What We Carry-Stories Black Women Never Tell Volume 3-carries on the spirit, strength, and collectivity of volumes 1 and 2. As the ten writers in this third volume can attest, some of our stories, when read aloud to each other, brought out the depth of pain in our very souls. The process of being together in the same space leant itself to spontaneously creating a circle around several sisters who were distressed and helping them stabilize themselves in our presence. We began to understand that together, we were addressing the principles of destiny, humility, conscience, and truth and that we are our sister's keeper. The paths that helped us reach these principles were many, including curiosity, concern, courage, integrity, leadership and, YES, writing our own stories down to share with others. It has been a cathartic experience. At the end of What We Carry, you will find several blank pages where you can write your thoughts and stories. To prompt you to write, we have shared the Journal and Discussion Questions as modified and reprinted from Reclaiming Our Stories. What We Carry is just the beginning. As the ten writers in this book can attest, some of our stories, when read aloud to each other, brought out the depth of pain in our very souls. The process of being together in the same space lent itself to spontaneously creating a circle around a sister who was distressed and help her stabilize herself in our presence. We began to understand that together, we were addressing the principles of destiny, humility, conscience, and truth and that we are our sister's keeper. The paths that helped us reach these principles were many, including curiosity, concern, courage, integrity, leadership and, YES, writing our own stories down to share with others. It has been a cathartic experience. What We Carry-Stories Black Women Never Tell Volume 3 is the product of ten dedicated writers sitting together over a period of as many weeks for two hours at a time. Clearly, they did much more than sit together; they listened deeply and brought forth stories waiting to be told and ultimately shared with you, the attentive reader. A facilitator was involved-a black woman, like the other writers. She provided seven writing prompts that were the catalysts for each chapter in this book: - Where I Live - The Black, Angry Woman - Reconciliation - Contradictions - Expectations - Skin Color - Wild Card At a glance, these topics might seem unremarkable, but the writers featured in this third volume of What We Carry-Stories Black Women Never Tell elevated those simple prompts into their own specific form of art. If you would like to discover how they accomplished this task that soon became a goal, simply turn each page of this book and read with care. Additionally, What We Carry-Stories Black Women Never Tell concludes with the following valuable elements: - Lessons Learned - Study Questions - Info About Healthy Black Families, Inc. - What I Carry Notes Pages We encourage you to write about what you carry on the blank pages at the end of this book. Who knows? Perhaps you will join us during one of our upcoming writing series. Now, are you ready to meet the writers? Through the sheer power of their written words, they stand ready to interact with you.