My interest as a poet and scholar is to examine whether the assumption and knowledge of a Divine Feminine in the Taíno culture can continue to empower Dominican women. I believe that similar culture-specific empowerment can be translated to other women across the globe.
Marianela Medrana
As a transgender woman who grew up praying to the Virgin Mary, I am drawn to Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods (stripped for parts to make Mary) . . . The idea that Mary is a version of Cybele led me to strip the Hail Mary for parts on Cybele’s behalf, because, certainly in this case, turnabout is fair play.
Richelle Slota
Kali moves through my poem as goddess of destruction, as mother of aliveness, as women’s warrior, as force generating word & page, as vibration, as energy, as everything.
Purvi Shah
Nyx was a goddess, primordial and elemental, there at at the dawn of creation and before, feared by all gods who came after for her power, her maternal fierceness, the threat and promise of the dark. There is a lesson with Nyx and, in my mind, her connection with black mothering, actually so many lessons, that I stand in frequent regard of her as icon.
Raina Leon