history

Imagine not knowing the year you were born...She thought she was born in 1825, While her death certificate said she was born in 1815 and her gravestone listed her birth in 1820.
Who am I talking about? Araminta Ross, or by the name you know her Harriet Tubman.

She was born near Bucktown, Maryland to Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross a slave couple that was lucky enough to spend most of their life in close proximity to one another. Harriet was one of around a dozen children. It is assumed she was a middle child. Though no records were found that listed her sisters or brothers, she had indicated that she did have older and younger siblings.

given life
by a child
only 13
parents seperated
when she turned 3
raised in the projects
raped at 11
sent to catholic school
to at least ensure heaven
2 years later
what happened had changed her
her family traveled
in hopes that could save her
and at age 13
she was raped by her neighbor

she turned to prositution
& was jailed for her "crime"
she sang
"body and soul"
for a home,
for a dime
unrecognized
overlooked
& segregated
she sang for her soul
she found music in hatred

she fell to numbness
using drugs for her pain
& for 8 months
she was jailed, once again

While I was doing my biology homework, I stumbled upon an old friend: Sekhmet. In the 5th grade, I had to portray her for a project on Egyptian history. Today, I see her in a much different light.

Women are constantly being told to relax, to calm down, to become passive. When we're stressed, we're supposed to take bubble baths and deep breaths and "let it go" so we can feel better. And, throughout history, when women have said NO and kicked a little butt, they end up calm and happy through either trickery or a sudden epiphany- the moral of the story is supposed to be that women don't fight what's given to them.

We, as AGA bloggers and by virtue of our age, have never lived in a country without Griswold and the right to access to birth control. We've never lived without Roe and the right to choose abortion. And it's easy to forget that not so very long ago these rights were greatly restricted or withheld altogether. We must remember the work of our foremothers; and the times when we forget, there is one group of women who never fail to remind me.

Before the Feminist Majority Foundation, Before NARAL Pro-Choice America, before NOW--

Heather Booth made her first referral.

“The blood is the life.” -Dracula

When we amble into the open air, our hands are already sticky with its sap. Its metallic tinge is the first taste to welcome us: “Here is Earth. It is raw, it is red, and it is forged by this power.”

As far back as the calendars have scratched at stone walls, men have forged this world in the blood of violence, war, and rape. It is a history that we hail with grins and songs, thanking those who have died to conquer our bounty. We covet the heroes whose faceless names we write in our books and poetry, holding close to our breasts a cultural bonding that “this is ours”.

But it is not mine.