Alixa and Naima - Climbing PoeTree

The Awesome Women of the Day are Alixa and Naima, a performance duo called Climbing PoeTree. Poets, performers, print-makers, dancers, muralists, and designers, the Colombia- and Massachusetts-born, Brooklyn-based team has toured the world, working the intersections of so many artistic disciplines and presentation modalities that they defy categorization.  They describe themselves on the Climbing PoeTree website as "the Heart Beat Soul Sister Artist Warrior duo." Their work confronts difficult issues of social and environmental justice and offers a perspective shift, an incensed yet loving realignment to everything about today's world that could get you down, a thinking/feeling view that will infiltrate the heart and mind of anyone who has even a small chink left open in their emotionally protective armor.

In a review of their 2009 show Hurricane Season, Onome Djere writes:

Climbing Poetree were already touring as a spoken word group, waxing eloquent about the economic greed and racism that fuels the prison industry. Using dance, poetry, tapestry, and storytelling, Alixa and Naima started giving birth to Hurricane Season by connecting the numerous dots of environmental and socio-economic oppression they had observed. One example was the news of mercenaries who were contracted to help patrol New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath - in effect, criminalizing its predominantly black and low-income population. Though Climbing Poetree covered everything from the hurricane to the displacement of Palestinians to the plastic island floating in the Pacific, they managed to avoid information overload and maximize emotional impact with graceful transitions and seamless multimedia layering.

The entire theatrical experience embodied the sacred and tempestuous nature of water: the dimly lit underwater cave-like performance space, the fluid dance movements of the performers, the tidal waves of images, metaphors, poignant quotes and audio collages of survivor stories, ebbing and flowing across a huge screen.

I have only begun to get familiar with their work and am utterly captivated by everything I've seen and heard. Among my favorites so far is this existentialist piece that ponders whether the other elements of nature perhaps experience the same sort of silly angst that we, the human element, put ourselves through over issues of appearance, social role, parenting, mortality. For me, the final line of the poem has already become a touchstone I come back to throughout the day, to regain my center when my mind is spinning out on a trip fueled by worries and fears:



In a historical context, we could call Climbing PoeTree "the wandering minstrels of today," or,  "itinerant philosopher shamans." For me personally, though, I see them as brave, shimmering living goddesses of Heart and Truth. Even in a small box of video on my screen, they take me, wake me, and remake me.

Enheduanna

♥ ♥ ♥ The Awesome Woman of the Day is Enheduanna, Priestess of Inanna (2285-2250 B.C.E.) The daughter of a king, symbolic wife of a god, she is the world's oldest known author whose works were written in cuneiform approximately 4300 years ago. Credited as being the earliest recorded feminist. Her poems are highly politicized in their outrage at the downfall of her father's imperial command. The highly charged verses, which are sensual, intimate and highly personal, convey her cosmic vision and moral distress at an era which will end with their reign.

She is recognized as the virtual personification of Inanna, the primary goddess of the moon. Her royal duties included restoration of the giparu (the ancient complex in Ur), the purification or the water rites, the composition of hymns of praise, and the carrying in of the offerings in the gimasab-basket. Her music-making role, in her composition of hymns and songs and poetry, honors the moon god, displaying fertility, fecundity and good harvest. She also acts as a political mediator in that she mirrors her father's power and authority with the military.

Her hymns had a profound impact on religious heritage and after her death there is no other attested literature focusing on the moon god. Enheduanna sings songs of praise or paeans and incantations to the goddess and plays a musical instrument, probably a lyre, as several are found buried at Ur, and one rests in the University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.

Writing and art were elite privileges, as literacy was restricted to a powerful elite. Considered the first non-anonymous author in world literature, the authority of her colophon declares the hymns to be hers, as does her employment of her first name, in the first person narrative, "I, Enheduanna…"

Banishment from Ur

You asked me to enter the holy cloister,
The giparu,
and I went inside, I the high priestess
Enheduanna!
I carried the ritual basket and sang
Your praise.
Now I am banished among the lepers.
Even I cannot live with you.
Shadows approach the light of day, the light
Is darkened around me,
Shadows approach the daylight,
Covering the day with sandstorm.
My soft mouth of honey is suddenly confused.
My beautiful face is dust.

http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduanna.html

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Lah Tere

Lah Tere (born Teresita Ayala) is a humanitarian, activist female emcee, songstress and a visionary speaker for the 21st century. The AfroAntillian / Puerto Rican / Boricua sister grew up in Chicago’s historic P.R. diasporic community of Humboldt Park near the famed Paseo Boricua. She is a first-generation born in the mainland, and the daughter of revolutionary educators and survivors of Chicago’s notorious ghettos.

Lah Tere integrates bilingual lyrics over hard-hitting beats with crunk, Caribbean, and world music influences. She uses hip hop as her weapon to speak against injustices in Black and Latino communities.

Lah is a founding member of Rebel Diaz, an international rap group that takes a critical and political stance on many social issues from police brutality on the streets of New York to violence against women globally.

The Chi-town native and her group of Latin rappers seek to unify black and brown people through their African-, Latin- and hip-hop-inspired grooves. Lah Tere provides powerfully soulful vocals and thought-provoking, sometimes-bilingual lyrics that easily draw comparisons to Jill Scott, La Lupe and Queen Latifah. She was also a founding member of the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDAC) in the South Bronx.

The proud Afro-Taina currently is one of the creative minds behind Mama's Hip-Hop Kitchen, a hip-hop theater showcase aiming to unite women of color through art and spoken word.

Mama’s Hip-Hop Kitchen, the Soup Kitchen for Hip-Hop Soul is a multifaceted event designed to showcase women artists, especially women of color. MHHK serves as a social justice community-organizing platform that educates and empowers women of color on issues that impact their lives including HIV/AIDS and reproductive justice. She is also the founder of 5 events that are themed around very important topics in her life. She invites women who can identify and/or represent the topics through the art form of their choice.

The focus of this year’s edition was “Let’s Get Active!” Since MHHK’s inception Lah Tere knew that as the event grew momentum and exposure many women’s lives would be changed. Little did she know that it would radically change hers as well. “As we were developing the event, something deep inside me was stirred. My personal health and wellness needs my undivided attention and I have made a commitment to make this a priority once and for all. In the process of activating others, I have activated myself.”

Through her political and local activism, Lah Tere has worked to carve her unique feminist niche outside of the commercial, often misogynistic music industry that objectifies females and she’s focused on building community from within.

As an emcee, she uses music as a didactic tool as well as an emotional release. Lah Tere writes and performs about domestic violence issues and links popular media examples of violence against women to secrets and silences in communities of color around molestation, rape and other forms of violence against women’s bodies that are too often normalized and naturalized in the media and by society.

Currently, Lah is working on a debut solo album as well as a collaborative album with her brother. Armed with piercing lyrics and a message to change the world for the better, Lah Tere brings everything to the party. I had the opportunity to meet this warm, fun & inspiring women when she gave a motivational talk as part of Women’s History Month in March at Montclair State University. She is honest and eye-opening in everything she covers from alcoholism in the family, to gangland murders, to lesbian-baiting. In her own words:

“Peace-paz. There are so many things happening around the world right now. And our commitment to the universe is imperative. We must take care of our health, families, communities, Mother earth. We must educate ourselves about the survival tactics, that our ancestors once used. My goal in life is to use spirituality, arts and culture as a tool for education and reclaiming our power. Berdiciones and lots of ache!”

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