She Found the Moment, and Together We Existed: Almost Inside: Emoting Final Part*
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Reverence washed over the room as Alice Walker took the stage. In the moments that followed, for time had turned into moments, Walker’s words filled up the space between everyone sitting beneath the high ceilings. In a battered notebook I had been carrying around for months, one with soft covers and a pocket in the back, I wrote down some of the words that filled the air around me.
Up in the balcony, I felt as close to her as I had felt to her characters in her book “The Color Purple”. Sitting in a room full of hundreds of reverent people was one of the most intimate experiences of my life. And from my vantage point, up there, I listened as Walker spoke of life and spirituality, of poetry and activism, of dreams and truth. While I did not meet Walker in person that night, I met her through her words.
And when the evening was over, Walker finished by reading her poem “The Mother of Trees” and in those moments, hearing her read her poetry to me, to the room, I felt as if I existed in another space, another world. When she finished the poem, I came back to my own world.
The “Emoting” series was inspired by four artists, thinkers, poets who brought the world into me and gave me courage to meet the world in turn. See the other pieces in the series: one, two, four.
The first piece “She Wasn’t Ready to Arrive, So Here We are Together: Almost Hidden” is inspired by poet Audre Lorde. Lorde’s collection of essays “Sister Outsider” reminded me of the vulnerability and intellect being a woman, and being alive, demands.
The second piece “And She Waited for Me and We Listened: Nearly Becoming” is inspired by poet and singer Nina Simone. Her song “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” was perhaps my favorite song as a child, a video of her singing the song in concert reminded me of the freedom and challenges of being a women, of being alive.
The third piece (today’s piece) “She Found the Moment, and Together We Existed: Almost Inside” is inspired by author and poet Alice Walker. Being in the same room with her as she read her poem “The Mother of Trees” reminded me of the reverence and potential that being a woman, that being alive, brings.
The fourth piece “Wasn’t Sure if She Would Make It, But She Blossomed: Acceptance of the Interior” is inspired by artist Frida Kahlo. Her paintings reminded me of the the power and emotion of being a woman, of being alive.
359 days done, 7 to go.
NadiaCDM 