Trinity

by Dr. Zelda Lockhart

Trinity follows descendants of the Lee family, transporting us to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Lottie Rebecca Lee is spoken into the world by a Black nurse who declares, “Lord Jesus, if that ain’t the blackest little baby born this side of heaven.”

Later, Lottie will prove to be her ancestors’ promise to unearth the Mississippi and Ghanaian atrocities that have tormented Benjamin Lee, her grandfather who was born during the Great Depression in Mississippi’s red clay tobacco fields, Benjamin Junior, his son, and Lottie Rebecca’s father, born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the post Korean War GI Bill promises prosperity.

These two generations of men are haunted by the Mother-Spirit who did not survive enslavement’s post-traumatic stress and violence, bringing years of unresolved pain to the surface, carrying Lottie and her family on a painstaking journey of memory, spiritual reckoning, and healing.

Trinity is the riveting story of the daughter-spirit born to stitch love back into the scattered wombs of her Black mothers and call love back into the fishing blues songs of her Black male kin.

Dr. Zelda Lockhart is the author of Fifth Born, Cold Running Creek, and Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle. Her fiction, poetry, and essays appear in several anthologies including Chautauqua and Obsidian II. She holds a Ph.D. in Expressive Art Therapies, an M.A. in Literature, and a certificate from the New York Film Academy. She lives in North Carolina.

An Evening with Zelda

Check out some clips from the We Lit! event at CCCADI featuring Dr. Zelda Lockhart and Yona Deshommes as the moderator.

Collect Zelda’s Books