"Other Girl with the Pearl Earring" Story:

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In 1665 the painter, Johannes Vermeer finished a painting that would become best known as “The Girl with a Pearl Earring.” It had just sold for some 30 million dollars at auction and for some reason the thought occurred to me, “What if the girl had been a young black slave girl?” And that sparked the first few lines of the poem.

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So, my painting became “The Other Girl,” and the realization of how barbaric racism and slavery really was, and is. The stunning beauty in such a young woman, with all of the promises and hopes and dreams, urged me to see the best in humanity, contrasted by the very worst in any individual who would seek to enslave another.

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This painting is not a “portrait,” but rather, a study in the human condition. It holds a special place for me and my hopes for humanity’s rise to greater spiritual enlightenment.