Noelle Amouré

I got home tonight and did my usual routine on autopilot. Coat off. Shoes off. Work clothes off like I could peel the whole day away with them. I set my bag down and didn’t pick up my phone. I didn’t turn on a show. I didn’t even move for a minute. I just sat on the couch in the quiet. It wasn’t a dramatic moment. It was my body asking for stillness before my brain could assign me another task. My shoulders felt high and tight. My stomach felt unsettled, like it was still in the middle of the...

As World AIDS Day approaches, the headlines often turn compassionate. We post candles, red ribbons, statistics, calls for awareness. But behind every chart, every statistic, every “Remember to care” post, there are real people. People whose lives shift when a diagnosis arrives. People whose worth is questioned not because of the illness itself, but because of the fear, misinformation, and prejudice swirling around it. We rarely see what follows that entry into a body’s history: the isolation,...

Tonight I am curled up on my couch with a heated blanket and the fireplace humming low in front of me. Smooth R&B fills the room, the kind of playlist that makes you breathe softer without realizing it. My work laptop is open with an unsent email blinking at the bottom of the screen, like it is waiting on a version of me I do not have the energy to be right now. My daughters are asleep somewhere behind me, little warm bundles of quiet. I have a bluetooth earpiece in, muted, while my friends...