(Workshops & open mics by donation only, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.)

We started in Women’s Month & go through Mother’s Day!

MAY

8-12am Friday, March 18 @ Orun Cener $5 suggested donation
New address for location: 1720 E. 12th Street (@ corner of Salina St.), Austin, TX 78702

Special Event: CommUNITY Open Mic & Performances
Bringing together all artists to join our Womyn on the open mic as a final celebration in honor of Mother’s Day & all Womyn.

Youth Artist BTP opening the mic!

Featured Guest Performance:

YOLANDA “YOLI” ZAPATA-Violence surrounded Zapata when she was growing up. It first touched her mother; helpless to the statistics. Zapata became a number before she could fully comprehend she was a human being. She had to overcome challenges like growing up with single mother, the death of multiple friends, a sibling with special needs, police brutality, and teen parenthood. Zapata used her experiences to break the silence on difficult issues, helping herself and others heal. As a child, it was through hip hop that she was able to understand creative expression. Combining life experiences and the desire to change the world, Zapata has been able to use beats and rhymes as a tool for empowerment. The only femcee in the hip hop group P.U.B.L.I.C. O.F.F.E.N.D.E.R.S. a group recognized for speaking out about all types of oppression. Blessed to work with male emcees (who are also lifelong friends) that are not afraid to share the spotlight with a female. She works with teens in the Boys and Girls Clubs in the Austin area through my position at a local domestic violence prevention and resource center. Zapata is part of the nation’s Start Strong Initiative- a collaboration of school and community partners working together promote safe and healthy teen relationships and prevent teen dating abuse. She has shared her personal journey of surviving domestic violence in order to help others. She also works with A Call To Men, to galvanize a national movement of men committed to ending violence and discrimination against women and girls. Zapata is an advisor to both The CIpher-Austin’s Hip Hop Project and the Ortralla Mosley Foundation. Through the universal language of music, she continues to do so. She is the proud mother of a beautiful 7 year old daughter, named after Aaliyah’s( RIP ) sunrise and sunset.

Previous Workshops & Open Mics:

MARCH
3:30-5:30pm Sunday, March 11 – Writing Workshop
@ Orun Center 1401 b Cedar Ave, Austin, TX 78702

7-9pm Wednesday, March 21 – Writing Workshop
@ MonkeyWrench Books: (512) 407-6925
110 East North Loop Boulevard Austin, TX 78751

3:30-6:30pm Sunday, March 25 @ Orun Center
Special Event: Potluck Open Mic – $5 suggested donation
Sharing Food & Words in Honor of Womyn:
open to all womyn & supportive friends & families

Author, Sarah Rafael García, and musician, Joanna Saucedo, will present new collaborative, Chicana works that weave in oral storytelling, spoken word, Son Jarocho and Americana music.

APRIL
3:30-5:30pm Sunday, April 1 – Writing Workshop @ Orun Center

7-9pm Wednesday, April 18 – Writing Workshop @ MonkeyWrench Books

3:30-6:30pm Sunday, April 22 @ Orun Center
Special Event: Potluck Open Mic – $5 suggested donation
Sharing Food & Words in Honor of Womyn:
open to all womyn & supportive friends & families

Gloria

Lydia

Anjela

RSVP to workshops or sign up for open mic by email at sarah@sarahrafaelgarcia.com or on Facebook or call 323-972-6980.

Social Worker & Founder of Empowered Butterfly

Paola Beas received her Bachelors Degree at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Gender, Ethnicity and Multicultural Studies with a concentration in Chican@/Latin@ Studies and a minor in Spanish. She has worked along and advocated for “vulnerable” populations such as the LGBTQ community, those living with HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse survivors, field workers, & the Mental Health population. Paola received her Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California in May 2011.

Paola began an empowerment women’s support group at the comfort of her home called Empowered Butterfly in September 2010. Empowered Butterfly’s current project is starting Mentoring Program for young women at Garey High School in Pomona, CA. Paola also facilitates a sexual abuse group twice a month in her home. She is inspired by staying connected to peoples life experiences. Paola writes to free her mind & speak her truth as a way to model to others that we are not alone.

My Girls

I am a single woman with 9 girls and for my girls I pray. They range from 2 months old through 10 years of age. All going through difficult times and looking forward to better days.

At 11 days old, her Mother chose drugs and rage over the bond between them.

ABANDONMENT.

At 1 year old, she can already identify her pleasure spot. I wonder if she has been molested and if her constant tears are her way to communicate her pain.

FEAR.

At 2 years old she inserts objects down there and screams “Fuck You!”

DAMAGED.

At 3 years old, she is being touched by her 5 year old sister who was sexually abused by random men who invaded her valuable vagina. With their dirty hands they affected the life of an innocent child, only to continue this vicious cycle.

TRAUMA.

My 9 year old diagnosed ADHD and ODD. She cries, laughs, bounces, and runs away all within a 5 minute span.

LABELED.

I am a single woman with 9 girls and for my girls I pray. So that society doesn’t look down on them and label them as hoes, sluts, drug-addicts, low lives. So that they find a way to cope and stay away from the needles, alcohol, cutting, and suicide attempts.

If only people understood that what we wish most as children is to be nurtured by our natural parents. And that when there is a disruption we seek to sooth ourselves through masturbation, OCD, control, over achievement, substance abuse, cutting, food, sex.

I trust that the time I spend with them I can model consistency, love, trust, kindness. Remembering how many people have walked out of their lives, how many new homes they had to call home. How confused they were when the people who were supposed to keep them safe disrupted their lives forever.

I am a single woman.

I am a Foster Care Social Worker and for my girls I pray.

Because I will never know what happened to them, so I trust that my prayer will send comfort their way.

“Longtime Santa Ana resident Sarah Rafael García, now based in Austin, will be returning home on Friday as part of the Wild Womyn Writers Tour, but she is not the only Orange County writer sharing her work, she will share the mic with several talented wild womyn! Check out the upcoming line-up!”

Marilynn Montano

Chicana, Barrio Writer, Journalist & Co-founder of Coyolxaqui Circle

Marilynn lives locally & cares globally. She will be graduating high school towards the summer of 2012 as the first one in her family to graduate.  She is a writer at heart, sensitive, funny, crafty, petite, & so many things.  You can find her sipping on some Café de Olla at Café Calacas or being downtown and having a notepad in look for her new inspiration or story as an intern for the OC Register’s OC Latino Link blog.

With the help of very empowering peers,  she recently started a young wombyns circle group named Coyolxaqui Circle, for young wombyn, about young wombyn, & by young wombyn. She believes that many young wombyn should have the chance to express & talk about anything else than just homework. A circle where you can talk about your culture, ways of life, or anything that’s on la mujeres mind.

Co-founder of Barrio Actors Guild & Community Organizer

Claudia Breña

“I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, an activist, both a manifestation of the universe & a child of god, a two-spirited being, an artist, a friend, a poet, a traveler in training, aware, a mix of traditions and culture, a resident of the world, a foreigner, a lover of the earth without borders, a little quick to be angry, a little quick to be sad sometimes, it’s mostly out of anger at situations that are unjust, I can be awkward, that’s actually a good thing, a clown, a movie fanatic, a book collector- I love getting books I never read, an admirer, a listener, a philosopher- I drive myself crazy sometimes, a water element kind of person, a dreamer, a precious being.”

Chichimeca-Mexica Indigenous Dancer & Poet

Iuri Morales Lara

Iuri is a spoken word & literary poet, traditional Chichimeca-Mexica Indigenous dancer, & community organizer from Santa Ana, CA. Currently a writing assistant for Santa Ana’s Barrio Writers Youth Program & a recent MFA graduate of the Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts Program at the University of California, Riverside.  Her poems appear in the last three issues of the “Mujeres de Maiz” Literary and Arts Zine, a wombyn of color artists collective based in Los Angeles, CA.

Jaranera-Bombera & Community Organizer

Melody Gonzalez Chavez

Melody is a community organizer, educator, dancer, y jaranera-bombera de SanTana who has been using writing as a healing tool since age 10.

Writer, Community Organizer, Chicana Chingona

Elvia Susana Rubalcava

Elvia was raised in Santa Ana by parents who helped shaped her social consciousness & love for her hometown. Elvia has worked with Latino communities on organizing strategies & leadership development for over 15 years. Elvia is also a writer, blending childhood memories, social commentary, & Chicanisma into her pieces.

Wednesday August 31, 8 – 10PM – FREE!
Corazon del Pueblo
2003 E. 1st Street, Boyle Heights, CA 90033

Friday September 2, 7 – 9PM – FREE!
Cafe Calacas
324 W. 4th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701

Friday September 9, 8 – 10PM – FREE!
  MECA (Multicultural Education &
Counseling Through the Arts)
1900 Kane Street, Houston, TX 77007

Come to Share, Empower & Celebrate Womyn!

“Wild Womyn Writers provides a space for womyn to explore their creative spirits, free themselves from societal restrictions and learn to embrace their natural instincts.”

The initial concept is to provide a space where womyn can hang their labels, stereotypes and societal restrictions at the door in order to listen, embrace and empower their ideas. The space is open to all who are willing to express in order to empower (including men who wish to share and support womyn works).

Sarah Rafael García and Joanna Saucedo will host the Wild Womyn Writers workshops and open mic at various locations in California and Texas. The first hour will be a creative workshop that will provide writing tips for poetry, lyrics, and spoken word while also demonstrating sound and movement. Participants will have an opportunity to present their work produced during the workshop in the second hour as part of the live open mic (open to the public).

The workshops will be kept intimate; space is limited, reservations are suggested (12 writer limit). Then in the second hour the participants will be joined by other womyn who wish to share any works and by men who will show support by sharing works dedicated to womyn.

The open mic will culminate with Sarah Rafael and Joanna presenting new works that weave in storytelling, spoken word, Son Jarocho and Americana music. Joanna transcends her enthusiasm for rhythmical sound through her Jarana and body movement vibrations while Sarah Rafael shares her life through spoken word and passion for adventure by practicing beats on her Cajon (box drum) for the first time.

“It’s encouraging to see women of color taking the lead in the literary movements emerging from neighborhoods that have, for far too long, been ignored and neglected. Wild Womyn Writers are part of the bridge-building between a new generation of writers and the neighborhood artists they have taken it upon themselves to mentor and empower,” says Abel Salas, editor of Brooklyn & Boyle, an arts and community-based paper established to foster cultural arts throughout LA’s greater Eastside.

Tour workshops and open mic will culminate in Austin, Texas as a fall workshop series and a monthly open mic. The dates and location of events in Austin will be disclosed at a later date. To RSVP for workshops or for more information please contact Sarah Rafael García: sarah@sarahrafaelgarcia.com or call 323-972-6980.

ABOUT SARAH RAFAEL GARCÍA

Author Sarah Rafael Garcia playing her cajon for the first time.

writer, community educator, author

Sarah Rafael García was born in Brownsville, Texas in 1974 and raised in Orange County, California. She started writing after her father’s passing in 1988. She obtained a Bachelors of Science in Sociology at Texas State University, is bilingual in Spanish and knows enough Mandarin to speak to pre-k students and taxi drivers in China. She has lived in Beijing and traveled to various countries including a three-month backpacking adventure in Australia. She is an active writer, blogger, community educator and published author who strives to advocate for human rights.

Since the publication of Las Niñas, A Collection of Childhood Memories in 2008, she has continued to share her writings and community outreach by founding Barrio Writers in 2009, a reading and writing program aimed to empower youth through creative writing, higher education and the cultural arts. In 2010, she initiated Wild Womyn Writers in California. Most recently, her essay “Crossing Borders” was published in Connotation Press (April 2011). Her writings, workshops and lifestyle promote community empowerment, cultural awareness and global sharing.

ABOUT JOANNA SAUCEDO

Musician Joanna Saucedo

Vibration specialist – move it. sound it. laugh it. express it. heal it…connect it in the community.

Joanna Saucedo was born in 1972 and raised in rural Adkins, Texas. The solitude and smell of abundant mesquite fueled a passion for solitude, which inevitably allowed her to focus on academics. She was published in a scientific journal before she graduated from high school and attended Stanford University in California.

Due to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Joanna had to decide between her health and academic goals. She chose to return to Texas in search of personal healing, she continued her studies by completing an Associate in Arts degree with a focus in music. Shortly thereafter, she returned to study science and completed her Bachelors of Arts in Human Ecology (Nutrition) with highest honors at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2001, Traditional Chinese Medicine became her next academic pursuit. After completing courses in acupuncture, she had to face the unexpected death of her father. At that point, Joanna left her studies once again to nurture her soul. Eventually, she became a massage therapist and Kundalini yoga teacher. In the midst of all her academic endeavors and personal challenges, she nurtured her spirit through dancing, singing and playing various musical instruments, focusing on traditional Son Jarocho Fandango.

Joanna Saucedo continues to share her therapeutic vibrations through massage therapy, community yoga and organizing, playing, dancing, and teaching music.

Sarah Rafael & Joanna expressing liberated creativity!

Credits:
Photography: © Lanie Anderson http://www.harmoneyesphotography.com
Make-Up: Pilar Davila http://www.beautybypilar.com (Sarah Rafael García’s make-up)

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These events are supported by Poets & Writers, Inc.; in California, through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Poets & Writers, Inc., is the primary source of information, support, and guidance for creative writers. Founded in 1970, it is the nation’s largest nonprofit literary organization serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers.

Wild Womyn Writers were asked to bring some personal photos/items, magazine pics or a reprint of their favorite artist! Then we summed up our lives in one sentence!

Group viewed a picture of a person riding a skateboard with a young child.
Responses:
“I felt 10 feet tall when daddy took me by the hand.” — Charlene

“Whether the toddler with proper headgear likes it or not,
he and Dad are off to the movie theater, sans car.”–Gianna

“Together we traveled the world on four small wheels.” –Charlene

“Skateboarding big brother introduces little brother,
Jeremy, to carless carpooling”– Gianna

“His fears melted away, when our hands touched.” — Charlene
 
Photo of a young women dressed up in a limo:
“Clouds and trees are a blur from the inside of the limousine, but she is grounded in her
Red summer dress and glittering earrings…embracing the night ahead.” –Gianna

An artistic portrait of writer Pablo Neruda:
“His eyes spoke of the pain his lips were unable to utter.” — Charlene
“I wept, I begged; but he looked right through my soul
and walked out of my heart.” — Charlene

The visual was a small bottle of holy water:
“Sprinkled to the wind, 0.6 ounces worth of her
comings and goings, hopes and oh my gods.” –Elvia

Hey you, look at me! Why haven’t you liked my status?
When will you validate what I have to say?

Hey you, update! I need to know what you’re doing, help me investigate.
What sort of causes and what sorts of shows must I like today?

Hey you, comment on my picture! Why don’t you show that you love us?
I need the affirmation of your admiration, hey you, respond to my declaration!
When will you tag me and show me I am relevant?

Hey you, don’t you see I like what you’re doin and sayin,
That I want you to be doin and sayin it to me?

Hey you, poke me! Haven’t you seen that I’ve poked you to?
Don’t you see, I am only as valuable as your tags, likes, pokes, and comments?

So, hey you, why don’t you facebook!

Can this really be happening to me? I am sitting in his car, the guy I have been lusting over for a month. We are at a gas station. He is in inside purchasing an item only the preface to the larger expense that will occur  just a half mile down the road. You see, I have asked him to make this small purchase of a precautionary device and have asked if his chosen profession provides him the means to also pay for a motel room.

Not exactly an ideal opening piece to a romantic fantasy, but this is how it happened.

Several months before, I had found myself thinking about a guy I knew in college. We did not know each well, but I found something incredibly sensual about his face. He had these lazy eyes that seem to express mystery and deep thought, a perfectly proportioned little nose, and incredibly sexy lips. His look drew me in so powerfully, I never quite forgot it. It gave me a chill from deep inside making me express “Oh Godm, that guy is fucking HOT!” Somehow, five years later while enjoying drinks with a girlfriend, I suddenly thought about him and described him out loud. To my surprise, that friend knew him! Not only did she know who I was talking about, but she knew his name. She was his friend on FACEBOOK!

That very evening, I added him on facebook and looked through all his pictures. Ok, not just looked. More like fantasized about every aspect of his face, his smile, his eyes, his hands, his chest, his arms, and of course, what adventures I might find in those pants!

Several months of subtle flirting, then intense flirting, and finally out right invitations to a fun evening, brings me to the moment in his car. We have just acknowledged the undeniable. We are about to have incredible sex fueled by the certain electricity between us. You see, until this moment, this guy was just an intriguing mystery and a frequent visit to my wet dreams. But now, after several hours of engaging conversation, I cannot wait to rip his clothes off! What made the evening most incredible was his undivided attention and the unfettered confidence to swing my body across an empty dance floor making us the center of the room. The confidence to make me laugh, show me off, and give me passionate kisses makes the soon to be realized fantasy in a cheap motel the most incredible sexual encounter of my life!