“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.” ― Martha Graham, American modern dancer and choreographer
“If you dance, dance.
If you sing, sing.
If you build, build.
If you cook, cook.
If you carve, carve.
If you weave, weave.
If you write, write.
If you prophesy, prophesy.”
– Barbara Eikner Thompson, excerpt from
“Be Free,” The Q
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When women consider their ancestors, creative expression can be a summons to freedom or an inherited “why.” Whatever vitality has been translated through us, it quickens a rising into “the fray of living.”
Read these women’s works in full here.
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“Phoenix of Fire” by Márcia Maria Tannure
“I can say these things now that I carry you
inside the bends of my bones.
Maybe I want to break every rule.
Maybe I want to break body.”
– Rebecca Woolston, excerpt from
“If I Am,” The Q
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“I learned that no matter how hard the fall, I must always rise,
scatter the dust, hug my battered selves,
water effort with tears and dance despite the pain …
Like her, I feed on kernels of tough ancestral truths,
despite pressure to discard them for convenient alternatives.
Daily energized, I fly into the fray of living
with grit and grace overlaying my wings,
reducing drag, insulating spirit, sustaining flight.”
– Elizabeth Best, excerpt from
“Legacy,” The Q
