Mari Evans: Clarity As Concept
May 28, 2023
Women of Culture Mari Evans, poet, prose Leave a comment
“Listening is a special art. It is a fine art developed by practice. One hears the unexpressed as clearly as if it had been verbalized. One hears silence screaming in clarion tones. Ninety decibels. Hears tears, unshed, falling. Hears hunger gnawing at the back of spines; hears aching feet pushed past that one more step. Hears the repressed hurt of incest, hears the anguish of spousal abuse. Hears it all. Clearly, listening is a fine art. It can translate an obscure text into reality that walks, weeps and carries its own odor. Listening can decode a stranger’s eye and hear autobiography. Listening can watch a listless babe and understand the absence of future, the improbability, in fact, of possibility. Listening, more often than not, is a crushing experience.”
We Are Alive. Meklit Hadero
May 24, 2023
Women of Culture Meklit Hadero, music, We Are Alive Leave a comment
Angelina Weld Grimke Fragment
May 20, 2023
Women of Culture Angelina Weld Grimke, poem Leave a comment
“Fragment”
I am the woman with the black black skin
I am the laughing woman with the black black face
I am living in the cellars and in every crowded place
I am toiling just to eat
In the cold and in the heat
And I laugh
I am the laughing woman who’s forgotten how to weep
I am the laughing woman who’s afraid to go to sleep
“Have Faith” by Emma Amos
May 18, 2023
Dooshima’s Story
May 14, 2023
Women of Culture breast cancer Leave a comment
Room 313 is an experimental series created by Wana Udobang about people who have experienced trauma undergoing therapy. The show tells their stories through vignettes. Episode 3 is Dooshima’s Story. Dooshima is played by poet and actor Sheila Ojei.
“Hijab Scenes” by Mohja Kahf
May 10, 2023
Women of Culture Hijab Scene, Mohja Kahf 4 Comments
“Hijab Scene # 7”
No, I’m not bald under the scarf
No, I’m not from that country
where women can’t drive cars
No, I would not like to defect
I’m already American
But thank you for offering
What else do you need to know
relevant to my buying insurance,
opening a bank account,
reserving a seat on a flight?
Yes, I speak English
Yes, I carry explosives
They’re called words
And if you don’t get up
Off your assumptions
They’re going to blow you away
1995
“Hijab Scene # 2”
“You people have such restrictive dress for women,”
she said, hobbling away in three inch heels and panty hose
to finish out another pink-collar temp pool day.
1992
“Hijab Scene # 1”
“You dress strange,” said a tenth-grade boy with bright blue hair
to the new Muslim girl with the headscard in homeroom,
his tongue-rings clicking on the “tr” in “strange”.
1992