Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All

by Chanel Miller

“People are walking around saying big words like xylophone, peperoncini, Guggenheim Museum. If they can’t make the effort to learn her name, then that’s big-time baloney. I’m serious.

“So I started to imagine that my dad’s words were like shrimp—if I absorb them into my system, I become them. I turn stupid, turn pink. But if I spit them out, I get to stay myself, stay gray. His words won’t change me if I don’t let them.