The first meeting will be Friday, June 14, 6 PM, at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore. Our final meeting will be August 9. (We might not meet Friday, July 5 for the Independence Day holiday. I’ll keep you posted as the date draws closer.)
So! Keep your Fridays open and your pen close, find a pretty journal, read all kinds of poetry and prose, and get ready for a summer of creativity and fun!
I can’t wait to see you all on Friday, June 14 and all summer long!
too long searching
for ways to escape this cocoon
to spread wings wide, no longer hide
my being, my heart, my life.
Aching to find my way home
to this body, through this voice
no more asking permission
to be me, know myself
be at one with destiny.
Today, International Women’s Day
in honor of women born before
in thanks to women here now
I offer a prayer, a divine mandala
color of freedoms and dreams.
Bless this awaited return
to the roots of our sacred knowing
that while our days are numbered
our presence will be counted
in courage bared, in love shared.
For when we stand, live out loud
rescue our trampled souls
we heal the spirit within
to humbly transform, to proudly say
I’ve been a woman.
I marvel at how
ever since I was
somethingteen
my life has been
p u n c t u a t e d
by this cycle
this ritual
this
period
.
without even asking my permission
it began to define me
“You are now
a woman”
period
.
but I was still
just a girl
and all the
bleeding
and aching
and rending of
flesh
from
flesh
all the
sloughing off of skin
shedding of the old womb
the unused womb
just felt gross
period
.
not noble
not earthywisegoddess
just awkward
period
.
terrified of that
ill-fated day
when
doom-of-all-doom
tampon would overflow
pad would overflow
panties
onto
pants
bleeding into
public view
nightmare
mortification
I hate this
period
.
but this will define me
I am now woman
I am creator
life-giver
identity in motherhood
those who may be birthed of
my loins
will validate me
mother
woman
period
.
what if I mother in other ways
than conceiving
and delivering
from my
womb?
what if I call those ones
children
who
of my flesh were not born
but to my soul
are eternally knit?
what if my mind
is more fertile
than my
uterus?
what if poems
and programs
and
transforming community
are my offspring?
period
.
am I still a woman?
and if I don’t think it
beautiful
or
magical
that my insides
twist
and
wrench
while
flesh
tears from
flesh
while I still deliver reports
compile data
network and visioneer
unflinching
am I still a woman?
these seasons are a part of me
winter
spring
summer
and
autumn
cycling through my body
through my soul
every 28 days
period
.
woman is who I am
period
.
blood
and
softness
and
compassion
and
nurturing
and
fierce
and
intuition
and
tender
and
strong
and
wound
and
create
and
conceive
and
labor
and
agony
and
empathy
If you haven’t been able to sleep since the holidays, always asking yourself, “When does ITWOW start?” then this announcement is for you!
I am pleased to announce In The Words of Womyn, spring 2013 will begin Friday, February 8, at 6 PM at Tia Chucha’s! We will continue for 11-12 weeks with an end date of Friday, April 26. We might have a week off to observe Spring Break; I will let you know once the date(s) draw closer. Bring a friend, spread the word, bust out your paper and pen, and let’s get creative!
For more ITWOW news, stay tuned to this website, or email itwow.sfv [at] gmail [dot] com.
It seems like our last session just ended, but luckily a new one is starting quite soon!
I am pleased to announce In The Words of Womyn, fall 2012 at Tia Chucha’s will begin Friday, October 5th, at 6 PM. We will continue for about 10 weeks with an end date of Friday, December 14. Bring a friend, spread the word, bust out your paper and pen, and let’s get creative!
However, because the fall can become a little tricky with so many holidays, ITWOW WILL NOT MEET Friday November 2 (I have a prior commitment) and Friday, November 23 (it interferes with the Thanksgiving holiday).
For more ITWOW news, stay tuned to this website, or email itwow.sfv [at] gmail [dot] com.
I am so excited to announce that a new chapter of In the Words of Womyn will be coming soon to the Heart of Texas! Please stay tuned here for more details about the dates and location.
I celebrate my sisters
who put pen to paper
and
give sound to our story
and volume to our voice
creating a collective consciousness
unified in the vision
of womyn writers and
poets and
artists and
leaders and
thinkers and
doers
I celebrate my mothers
who drew lines in the sand
stepping out of binding gender roles
and into the fullness
of their own
beautiful
strong
independent
intelligent
creative
ambitious
selves
I celebrate my grandmothers
who picketed lines
and went on strike
who endured
hunger
persecution
torture
excommunication
isolation
and
abuse
for the right to have
a voice and
a vote
I celebrate my great-grandmothers
and their mothers
and their mothers’ mothers
womyn throughout all of herstory
who blazed new trails
who would not keep silent
who refused to be diminished
who kept on writing
under men’s names
in secret
under threats of violence–even death
who would
just
not
relent
so that I can
grip this mic
speak my soul
and
become my self
from so many different angles
of our upbringing–
media,
society,
religion–
something has always told us
that as women,
we are responsible
to keep everything
we present to the world
pretty,
neat,
tidy,
delicious,
lovely,
attractive,
and
desirable—
from our bodies
to our dinner tables
this notion
has been ingrained
into the innermost parts
of our minds
of our being
but
inequality is not pretty
depression is not neat
grief is not tidy
oppression is not delicious
abuse is not lovely
injustice is not attractive
and
disappointment is not desirable
Often,
the truth is ugly
and
honesty unsightly
but
let us
break the bonds
of what society has called
“beautiful”
let us
re-image a standard of
stunning
let us be true to our souls
let us love our bodies
let us relinquish “should be”
let us embrace our imperfections
let us give volume to our voices
let us be authentic
let us be whole
let us be ourselves
unapologetically.
For my nieces, that they might be themselves with joyful abandon. For all the womyn I know who are themselves, apologetically. For all the men who know how to cherish real beauty.
In the Words of Womyn celebrates it’s first birthday! Wooohooo!
What an incredible first year we had! In January 2010, ITWOW was born out of conversations and experiences and a passion for empowering the voices of womyn everywhere. ITWOW began as a writing circle workshop and grew into this website featuring online publications of womyns’ writings. As I reflect upon 2010, I celebrate abundance: the completion of three, 10-week sessions of ITWOW workshops held at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural; over 25 womyn having participated in those workshops throughout the year; over 75 writings having been published on this site; and countless testimonies having been shared by womyn who are finding their words, their voices, their true selves!
I am overwhelmed by the honor and privilege it is to share with my sisters in this adventure of writing, growing, and healing. In the Words of Womyn has become one of the greatest delights of my life; it is a gift of priceless worth to my soul.
I extend my deepest gratitude to Tia Chucha’s for providing me with space, support, and nurturing–without which I would not be able to develop, host, and continue the work of In the Words of Womyn. I offer my utmost respect and sincerest appreciation to each of the womyn who have dared to share herself by telling her story, by participating in the workshops, by stepping up to the mic, and by publishing on this site.
I have been so profoundly inspired, encouraged, affirmed, nurtured, and blessed by this incredible community of writers that I truly stand in awe. There is healing that may not have been stirred; there is new life that may not have been coaxed; there are poems that I would not have written; there is courage I may not have found; and there is a me I might not have discovered, had it not been for ITWOW.
So thank you all and may we continue to give sound to our stories and volume to our voices in this new year!
She walks with so much pride no doubt she got the style
Got the nerve to be different all seems well in this girls life
Look in her mind you will see her last night with a knife
Taking it to her veins drops it to the floor as her heart pains
Shes giving up on life its on her she does not name names
There is no one she blames for this broken hearted person that she has become
her life has been coming undone right at the seems she has forgotten
that she has dreams as much as she wants it to end she cant bring herself to bleed.
She
walks with the most beautiful smile all the while when she gets home a
single mother shes all on her own beautiful children running all about
but she feels all alone she cant handle much more she has to cook clean
get money and pay the bills last resort leaving in the middle of the
night paying for food with the money she steals she lays in bed at night
with a dead stare in her eye she cannot even find the will to cry cold
as stone on the inside she screams with every ounce of her being feeling
like her life has no meaning
She carries herself with all the
beauty and generosity in the world trying to make it shes just starting
her life but there’s people always trying to tear her down calling her a
fool saying shes a clown to ever believe she can make it.
The
beauty in a woman that as weak as she seems she is strong because as a
female we have the will that no matter how hard it gets we never give
up. Pushing day to day we go hard at work even at play give as much love
as heart can give and that is immense a woman who doesn’t value herself
has no sense without that value that’s when self hate is born a pain
that metaphorically makes you bleed like a rose thorn. As a woman you
must know when to pick your self up…always and as we get up we brush
ourselves off ask your self when to give up always…say never.
