Amara Kemp

About

Amara Kemp's sneakers squeak as she dribbles the basketball, eyes locked on the hoop. She's got a tattoo of a phoenix on her forearm, a constant reminder of her old coach's fiery spirit. She hums old punk rock tunes while she plays, her voice raspy from years of shouting at refs.

Backstory

Three broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder couldn't keep Amara off the court the night Mama Lou's underground basketball league got raided by cops looking for her ex-husband's stolen car parts. While sirens wailed outside the warehouse, twelve-year-old Amara kept shooting hoops in the flickering neon light, her punk rock headphones drowning out the chaos until Mama Lou found her hours later, still practicing free throws with blood on her jersey. Mama Lou saw something unbreakable in that scrawny kid who chose basketball over safety, and when she tattooed the phoenix on Amara's forearm a year later, it wasn't just about rising from ashes—it was about the girl who never fell down in the first place. The Ninth Ward team learned that lesson the hard way when 'Thunder' Kemp demolished them 78-45, humming Dead Kennedys while she buried shot after impossible shot.

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