FemmSouth

In part II of Episode 10: Reflecting on Audre Lorde, Leigh is joined by three local women (Valerie Montgomery, Claire Hallblack, and Valencia Wilson) to talk about race and infrastructure in our local community as an extension of our discussion about Audre Lorde's book Sister Outsider. Audre Lorde calls for women to unite and build new paths across difference, but what are the obstacles to building these paths in places where the infrastructure of racism, classism, and sexism still exist?

Structural racism, classism, and sexism can be seen in many facets of life in a small town, even in one as seemingly progressive as ours. We see this in the case of our local community that is 93% caucasian and less than 8% minority. With little or no women of color serving on boards, city planning committees, politics, food and health industries, and other important elements of infrastructure, then how effective is a community at providing support systems for the physical and psychological needs of all its members?

The racial and gender disparities are also reflected in housing, healthcare, employment, education, and church community, which is a huge network in southern, black culture.

When women, and especially women of color, are not landing key positions in community development or taking on leadership roles, then communities cannot advance the goals and values of all its members. An important component to Audre Lorde's call for women to unite and forge new paths across difference, is the equalizing of infrastructure, i.e. the building blocks of community.

Join the conversation on FB @ FemmSouth Bookclub Group

Listen & rate us on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, & GooglePlay

Subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.femmsouth.com/

Become a Patreon Member on https://www.patreon.com/Femmsouth

This episode examines Audre Lorde’s collection of essays and lectures in her book, "Sister Outsider." Join Leigh and new cohost, Jillian Rosandich, as we talk about Audre Lorde’s theory of difference, a foundational pillar of Intersectional Feminism that recognizes the particular experiences and issues of women of color and other groups that were being left out of the broader feminist conversation of second wave feminism. As Lorde put it,

"The oppression of women knows no ethnic nor racial boundaries, true, but that does not mean it is identical within those differences" (70).

These conversations are just as relevant today as we stand together against oppression and injustice and work to uncover our full Herstory. What does it look like to recognize and hold space for difference, especially when building an inclusive community that speaks to the diverse interests and needs of all women? Can we widen our views around race, class, age, sexual identity, and religion, and find new ways of existing and examining the world outside of patriarchal constructs? We are now connected globally more than we have ever been, and so we must stand together in unity through diversity.

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, & Google Play

Visit our website www.FemmSouth.com

We are on Instagram & FB @FemmSouth

Support us through membership via Patreon @ www.patreon.com/FemmSouth

Why is anger a particularly challenging emotion to acknowledge and express for women? Many of us grew up in a culture or a home that discouraged any expression of anger or discontent. We learned to suppress our darker emotions, drive them down deep, and sacrifice our needs to be the peacekeepers in the home and at work. How did women get to this point historically, and what can we do to reframe anger so that we can use it to attain personal and political freedom against injustice, create safe boundaries, & validate our experiences?

In this episode, you will hear accomplished panelists discussing the historical supression of women’s anger in literature, art, psychology, sports, and media. This is our special recording of the Anger For Change Panel put together to address women’s hidden anger in our local community. Inspired by Soraya Chemaly’s book, Rage Becomes Her, we confirm women’s anger as a powerful instrument for social and political change.

Panelists include artist/LGBQTIA activist-Sarah Rutledge Fischer, psychotherapist-Dr. Katie Penry, and PhD student-Jillian Rosandich, along with FemmSouth hosts Leigh & Amaya.

We are excited to announce that we have joined Patreon, a membership platform to connect with and get support from our listeners. For a small contribution, you can join our online bookclub, learn about women’s history and feminist theory, and be a part of our mission to empower women.

To join, go to https://www.patreon.com/Femmsouth

Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, & Google Play, where you can rate us and leave comments.

Follow us on Instagram & FB @FemmSouth and visit our website at www.FemmSouth.com.

Anger, one of the darker emotions that women have historically learned to suppress & transfer into other more acceptable emotions like anxiety, sadness, and depression, is actually a valid and valuable tool for creating change in our personal lives and in the world. This is not the first time in history women’s anger has been at the front line of activism. Women’s anger has always fueled change. As “the first line of defense against injustice,” (Chemaly) when women get fed up, the world changes.

This episode is one of a three-part series on Women’s Emotional Freedom & Transformation. Join Amaya and Leigh as they discuss Soraya Chemaly’s book, Rage Becomes Her, a book about the power of women’s anger.

In this episode, we seek answers to questions like--why do we favor certain emotions over others, and how is this limiting us? What are the causes of women's anger, and can we give ourselves (and others) permission to be angry about injustices in our personal lives and in the world? Can we honor our emotions and create the emotional freedom that will open to deeper personal and collective growth?

We believe we can and must.

So, if you are constantly policing your anger, shaming yourself, or suppressing and redirecting your anger into sadness, anxiety, and depression, you may like what we have to say, and you’ll definitely want to read this book.

Cover art entitled, “They Called Her Rage,” by Alabama artist June Reddix-Stennis @flygirljune. This piece was a part of a series of murals entitled, "And Then She," which June created for a public space in downtown Mobile, Alabama in response to the first Women's March in 2017. June says her decision to create this work came about "the same time when the United States was exploding with chaos and hate. I couldn't focus. All I could think about was the black dead bodies killed by police that kept popping in my timeline on social media. I felt like screaming and weeping. All my former female colleagues were out all across the nation preparing for the march. I was at home with a sheet of plywood, buckets of latex and acrylic paint on a tarp set up in my home office." To see more of her paintings visit her FB page @flygirljune.

Listen and rate us on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, & GooglePlay

Follow us on FB & Instagram @FemmSouth

Stay up to date with our newsletter by visiting www.FemmSouth.com

Join Leigh as she interviews Matt Myrick, singer, songwriter, and father of two small children, to get his take on the story of the Skeleton Woman in Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.

Skeleton woman is the archetype of the life/death/life cycle, which, according to Clarissa, is the natural cycle of death and rebirth that determines the transformative cycles of all physical and psychological life. When skeleton woman enters into a relationship, she is the gift for both partners of deeper inner knowing and growth.

Leigh and Matt discuss the patriarchal structure through which the skeleton woman was first destroyed and through which the fisherman must escape in order to recognize the skeleton woman as a deeper spiritual treasure.

As a stay-at-home father, Matt also sees the tangled bones as a metaphor for the reality and messiness of everyday life with children, which requires relating to “something more spiritual, something messier, something invested with much more energy and kind of a forceful will and being able to go along for the ride” (Matt).

Matt and Leigh circle back to the final scene in the story where the fisherman cries the tear that initiates the skeleton woman’s transformation into a woman of flesh. The conversation opens to toxic masculinity and the difficulty men have with accepting the “not-beautiful” and expressing vulnerability. According to Clarissa, when the fisherman allows the expression of his vulnerability, cares for and untangles the woman despite her darkness, and gives his whole heart to the transformation, he is able to have the deeper connection with the full woman that he desires. The integrity of the relationship, the deeper union, is derived from both partners accepting the reality of each other and doing the deeper inner work of transformation together.

Cover art entitled, “Their Gravity,” by Alabama artist Sarah Rutledge Fischer @sarahrutledgefischer. To see more of her figure drawings and mixed media paintings, visit sarahrutledgefischer.com or find her FB page Sarah Rutledge Fischer Art.

"The Western Ride” written and performed by Matt Myrick @cityelectricmusic.

To join our bookclub, visit our private group on FB @ FemmSouth Bookclub

We are a grassroots effort, and we need donations to keep us doing this important work for women in the south. You can donate on our website, FemmSouth.com or follow and share our fundraiser on FemmSouth’s FB page.

We are continuing our three part series honoring Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run With the Wolves. Clarissa connects readers with the archetypal wild woman who sings over collected bones to revive the Shewolf, La Loba. We all possess this wild woman deep inside our psyches, but many of us have forgotten, suppressed, ignored or simply lost connection.

In In this episode, Leigh interviews singer/songwriter Emily Stuckey and activist and book club member, Ashley Wix, about storytelling, digging up old bones, collecting & examining them through creative practices, and breaking the silencing that happens when we experience shame around our more difficult experiences.

In the first half, Leigh and Emily discuss the chapter “La Loba, The Wolf Woman,” while Emily shares her journey into music, using songwriting as a platform for self-awareness and transformation. Channeling sometimes darker emotions on stage is a way to honor her life experiences and develop deeper connections with her audience. She sings her new song, Redbird, written for her all female band, The Krickets. Redbird just won the Independent Music Award for best alt country song. We are honored to have Emily share her song with us!

In the second half, Leigh reads her poem, Buried Deep, and Leigh and Ashley dive into “The Woman With Hair of Gold.” Ashley shares her story about recognizing and getting out of a psychologically abusive relationship that she endured for seven years in silence. This kind of abuse is much more difficult to discuss because the physical evidence may not be visible, and the abuser is well versed in manipulation. Reading Clarissa’s book and getting validation and support from friends inspired Ashley to leave and break the cycle of silence and shame. Now she tells her story to help others gain the courage to end abusive relationships.

To download Emily’s IMA winning song, Red Bird, visit www.thekrickets.com

Amazing cover artwork created by Alabama artist, Raven Cole @dark_horse_collage

To join our bookclub, visit our private group on FB @ FemmSouth Bookclub

To Donate, please visit www.FemmSouth.com or follow our fundraiser on FB.

Are we enjoying the full shapes and functions of our bodies, and do we feel at home in our own skin? Join us as we explore the answers to these questions in the second part of a three-part series honoring Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype.

In this episode, Leigh interviews two friends, Lukcy and Kate, about their favorite stories—“Sealskin, Soulskin” and “La Mariposa, Butterfly Woman.” Lukcy is a singer and songwriter who is working on a year-long, collaborative project to create original music with musicians in each state. We caught her as she was traveling through Alabama and were able to record her original song, “Easy Does it Now.” She talks about life on the road and what it's like having a home that is, like the Seal Maiden, contained in the soul rather in than physical, material objects.

In the second half of the show, Kate reads her poem “She” and discusses her yogic journey into being grounded and embodied, and how she is learning to reconnect with her body and break out of old patterns of judgement through daily meditation. Clarissa writes, “To confine the beauty and value of the body to anything less than this magnificence is to force the body to live without its rightful spirit, its rightful form, its right to exultation” (200). Kate and Leigh conclude that the body is equipped to heal if we can tune in and listen to its needs, and we are all meant to feel free and authentic in our true selves. Please join us!

Learn more about Lukcy’s project on FB & Instagram @myfellowtravelhers

Watch her Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0PLmUKE4wA

Visit her website https://www.myfellowtravelhers.com/

To see transcript of Kate’s poem “She,” visit our blog at FemmSouth.com

Artwork by the amazing Astoria Jellett! See more of her work on Instagram @astoriaJellett

Visit her website http://www.astoriajellett.com/

Visit our website at https://www.femmsouth.com/ and follow us on FB & Instagram @FemmSouth.

This episode is the first of a three-part focus on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. For those that have not read this book, first let me say that it is one of those life-changing, must reads for a women’s book club. Estes’ writing is poetic, inspiring, and connects with emotions deep and elemental in women. She reaches sympathetically into the starved soul and commands our reclamation of the “innate instinctual Self” (7). In each chapter, Estes retells a traditional folktale, and then uses these archetypal female characters to unearth our individual and collective female psyches—“No matter by which culture a woman is influenced, she understands wild and woman, intuitively” (6).

Leigh and Amaya invite FemmSouth bookclub sisters, Brinkley & Alodia, to come on air and discuss their favorite stories: The Doll in Her Pocket: Vasalisa the Wise, all about female intuition, and The Red Shoes, which deals with women’s instinctual creative spirit. Poet and sound alchemist, Adwiti Haffner, reads her two poems “Burning Log” and “Shhh! The Bluebruisepurple Shades of #MeToo” You don’t want to miss her powerful, inspiring voice!

To read a transcript of Adwiti’s poetry, visit our blog on https://www.femmsouth.com/

To learn more about Adwiti, visit her website https://www.alivewithadwiti.com/

Follow her on Instgram @Adwitihaffner

Cover art by Jeanie Tomanek @everywomanart

Subscribe to FemmSouth Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, and Spotify

Support Us | Rate Us | Join Us

Motherhood is always a hot topic at our book club discussions, whether we are talking about our own mothers or the challenges of motherhood. In this new episode, Leigh & Amaya tackle motherhood and discuss Kathryn Black’s book, Mothering Without a Map: The Search for The Good Mother Within. This book explores the author's own story, testimonies from other mothers and research from top thinkers in the fields of child development, psychoanalysis, psychology, anthropology, and science, to answer the question: How can women who have been "undermothered" transcend the patterns of their childhood and raise emotionally healthy children of their own?

Joining us to discuss this book is Dr. Katie Penry, a licensed clinical psychologist, who has a private practice in Alabama. Dr. Penry helps explain attachment theory, the bond between mother and child, which she describes as “the soil of everything.” She also helps us look at the enormous responsibility placed on the mother for the psychological well being of the child. Is this responsibility a burden to the mother? Is it fair? Can we not extend this conversation to include other parental support and caregivers in the child’s life along with the community responsible for helping resource the mother?

We also discuss trauma. What is the full range of trauma, and how can we heal traumas of various levels caused from birth, unavailable mothers and even ancestral, or epigenetic trauma. We discuss the importance of understanding the social, economic, and political circumstances of women so that we can understand and forgive our mothers’ shortcomings.

Dr. Katie Penry is the founder of @A Friendly Affair and owner of Dr. Katie Penry, LLC, an eclectic, private practice, serving adults and children on the Eastern Shore and Mobile.

You can follow her on Instagram @afriendlyaffair

You can find her on http://www.drkatiepenry.com/

And https://www.afriendlyaffair.com/

Modern Witchcraft & Earth Magic Wisdom with Riyana Rose

Amaya is flying solo for this episode, on assignment in the San Francisco Bay Area a place for all things mystical, magical and witchy. She interviews Riyana Rose a modern day witch, herbalist, coach, and writer who has been practicing witchcraft in her tradition called Reclaiming for over 20 years.

In this episode, Riyana demystifies the term “witch”, by taking it off the flying broomstick and bringing it back down to earth. She shares wisdom about our connection to our indigenous roots, our bodies, what we put into our bodies, how we move through the world, and how we tend to and interact with our innate wisdom, which has been lost through a long history of oppression and violence towards women, indigenous cultures, and the earth. She helps explain how and why we have been affected by the witch burnings of our past, and gives advice about how to heal from this ancestral trauma.

She encourages anyone interested in learning more about their inner witch and this earth magic wisdom to start with a personal study of their heritage and the folk traditions of their past, to read books like Spiral Dance by Starhawk, Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler, and most importantly, to “go take a walk in the moonlight”....

To find more information about Riyana, her Reclaiming witchcraft tradition, workshops, and coaching program, reach out to her at www.budblossomhip.com