La Palabra: The Word is a woman
“Speak with your images from your heart and soul. Give of yourselves. Trust your gut reactions. Suck out the juices – the essence of your life experiences. Get on with it; it may not be too late.” Marion Post Wilcott
❤ Our Hosts: Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice
❤ photos by Denver photographer Mariah Bottomly
❤ VIDEOS OF SELECTED READINGS: La Palabra's Poetry & Photo Exhibit Opening Reception, Friday, April 20th. Thank you ❤ Katrina K Guarascio and "Caught on a Tangent" for your poetry, heart, and for filming this event!
❤ Part I:
The performers caught in Selected Readings I include: Jessica Helen Lopez, Ejypt Monique Ngozi-Rafi, Julie Brokken ( Hi Mom! GRiN!) Gina Marselle,Tracey Dahl, Merimee Moffit, and Don McIver.
❤ Part II:
The performers caught in Selected Readings II include: Jessica Helen Lopez, Katrina K Guarascio, Penny Pence, Brooke von Bloomberg, and our much beloved Hakim Bellamy, ABQ's first Poet Laureate.
❤ Part III:
The performers caught in Selected Readings III include: Marilena Vargas, Anna Martinez, Jessica Helen Lopez reading Jazz Cuffee, Samantha Romero, and Ben Bormann.
❤ The writing prompt that had the strongest resonance for me was from leslie marmon silko's novel, Ceremony. I had read the book years ago, but had forgotten this precious poem. This is the beginning stanza of the larger poem that Silko wrote and so brilliantly interspersed into the book:
Ts' its' tsi' nako, Thought-Woman,
is sitting in her room
and what ever she thinks about
appears.She thought of her sisters,
Nau' ts' ity' i and I' tcs' i,
and together they created the Universe
this world
and the four worlds below.
Thought-Woman, the spider,
named things and
as she named them
they appeared.
She is sitting in her room
thinking of a story now
I'm telling you the story
she is thinking.
❤ Here is my poem that is on Part I. It is one of a series inspired by Thought Woman. Read it as a whole, then go back and read each column separately...
Julie SuZaNNe BröKKeN
La Palabra: Bones
Ts' its' tsi' nako (Thought-Woman/Spider Woman)
Series
There was a marriage
carved these bones
with sharp and subtle words
thought wed to tongue
strong
solid
intentions
sound
softness
beautiful intelligent bones
keeping pink secrets
in round marrow chambers
singing
incantations of love
alchemy of lymphocyte and blood
behind calcified bedroom walls
post and lintel legs and pelvis
forming
the doorway
rib blinds to shade the soul
so many little weight-bearing bones
holding up a life
to
paradox
a matrimony of nimble complexities
finger bone articulations
dancing a life
bone
woman
chanting structure into
Ts' its' tsi' nako vows
she slips on the magic ring
wedding
eternity
FYI: what is la palabra? check this link ❤
La Palabra: The Word is a Woman is a female writer's collective founded by poet Jessica Helen Lopez. La Palabra was conceived in conjunction with the National Hispanic Cultural Center's annual Women & Creativity Series and is for and by women artisans. A four-part poetry writing intensive workshop designed to assist the writer in creating a literal and metaphorical "body" of work, each workshop worked to address a particular region of the female body. Exploring the female creative principal and other various creation myths Las Palabracitas will present their works through the lens of the written and spoken word.
Essential to the workshop is an accompanying black-and-white photo exhibit by Denver photographer Mariah Bottomly that celebrates the topography of the female body in the context of its beauty and perceived flaws, functionality and health, sex-positivity and sexual/gender identity.
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