If You Can Tell It, You Can Write It

By Tracie Adams

Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.

I first heard this African proverb in the early 1980s from an Anthropology professor. He was droning on about always hearing both sides of the story before making up one’s mind about an important issue. I was a 19-year-old girl on a path of destructive life choices as a means of coping with traumatic sexual abuse that I had been too afraid and too ashamed to talk about.

Something changed after I left...