Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

We are on a mission to widen and deepen our understanding of what we know and don’t know about everything there is to know of why we write as we do. Adrienne Rich is our guide. Imagine breaking down the world as you have always known it. Doing so through an art of your own. One that reminds you of your history, what might be. One that shows you your true faces, all of it. One that includes things unacceptable, things unspoken. Those that illuminate all our connections, with ourselves, our communities, our world. To write directly and overtly as a woman, Adrienne Rich once wrote, out of a woman’s experience, to take a woman’s existence seriously as a theme and source of art, is something to hunger for. We are hungry and this summer, all sorts of poetry, writing will serve.

When I thought about what image should guide my summer writing, this image came to mind. I am drawn always to water, it’s simplicity, all it carries, all that it releases, everything forces you to look deeply at water, the same as a woman like me…We are resisting the splitting of our science from our everyday life. Only time will tell.