Skyler Graham

Welcome to my portfolio! I'm Skyler, a Carolina-raised, Jersey-based writer and editor specializing in educational consulting and regional travel and culture writing.

Chalkbeat •

I’m a Gen Z teacher. Schools rely too much on Chromebooks.

As the back-to-school season unfolded in New York, the city’s teachers set up their classrooms how they usually do: by putting up posters, reading through curriculums, sharpening pencils, and, for roughly a decade, charging Chromebooks.

These lightweight laptops have become a staple of the post-COVID classroom, and for good reason. They allow students to learn at their own pace, access materials, and create projects and presentations without expensive items. Some superintendents across the city...
Skyler’s Substack •

Back-to-School Birthdays

As any other Virgo would likely attest to, there’s something special about your birthday falling around the same time as the school year starts. In addition to the smug smirk that comes with proudly reminding everyone you’re the youngest in the grade and being the first in the class to share mini cupcakes, back-to-school birthdays restructure your entire year. I’ve never felt that my “new year” began at the start of January, but rather, at the end of August. I think about the New Year’s parties...
Photo by Ricardo Lima on Pexels
Skyler’s Substack •

The Elphaba-Glinda Complex: What Wicked Tells Us About Female Dichotomies

The Academy Award-winning film adaptation of Wicked has ignited conversations about the blossoming friendship between stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the ingenious costume design, and how we respond to powerful women. Naturally, we separate people into “good” or “bad,” “saint” or “sinner,” or as Freud theorized, “Madonna” or “whore.” These hot-or-not divides, however, reflect how we categorize women externally. The tensions between the two witches, Elphaba and Glinda, illuminate the inter...
The Duke Chronicle •

Remembering Betty Davis, Durham's own Queen of Funk

When new genres enter the musical canon, they’re often thought of in terms of preexisting genres and artists: hip-hop started by sampling disco tracks, country has its roots in gospel and folk songs and pop-punk and rap-rock are conveniently named after these combinations. Unlike these seemingly arithmetic fusions, though, the musical product is often greater than the sum of their parts. And no artist represents this better than the late Durham-born funk icon Betty Davis.

The music world and Bu...
Photo by Gary Barnes on Pexels
Skyler’s Substack •

On making meatballs

My father taught me how to make meatballs as a child. In fact, it was one of the only foods we made together; when I would try to help with other dishes, he would get frustrated with my uncertain glances and questions about what he dubbed “common sense;” I would return the frustration by retreating from the kitchen entirely to patiently wait for dinner. Except for when we made meatballs.The recipe is a simple one and requires no pen. To one pound of ground beef, add (roughly) a cup of bread crum...