Clive and Worm in WinterMemoir reflecting a year of academic and personal crisis. Isolation, transgression, unlikely paths to self-discovery.(Published in Hobart) (2026)
Emails to DannyLyrical prose piece, presented as a series of fragmented emails.(Published in The Manifest-Station) (2026)
Rap and the American ReligionEssay arguing that the theological underpinnings of American evangelicalism are key to understanding the persona, contradictions and power of a major female rapper.(Published in Blind Field: a Journal of Cultural Inquiry) (2025)
The Philosophy of DressFeature film starring Sydney Lemmon, Romy Reiner, Jake Weary, Clara McGregor. A troubled designer and her magnetic influencer-muse collaborate on a single dress, but their artistic bond unravels into toxic obsession. Wrote and produced.(Completed November 2025; pursuing festivals and sales representation)
No Special Place: on having a famous brotherPersonal essay on memory, digital celebrity, and political idealism, framed by the experience of having a brother who becomes a prominent online activist.(Published in Blind Field: a Journal of Cultural Inquiry) (2024)
TIGER TIGERShort film starring Sydney Lemmon and Jonathan Higginbotham. Co-wrote and produced. (Honored at Rooftop Films, New/Next Festival, Cannes Indie Shorts Awards, Moving Pictures Festival, London Director Awards) (2023)
Selected Earlier
Online Ideas: essaysCo-author. Collection of essays, co-authored with Hugo Blondel, offering a critical and personal lens on pop culture, politics and theology during the pandemic era.(Published by Nachleben, 2022)“A slower mode of pop cultural critique... These texts place our popular culture in longer histories of intellectual thought. What does Biblical exegesis have to do with Nicki Minaj? Everything.”--Roland Betancourt
Group: an anthologyEditor. Anthology of images, interviews, poetry and fiction by a group of seven friends. Originally published in weekly volumes throughout 2020.(Published by Nachleben, 2022)“Brims with intensity, warmth, pluck, and wonder... inventive Gen Z housemates tunneling their way to a space of intellectual and aesthetic freedom.”--Peter Cole
The Pop Reformation: Music, Ownership, PowerA narrative of how three popstars leveraged exclusive streaming releases to assert economic and creative autonomy, echoing the disruptive power of the printing press.(Published in the Yale Herald) (2016)Praised as "smart work" by Dr. Elizabeth Alexander and cited in the Wikipedia entry for D'Angelo. Led to an extended conversation with members of the Roc Nation executive team about branding and narrative.
Anti-Pop Pop: On 'Joanne' and the 2016 ElectionAnalysis of the parallel "anti-establishment" rhetoric in Lady Gaga's musical turn and Donald Trump's presidential campaign.(Published in the Yale Daily News) (2016)Included in a select bibliography by the peer-reviewed journal American Music (Vol. 35, No. 4) for its value in teaching public musicology.
'I own your child': Kanye West and the Family SpectacleExamination of rap and reality TV as America's most honest art forms, exploring how Kim Kardashian and Kanye West blend family, commerce, art and religious gestures.(Published in the Yale Herald) (2017)
Review: Marilynne Robinson's 'The Givenness of Things'Review of the essay collection. Examines her defense of faith against positivism and the ironies of her mainstream cultural moment.(Published in the Yale Literary Magazine) (2015)
Philip Roth's American PastoralAnalysis of the novel's narrative structure and its function as a critique of the legacy of 1960s.(2014)