SUGAR & ASPHALT is where creativity, culture, and the emotional architecture of modern adulthood meet—with humor, grit and a lot of curiosity.

I’m Tanisha—writer, designer, and someone who pays attention. I think a lot about the things most people rush past or pretend not to notice: the weird corners of digital life, the leftovers of childhood, the way grief reshapes creativity, and the tiny moments that feel insignificant until they’re not.

Here, you’ll find essays that live at the intersections:

• Creativity as survival, not decoration

• Culture - the internet, the music we grew up on, and the strange rules of being alive right now

• Identity & memory - the stories we inherit, rewrite, or outgrow.

• Modern adulthood - its contradictions, malfunctions, and quiet revelations.

SUGAR & ASPHALT is part cultural commentary, part personal excavation, part creative playground. My intention is to reflect, analyze, and at times be unserious on purpose. The through-line of it all is noticing.

The name comes from the duality I live in: sweetness and edge, softness and grit, imagination and reality. A mix of what keeps us alive and what keeps us grounded. If any of that sounds cool to you, pull up a metaphorical sofa cushion and stay awhile.

WEEKLY FIX: THURSDAYS & SUNDAYS

New essays will drop every Thursday. On Sundays, a reset. Expect mood boards, visual fragments and creative notes.

COMING SOON

Eventually, I'll open up the back rooms: RAW HONEY and UNDER THE HOOD for deeper dives, unfiltered sweetness, and the kind of reflections you only share when it’s just a few people left at the table. For paid subscribers.

Thanks for noticing with me.

— TANISHA