Hart has degrees in English literature and creative writing. Her published works are of literary themes. In this essay, Hart examines the way that Rivera uses the materialization of gods and goddesses to express the subconscious desires of her protagonist in his story.

It does not take Rivera long in her story "African Passions" to divulge the truth about her protagonist. Teresa is a woman of contrapuntal desires - a deep-seated passion to love and a self-defeating compulsion to remain passive. She cries outwardly for attention and affection, but her only action in the direction of love is to serve her lover and to pray. It is when she prays that her emotional energies are most nearly aligned with her desires; and it is through these suppressed emotions that the ancient gods of Africa are brought forth to seek, in her name, the bridge between her desires...