They took my voice, now I can speak (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798256139230)

They Took My Voice From Me, Now I Can Speak is a raw, unflinching memoir of survival, silence, and redemption. Yvette Maria Powell shares her journey from childhood trauma and teenage motherhood at sixteen, through the darkness of domestic violence, addiction-adjacent survival, and years of being controlled and unheard to finally reclaiming her identity, her faith, and her voice.

Told in five powerful parts, from the shattering loss of innocence, to a desperate season of survival "by any means necessary," through a hard-won turning point, an escape and physical/spiritual resurrection, and finally a new purpose as an advocate for other women and girls, this memoir doesn't flinch from hard truths: teen pregnancy, family shame, abusive relationships, life in the drug trade, a life-threatening illness, and two strokes that nearly ended her story before it could be told.

But at its heart, this is not a book about pain. It is a book about rising. Powell writes with a survivor's honesty and a grandmother's warmth, offering forgiveness to her family, her exes, and herself as the ultimate act of freedom. Anyone who has ever felt silenced, judged, or unseen will find both a mirror and a map in these pages.