes at the crossroads of the personal and the political
Featured Pieces
Nah Brah Newsletter
a storytelling space with a focus on Louisiana politics, advocacy, civic education, and empathy, above all else.
Marcelle began the Nah Brah Newsletter as a space to talk about the taboo things— because she knows that whoever taught you it was rude to talk politics had something to gain from your silence. The Nah Brah Newsletter is a place to break that silence, which Marcelle does by sharing her stories in a series of personal and political essays.
Nah Brah Excerpts
This is how we live here
“This is why we live here” is a phrase I hear a lot during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest and Super Sunday and any other opportunity we take to go out into the streets and showcase our beauty and joy. And honestly, I don’t really like the sentiment. It feels transactional. Like we’re trading in our potholes for a gross of beads. Like we’re swapping our carjackings for doubloons. Our murder rate for Battle of the Bands. Our sorrow is not currency. It is not the cost we pay for being joyous. And we don’t deserve joy because we endured pain. We deserve joy period. It’s not why we live here; it’s how we live here.
Originally published February 24, 2023 in the Nah Brah Newsletter
Smells like Peace
I stole a candle and lit it yesterday. I walked into the St. Louis Cathedral and saw the sign asking for a $6 donation to light one of those tiny little 25-cent votive candles and said “I ain’t paying that shit” to no one in particular. I grabbed the first ball of wax I saw and unfurled the wick before I placed it in a glass bowl in the center of a sea of flameless glass—apparently, I wasn’t the only one who found the $6 charge egregious.*
Originally published September 9, 2023 in the Nah Brah Newsletter
A Modest Proposal
Here is a modest proposal for unwanted impotencies: don’t have a penis in the first place. I know, I’m sorry. Nobody likes strangers talking openly about their penile dysfunction and you probably think it should be your business and nobody else’s, but that’s where you’re wrong. The right to privacy does not apply to flaccid penises because flaccid penises aren’t deeply rooted anywhere. Not in my vagina and definitely not in the nation’s history and tradition.
Originally published May 5, 2022 in the Nah Brah Newsletter
Mom’s the Word
Any substantial (yet still woefully insufficient) gains we’ve made for the benefit of wives and mothers within the institutions of marriage and motherhood have been hard won by the waves of feminists that came before us. And our single and/or childless women—especially women of color—are the barrier islands protecting those gains. If they fall, we all fall.
Originally published May 12, 2022 in the Nah Brah Newsletter
No Hablo Inglés
At the end of the day, I know I’m nothing more than another American spending half the year in Mexico because I can. I’m no better than any other tourist or expat because I come with a currency and complexion that gives me preference over locals. Period. The fact of the matter is, we all walk through this world incurring and inflicting harm in some way. There are very few places we aren’t visitors, and we need to remain cognizant of that.
Originally published August 11, 2022 in the Nah Brah Newsletter
David Sedaris & the Sausage Makers
One of the most common phrases you’ll hear in the Louisiana Legislature is: Nobody likes to see how the sausage is made. It always makes me vomit a little whenever I hear that sentence coming out of the greasy mouths of thee very sausage makers. Greasy, because they are also the sausage eaters. The very same men who make the laws like to raise up their hands, recently lifted from the small of my back, and say “hey, man. Not my rules!”
Originally published April 28, 2022 in the Nah Brah Newsletter
