Writing Our Own Stories Inc.

02/24/2025

We'd be delighted to have you join us!

We are now meeting every Tuesday from 4-6pm est and every Saturday from 4-5pm est

It's an open group for adults who are interested in a supportive writing group. There is no pressure to attend every session or to actively share out, although it is encouraged!

Email [email protected] for the link!

See you soon!

Keep writing!

"The Cost of FREEDOM is FAITH!"

Ayanna

02/09/2025

Day 9!

Poem-a-day Challenge

"FOR NIKKI" a tribute to Nikki Giovanni ENJOY!

https://youtube.com/shorts/xdByM68-tWA?si=TtxrcVyDyQS_0qt5

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18SntvAJ2f/

a love poem to the original G"For Nikki"I was gonna write todayBut the ink's all dryWas gonna search for a reason to smile todayBut all I found was these tea...

02/09/2025

✍🏾 Harriet Returned Presents: Weekly Virtual Writing Sessions ✍🏾

For BIPOC Aspiring Authors

📅 Tuesdays & Saturdays
⏰ 4 PM EST
📍 Live on Zoom

Are you an aspiring BIPOC author looking for community, accountability, and inspiration? Join Harriet Returned for our FREE weekly virtual writing sessions! Whether you're working on a novel, poetry, memoir, or just want to get words on the page, this space is for you.

🔹 Write alongside like-minded creatives
🔹 Gain support & motivation
🔹 Stay consistent with your writing goals

📩 RSVP for the Zoom link: Please email [email protected] for more information

Let’s write our stories together!

02/03/2025

Day 3!
B.H.M. Poem-a-day Challenge

"A call to action"- by Meryl Ayanna

You don't speak enslaved
Your head tilted towards the grave
And your tongue chained up in obedience
It's been beat into you
It's been seared and branded on you
It's been whipped and hung like nooses
It's been stripped away and sold
It's been captured and mutilated
That freedom in you has been diminished by the circumstances of your capture
But your spirit can and will know freedom again
The moment you realize the chains to overcome are the ones in the mind
Think for yourself and be free
Speak for yourself and be free
Pick up arms and be free
Destory and be free
Then rebuild with love and know peace

02/03/2025

I just realized that my Day 2 poem did not post yesterday so here it is!

Day 2
B.H.M. Poem-a-day Challenge

"Untitled Freewrite: our soul"

Sturdier than the fickleness of the flesh
It holds the source of our entire existence
More tangible than the tongue that lies
It houses tales tangled to the tree of life
Wiser than the penetrated mind
It answers itself time after time
Our truest identity, the way God sees you and me
Our soul...
It knows all the things we forget to remember
It remembers all the things we fail to believe
Like our own divinity
Our magic
Our power
Our brilliance
Our soul...
Richer than the resourvirs of crystal clear waters
Deeper than the darkest corner of the deepest ocean
Blackest night in the highest sky
Brightest star in the abyss
As vast as the surface of all the heavens and all the earths
Our soul...

02/01/2025

I'm tired

"I'm tired of marching... tired of marching for something that should've been mine at birth"
A direct quote from the mouth of a martyr
Positioned as the Prince of Non-violence
They slaughted him just like they hung Jesus to a cross
This world isn't much more than it was
When he marched
When he taught
When he fought
When he twisted words into weapons and penetrated the heart of a nation
Martin, the king
Who told America to finally let freedom ring
Who envisioned the mountain top he'd never got to live to see
A oasis of equality I'm still waiting to see
A world where humanity is centered
And our character is our defining quality
Martin's dream is what Langston questioned
Has is festered and dry up in the sun?
Has hatred won?
Has bigotry and hypocrisy become the standard ?
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it trickle down generation lines?
Whispering in the ears of Black Lives Matter protesters?
Beckoning us to "Press on... til victory is won"
Would Martin still call for love in a world this contrite?
Or would he decide, this ain't worth the fight?
I don't know which choice is right but I do know

Martin Luther King Jr was tired, and so am I.

12/10/2024

"For Nikki"

By; Ayanna McNeill Harriet Returned

I was gonna write today
But the ink's all dry
Was gonna search for a reason to smile today
But all I found was these tears to cry
Was gonna sing a sweet song of joy
But a warrior's roars filled my throat
Was going to cling to hope today
But heatache walked in instead
Took a seat at my table fixin' to sip tea and read
Pulled out a poet's poem
One I've always known
Her cadence like a warm embrace
Her diction like a shady side eye
Her rhyme like a timeless melody
Hummed especially for me
Her words, feel like they were presented on a carefully decorative platter
Like a pile of warmed biscuits slathered with honey and butter
She says "eat child and be full"
She says "receive child and be made whole"
She says "love child and know..."

I've been fed well by her words
Felt full of myself
Tripped out my ego
And found the revolution in my soul
Saw myself as precious as God
She wrote me into existence
Told a black girl's story
Sung a black woman's song
Wrote a black goddess poem
Over and over and over and over and over again

Oh Nikki...
I called you the original G
Because of your ability
To spun truths with your tongue
To shift microcosm in the masterpieces
To shape systems with syllables
And to spare the lives of little orators, creators, and groits like me...

I don't have to tell you job well done queen
Because the work ain't done
And neither are you...
Today the ink's dry
Today i will cry
Today heartache will sit and sip next to me

And today
A new poem will be birthed
And you'll be all up and through every line.

03/10/2024

Happening NOW! On Zoom! Everyone

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9878054525?pwd=RURuK2tiU011TGc3Vkhhb0pQY2pkdz09&omn=82790156810

Meeting ID: 987 805 4525
Passcode: hello

03/08/2024

In honor of WORLD WOMEN'S DAY, head over to www.harrietreturned.com and purchase a copy of "For Black Women By Black Women: An Anthology of Lessons Learned"



https://www.harrietreturned.com/product-page/for-black-women-by-black-women-an-anthology-of-lessons-learned

A place to spark revolutionary love, free thought, and transformation. Meet author Ayanna McNeill, creator of Harriet Returned Inc.

03/08/2024

Writing Our Own Stories Inc will be resuming our weekly writing groups on Sundays at 2pm. It will be a space to come and share any writing projects you are working on as well as give other authors feedback and support with their projects. Our mission is to help aspiring authors become self published. If you know anyone who might be interested in joining this space, please feel free to share this flyer and my contact information! ([email protected])

Thank you!
Ayanna

"The Cost of FREEDOM is FAITH!"

03/08/2024

Writing Our Own Stories Inc will be resuming our weekly writing groups on Sundays at 2pm. It will be a space to come and share any writing projects you are working on as well as give other authors feedback and support with their projects. Our mission is to help aspiring authors become self published. If you know anyone who might be interested in joining this space, please feel free to share this flyer and my contact information! ([email protected])

Thank you!
Ayanna

"The Cost of FREEDOM is FAITH!"