North Carolina African American Literature
N C L R ONLINE
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COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
into a home on history’s page, where you’re not hemmed in at the margins. Don’t beg or bow. Stand in your place. Ink firm your existence out of the shadows. Make history one deliberate letter at a time – not as a slave, but not fully free either. Write it the best you can. Press your free hand on your heart. Unbind your mind no matter how the hand wavers. This is how perfect penmanship feels: One liberated turn after the other. Script your destiny. Weave the story. Right the sky. Burn through fog, mist, and muck. Free your eyes. Sketch a new horizon. Pulled and drawn by your own hand.
Suppressed Dreams Screaming Out (mixed media on wooden panel canvas, coated in epoxy resin, 36x72) by Darryl Hurts
DARRYL HURTS was born in Alexandria, LA, and now lives in Charlotte, NC. He is a self-taught artist who uses many different methods to create his works, including image transfers, photography, drawing, and acrylic paint, which are then applied to wooded panels or stretched canvases and coated with epoxy resin. His work appeared in the Black on Black exhibit at the Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, NC, in 2016 and was featured in the Fashion After Dark exhibition in Charlotte, NC. In 2017, Hurts created a mural at Andaz 5th Avenue in New York City, which was featured in The Fourhundred Magazine. More of his works can be seen on his website.