“You are the butter to my bread, and the breath to my life” ― Julia Child

First of course, Roxane breaks the terrible news: The Butter is saying good-bye.

HUGE, teary thanks to all you brilliant Butter writers, so much butter to our bread. It’s been a joy to read and publish your work. And to you readers for loving it all as much as we did.

Gabrielle Bellot is on FIRE. “I am a woman who shouts into the sea.”

Lesley Nneka Arimah talks with Kendra Fortmeyer about story-telling, magical realism, and mermaids.

Kelly Davio gives us an incredible piece on how Empire got myasthenia gravis so wrong through her own experience and the life of Static who worked with Timbaland, wrote hits for artists like Aaliyah and Lil Wayne, and died from complications of myasthenia gravis in 2008.

Bear talks to a woman who feels she needs to choose between two people she loves about love, relationships, and polyamory. “The truth is, I have been foolish for love many times in my life. I have pursued many opportunities for intimacy in all kinds of ways. Some of them have been delicious and nourishing while others have been, eventually, bitter. Nevertheless, I am not sorry.”

Mensah didn’t make it to Afropunk: “I haven’t even considered which band t-shirt and earth-toned accessories I would wear—and I’m already over it. If I sound glib, I apologize; these are real concerns, and only those of us who’ve contemplated Afropunk as a possible “thing to do” (not to be confused with those of us who actually go to Afropunk) can truly understand.”

Aimee Nezhukumatathil brightens everyone’s day with that fascinating stench monster of the plant world, the corpse flower.