The color of dusk

"Yesterday they took out one of my teeth to identify me in case I 'scape again ..." This excerpt is from one of the poems from Dolores Kendrick's collection "The women of plums: poems in the voices of slave women" . Twelve poems from it have been set to music by Wall Matthews and singer Aleta Greene. Together they form an impressive account of the female history of slavery. Ndzeli is transported on… a Portuguese ship to America where "her dreams will hang on a tree like rotting fruit" and her name is corrupted to Jenny, Leah, Prunella, Tildy, Lucy or Harriet. As the generations succeed each other and the percussion gives way to a blues guitar with a genuine Mississippi sound, the self-confidence of the women grows. "The women of plums are sweet and black. Their flesh is moist with tears of joy! Their dreams are skins color of dusk. "(GO) _more