Austin Wild Womyn Writers

Workshops & Open Mics
Come to Share, Empower & Celebrate Womyn!

(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

Mujeres Morenas is a small group of Latina writers/poetas meeting regularly to write, share, and participate in literary related events. The three of us, Gloria Amescua, Lydia Armendáriz, and Anjela Villarreal Ratliff, are former educators whose works have appeared in various publications.  We strive to add our voices to the community canto.

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.

My Girls by Paola Beas

(Paola participated in the Wild Womyn Writers workshop & open mic at Corazon del Pueblo in Boyle Heights, California as part of the tour in early September 2011.)

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.

“One Sentence Story – Conceptualizing Our Lives”

A group writing exercise!

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!

by Brenda G.,
Rants & Spoken Word Workshop

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!

Love Fantasy

by Anonymous

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!