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Artists Registry
Gainesville FL United States
Artist's Statement
I was 6- or 7-years-old and in Ghana when the 9/11 attacks happened; I do not have a single recollection of hearing or seeing coverage of it until I came to the U.S. at age 12. But even after coming here each anniversary of the attacks saw me commemorating in an emotionally-distanced and passive manner (always somber, to be sure, but distanced all the same).
Things changed on the 18th anniversary (2019). On this particular anniversary I felt a deep sense of heaviness and sadness, as if I had witnessed the attacks first-hand or lost someone to it--this lasted the whole day. Days later the heaviness was rekindled following a conversation in which 9/11 briefly came up. At this juncture I researched all the major ways in which people suffered (and still suffer) from the event and attempted to write a poem about it. "Heaviness" is the end result of that attempt (many thanks to Lou Gallo for his role as literary consultant on the poem).
Resume
Reinfred Dziedzorm Addo is a Ghanaian-American writer/speech-language pathologist currently residing in Gainesville, Florida. Reinfred's general creative writing has appeared in publications such as Land and territory (anthology), Tampered Press (literary journal), and Masques (anthology). His medical creative writing has been published by the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders.
For now Reinfred may be reached via email at reinfredaddocentre@gmail.com. For now his postings may be found on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter by searching for "Reinfred Addo Central".