My family’s experience with eminent domain: a Moth story

ByNicole Aytch

I told this story as part of a Moth Storytelling Intensive workshop. This is a five-minute snippet of a decades-long experience my family had with eminent domain. Eminent domain, as outlined in the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, allows government bodies (with just compensation), to seize private citizens’ property for “public use.”

But, like James Baldwin said about his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, this is a story I need to write before I write the rest of them.

For those interested in the collaborative writing process, which The Moth calls “social drafting,” here’s my first draft. Be kind!

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