Free Papers: inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave freed in Minnesota in 1860

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Free Papers: poems. In this poem sequence Eliza, the enslaved, speaks to the poet Mary Moore Easter who answers her in the voices of her own ancestors, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, captives of the slave period. And often responses come from contemporary women. Sometimes the poet seems to channel Eliza’s voice in love song or defiance. Easter was inspired by Eliza’s archival court testimony to flesh out a whole woman and her fears, courage and determination to be free. This impassioned work does not only interrogate the past, but also leaps forward to offer a model for women of today. Mary Moore Easter, a Cave Canem Fellow, is a strong and flexible writer. She brings her tremendous powers of vision and of poetic technique to this book incorporating forms such as narrative, lyrical free verse, sonnet, pantoum, and dramatic dialogue.