This is what I hold against slavery. May come a time when I forgive - cause I don't think I'm set up to forget - the beatings, the selling, the killings, but I don't think I ever forgive the ignorance they kept us in.

A startling and engrossing commentary on the complex actuality and continuing heritage of American slavery.

The blues records of each decade explain something about the philosophical basis of our lives as black people. ... Blues is a basis of historical continuity for black people. It is a ritualized way of talking about ourselves and passing it on.

I think writing is really a process of communication. . . . It's the sense of being in contact with people who are part of a particular audience that really makes a difference to me in writing.

This is what I hold against slavery. May come a time when I forgive - cause I don't think I'm set up to forget - the beatings, the selling, the killings, but I don't think I ever forgive the ignorance they kept us in.

These is old blues / and I sing em like any woman do. / These the old blues / and I sing em, sing em, sing em. Just like any woman do. / My life ain't done yet. / Naw. My song ain't through.