FLOWERS IN SOHO (personal collection)
Peace y’all,
Reverend Jesse Jackson died today. This morning, I remembered that I once ran into him in the lobby of an Oakland hotel.
I had flown to the Bay Area from Florida the night before to join the last stretches of filming for Ugly Delicious, the culinary-travel-history Netflix series hosted by David Chang. This was November 2018. My call time was early that morning and I was groggy from the travel and time change.
I’d been casually pacing around, looking for the crew—I was either the first to emerge or in the wrong place and I didn’t want anyone calling me to ask where I was. Early doesn’t matter if you’re not where you’re expected to be.
When an elevator dinged behind me, I instinctively turned around. The reverend strolled into the lounge area casually dressed in an athletic-style pullover. He seemed to also be looking for someone and we locked eyes for a moment. Instantly recognizing him, I smiled. He returned a full grin, winked, and put his finger to his lips to gesture, “Shhh.” I giggled. He flittered his fingers toward me—a wave goodbye, or magical spell?