The poetry of Sappho is timeless. I remember reading her poetry in college. There is so much to study and learn about her, many poems to read and contemplate. I leave one here for you. It is not necessarily a favorite, just a poem I found to use in this space at this time. Sappho's poetry centers on passion and love for various personages of both genders. The word lesbian derives from the name of the island of her birth, Lesbos, while her name is also the origin of the word sapphic; neither word was applied to female homosexuality until the nineteenth century. The narrators of many of her poems speak of infatuations and love (sometimes requited, sometimes not) for various females, but descriptions of physical acts between women are few and subject to debate. Whether these poems are meant to be autobiographical is not known, although elements of other parts of Sappho's life do make appearances in her work, and it would be compatible with her style to have these intimate encounters expressed poetically, as well. Her homoerotica should be placed in the context of the seventh century (BC). The poems of Alcaeus and later Pindar record similar romantic bonds between the members of a given circle. The third-century philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote that Sappho was "small and dark" and that her relationships to her female friends were similar to those of Socrates. What else could one call the love of the Lesbian woman than the Socratic art of love? For they seem to me to have practised love after their own fashion, she the love of women, he of men. For they said they loved many, and were captivated by all things beautiful. WhatAlcibiades and Charmides and Phaedrus were to him, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anactoria were to her ... During the Victorian era, it became fashionable to describe Sappho as the headmistress of a girls' finishing school. As Page DuBois (among many other experts) points out, this attempt at making Sappho understandable and palatable to the genteel classes of Great Britain was based more on conservative sensibilities than evidence. There are no references to teaching, students, academies, or tutors in any of Sappho's scant collection of surviving works. Burnett follows others, like C. M. Bowra, in suggesting that Sappho's circle was somewhat akin to the Spartanagelai or the religious sacred band, the thiasos, but Burnett nuances her argument by noting that Sappho's circle was distinct from these contemporary examples because "membership in the circle seems to have been voluntary, irregular and to some degree international."The notion that Sappho was in charge of some sort of academy persists nonetheless. Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite Translation, copyright 1997 Elizabeth Vandiver; all rights reserved Iridescent-Throned Aphrodite, deathless Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you ,Don't--I beg you, Lady--with pains and torments Crush down my spirit, But before if ever you've heard my pleadings Then return, as once when you left your father's Golden house; you yoked to your shining car your Wing-whirring sparrows; Skimming down the paths of the sky's bright ether On they brought you over the earth's black bosom, Swiftly--then you stood with a sudden brilliance, Goddess, before me; Deathless face alight with your smile, you asked me What I suffered, who was my cause of anguish, What would ease the pain of my frantic mind, and Why had I called you To my side: "And whom should Persuasion summon Here, to soothe the sting of your passion this time? Who is now abusing you, Sappho? Who isTreating you cruelly? Now she runs away, but she'll soon pursue you; Gifts she now rejects--soon enough she'll give them; Now she doesn't love you, but soon her heart will Burn, though unwilling." Come to me once more, and abate my torment; Take the bitter care from my mind, and give me All I long for; Lady, in all my battles Fight as my comrade. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
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Of all the authors, poets, theologians, or other great thinkers that I have read in my lifetime, no one makes me feel more understood than Audre Lorde. I have found random bumper stickers (more than one) around my house with my favorite quote of hers, " Your silence will not protect you." Some days, I wonder if I can be more outspoken. I suppose this blog is even an attempt to make more of a voice for myself in this world. From Sister Outsider to Zami to The Erotic as Power, I can not get enough of her writings. She was born to humble beginnings in Harlem where she grew up and graduated high school. After graduating from Hunter College High School and experiencing the grief of her best friend Genevieve "Gennie" Thompson's death, Lorde immediately left her parents' home and became estranged from her family. She attended Hunter College from 1954 to 1959 and graduated with a bachelor's degree. While studying library science, Lorde supported herself by working various odd jobs such as factory worker, ghost writer (I didn't know she was a ghost writer!! More research needed!), social worker, X-ray technician, medical clerk, and arts and crafts supervisor, moving out of Harlem to Stamford, Connecticut and beginning to explore her lesbian sexuality. One of the things that endears me to Audre Lorde is that she made a way out of no ways. As I was reading over the life history of Adrienne Rich, it was a stark difference from the life of Audre Lorde. Where Rich had every priviledge available to her, including class, race, and wealth, Lorde still became a prolific writer, activist, and even found her way into higher education as a professor at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. For Lorde, the way was not easy.Lorde's tenacity to bring the fullness of womanhood from its multivalent perspectives is what makes her most accessible for me. Her ability to talk about race, gender, sexuality, class, health, and even motherhood is an example of how she unrelentingly brought her full self-her full experience, even, to her writing.I could go on... for many more pages. However, I do have a family and a life to live out here in the world. I will do my best to live fully today--in honor of Audre Lorde. Yesterday, I thought I was going to dedicate Day 4 to Adrienne Rich, but the sad news of her passing has already brought her to the forefront of some of our feeds. Then a good friend posted a link to an article about 10 Muslim women every person should know. I was intrigued and as I read through the article, Sultan Raziyya caught my attention. Due to the fact that I am not well versed in my Muslim women's history, I thought I'd take this opportunity to make sure I included at least one Muslim woman now, and make a note to myself to include more in the future.
While there is not much information out there on the Sultan, there is some. Muslim women have served as revolutionary and heroic leaders throughout history. Since 1988, there has been at least one Muslim woman president or prime minister in the world. Sultan Raziyya was the Sultan of Delhi from 1236 to 1240. She refused to be addressed as Sultana because it meant "wife or mistress of a sultan" and only answered to the title "Sultan." As she solidified her power, she believed that appropriating a masculine image would help her maintain control. So she dressed like a man and wore a turban, trousers, coat and sword. Contrary to custom, she appeared unveiled in public. Sultan Raziyya was known for her belief that the spirit of religion is more important than its parts. She established schools, academies, centers for research and public libraries. (this paragraph stolen from Fazeela Siddiqui's Huff post article.) A couple more fun facts about Raziyya is that there are three disputed grave sites. No one really knows where her final resting place is. Since she was the first female Sultan of Delhi, she is the subject of many legends. There are fictional novels about her, a comic strip about her and a 1983 urdu film. Clearly, I need to do more homework on Raziyya. She caught my attention for a reason. I hope she catches your attention, too. It seems more than appropriate to talk about the woman that all of college sports is talking about right now. Pat Summitt. The Naismith Coach of the Century. The coach who has won more games than any other college coach. The only woman on Sporting News' 50 Greatest Coaches of all time. Pat Summitt has won more NCAA basketball games than any other coach in any division, including both men and women, and is one of only three college coaches overall (in any sport) to win more than 1,000 games. She has never had a losing season. Pat Summit wins. It's what she does. And the whole basketball world wants to know if she will make it back to the University of Tennessee to coach another year. Last year, Pat Summitt released the sad news that she is struggling with early onset Alzheimer's. Few people know how this has affected her coaching overall, yet ESPN has taken the liberty to speculate wildly during the recent televised playoffs. Then again, ESPN has never been known for its compassion. Pat Summitt is a legend. She has the legendary stories to go right along with the moniker. Stories of washing the team's uniforms herself and driving the van to away games. That was back in the day, of course. Back in the day when women's basketball was in its infancy. Back in the day when women's basketball wasn't even a NCAA sanctioned sport. Of course, Pat was just padding her numbers back then :) You don't become the coach who has won more than anybody else without a little sweat and grit and hard work. You don't create a formidable dynasty of basketball in a year or two. Pat Summitt is women's basketball. She had a hand in making the game what it is today. She was the one pushing for a full-on sport that used the whole court, not just half, that played with five players instead of six. She helped the University of Tennessee manage the funding of women's sports by working together with the then more-profitable men's teams. She was asked twice by Tennessee to coach their men's team, but she has stayed with the Lady Vols throughout her career. Pat Summitt cares about her team. 45 of her players have gone on to become head coaches. Every single one of her players has received a degree. Pat Summitt was the first female coach to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine, and one of very few women who grace its cover sans a swimsuit. There is so much more to Pat Summitt than I could ever cover one short blog post. Her webpage is here: http://www.utladyvols.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/summitt_pat00.html A link to her foundation is here : http://patsummitt.org/ You can follow her on twitter if you wish. @patsummitt Lend your own spirit to the multitudes who pray for her return to the court next year. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
There are a few young 'uns on my list who may possibly be thinking about having children. That is what made Ina May Gaskin jump to the forefront of my 365 project. Ina May's book, Spiritual Midwifery, changed everything-for me, for the world, every-thing. I only wish I had read it before my kids were born, not after. There's a book out there that every "expecting" mom gets whether she likes it or not. The title is something like What to Expect when you're Expecting. That book? Complete Rubbish. Make a nice art piece out of that book and then go and get Ina May's books and read them. Have your spouse read them, too. Ina May is truth. All others pale in comparison. Ina May Gaskin was born in Iowa, the daughter of a farmer and a schoolteacher. Her maternal grandparents ran a Presbyterian orphanage. In the 1970's she began a commune in Tennessee known as The Farm and with other midwives founded The Farm Midwifery Center which was one of the first out-of-hospital birth centers in the United States. After reading Ina May's books on birthing, I realized that some of the reasons our world is so messed up has to do with the actual beginning of our time on this planet: with how we are birthed. Birthing metaphors are there in all disciplines of study if we look for them. Actual birthing is possibly the most powerful human act. Therefore, Ina May's work and activism is groundbreaking. It is indeed a counter-cultural and revolutionary feminist act to take one of our most sacred abilities as women out of the hands of the male dominated medical establishment. In 1977, Ina May published Spiritual Midwifery. In 1987, she published Babies, Breastfeeding, and Bonding. In 2002, Spiritual Midwifery was re-published. In 2003, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and in 2005, Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding. By taking back the power of women's natural abilities to carry and labor children, Ina May is known for her abilities to draw on the power of women's bodies without the need for medical intervention. Her own techniques in assisting childbirth, especially The Gaskin Maneuver, also called all fours, a technique to reduce shoulder dystocia is not only used at The Farm, but is now used by the medical profession at large. Ina May has lectured extensively on midwifery, and continues to do so today. She has won numerous awards for her work, including an Honorary Doctorate from Thames Valley University in London, and was co-winner of the 2011 Right Livelihood Award. If you have never heard of Ina May Gaskin, you should definitely check her out. Her books are easy to read and understand, and are highly recommended by me. I honestly think any human being--both male and female-- should read her books before or while beginning a family. I am sure those books will change your life, just like they changed mine. When I was a wee baby dyke of only 19, I was in college at Central Michigan University and floundering to find a major area of study that I could excel in. I kept finding myself more and more in the company of women who were part of the women's studies program there. With the help of a couple of guiding professors who later became advisors, I became a history major with a women's studies minor (the only available degree option in women's studies at the time). While I like to say I spent my college years studying women, I did actually do enough work to graduate. I wish I had pictures now of Dr. Carol Green-Devens Ramirez, and Dr. Claudia Clark. But alas, that was before these interwebs had the possibility of recording our every move. Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841-1898) was the first woman I ever wrote a paper on. Professor Carol Green-Devens was then editor of the Michigan Historical Review at Clarke Historical Library where some of Sarah Emma Edmonds' papers were kept. During the Civil War, Sarah enlisted in the 2nd Michigan Infantry as Franklin Thompson. She at first served as a male field nurse, participating in several campaigns under General McClellan, including the First andSecond Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, the Peninsula Campaign, Vicksburg, and others. I was particularly intrigued by the story I read which said she was prompted to join the army by a book she had read in her youth about a girl named Fanny Campbell and her adventures on a pirate ship dressed as a man. In 1864 Boston publisher DeWolfe, Fiske, & Co. published Edmonds' account of her military experiences as The Female Spy of the Union Army. One year later her story was picked up by a Hartford, CT publisher who issued it with a new title, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. It was a huge success, selling in excess of 175,000 copies. In 1867, she married L. H. Seelye, a Canadian mechanic with whom she had three children. Her two sons and her daughter died young, so she adopted two boys. In 1886, she received a government pension of $12 a month for her military service, and after some campaigning, gained an honorable discharge. In 1897, she became the only woman admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Union Army veterans' organization. Edmonds died in La Porte, Texas and is buried in Washington Cemetery in Houston, Texas. She was a civil war hero and should be remembered as such. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1992. Edmonds book was reprinted again in 1999 with a new title, Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy. While I did extensive study on her in the early 1990's and drew from original documents, I have outrageously plagiarized Wikipedia for this bio.For more information on Sarah Emma Edmonds, see Michigan Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame page, Memoirs of A Soldier, Nurse and Spy, or go go Wikipedia or Google to find out more. |
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