 |
|||
 |
|||
|
Past Actions |
|||
WIB Speak Out
Women in Black draw deeply upon creativity, visual and performing arts, writings, essays, poetry and the aesthetics of the arts in our vigils and our actions. There have also been a number of films by and about WIB. We have listed some of these resources, as well as some news articles about Women in Black around the world.
WIB Farmington, Maine. Unveiling of puppets, Memorial Day weekend, 2005
photo by Lee Sharkey
2007 Martin Luther King Day Parade: Baltimore. Women in Black Baltimore Peace Puppets......slideshow/ video/ music by David Wolinsky.
Reflecting on the Human Cost of War, Column in Frederick News Post, Memorial Day weekend 2006, as part of Frederick's Days of Reflection on the Human Cost of War
Voices from the Silence. Women in Black Frederick reflect on their experiences in the vigil.
Song dedicated to Women In Black:
Women in Black supporters are invited to hear a song written for WIB. This song, "Women for Peace," was inspired by the brave actions, vigils and publications produced by the Belgrade WIB members during the war regime. Please feel free to use it on your own websites...it is a gift to my sisters in WIB.
"What we need now is women": Israeli Woman in Black co-founder, Gila Svirsky addresses UN Security Council http://www.awakenedwoman.com/svirsky_talk.htm
Report from Gila Svirsky, Coalition of Women For Peace on the Elections in Palestine (January 2005)
The Women in Black Costumes were created in 2001 and have been used in vigils and events around the US and Internationally. They were used several times in 2002: twice to stand witness for the mothers of the murdered women on Juarez, Mexico as they sought justice at the Headquarters of the Organization of American States, and at a solemn procession in Washington DC, commemorating the first anniversary of September 11. The costumes are currently under the care of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The costumes are powerful, evocative images of women’s struggle, transformation and leadership. http://www.artwomen.org/wib/index.htm
Photographs by Colleen Young, © 2002, Women in Black Art Project
Women in Black dance a circle of Peace at the Arlington Cemetery, also now a memorial to women in the military.
Women in Black perform a ritual for Peace before the White House, International Women's Day, March 8, 2002.
One Woman’s Perspective: We Mourn, We Warn. An Essay on Women in Black by Janet Bailey, Bainbridge Island, WA, as published in the Seattle Weekly, October, 2004. Excellent article that speaks to the spirit of the movement.
Kathe Kollwitz, "The Mothers"
Woodcut, Germany, 1921
An open letter from WIB Belgrade: http://www.refusingtokill.net/Israel/SerbiaWomeninBlack.htm
Essay from American academic Donna Hughes about WIB Serbia: http://www.feminista.com/archives/v3n1/hughes.html
A Chorus of Women. Glenda Cloughley initiated the first “Chorus of Women”, in Canberra Australia, during the 2003 lead-up to the Iraq war. WIB Frederick took our inspiration from this work when we created our “Chorus of Women” in 2004. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/perspective/stories/s854354.htm
The women of Canberra have continued their artistic expression about matters of war, peace and violence and the study of philosophy. http://www.oneira.net.au/websong.html
A Chorus of Women Frederick. (see past actions also)
Street theater performed on three times in 2004, in the spirit of a Greek Chorus, singing laments, singing wishes for leaders, and speaking our truth. Asking the people to consider questions about their voice, their relationship to democracy and the role of the arts in civic engagement.
Film: About Women in Black, by Australian Broadcasting Corp: http://www.abc.net.au/programsales/s1122866.htm
Film: About Women in Black in Israel/Palestine. From Journeyman films. http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=9621
Photographs, from Edinburgh: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/WIB/womeninblack.htm
Press Coverage in Philadelphia: http://www.pbase.com/jmjp/j8_philadelphia
News coverage on Maryland Public Television: http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/voices/200411/1111world.html
Chronogram: Women in Black- Portrait of a Peace Movement.
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2002/1202/roomforaview/room_3.html
Salon online. Coverage of WIB Israel. http://www.alternet.org/middleeast/12838/
And other creative voices:
Noa Baum, Israeli-American Storyteller. Creator and performer of the compelling “A Land Twice Promised”. Palestinian and Israeli Women's Stories. (not associated with WIB) http://www.noabaum.com/about.html
Women in Black Costumes, at Gulf Coast Vigil
"Women in Black stand at the gates of night and face both ways. From the beginning, it is we [women] who give birth to the new lives, send them—at need or at no need at all—to war, and afterward search the battlefield for them, to carry home and heal or bury, even as we assist the younger women to bring their own new lives into the same circling world. Flags and governments come and go, as civilizations rise and fall, but the women stand at the dark gates and wait for light.”
--- Janet Bailey, WIB Bainbridge Island, WA
Intimacy
1.
A hot, dusty day
as many are,
but on this one:
black smoke in the air.
Your child, twenty one, killed mine, seventeen.
He was gripping a stone.
He was gripping a gun.
They were both – I want
to say – fools, weren't they?
Mine – a mother knows shivered in the burning air.
Yours was frozen
until Duty unfroze him. Fools. Lambs.
And we who sent them?
As we must dance
this fatal dance,
bless me, sister,
with your sad embrace.
2.
A noisy, crowded street – so many are –
but on this one:
black smoke in the air.
Your child, seventeen,
killed mine, twenty one.
He cradled a radio.
He cradled a bomb.
I breathed in relief
when he returned from Gaza.
Was he handsome too,
your young killer?
Your young martyr.
I breathed in fire.
Black smoke.
He was my son!
As we dance
this fearful dance
I bless you, sister,
with my sad embrace.
-- David Wolinsky
WiB Frederick, MD, USA
Kathe Kollwitz," Missing in Action"
"Where do all the women who have watched so carefully over the lives of their beloved ones get the heroism to send them to face the cannon? I am afraid that this soaring of the spirit will be followed by the blackest despair and dejection. The task is to bear it not only during these few weeks, but for a long time - in dreary November as well, and also when spring comes again, in March, the month of young men who wanted to live and are dead.”
Kathe Kollwitz, German artist, peace activist, 1914.
(Kollwitz’s son was killed in WWI two months after writing this note).
What We Do
Women in black
Witness violence
Everywhere
In vigils of
Silent solidarity
Mourn all victims
All of us
Light candles
For the attacked
Abused abandoned
Tortured murdered
Welcome
All who hurt
Within
A circle of peace
Illuminating night
Leaving
No one
Not one
Outside alone
In darkness
--Nancy Pace
WIB Frederick