I write because I have to. Sometimes I think I was a late bloomer, but once I found my voice-- nothing could stop me. I write about the stories and history of my people ... how we struggled, sometimes lost and were knocked down... but still we rise, thrive and always survive! I write because there was a time in our history when the White slaveholding power structures tried to ban my people from writing, reading and knowing because they knew that WORDS and literacy are powerful tools that lead a people to liberation!
I leave you with one of my favorite compositions dedicated to my husband...
Composition in Black and Red
For RAPryor
Outlawed Forbidden Lovin’
History brought you to me… me to you
Together we journeyed through the oppressive, soul death of
bloodsweattearsburningandvomit the scalping and nooses
charred fruit looping on death trees
scarlet hair flesh flopping from dead heads
and found love made love and inseminated breathtakingly blooming gardens
Warrior shields
Force fields
(Covering me in you)
Erected against the machinery of the evildoers
The forces of conquest and dominance brutality greed and arrogance of
Manifest Destiny
Your spear and lance hurled and spun toward danger
The beckoning pounding
pounding
pounding
Primal percussive penetrating
Heart beat center of the tight drum skin
Your village drumming and tribal drum circle seduced and saved me
Your intricately wooden carved flute called to me, entered me
My response to you was fancy dancing and the 49er
~EBPryor
© All Rights Reserved by The Author
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