What Angela Flournoy Can’t Live Without

I was living in Berlin in 2019, and it was the holiday-gift-box time of year. I’m a big Vinoperfect hyperpigmentation-serum person. I use that, so I got this for free one time. That was six years ago. It helps retain moisture throughout the day. When I run out and try to pivot to something else, it just doesn’t go well.

I live in one of those older New York apartments that is hot in some places and cold in other places. You can’t be inside in your outside clothes, so you need something in between that and your pajamas. I can’t wear these to sleep — I’d be sweating to death. I live in these. I have them in a couple of colors: taupe, pinkish, and navy. They’re really soft. If you have to answer the door, you don’t look like you’re in your pajamas, but you are.

[Editor’s note: Angela’s exact set is sold out, but these are made of the same fabric.]

Ricky’s book came out in May. I keep thinking about it. It is one of those debuts that doesn’t feel like a debut. It’s the book I recommended the most last year. I’m looking forward to reading it again and hopefully teaching it the next time I teach. It’s multi-POV and intergenerational and follows one family from pre-enslavement in West Africa to present-day Tennessee. Alongside this family, you also follow their guardian, who happens to be the devil. The devil is not fire and brimstone but more like a trickster. You’ll be thinking about Zora Neale Hurston when you read it.

I started doing hot yoga pretty regularly when I moved back to New York last year. As soon as it got cold, I would look forward to going into that hot room. But I was always so tired afterward. It wasn’t until last year that I realized, Oh, everyone else in here is, like, pounding electrolytes. That’s why they have a pep in their step afterward and I’m crawling out of here. As soon as I started drinking these, I also had a pep in my step after class, instead of throwing myself down the stairs to leave. So I believe in electrolytes. It’s not sweet. I didn’t like any of the ones that were sweet because when you’re super-dehydrated, the last thing you need is something that tastes like juice. I just like the flavor. It doesn’t taste very chemical-y. And I am a person who actually would sprinkle some salt on my watermelon. So watermelon salt to me makes sense.

It is just the most delicious olive oil I’ve ever tasted. And I am an olive-oil person. I have olive oil to cook with and then I have olive oil for dips and salads, and this is definitely too good to cook with.

I started using this in the pandemic when I had a child. It was double the deconditioning and detangling happening. It looks like slime. But you know, okra is a little slimy. It has a lot of slip and helps detangle really fast. I find a little goes a long way. If you have a child, they’ll have fun because it’s like slime. They’ll be excited about that being in their hair.

Not only is my skin dry, my hair is also dry. I try a lot of different masks, and this one is my current favorite. When I use it, which is once a week, my hair feels more moisturized and softer afterward.

I write all my first drafts longhand: my novels, my essays. It’s the only pen I trust. I’ve been using it for 15 years. I also can’t be a person who only gets pens from one store. I really believe you have to minimize the obstacles to writing every day. Having to wait for your delivery of your fancy pens from Europe or Japan — I can’t be doing that. That’s just a reason to not write. You can get these at Staples or CVS. You can get them anywhere. They feel really good. Some people complain that they take a second to dry. I do not write fast enough that I’m turning pages. I’m just staring at the page for a long time. So I’ve never had that problem.

I need something that is light and something that is sold at any kind of bookstore. They usually have these. I prefer the black ones, but I will get any color. They have a nice pocket in the back, which is useful. The last few pages are perforated. If you wanna take notes and don’t want them to be chronological with whatever you’re writing, you can write them in the back, rip them out, and put them on your corkboard or just hold them to your person. I also have a journal and I have a quick notebook if I’m interviewing somebody. But for my longform writing, I like them to be the size of a page because I can’t trick myself into thinking like I’m progressing more than I am. Some size notebooks, you wrote a paragraph but you turned the page so you feel like you did something. And it’s like, No, you didn’t do anything yet — you need to sit on this college-rule page for a little while longer.

There’s iron in collard greens. There’s a decent amount of protein in collard greens. It’s really hitting above its weight class as far as your leafy-green vegetables go. I can make a lot of different dishes outta collard greens. I love collard greens in a smoothie. I love just like a quick salad. I love a more stewed southern kind, but I never feel like I have no groceries if I have collard greens in my refrigerator. I try to get them from farmers’ markets, but New York does not have the best year-round farmer’s markets. I’ve had decent luck with the Upper West Side farmers’ market, the one next to the Natural History Museum. But sometimes you just gotta go to Whole Foods.