Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to our podcast and thank you for listening. My name is Elizabeth and I'm the founder of the Intuitive Writing Project, a writing based empowerment program for girls and gender expansive youth. We are dedicated to giving young women a safe, encouraging, non critical, unconditionally supportive space to write their story, speak their truth, and assert their voice, both as writers and as individuals. I created this program eleven years ago because it's what I wanted and needed when I was young, a safe place to be truly seen and heard. That's why we use the Amherst writing method, a radically nurturing and empowering writing methodology. I wish everyone learned in school. You can read more about the Amherst method on their website and in Pat Schneider's groundbreaking book, writing alone and with others. But the basic principles and the ones that guide all our classes are one, everyone is a writer with important stories to tell two, everyone has their own unique voice, a voice that needs to be heard and three, our voice will grow stronger and clearer the more it is supported and positively affirmed.
The way we affirm our writers is to repeat back and lift up the words, lines, phrases, or concepts that really resonated for us in the classroom. Everyone writes together, everyone shares their writing, and then everyone gives each other grounded, positive feedback. Since we can't violate the sanctity of our classes by recording what goes on there, these one on one conversations are designed to provide a little glimpse, a microcosm of what happens in the classroom. You can also read about our and.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Read the girl's words as they were.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Published on our blog, the Intuitive Voice, with the links below. If you enjoy listening to one young writer read their words and talk about it. Imagine how powerful it is when six young writers are reading their words and giving each other positive, affirming feedback. It's pretty life changing and there's a lot more I could say about it, but I'll let these young writers speak for themselves. On behalf of all the writers at the intuitive writing project, I want to thank you in advance for supporting the stories of young women. Making the time to be present and really listen to girls. Listen to the wisdom, insight, and brilliance of each girl is how we change the world. Thank you for supporting the voices of young women.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Hello everyone. I am here today with the brilliant Viviana Sanchez, who is going to be reading her incredible poem, history Hersary.
First, I would like to introduce Viviana, if you would have give us your pronouns, your grade in school, grade level, and also when was the first time you remember writing a poem?
[00:03:02] Speaker C: Hi. So my pronouns are she, her, I'm in 8th grade, and I first remember writing when I was in fourth grade. I think I only started working with the intuitive writing project in fifth grade after Covid started, but I started writing in fourth grade also. My voice sounds like, nasally.
I have allergies right now, so I might be coughing a little bit.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: That's okay. It's all beautiful sounds. We will celebrate them.
So I will now hand it over to brilliant Viviana, if you would read your poem.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Thank you. Okay, so this is history. Her story.
Every stitch in a quilt, every dab of a quill layer to fan upon the fire in the eyes of every young girl. The civilized forest nymph, the wild female spirit held in the hands of boys, tossed around like a plaything, made pretty and torn at the seams. A world corrupt and lacking neither science or God. A chain of daisies, full moons, creek beds. I prayed the stars as a child, wishing for forgotten hopes. Every drop of blood sowed into the ground. Every poem by a girl pushed shamefully into a drawer, stands squarely and breathes fire. Controlled femininity, planned recklessness. The patriarchal breath on the back of your neck. Misogyny and goosebumps. In greek myth, earth was a woman. She cared for the swans and the bats and the crickets. Space was a man. He gazed upon the earth in his vast, pitiful darkness and wished he could stand upon her land and play with her otters and run with her horses. Because Mother Earth was beautiful and he was empty and deadly. She nurtured as a teacher of endless green valleys and salty, sweet oceans. He watched, self absorbed and hating, as a fallen angel. Maybe that's why men are so cool. They seek revenge for the skies.
They push Mother Earth to tears and poach her playful animals and capture her daughters. They force women onto their knees to kneel for the Lord. For him.
Mother Earth knows and she watches. She sends rains and fires, hurricanes and droughts to get her daughters to notice the battle. The skies are bitter, and they punish earth's daughters that once lived harmoniously upon his impossible love's lands. He sends his children, his sons, to hunt the girls, to repress and oppress them, to get them to worship him, to send disease and guns and divide, to kill the daughters that can still hear Mother Earth's whispers, to punish the ones who grew the medicine, Mother Earth gave her soldier daughters to silence the ones who knew what the skies did every time the ground shut and the earth weeped. This story, this struggle and battle, has been sewn and stitched into every modest dress women have dressed their unknowing daughters in. This fight lies in every drop of blood women reap from their womb, and it lives in every song and petal.
The skies are trying to punish the earth for existing as a woman. The skies send his sons to suffocate his love's daughters. And mother Earth is hurt. So hurt she is bleeding and weeping and drowning. But she will never die, and neither will her daughters after they pass, when they are buried in the ground or tossed in the wind, they will go back to their mother and all the girls that are still alive. They all fight. Some fight the skies, diseases and bloodshed. Some steal the wallets of boys. Some plant saplings in the soil. And some. Some listen to Mother Earth's whispers and write the stories she cannot tell.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: That was incredible.
As you all can hear, this is an epic retelling of what I would call her story, which is why it's history herstory. It's so brilliant. I feel like this rider captured the story of. Well, actually, it was not just mythology, but the indigenous teachings of earth as mother Earth and father sky, and modernized it and really told the story of patriarchy, the creation of patriarchy and the witch hunts and the disempowerment of women, and now the reclamation of women's power as women are realizing these insane his stories that they've absorbed. It's incredible that you wrote this. There's so many great lines, by the way. We should note that this writer wrote this in 30 minutes. That's how incredible they are.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: I was stuck a little bit, and then we'll get to that.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Okay, let's. I want to talk about your writing process next.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: So cool. Just a couple. I mean, every line I love, but a couple lines that jumped out that I was like, oh, my God, the patriarchal breath on the back of your neck. That is such a powerful. It's not just a visual. It's a sensory.
[00:08:24] Speaker C: It's like an unnerving feeling.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: Yes. Yes, it is. We all know what that feeling is. It's not just like Ruth Bader Ginsburg talked about getting the. The boot of men off our neck, but this is even more sinister. Is somebody breathing behind us?
And, of course, there's so much violence that is implied and expressed in.
In our history, and it's in this poem. I love the line, the contrast between the mother earth. She cared for the swans and the bats and the crickets, whereas God the father for space, the father, gazed upon the earth with his vast, pitiful darkness and wished he could stand upon the land. Such an interesting idea. The idea that being in the sky is actually a sort of sad, wistful, yearning place that if you're up in the sky or out in space, you long to be part of the earth. And then the sweetness and the lushness of nature is incredible.
I love when the writer just called it out. Maybe that's why men are so cool. They try to seek revenge for the skies. They push mother earth to tears and poach her playful animals and capture her daughters. They force women on their knees to kneel for the Lord, for him. Ooh, so powerful. And then, of course, there's this sense of mother Earth is fighting back. She knows what's going on. She's bringing hurricanes and droughts, her daughters, to notice what's happening. She wants to rally her daughters. And then the description of what happened with the sky God, or what did you say was the thought was the.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Name for the God Kratos?
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: Like some variation of the pronunciation in greek myth.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: That's really interesting.
And there is a lot of punishment coming through just in the greek myth, and then it comes through in this piece as well. Punish the ones who grew the medicine mother Earth gave her, soldier daughters. Of course, that reminds me of the witch hunts. That is what happened. The women who knew herbology and medicine.
And then the struggle and battle has been sewn and stitched into every modest. Modest is an interesting word. Dress, dressing their unknown. They dress their unknown daughters and unknowing daughters in. And it's that same of, like, this intense, powerful power, battle for power that's happening around us all the time. And it's embedded in our being, in every drop of women's blood, in every song and pedal. And yet most of us aren't conscious of it.
That line, the skies are trying to punish the earth for existing as a woman. How many times have we all felt like we were being punished just because of our gender? And that line that disguises to suffocate his love's daughters, like, oh, my God, that is totally how it feels for most of us.
But then the end is so triumphant, because, of course, you cannot kill the female spirit, and it comes out in this piece.
Could you reread Viviana, the line that starts with, but she will never die? Read till that question.
[00:11:52] Speaker C: Okay. But she will never die, and neither will her daughters after they pass, when they are buried in the ground or tossed in the wind, they will go back to their mother and the girls that are still alive.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: They all fight. I love that. I love that. And then the very finale. Oh, this is where it comes down to being a writer. And the power of writing is some listen to mother earth whispers and write the story she cannot tell, which is what the writer just did. The writer just wrote the story that Mother Earth herself cannot tell. And of course, this is a daughter of the mother Earth. Viviana, being female, is the daughter of the earth. We are all daughters of the earth. It's so incredible. I have to ask you about your creative process. Now, when you started this, you said you got a little stuck. Where did you get stuck and how did you get unstuck?
[00:12:47] Speaker C: Um, so I got sort of.
I got from the part at the beginning of, like, every dab of quilt down to about the start of the greek myth part.
I got the patriarchal breath on the back of your neck and then the misogyny goosebumps. And then I was kind of stuck from there.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: That's interesting. How did you get unstuck? Because then it, like, you just took off in a blaze. The whole thing about the greek myths was so powerful. Where did that come from?
[00:13:20] Speaker C: So I was thinking sort of about my childhood, and then I was thinking about the part that I wrote. I prayed stars as a child, wishing for forgotten hopes. And so I sort of thinking about my childhood. Then I remembered I was really into greek mythology as a kid. And one part of it was Gaia, or there's a million ways to pronounce it, but Gaia and then Kronos and how she was mother earth and she was like all things green and happy and playful and he was the sky and he was empty. And, like, looking upon her with this sort of, like, love that she could never return and was kind of oblivious to. And so there's sort of. I sort of, like, interpreted that into a more modern sense. And then it was like, it sort of started, like, cutting. And then I was like, okay, well, I was. I intended for it to only be like a segment, but then it sort of just, like, turned into it. So I was sort of like, okay, well, there's mother Earth and there's the skies. And I think I got to around the parts where I started to notice. I got to the part he watched, self absorbent and hating as a fallen angel. Maybe that's why men are so cool. They try to seek vengeance for the skies or revenge. So that's sort of where I got you. And I was sort of like, well, I can actually probably continue with this. Then there was sort of the correlation between skies and God, because I'm reading this book on metaphysics and sort of the existence of God. And so that sort of came back in my mind.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Mention the name of this book because this is amazing that you are reading this.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: Yeah, it's called the God complex, and it's sort of about how the universe created itself from nothing. And sort of, if there is no God, how does, how does a godless universe create itself?
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Oh, my God, you are so brilliant. I love that you're reading that book. There are many adults who can't read that book. They don't have the capacity, and you can read it in 8th grade. That's amazing. Okay, sorry. Keep going. So you're inspired by that book.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: So I was inspired that from that book. And then there was the court. So that was in the back of my mind, sort of like the idea of God and him being male. And then I sort of made this correlation between the skies and the male God and sort of this idea that the skies seek vengeance with his sons. And that's why they're so violent. That's why they're so oppressive to try to seek vengeance for God or the skies.
And this vengeance is against Mother Earth's daughters. And mother Earth is helpless to do anything besides make change and cause climate change. Basically, that's how I modernized it. So Mother Earth creates this sort of climate change to get her daughters to notice this fight that they're living in and sort of realize that's. That's why men are so cool and just the way that they are.
So, yeah, that's sort of just where that led me towards the end. Like, the ending is sort of the idea that, like, all things go back to the earth from the Avatar movie.
And then, and then it's sort of this idea that all women, all men oppress in some way, that all women fight back in some way. Some, some women fight disease and bloodshed, like some women are in the army or they are scientists and doctors, and then someone, they steal the wallets of boys and they, they steal. And that's. I find that very funny.
Steal, especially from boys. And then some plant saplings in the soil. And that idea that some give back to mother Earth, like plan, like trying to restore her, and then some listened to mother earth whispers and write the stories she cannot tell. And that's sort of the idea of the poet interpret. Like I mentioned, I referenced it a few times before, but sort of let me see if I can find the line to silence the ones who knew what the skies did. Every time the earth, every time the ground, ship and the earth leaped, that correlating sort of to the end. And the section about being a poet and poetry. So, yeah, it's kind of like the process. It's all over the place.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: No, it's not. It flows seamlessly and powerfully. It is the, I feel like if the Greeks were with us today, they would be honored by this telling of retelling of their myth, because of course, it's been perfectly, it honors its roots and it modernizes it, bringing in climate change. Just so brilliant. And then the contributions of women especially. This is the last thing we have to talk about, the power of writers and poets. You, Viviana, are a poet. It's interesting you told me your first writing pieces were poems. I'm not surprised, because you are a natural poet and your poetry is so powerful. It's telling a story through poetry. And I think, like, the way that you have synthesized all this very complex history and reality, the reality that we're living in now and made it beautiful, it's now accessible to everyone. People can understand the world in a new way because of the writing. The words that you put together. I mean, it's so crazy how writing is just combining letters and words in different ways, and it gives, it actually changes how we think. I'm different person now than I was before I heard this piece, because you've opened, like, new doors in my brain, and you will open new doors in everybody's brain. So my next question is, do you, can you speak to, like, times where you were upset or struggling with something and you read a poem?
Like, how did it affect you when you're. How does poetry help you?
[00:19:49] Speaker C: I guess poetry helps me.
I wrote, I write poetry, or mostly story, like, story poems, sort of when I'm upset, to sort of like.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: It'S.
[00:20:03] Speaker C: Like the equivalent of talking to someone when you're upset. I talked to a friend or a therapist, but it's sort of writing it out on paper and sort of being able to go back and look at it when you're not in the heat of the moment of being upset, or to sort of think about it and sort of be like, sort of dive deeper into your.
I find for me, my thoughts are very scattered. You might be able to tell that for my writing process or the way that I am talking, but my thoughts are very scattered. So I like putting it down a paper and being able to really look at it and being able to dissect. Okay, well, why am I feeling this way? Why am I doing this. I also read poetry when I'm upset.
I love Sylvia Plath.
There's this one poem I have in my room on. Mom gave it to me. There's a little picture frame on my bookshelf, like, right across from me. And it's by Mary Oliver, I think. And it's called praying. And it's, like, a really peaceful poem. And it. I don't know. I like to read it when I'm upset.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, there's solace in poetry, writing it and hearing it. And by the way, I'm the same. And unfortunately, people who are listening are going to be like, oh, my God, she can barely speak English. It's so hard to talk for me. I find it very difficult to talk, but so much easier to organize your thoughts when you're writing. And I don't know what it is, but I feel you 100% all over the place. Right?
[00:21:38] Speaker C: Yeah. I did speech and debate, and I think I had to stop because I would just get halfway into an argument, and then I'd forget what I was arguing about.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: I do that all the time. My mind is constantly going blank. And if it happens when you're. It also happens when we're writing. But it's funny because I can come back to the thought quicker. Like, if I. You know, you just pause for a minute, and then the words come back, whereas speaking is much harder. I wish, honestly, I could just pass notes to everyone all the time and I didn't have to talk.
But that's so interesting how you get this clarity I'm hearing you say. It's like it formulates. You take all of the complicated emotions that you're feeling at any one moment that are often overwhelming, and you organize that, and you create beauty out of them when you write a poem.
[00:22:30] Speaker C: Yeah. That's honestly why I really like poetry, because you can, I don't know, create something beautiful out of words, and you can, like, almost visualize these ideas and think about them in a new way that you wouldn't be able to if you were talking to someone. Like, it's the clearest explanation of emotions.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: That's beautiful. The clearest explanation of emotions. Perfect. Lucad, you're such a poet. See, it comes out when you speak as well. Okay, so the final thing is advice to other young writers who love writing. But like you, like me, like all of us, we have those moments where you get stuck, where you started writing something and you don't know where you're going with it, or you can't even get started because you're just completely, just, like, blank. What advice would you give for when writing feels hard?
[00:23:30] Speaker C: I think, honestly, just keep pushing through. And even if you. What you write is, like, terrible, you can just delete it and keep going. And you might be able to be like, oh, this idea is cool. I want to keep going. You can also get inspired by things that you like. If you really like reading, like, a certain topic or you really like learning about a certain topic, you could write about that. Or you could read or use a random word prompt generator. I know they have those online and I've definitely used them before, but I. They haven't always created the best poems, but they have created inspiration. So that's a good way to keep going.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: That's great advice. Just to keep going. And that is, by the way, I've said this. I say this all the time, but, like, even if you have nothing to say, write about not having anything to say, because it's the movement. It's like moving your hand, moving your fingers on the keyboard. If you keep moving, eventually, like, some neurons are going to light up and you'll have an idea. I'm thinking about how you said you were stuck and then you started thinking about your childhood and how you liked greek mythology. So it was like a little reference from the past took you on this incredible journey. I mean, this poem has been epic. And you just trusted the thought that popped into your head.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
This is amazing. Viviana, I am truly honored to know you and to write with you. You are an exceptional mind, an exceptional writer, an exceptional poet, and I love talking with you today. Thank you for sharing this poem. We're going to have a link to the poem so that people can read it underneath the recording so everyone can enjoy the. Every word is beautiful. Honestly, it's impossible to just pick one thing. It's all poetry, poetry, poetry.
So thank you again, Mariana, thank you for your time, and I look forward to writing with you again next week.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you.
