Lalita Tademy Explores Her Family's History In Cane River and Red River

Writing Prompt

Lalita Tademy's fictionalized retelling of her family's history and their experiences in the United States of America in the books, Cane River and Red River, compels readers to explore their personal prejudices and reveals anew the intricate fabric of race and economics, which thinly veils the way our society currently functions. I once heard Nikki Giovanni say in a radio interview that we (African-Americans) need to tell our stories, and that those stories are in the history of the places where we live, not someplace afar. Take a look around, what stories do the ground beneath your feet and the wind in your ears have to tell? I think that I hear the residents of Quindaro,KS and Jayhawks calling.