Rita Pike

Fiction, nonfiction, interview, column, & poetry

Every aspect of Elsa Collins’ work is centered on social justice and service to others. She co-founded This Is About Humanity, an organization raising awareness and funds for separated and reunited families at the Mexican/U.S. border. She also founded The Ideateur, a social impact and civics consultancy working towards genuine justice in the United States.
In 2020, she also co-founded She Se Puede, a digital community platform created to foster a community for the Latina community and empower...

As a Jewish woman and as a human being, I was shocked to learn of the massive misinformation and lack of knowledge regarding the Holocaust that’s been making news. Before I knew of my own Jewish heritage – hidden for at least a generation by family members because of fear – I drove by the Dachau Concentration Camp in Bavaria, Germany. Built-in 1933, this was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis and the remaining evidence on the site is overwhelming, horrifying, and heart-shatterin...

Fifty-six-years ago today, a woman from Ohio became the first woman to fly solo around the world.
No, you are not doing the maths wrong. I am not talking about that other, much more famous, female American aviator. I am talking about Jerrie Mock, private pilot, housewife - and my grandmother.
When she left for her round-the-world adventure, she was dubbed The Flying Housewife by the media.
She was a 38-year-old mother of three who had wanted to fly around the world since she was a little girl...

It began with the dream of a little girl taking her first airplane ride. In 1932, in Newark, Ohio, that little girl understood what her destiny held, even if not the details. “I will fly around the world.”

In grade school, she studied the atlases of the world and found two more dreams for her life: to ride a camel in the Sahara and to ride an elephant. In college, she was the only female in a class of 100 studying aeronautical engineering.

As the years passed, she pursued her dreams as b...

“Does the name Vincent Van Gogh ring a bell?”
“Don’t mention that man to me…he’s drunk, he’s mad, and he never pays his bills.”
When this episode of Doctor Who begins, we laugh at the absurdity that this restaurateur would reject one of the most famous paintings in the world because the man trying to hawk it was a bit of a drunk. Any of us would accept this piece, even if we’re not personally fond of the man’s work. We know its value, which is: practically priceless.
[Content Warning: this es...

I should be in a small aircraft taking my first flying lesson in my grandmother’s honor, but thanks to the COVID-19 shut-downs, this dream is on pause.
Fifty-six years ago, my grandmother, Jerrie Mock, did something that the world still gets wrong – she was the first woman to fly around the world.
Jerrie answers the phone immediately after arrival in Hawaii, round-the-world flight
In elementary school, teachers told us that Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly around the world. My little...

Whether you’ve heard of Australian singer Helen Reddy or not, you might have heard the words to her 1971 smash hit “I Am Woman.” The song became an anthem during the women’s liberation movement for good reason and not simply because of the lyrics, but because of Reddy herself.
In a recent interview, Unjoo Moon, director, producer, and visionary behind this incredible film shared her journey with me. Her personal connection...

Thanks to the giant spikes in COVID-19 cases, in mid-November, Chicago’s mayor Lori Lightfoot put out a stay-at-home request for everyone extending out into the suburbs where I live. Immediately, our holiday plays came to mind. The mayor is asking us to stay at home, cancel Thanksgiving plans, and survive the holidays without family.
My husband and I would survive the holiday together alone, but so many of our friends and family live on their own. They have no one to see, no ...

You can find my weekly online wedding features and bi-monthly blog posts on Virginia Bride Magazine.

When we think of Autumn we tend to be reminded of the changing leaves, the crisp coolness in the air, the bright, vivid sunsets, and wisps of fireplace smoke that puff into the sky. We become enchanted with all of these things, which bring such warmth and comfort that only cooler weather provides.
But this year, Autumn feels different. Maybe it’s the lockdowns continuing, the massive upticks in the pandemic, and the weird weather thanks to global warming. I think this year, thanks to that wei...

American founding father, Benjamin Franklin, once told us that only two things in life are certain: death and tax-es. In the late 1960s, my grandmother, Geraldine ‘Jerrie’ Mock, discovered the second to be true. You see, in 1964, she was dubbed the ‘flying housewife’ by the media as she set out to claim the title of first woman to fly around the world. Twenty-nine days later – after surviving sand-storms, iced-over wings and engine troubles – she landed back in Ohio on April 17 and claimed that title...

When I returned this winter to Tallahassee, Florida, where I grew up, I was met with hugs and welcoming words, but as I sat in church circles and restaurants, the reality of the racist South hit hard. In these communal places, people openly make comments like, “But there’s a Black church across the street from that BBQ joint, so, you know what kind of neighborhood it is…”
The bigotry prevented me from making a second Sunday visit to the church that once I loved and served in faithfully for se...

Any time I post anything even slightly political on my social media, I log out and vow not to return for at least a few days. I’m a sensitive soul who is easily wounded by the horrible, nasty things that my once-upon-a-time fellow church members say to me when I make announcements like “I don’t support Trump.”

I learned this the hard way – and have lost many friends in the Southern Baptist Church where I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. I was also told by a former pastor, that I was “siding with fascists” because I refuse to support Trump.

After these unkind, unloving, sometimes hateful resp

If you have spent any time on social media or watching the news, you’ve heard that there are multiple COVID-19 vaccines out there, being worked on by various companies. Most recently, the United Kingdom became the first country to approve the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine for widespread use and, Margaret Keenan became the first person to be injected with this just yesterday. This was the first of 8,000 vaccine doses to be dispensed in the coming weeks.
Some vaccines have been a part of the “Operatio...