This is a picture of Dona Varin Cheverez-Cheverez, a full blood Taino Indian woman from the mountain town of Morovis in Puerto Rico. She is working with the traditional Taino ceramic bowls. Gallery
I recently presented a workshop at the Power of Words Conference in Vermont. It was an incredible learning experience, both from a business perspective as well as personal growth.
I will be writing a full recap on the conference, but I would like to share an experience from a workshop conducted by Marianela Medrano-Marra, Writing the Crosscultural Experience.
To introduce us to the crosscultural experience, she asked the group to participate in a quick exercise where we rolled our r’s to get in touch with the legacy of romance languages, and to feel the expression throughout our whole bodies. The exercise seemed simple, but I quickly realized it wasn’t as comfortable for the whole group as it was for me. It turned out to be quite a nerve-racking brainteaser for some people in the group, awakening my understanding that the crossculture experience isn’t as accessible as I originally thought.
Everyone did give it their best effort, and we all found it fascinating how difficult rolling the r’s can be. The exercise set the stage for discussing the various meanings of culture, its roots in language, and traditional stories that sustain culture throughout generations.
Marianela talked about indigenous people and their significance in history. Then she mentioned the one indigenous group I rarely hear mentioned in any of the classes, workshops or history books I’ve read, the Taino Indians.
Most Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans originate from the Taino Indians but they are seldom highlighted, let alone embraced as a culture of beauty, deeply rooted in tradition and ceremony.
She continued with slide images of different groups of indians and the vast cultures that span our history. After silently taking in each image, we were asked to write a poem describing our impressions through our five senses.
Poetry has never been one of my interests. But here, I could feel my culture in a real and tangible way, swelling and forcing me out of my comfort zone.
This is what I came up with:
The room is full with the richness of my ancestors
Larger than life and grounded in body
My native tongue courses through the soul of this sacred space,
its energy alive and pelting us with its freedom.
My ancestors
con color y amor
open their arms
and invite us to paint stories with words.
Posted by abookwithoutacover
WAM! Recap - finally!
April 8, 2008By now you’ve probably read enough WAM! recaps in the past week, and might not be interested in another. But I want to write about it, so …
I heard about WAM! through the blogosphere. I was drawn to the conference, as I said in my interview with Jill Zimon, because of the diversity of presentations and workshops, and because a number of women I met last year at the Allied Media Conference were presenting.
When I arrived, I felt somewhat alienated and alone, which I chalked up to my not knowing many of the attendees. Yet the first invitation I received was a text message from Nadia of No Snow Here, hoping I’d arrived and inviting me to join them (WOC) at the conference. Although I don’t know them as well as they know each other, nor for as long, they welcomed me instantly and warmly.
I assumed, or hoped, that the rest of the attendees at the conference would welcome everyone in the same spirit. That same day, however, I was proven wrong. At a conference as large as this, I didn’t expect everyone would take the time to introduce themselves and make themselves available to everyone else - the conference was only so long, after all - but I sensed a clear distinction between women of color and white feminists in their interaction with others. As the conference moved from the networking event to the reception and keynote speaker Helen Thomas, the divide grew more stark, with WOC sitting together in a sea of white feminists. That was unfortunately a mark of how the rest of the weekend evolved.
I attended several workshops, including “Here We Go Again: Bad Stories About Women that Never Die,” “Raising Women’s Voices/Building Women’s Power: Collaborative Approaches to Strategic Communications for Social Justice,” and the film “Silent Choices” on reproductive rights. While these were informative, two presentations stuck with me more than others: “Immigration in the U.S.: The Women’s Rights Crisis Feminists Aren’t Talking About” and “We B(e)lo(n)g: Womyn of Color and Online Feminism.” The panel on immigration was exceptional because finally someone was talking about the New Bedford Raids in MA, where police apprehended 361 people, mostly immigrant women who suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their captors. The presentation highlighted the cruelty of immigration enforcement directed towards human beings regarded as defenseless and invisible; it focused on an inhumanity that is rarely discussed, and the need for action. At one point during the film clip about the raid I became so distraught at watching these women suffer - women who could be my mother, my grandmother, or my sister - I had to leave the room so I could break down in private. I knew my tears were a poor excuse for action, but I was simply overcome with emotion.
The panel “”We B(e)lo(n)g: Womyn of Color and Online Feminism” was by far the high point of the conference. It began with introductions, a short film clip by Sudy on WOC in the blogosphere, and then each panelist read a “wish” poem she’d written. Rather than sit at the tables in the front, they instead came to the side of the room with the attendees, and asked each of us to give our wish. They did not talk at us, but with us; it created a safe, loving space for everyone. My wish was that there would be a space like this wherever I went.
The panel on immigration was a mixed group, although I wondered if the title had contained the phrase “women of color” and all the panelists were WOC would the participation have been as diverse - especially since “We B(e)lo(n)g” was almost completely WOC. A lot of white feminists seemed to regard presentations or workshops about women of color as exclusive to women of color, and wanted to “respect” that space. They might have considered taking part, but apparently didn’t want to intrude. This assumption has now become the escape route for white feminists to not participate, to not open themselves up to be in a new and potentially uncomfortable space. Not one person did what any normal human being would do, ask “May I participate, or is this only for women of color?” Therein lies the real problem. My roommate (Metha) at the conference, and Black Amazon’s Wifey, both white women, joined us everywhere we went, including the Queer Women of Color and Friends reception/party. They didn’t assume they couldn’t take part; they just came along. If you don’t make it a big deal, then it isn’t!
The rest of the conference felt like us trying to hold onto the love we created in the “We B(e)lo(n)g” workshop, instead of being able to share it with everyone outside. The divide was still there. I got the distinct impression that we had been given permission to participate in a small way, but not as equals, not as leaders of the same movement.
I’m not the first person to say this, and since the conference there has been an outpouring of reaction as a result. Some have dismissed our reactions as negative or angry; suggesting if we aren’t part of the solution (as they define it) then we’re part of the problem. Sounds like Bush: “Yer either with us or agin’ us!”
But isn’t that what the feminist movement was supposed to be about? Standing up for your rights, for equality, using that anger as a force for change? If we are now only defining that as reactions of women of color, as abnormal or damaging, then the feminist movement has ceased to exist, or can no longer define itself in the terms it once could. If women of color (POC) are the only people willing to express our anger and act on it, then it’s with us that you will find real change!
For a much more profound and detailed critique on the feminist divide, read Jessica Hoffman’s OpEd: On Prisons, Borders, Safety, and Privilege: An Open Letter to White Feminists (AlterNet, April 4, 200
*Correction: Jill from Feministe did make a point of asking if the We B(e)lo(n)g session was for WOC only.