Jamole Callahan and I presented the 2023 cohort of Re-Envisioning Foster Care Champions with their certificates at the National Foster Care Conference in Boston, MA. Dakota Roundtree-Swain (pictured) is one of the newest honorees. Photo Credit: Julian Parker-Burns Hope is in the air when it comes to changes in the foster care system! Recently, I had the opportunity to attend two events that have restored my faith in our foster care system. The resounding comments from these two Incubator events, is that there is a strong need for leadership from impacted youth and communities. We were so gra ..read more

I write well at 30,000 feet. I’m currently nursing a cramping left calf in the middle seat of a crowded 10-hour flight from Edinburgh, Scotland back to the United States. I was a bridesmaid at a wedding where unbeknownst to me, I’d soon be ugraded to family status. But, not just me, practically most of the attendees became extended family simply by virtue of extending our love. This occasion was a wedding to rival all weddings - held at Hopetoun House, a 6500 acre estate built in 1699. It was the perfect venue for this couple, a woman of Nordic descent, marrying a South Sudanese Scot (check o ..read more

You may know that a big part of my work is offer mentorship to adoptees through a nonprofit I founded, Adoptee Mentoring Society. I host group virtual sessions, called The Adoptee Lounge, and I also offer 1-on-1 mentorship. I recently traveled to Washington DC for my book tour stop, and was overjoyed when four adoptees who I’ve mentored wanted to travel to meet up with me in person! These two young adults (pictured) are adoptees that I worked with individually, but upon learning about some of their similarities I decided to pair them together in a group session. They are similar ages, live i ..read more

The New Yorker’s Living In Adoption’s Emotional Aftermath longread has been months in the making. Larissa MacFarquhar, one of the world’s foremost writers on the concept of extreme altruism reached out to me last October to ask about my professional work in adoption. At that time, she had already watched Closure and had read some of my other work. I was gobsmacked to receive her email, knowing that she had written profiles of Barack Obama, Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, and had the privilege to write profiles of extraordinary thinkers Derik Parfit, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Mantel, and Paul Krugman. Sh ..read more

When I applied to attend the Loophole of Retreat - a gathering of Black creatives, thinkers, scholars, and artists in Venice, Italy - I was expecting a bit of inspiration, some good networking opportunities, and a nice little vacation. I’d been encouraged to apply by Lisa Marie Simmons, (the adoptee from my short documentary Lisa & Isell) had been selected to perform at the Loophole and attending seemed like a great way to support her.  I had no idea attending this symposium of Black women visionaries would so powerfully transform my experience of myself and my approach to my work ..read more

My cat, Grandma Pearl, has the distinct honor of listening to me record my audiobook. “Hi Angela, Typically we hire voice actors to read the audiobooks, but we have loved listening to your podcasts and were wondering if you’d like to read your own audiobook?” I recieved this email from my editor after we’d wrapped up the fourth and final round of edits. The next step for the book was to go to the publicity and marketing department. I thought that meant I could take a breath and sit back and begin planning the book tour. I was taken by surprise at this email since I hadn’t even considered the ..read more

My latest film is now available! Watch it here: Lisa & Isell: A story about adoption & the Ghost Kingdom. Read about the experience from Lisa herself: "I just wanna say I’m in love. I...in love with the radiant, insightful, brilliant Angela, and with Bryan’s sensitivity and professionalism. I went to Florida to meet my recently found birth father, Isell. Meeting him was poetry and magic. Tenderness and joy. Laughter and pathos. This is the man who, for 55 years, has been thinking about me, looking for me, loving me, and imagining where and who I might be. For years, I’ve been an enor ..read more

By Angela Tucker and Lisa Marie Simmons This is a story about Oterious and Isell, our Black fathers who wanted us, and the system that prohibited them. ⇼⇼⇼ When Lisa was born, U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Isell walked the echoey halls of the hospital, looking for someone who could tell him where his baby was. When he reached the nurses’ desk in the neonatal unit, he was told it was too late: his firstborn, his baby girl, was gone. “She’s been adopted,” they said. He slumped against the counter, defeated. Even as the pain in his head accused him — “you’re too late” — he knew he would keep lo ..read more

For decades, the requests arrived by phone and letter, often heavy with urgency. A teenager, longing for her poems to be delivered to a mother she’d never known. A parent with a gold ring for a daughter given up at birth. Some simply sought answers: One woman wanted to know what caused the burn scars criss-crossing her arms. In each case, Medina Children’s Services, an adoption agency in Seattle provided no substantive response. At times, social workers and staff offered minimal information. Other times, they discouraged requests with service fees, or failed to respond at all. Instead of smal ..read more

“Mentor Sundays” are truly a highlight of my week. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve likely heard this sentiment in my Stories. This year, I virtually mentored a total of 30 youth adoptees between the ages of 12-21! This mentorship comes in the form of both one-on-one sessions as well as youth/teen lounges (between 3-6 people). All sessions take place via Zoom: typically me in my cozy office, and the mentees somewhere in their homes. However, I was in awe of their commitment to these meetings when some Zoomed with me from their cars (while their parents were running errands), while campi ..read more