Award-winning poet Annie Finch, featured speaker at our ASWM Conference, reflects on the activities of the weekend:
The ASWM conference was truly a life-weaving web–and a life-changing one for me. I have rarely (never?!!) read for an audience that “got” my goddess poems so profoundly–it was humbling. Overall, the quality of so many presentations was so high–and the content so amazing, so rich, so nourishing. I especially remember performances by Elizabeth Cunningham in her bawdy bodice, reciting a Magdalen prologue from memory prefaced and concluded by songs (what novelist ever does that??!); Cristina Eisenberg’s superb keynote presentation on women and wolves; the remarkable world premiere of the film Pink Smoke Over the Vatican; untangling patriarchy over lunch with Oloye Aina Olomo; dancing a raucous Sicilian dance and participating in Betz King’s superb womb-healing ceremony; being inundated, filled, by fantastic presentations exploring images of the Goddess in the form of bee, butterfly, deer, snake, wolf. . . and meeting so many new and established (Margot Adler! Diane Wolkstein!) brave scholars, writers, and artists, who give so much, care so much, do so much to further this much-needed herstory. I wish ASWM a long and flourishing life, since I know that will mean many more astounding conferences!
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