[[ARTIST SPOTLIGHT]]- Hope Taylor

Hope Taylor-McGriff is an author, mentor, mother, educator, and survivor.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Hope for 12years. Recently I have praised her more than ever for her strength, radiating hope, and mentorship. You can look her up, she published Overflow and To The Tune of Hope in the early 90's. While recently reading one of her poems featured in Overflow, I got this sudden urge to want to sing. Then I had the strongest, clearest vision of how I would depict the poem as a dialogue on stage. Needless to say, I feel the need to share...so drum roll please :-)...:

Let Freedom Ring [excerpt from Overflow]
by Hope Taylor-McGriff

My country 'tis of thee
Lady can you spare some change?
I haven't eaten in two days.

Sweet Land of Liberty
I left my legs over in the Nam
right beside my best friend.

Of thee I sing
Mister, just a quarter--
I've got a wife and four small kids,
the baby's got the flu.

Land where my father's died
I used to have a farm;
grew red ripe tomatoes.

Land of the pilgrims' pride
and golden, sun-kissed corn.

From every mountainside
Bulletin: an unidentified man was found dead this
morning in a downtown storefront doorway.
The apparent cause of death?
overexposure to underliving.

Let freedom ring!


SOAPBOX: --> more Hope praise --> http://mylife-noeltulliv.blogspot.com/2010/03/to-hope.html



05.07.10____Noel Tulliv