My Feminist Rage

In the documentary The Weather Underground there’s a great and poignant moment when one of the peace activists who bombed army draft stations (notably the only human casualties in both making and denoting were the activists) says; “The Vietnam war drove us crazy”. Yes. On Mother’s Day, if polls are to be believed, one out of six Americans watched a woman mad with grief and rage decimate a city and its’ inhabitants with her dragon.

Yesterday I found myself wishing for a dragon. I glared long and hard at the photos of the white men who voted to force women, no matter the situation, to bear children if pregnant. If looks could kill, my eyes were dragons. I imagined the slew of rubber stamps I could order: FUCK YOU GOP, DIE GOP DIE, HEX MISOGYNY, ASK ME ABOUT MY FEMINIST RAGE, and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I thought about how my life would have been different if abortion had not been available when I needed it and what it would have been like if I’d gotten pregnant as a teenager when I was raped. I thought about the heartbeats of the migrant children who those who are hellbent on taking away our rights don’t care about at all, who would happily rip away from their parents and put in cages. Or worse. I saw red. I’m still seeing red.

Today I realized I have a dragon. It is my feminist rage. I am not new to feminist rage. It’s been with me for decades, the fire breathing dragon I hold dear. A part of me that I know gives me strength and is to be used with focus and discretion. After the election in 2016 I had to dance the excess anger out in my kitchen night after night, finally having to stop when I pulled a muscle in my calf. But I still play The Clash regularly, singing loudly during The Clampdown: “Let fury have the hour, anger can be power. D'you know that you can use it?”

We can’t afford to go crazy. There’s too much at stake. Fury has the hour right now. We are dragons and we must direct our fire with precision. I may get the ASK ME ABOUT MY FEMINIST RAGE stamp. And maybe ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. But the others, I will just imagine and stamp SPEAD LOVE with a special kind of vengeance on the hankies. Because I will not let these haters drive me crazy. I will ground in the love I have for humanity and this beautiful planet. And I will continue to see red. That red is the life force. It’s our sacred blood and the heartbeats of all us who are living. It is the red dragon of life. May we use it wisely.

Waving Goodbye with Hannah Gadsby

Last night I had the great privilege of seeing Hannah Gatsby perform her new show “Douglas”. Hannah waves goodbye to the patriarchy with everything she’s got, and what I particularly love is that one way she does it is by taking on art -knowing that the history of art is indeed the history of patriarchy. Like in Nanette, the show involved a bit of a talk on art history. The video here is not from either show, but gives you a taste of how she uses art to illustrate what we need to wave goodbye to. Lots to think on from the show… how the names of things impact us as they are for the most part made up by men. What would the world be like if women had named things? A good exercise and funny. Seeing Hannah was perfect timing after launching the site. And thank you to all who are buying hankies! I will be away this week and back on the 10th so if you have ordered hankies, they will go out on Monday the 13th. Enjoy this video of Hannah… a true artist.

I leap

It has to begin with Footnote to Howl, read by Patti Smith. Ginsberg wrote it the year I was born and it continues to be the essence of my spirituality and my organizing principle. Several years back I had the strange fortune to spend an afternoon with Patti Smith (yes, this really happened) in Ferlinghetti’s office above City Lights Bookstore.

My goddess daughter Lyra had programmed my ringtone to this poem. On discovering that, Patti exclaimed, “Yes, that’s what needs to be read at New Year’s!”. She loves the poem too and loves to read it (as you will see in this video). A copy of Howl was brought to her and, indeed, at midnight at the Fillmore on her 69th birthday a few nights later, Patti read this poem. Patti inspires me as an artist and activist. Her very life Waves Goodbye to the Patriarchy and is an invocation of a culture based on kindness and the elevation and expression of the human spirit.

Tonight is the night before Beltane, May 1st. A time that the life-force is running strong in this part of the world, when the veil is thin between the living and the green-bloods, the forces of nature. This is a time of year that you can feel the holiness of everything, the beauty and the strength. It’s always been a good time for me. So this year, I offer this site and hope to offer up on it more art and share with you all the many ways we can all wave goodbye to the patriarchy! Listen to Patti read this mighty spell written in 1955 and let us all invoke the sacred and the holy back into the world.