“Goddesses” Performance at Conference

Goddesses—their stories often inspire us, well into the 21^st century. But what happens to a modern woman when six Greek goddesses compete within her for control of her psyche?  How will she respond to the strong, assertive personalities of these archetypal divinities?  These are the questions posed in Dorotea Reyna’s play, Goddesses, based on the groundbreaking concepts found in Goddesses in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen.

Goddesses premiered at the Festival of One Act Plays at Dominican University of California, and went on to be produced at the Live Oak Theatre in Berkeley, Mills College, and live on KPFA 94.1 on the radio drama program, Act One.

At the ASWM conference, Goddesses will be presented as a one-woman performance by the playwright.  Following the performance, there will be a panel discussion.  In alphabetical order the panelists are:

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and an internationally known author and speaker who draws from spiritual, feminist, Jungian, medical and personal wellsprings of experience. She is the author of many books that explore women’s life passages, including Goddesses in Everywoman, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don’t Whine and, most recently, Like a Tree.

Mara Lynn Keller, PhD (Philosophy, Yale University) is a Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is a philosopher, thealogian, and specialist on the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. As director of the Women’s Spirituality graduate program from 1998-2008, she produced special events on women’s sacred arts and scholarship, including an art exhibition on Ineffable/Woman with CERES Gallery in New York.

Arisika Razak, RN, MPH is the Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at CIIS. For five years she co-chaired the Womanist-Pan African Section of the American Academy of Religion-Western Region, and she is a regular contributor books and journals. Her film credits include Fire Eyes, the first full length feature film by an African woman on female genital cutting; and the forthcoming Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth where she is interviewed on Alice Walker womanism.

Dorotea Reyna. MA, received her Bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University and her Master’s in English with a concentration in poetry from the University of Texas at Austin.  Her poetry has appeared in New Chicana/Chicano Writing published by the University of Arizona Press and in Imagining Worlds published by McGraw-Hill.  She has read her poetry in venues across the San Francisco Bay Area,and has been awarded two grants from the Marin Arts Council for her writing.