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