Black Authors Network Literary Talk Show  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 5/5/2008 11:58 PM UTC

  LOST & FOUND IDENTITY
  

  Linda Mayfield-Hayes (Salter)

  Poet/Author

  
  
  Born Linda Diane Mayfield, this aspiring poetess grew up in the Red Hook housing projects, of Brooklyn, New York. Linda began writing poetry in her early teens, but soon abandoned her craft. She didn't lift her poetic pen again until 2003, almost forty years later. Today, she is the author of three collections of poetry, "Life is a Roller Coaster", "Life is a Roller Coaster 2" and her latest book, "Afroetry"

   

  Linda has done poetry readings at Barnes & Noble, The Queens Central Library, Stain, Valarie's Sophisticated Soul Food Cafe and the Delaware Art Museum (ArtSpeaks). She has also performed at Sista's Place with the legendary Louis Reyes Rivera and the Jazzoets, and made a guest appearance at "Voices of Poetry", a special event put on by the "Reading By The Branch" book club of Greenville, SC.
  
  Online, she goes by the pen name of Slendah. Her poetry has appeared on websites such as Mr. Africa, Editred, Soulful Chemistry, E-LiteraryCafe, NubianPoets, Black-Poetry, The Black Poetry Cafe, PostPoems, LiterateNubians and TimBookTu. She has been the featured poet at Poeticnites and MotivateAMind. Her poems have also appeared in several anthropologies.
  

   

  LOST & FOUND IDENTITY

  
  

  Since coming to America

  After traveling so far

  We've lost our true identity

  And now don't know who we are;

  
  

  We've been thoroughly mis-educated

  Taught a false reality

  In an attempt to change our thought process

  To a slave mentality;

  
  

  This is part of our punishment

  For not listening to God

  Because of our disobedience

  Our lives are extremely hard;

  
  

  We're the only group in America

  Stripped from whence we came

  They deprived us of our history

  They even took away our name;

  
  

  Those from China are still called Chinese

  Those from Mexico, still Mexican

  While we've been called Negro, Colored, Black

  And Afro-American;

  
  

  Well, regardless of what they call us

  I'm here to spread the news

  Black people wrote the first Bible

  We're the original Hebrews;

  
  

  Our punishment won't last forever

  Someday God will take us back

  Imagine the joy of reaching Heaven

  And discovering God is black.

  
  

  
  Afroetry can be purchases at:

  Amazon.com

  Lulu.com

  and my website Slendah.tripod.com

  
  
  

  Linda Mayfield-Hayes (Salter)

  Poet/Author

   

  AFROETRY:

  Afrocentric Poetry that Educates & Motivates

  http://slendah.tripod.com

   
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