Diane DeBella and I Am Subject: Women sharing their stories to become “subjects” in the 21st century
~24 people per minute are victims of intimate violence—more than 12 million people per year~ The fact that the Violence Against Women Act expired when the government shut down isn’t widely known. While it also isn’t cause for immediate panic (unauthorized programs can receive appropriations), what is alarming is the fact that violence against..
“You raise your consciousness to a level where you feel that you must do the right thing, because it is the only right thing to do.” ~ Wangari Maathai As I left the theater after the screening of the documentary Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, her words kept running through my..
Over the years, as a teacher of women writers, and as a woman writer myself, I have taught and written about countless women, their lives, and their works. I don’t shy away from a challenge. After all, I have taught Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I have examined the demons that pursued Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath,..
It has happened to me three times prior to this most recent incident—three times that I vividly remember. I imagine there have been other incidents over the years. The first time that I was told it was ‘all in my head’ it was actually in my ovaries—more specifically, an ovarian cyst that had..