David L. Powell III's Blog
June 1, 2025
Why I Wrote Blood & Scripture: A Confession from the Margins
I didn’t write Blood & Scripture: Memoirs of the Philadelphia Slasher to shock you. I wrote it to remind you.
To remind you of the names we forget. The neighborhoods we drive past. The trauma we silence. I wrote this book as a confession—yes—but not just from one man. From a city. From a generation. From a people who’ve carried wounds for so long, we stopped calling them pain and started calling them normal.
I am a Black man. I am an author. And I am a witness.
This story—gritty, dark, unflinching—isn’t just fiction. It’s a mirror held up to the systemic decay that shaped too many of our lives. Philadelphia in the '80s was a battlefield. The crack epidemic. The abandoned kids. The closed churches. The muted cries of women no one came to save. I didn’t want to write another crime novel where the monster is just a shadow. I wanted to write a story where the shadow had a name, a past, a motive—one born from the same soil as his victims.
What I Want This Book to Do
This is more than a story. It’s a statement.
I want Blood & Scripture to open doors for conversations we avoid—about generational trauma, about cycles of violence, about what happens when society turns its back on Black children. I want to create a space where the uncomfortable truth can live beside the poetic beauty of our survival. Where fiction doesn’t let the facts get buried.
I want this book on shelves that matter—especially in Black-owned bookstores. I want our stories to be amplified without being sanitized. I want young Black writers to see that their pain, their perspective, and their power are worthy of the page.
Why Black Authors Matter
We aren’t a trend. We are the architects of American literature. From oral tradition to spoken word, from Baldwin to Beyoncé, our voices move culture.
But we are still fighting for shelf space. For fair contracts. For marketing budgets. For the right to tell our stories without being asked to water them down.
Black authors matter because we speak from the soul of a nation that often forgets it has one.
If You Read Nothing Else
Blood & Scripture is my prayer. My scream. My offering. It is for the boy who saw too much. The girl who was never protected. The addict who was once somebody’s mother. The preacher who turned his back. And the reader willing to step into the darkness and find the light for themselves.
If it shakes you, good.
If it haunts you, even better.
Because sometimes, haunting is just what truth looks like when it finally gets to speak.
—
David L. Powell III
Black author. Truth teller. Shadow walker.Blood & Scriptures: Memoirs of the Philadelphia Slasher
To remind you of the names we forget. The neighborhoods we drive past. The trauma we silence. I wrote this book as a confession—yes—but not just from one man. From a city. From a generation. From a people who’ve carried wounds for so long, we stopped calling them pain and started calling them normal.
I am a Black man. I am an author. And I am a witness.
This story—gritty, dark, unflinching—isn’t just fiction. It’s a mirror held up to the systemic decay that shaped too many of our lives. Philadelphia in the '80s was a battlefield. The crack epidemic. The abandoned kids. The closed churches. The muted cries of women no one came to save. I didn’t want to write another crime novel where the monster is just a shadow. I wanted to write a story where the shadow had a name, a past, a motive—one born from the same soil as his victims.
What I Want This Book to Do
This is more than a story. It’s a statement.
I want Blood & Scripture to open doors for conversations we avoid—about generational trauma, about cycles of violence, about what happens when society turns its back on Black children. I want to create a space where the uncomfortable truth can live beside the poetic beauty of our survival. Where fiction doesn’t let the facts get buried.
I want this book on shelves that matter—especially in Black-owned bookstores. I want our stories to be amplified without being sanitized. I want young Black writers to see that their pain, their perspective, and their power are worthy of the page.
Why Black Authors Matter
We aren’t a trend. We are the architects of American literature. From oral tradition to spoken word, from Baldwin to Beyoncé, our voices move culture.
But we are still fighting for shelf space. For fair contracts. For marketing budgets. For the right to tell our stories without being asked to water them down.
Black authors matter because we speak from the soul of a nation that often forgets it has one.
If You Read Nothing Else
Blood & Scripture is my prayer. My scream. My offering. It is for the boy who saw too much. The girl who was never protected. The addict who was once somebody’s mother. The preacher who turned his back. And the reader willing to step into the darkness and find the light for themselves.
If it shakes you, good.
If it haunts you, even better.
Because sometimes, haunting is just what truth looks like when it finally gets to speak.
—
David L. Powell III
Black author. Truth teller. Shadow walker.Blood & Scriptures: Memoirs of the Philadelphia Slasher
