Ricardo Hanley Jr.
"I am a man who has been shaped by experience, changed by history and manifesting a future with clear intention and emotion day by day. It took time to be able to declare that with full conviction and poetry; my gift is what helped bring me to this clarity.
I began writing at 12 years old. My cousins and I were more than in love with music and the power therein. Writing raps was my first form of poetic expression, letting the beats guide me into my own rhythm. Letting the instrumentals bring forth inspiration for choruses and verses. What I practiced in my home followed me everywhere and it was in English class during a "poetry segment" that I found my rhythm again in the silence of my own soul.
Realizing unconsciously that without the music as a template to follow, I was free to expand my thoughts into the living ether or the universe and I gave to the world and it gave me back so much more. 
A release of anger, granted me peace. An expression of humor, gave me laughs. An analization written became an internalized study, that led to wisdom and knowledge I myself did not realize I had.
Love, hate, history, life and all it's many facets became the limitless source of subjects I could pen with my developing voice. Reading and listening to my favorite authors and poets strengthened my voice into what it is now and I'm forever indebted to every soul that has touched my own.
I look forward to more growth and sharing that growth with others, so they may experience life through me: Another set of eyes, lips and hands, seeing, speaking and shaping the world."

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