They Raised Me Up: A Black Single Mother and the Women Who Inspired Her

A Note to the Reader

A Note to the Reader this is a work of creative nonfiction. its historical sections are drawn entirely and without embellishment from the sources listed in my footnotes. However, in the parts of the book that take place between 1986 and 1987, i have disguised some of the characters to protect their privacy. in writing about this same time period, i have also reconstructed conversations from memory and altered the chronology of certain events in order to create a smoother narrative. Pablo Picasso once said,“art is a lie which makes us realize the truth.”i hope that readers of this work will find their own truth within these pages. They Raised Me Up ...