Poet voices women’s truths at “Indigenous and Women of Color Rise”

For those unfamiliar with the female reality, poet Dominique Christina will be here to invite you to learn.

“I don’t need convincing about the water that women walk on and the miracles we perform daily, most of which go unseen, uncelebrated, unacknowledged, unwritten,” Christina said. “I don’t need convincing, but the culture does. Society is still kind of dragging its feet toward that clarity. That’s the purpose of this event, that’s why this event is necessary.”

Christina will be featured at the Seattle Public Library central branch on International Women’s Day for Indigenous and Women of Color Rise.

The event will include a screening of the work of artist and scholar Cherry Smiley (Nlaka’pamux and Diné), who had originally been scheduled to appear, according to event co-organizer Saba Malik.

Christina will read poetry and guide context-setting conversations throughout the event, which will explore issues of “male violence, objectification, sexual exploitation and racialization,” according to the event description. 

The event will take place on International Women’s Day, a day for fostering female solidarity, drawing attention to the adversities that women face and celebrating women’s achievements.

While International Women’s Day is a day specifically dedicated to women, Christina said that March 8, is, like most other days, a continued opportunity to celebrate and advocate for women.

The difference merely lies in the invitation.

“For me it’s literally the embodiment of that which I acknowledge every single moment of my life anyway, it’s just an invitation for others to do so and be more deliberate about doing so,” Christina said. “The ethos of this event is the ethos of my life, but there’s an invitation: invite others into that kind of awareness and that kind of celebration and that kind of clarity.”

Be there

The event will be from 7 to 10 p.m. March 8 at the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library. Tickets are available on Brown Paper Tickets.

Elizabeth Turnbull

Elizabeth Turnbull is a journalism student at the University of Washington where she writes for The Daily and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Most of Turnbull’s experience has been in covering public health issues and she hopes to continue covering community-centric issues as well as branching out towards the coverage of human rights.