{"id":16408,"date":"2021-07-28T01:02:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T01:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16408"},"modified":"2021-07-27T20:04:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T20:04:06","slug":"the-year-of-the-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/28\/the-year-of-the-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year Of The Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JoEllen Collins<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
JoEllen Collins\u2014a longtime resident of the Wood River Valley\u2014is a teacher, writer, fabric artist, choir member and unabashedly proud grandma known as \u201cBibi Jo.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>hen I listened to Admiral James Stavridis at the Sun Valley Writers\u2019 Conference, I noticed nodding heads during much of his presentation. He is the author of the novel\u00a0\u201c2034: A Novel of the Next World War.\u201d In the question time, he was asked, if he might label future years with titles like \u201cThe Year of China,\u201d what would he assign this current year. He answered quickly, \u201cThe Year of the Woman.\u201d More nods of agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought about this comment as I worked on the final days of a poetry reading at the Reinheimer Ranch this past Saturday, a benefit for The Senior Connection titled \u201cThe Beauty of Brilliance.\u201d It featured local (and extraordinary) women actors reading selections of poems by female poets whose works ranged from the 19th\u00a0and mid-20th\u00a0centuries to a m\u00e9lange of women who were able to find their voices and publish after World War II. We highlighted traditional poets like Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, and then women as varied as Sharon Olds, Naomi Shihab Nye, Maya Angelou, Linda Pastan and Margaret Atwood (who most know from other genres).<\/span><\/p>\n

I found their poems more meaningful than I ever imagined as I pored over so many I loved and taught in high schools and colleges. My talented readers gave spectacular interpretations: each seemed to embody the spirit and essence of each poem and poet. This smaller audience also occasionally nodded in recognition of the commonality of emotion. There were several moments of laughter and a few with tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, the six presenters and I read the many sections of Amanda Gorman\u2019s inaugural poem, \u201cThe Hill We Climb.\u201d\u00a0We realized how relevant the poem was for a combination of different ages and styles of the readers and the audience.\u00a0Miss Gorman\u2019s words inspired all of us to honor the promise of our country, and thus we are grateful that this new generation can be heard by a larger audience, as was not the case with our beloved Emily Dickinson, who only published seven poems in her life but composed over 1700.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was proud of the unity of the concerns and lives of women so beautifully revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, when asked why I didn\u2019t choose men to read men\u2019s works, I responded with the first caveat. I am not disrespectful of men. I like my men friends, and men in general: as a \u201csenior\u201d I have dealt with many fascinating gentlemen in my life. This time, I narrowed it to women because we could not possibly spend one evening sharing all the fabulous male poets I have adored through my life, along with the women I try to emulate by writing, speaking, and using words in a positive way. For example, I could spend hours just reading and listening to Irish poets. In short, it is difficult to choose from genius.<\/span><\/p>\n

If there is a man out there who would like to have the same experience, an exhibit of male poetry, concepts and talent, I\u2019d be happy to help.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JoEllen Collins When I listened to Admiral James Stavridis at the Sun Valley Writers\u2019 Conference, I noticed nodding heads during much of his presentation. He is the author of the novel\u00a0\u201c2034: A Novel of the Next World War.\u201d In the question time, he was asked, if he might label future years with titles like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-on-lifes-terms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16409,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16408\/revisions\/16409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}