REVISED POST – At A Crossroads – poetry inspired by Fem 2.0 conference & African American female artist/poet Meta Vaux Warwick Fuller

Here’s some juicy Black Women History facts….

Do you know who Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller was? She was an amazing sistalove artist and poet who was born on June 9, 1877. She died March 18, 1968. Our sistalove Meta was the first African American artist to make art celebrating Afrocentric themes. My favorite Meta piece of artwork is her sculpture Ethiopia Awakening. Click here to see a photo:
http://negroartist.com/negro artist/Meta Warrick Fuller/pages/Meta Warrick Fuller ethiopia awakening1_jpg.htm.

Click here to learn more about Meta: http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/227/Meta_VW_Fuller_sculptor_of_Black_themes.

Tune into BAP Living Radio on March 29th at 7pm EST for a discussion about Meta with Dr. Renée Ater, a Professor of American Art at the University of Maryland. Dr. Ater will discuss her research and soon-to-be published book about Meta. Click here to listen to the show: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/18598.

At A Crossroads of Awakening by Ananda Leeke
Copyright 2009 by Madelyn C. Leeke

Inspired by my participation in the Fem 2.0 Conference held at George Washington University on February 2, 2009, and African American artist Meta Warwick Fuller’s sculpture, Ethiopia Awakening (1914)

Excerpt from That Which Awakens Me (iUniverse, Inc. – Spring 2009)

We are at a crossroads.
It is offering us a grand opportunity filled with great awakening.
One that can bring us into a new day that gracefully unfolds into a new tomorrow and future.
It is happening everywhere.
Can you see it?
Can you feel it?
Do you want to be a part of it?

Whether we know it or not, we are manifesting the words of our very own American artist sistalove Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller:

“awakening, gradually unwinding the bandages of [our] past and looking out on life again, expectant but unafraid.”

The bandages we are unwinding are complex layers of identities that include our ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, educational backgrounds, professions, places of residence, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and political beliefs.

Many of us wear an array of t-shirts that mark us as feminists, womanists, pro-choicers, right to lifers, democrats, republicans, green party members, socialists, communists, independents, conservatives, progressives, and middle of the roaders.

Our labels of identity have often created barriers to our growth, coalition-building, understanding, and affirmation as women.

Despite the differences, our identities make us who we are.

They give us individual and collective meaning.

And they must be valued, understood, respected, and affirmed.

With all that said, I am left with a question:

How do we awaken and unwind the bandages from the barriers of the past that created exclusion and misunderstanding?

The answers for those of us who are connecting online reveal themselves a little each day as we interact with social media tools that have the capacity to expand our quilt of sisterhood.

When we tell and document our stories, seek support and advice, educate and train, create and share content, advocate for common causes, launch businesses and nonprofit organizations, market and sell products and services, express our creativity, and engage in dialogue on our audio/video/text blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and other social networking and bookmarking sites, we give ourselves the opportunity to learn more about each other.

Our learning efforts can open the door to ways we can honor, promote, and practice diversity, tolerance for a difference of opinion, self-care, compassion, patience, acceptance, mindfulness, loving kindness, and forgiveness.

It all begins with our choice.

If we choose to do the work of understanding who we are and what we believe and want, and seek out common interests without imposing our own strong wills, agendas, beliefs, and branding strategies, we can usher in a much-needed paradigm shift that creates space for our right brain to jump the broom and marry our left brain so that our power, passion, and purpose as women are aligned in strategic ways that give birth to new ways of being, communicating, and working together.

Are we ready to awaken and fully unwind the bandages of our past?

Are we ready to look out on life again, expectant but unafraid of manifesting a shared destiny of common interests while affirming and maintaining our separate identities and causes?

These questions are rhetorical.

We already know the answer.

We are smart, capable, and talented women.

So let’s walk past the crossroads and make what we know a reality.

Won’t you come?
Won’t you come?
Won’t you come?

At A Crossroads of Awakening by Ananda Leeke
Copyright 2009 by Madelyn C. Leeke

Inspired by my participation in the Fem 2.0 Conference held at George Washington University on February 2, 2009, and African American artist Meta Warwick Fuller’s sculpture, Ethiopia Awakening (1914)

Excerpt from That Which Awakens Me (iUniverse, Inc. – Spring 2009)

We are at a crossroads.
It is offering us a grand opportunity filled with great awakening.
One that can bring us into a new day that gracefully unfolds into a new tomorrow and future.
It is happening everywhere.
Can you see it?
Can you feel it?
Do you want to be a part of it?

Whether we know it or now, we are manifesting the words of our very own American artist sistalove Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller:

“awakening, gradually unwinding the bandages of [our] past and looking out on life again, expectant but unafraid.”

The bandages we are unwinding are complex layers of identities that include our ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, educational backgrounds, professions, places of residence, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and political beliefs.

Many of us wear an array of t-shirts that mark as feminists, womanists, pro-choicers, right to lifers, democrats, republicans, green party members, socialists, communists, independents, conservatives, progressives, and middle of the roaders.

Our labels of identity have often created barriers to our growth, coalition, understanding, and affirmation as women.

Despite the differences, our identities make us who we are.

They give us individual and collective meaning.

And they must be valued, understood, respected, and affirmed.

With all that said, I am left with a question:

How do we awaken and unwind the bandages from the barriers of the past that created exclusion and misunderstanding?

The answers for those of us who are connecting online reveal themselves a little each day as we interact with social media tools that have the capacity to expand our quilt of sisterhood.

When we tell and document our stories, seek support and advice, educate and train, create and share content, advocate for common causes, launch businesses and nonprofit organizations, market and sell products and services, express our creativity, and engage in dialogue on our audio/video/text blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and other social networking and bookmarking sites, we give ourselves the opportunity to learn more about each other.

Our learning efforts can open the door to ways we can honor, promote, and practice diversity, tolerance for a difference of opinion, self-care, compassion, patience, acceptance, mindfulness, loving kindness, and forgiveness.

It all begins with our choice.

If we choose to do the work of understanding who we are and what we believe and want, and seek out common interests without imposing our own strong wills, agendas, beliefs, and branding strategies, we can usher in a much-needed paradigm shift that creates space for our right brain to jump the broom and marry our left brain so that our power, passion, and purpose as women are aligned in strategic ways that give birth to new ways of being, communicating, and working together.

Are we ready to awaken and fully unwind the bandages of our past?

Are we ready to look out on life again, expectant but unafraid of manifesting a shared destiny along common interests while affirming and maintaining our separate identities and causes?

These questions are rhetorical.

We already know the answer.

We are smart, capable, and talented women.

So let’s walk past the crossroads and make what we know a reality.

Won’t you come?
Won’t you come?
Won’t you come?

Where I am today is online, and hallelujah for technology! I can’t show up at conferences, especially ones held on the East Coast in wintertime! Feh! But I get around the femisphere as well as anyone these days, and I’ve been at an endless feminist cocktail party since November 4. That’s when I turned my attention from the Obama campaign back to my regular feminist outrage.

I went looking for feminists on Twitter, and I found more than a few who were welcoming and supportive and interested in my perspective. I visited blogs, left comments, wrote emails and made cold calls all over the femisphere, introducing myself. When I discovered Fem2.0, I had a major click. I friended them, I followed them, I wrote to them, and ultimately I lobbied them to please please please stream their conference so that I could participate from home.

And they did. There were technical problems and I was only able to see the opening speakers and the closing plenary, but in between those, I kept up via Twitter and by the liveblogging of Amber Rhea and lauriewrites. I had attended Tweetchats on Sunday nights leading up the conference, and so when I had to fall back on Twitter in order to participate, it felt very substantive. And when I learned that they were projecting the Tweetstream behind the panelists, I totally felt that I was there. Really there in a profound way.

Ultimately, the success of this movement will depend on inclusion, in my opinion. Fem2.0 is waving the inclusive flag…and that’s what I need, what I’ve always needed, in order to have community. I’m inspired by the individual women of Fem2.0 and also by their collective action. I also want to give a shoutout to Veronica Arreola for her inclusiveness and sisterhood.

yours
Madama

“We are in for a very long haul… I am asking for Everything You Have To Give. We will never give up… You will lose your Youth, your Sleep, your Patience, your sense of Humor and occasionally… the understanding & support of the people you Love very much. In Return, I have nothing to offer you but… your pride in being a woman, and all the Dreams you’ve ever had for your daughters, and nieces and grandaughters… Your Future and the certain Knowledge that at the end of your days you will be able to look back and say that Once in your life you gave Everything you had for Justice.

~Jill Ruckelshaus at the 1977 NWPC-CA State Convention in San Jose”

If you didn’t get a chance to come to the panel — please stop by and see highlights from our panel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGhorkLoZyw

It’s all about communication using Web 2.0 – blogging is big – but social media is coming up fast. Terrific chance to exchange ideas with vibrant women of all ages and cultures… Paula