Singing Through Sorrow
Tuesday, February 20 2007
SINGING THROUGH SORROW
Lorrain Taylor
Crime rates have dropped nationwide since in the 1990s. But in some cities, violent crime continues to soar. Lorrain Taylor lives in Oakland, California. She lost her twin sons, Albade and Obadiah, to gun violence there. The murders were never solved.
Now Lorrain speaks - and sings - to inmates at penitentiaries in an effort to prevent further gun violence.
Lorrain says after her twins were murdered, she sent her last surviving son, Greg, out of the Bay Area and told him to stay out. Greg is now running a business and attending law school.
I could not bear to lose another son, my only son left … I told Greg we're getting you out of the Bay Area. You stay out … The chances of survival for young African American males are too slim here.
- Lorrain Taylor
Click on the photo for more images from Lorrain's work
Dick talks to Lorrain about her loss and why she chooses to talk to and perform for the kinds of men who killed her sons.
- See photos of Albade, Obadiah, Greg and Lorrain
- See poems written by a confessed double murderer who met Lorrain when she visited San Quentin in 2006
- Learn more about the Lorrain here and here
Your Story - LINDA POWELL
Linda Powell
Linda Powell wrote to us about a moment which she says changed her life. She was living in a small town in Alaska. She was newly single, living away from her family, her children and her friends. She was about to turn 50 and felt invisible. She got depressed. But when she visited an elderly aunt, she discovered that her ancestors were among the original colonists, that they crossed America in wagon trains and served in two world wars.
It gave me a different perspective because I realized I came from strong stuff. And I also thought they have come so far, I'm not going to drop the ball. Obviously, my little problems in life are not nearly as difficult as [what] these other folks went through.
-Linda Powell
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