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Even We Women

Even We Women


It is Friday. I am working my school job for which I am highly qualified and grossly underpaid. But at least it's the last day of my work week. A very exhausting week at that--but that's nothing new.

I am sifting through the layers of mush-brain to decide what to write about in this so far unpromoted blog. Hmm...Immigration? Politics...Schools...Capitalism...Privilege?

The answer comes to me as I rush out the school door to make it to my volunteer gig with Truth be Told. Driving to the carpool location, I think to myself, "Let's see how this evening goes and if I have anything to say." It went and I did.

I believe it was my third TBT visit to the Lockhart women's prison. I would once again serve as a respectful witness with 30 other women and men from the outside. We were present for 17 graduates who left their cells once a week for four months to be in community with other neighbors. Through writing and movement, they did the hard work of truth-telling about what brought them to where they are today. The culmination was this beautiful ceremony of inclusion, support, and love.

One group presented a narrator standing in the middle of a moving carousel of other inmates. Each woman was holding a mask that covered her face with hand-drawn features and a descriptive word like "abused," "victim," and "addict." At the end of the piece, each woman had flipped her mask revealing transformative words that I can't specifically remember without the aid of my cell phone camera. (Remember, we were in prison.) But the overall meaning were words like "independent" "empowered," and "loved."

I am impressed that the new warden who came on board two years ago allows hugging. This was not the case during my other visits. And back then, the prison hadn't yet switched to the private ownership of GEO--which doesn't have the best of reputations, at least among my circles which denounce for-profit prisons.

Even we women sometimes need reminders on how to respectfully witness. Thanks to the courage of the graduates, we are able to re-member. We remember how to respect. How to hold each other up. How to open up to creativity, invite in community, and trust others. Above all, we remember how to listen.






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