A circle of women lift up their voices in a new book
It may be the politicians and their campaigns for power that garner much public attention, but it’s the musicians and poets who are the real magicians and prophets of our time. “Sisters Singing” is a brand new anthology that celebrates the sacred prayers, art and songs of women. Edited by Carolyn Brigit Flynn, the book is published by local independent press Wild Girl Publishing. (sistersinging.com )
At 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8, at Holy Cross Social Hall, 16 local and nationally recognized women writers, including internationally renowned poet Deena Metzger, will read to celebrate the launch of the book, “Sisters Singing: Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs, Poetry and Sacred Stories by Women.” The event is cosponsored by Gateways Books and will feature music by Seattle’s Alysia Tromblay, and Kate Munger leading the Santa Cruz Threshold Choir. Artwork from 10 local artists will also be on display.
The seed for “Sisters Singing” was planted only months after Sept. 11, 2001. Carolyn Brigit Flynn was leading local writing groups and remembers the time well: “There were women’s writing groups meeting in my home on a weekly basis and everyone was broken hearted and ashen faced, feeling a lot of dread,” Flynn says. “I started to think that really the answer for creative writers, bearing the act of witness, was to pray. That meant prayer in terms of paying deep attention to all of the spirits that any of us felt were sacred. We started writing prayers and the work was so beautiful that I just felt that something new had broken open.”
Flynn encouraged the women in her groups to write about spiritual connection and prayer as an antidote to suffering and violence. She then sent out a national call for work for more writing about the sacred nature and flow of life, as experienced by contemporary women. “I think we’ve got a collection that’s very intimate and very deep inside women’s experience of what is sacred in their lives,” says Flynn.
 Kate Aver Avraham was among those who answered the call: “When the call for work came to me, I felt an energy to it and it felt true,” Avraham says. “I knew that I could send in three pieces that were the most intimate and deeply personal that I had ever written and that it would be safe and the place for it. I want to use my creativity to make a difference in the world in whatever way I can.”
In total, there are more than 100 writers, 20 visual artists and 14 musicians from across the country included in the book, with themes exploring the sacred in daily life, death, birth, connections with the earth, animals and prayers for peace and the world. About 35 of the contributors are from the Santa Cruz area.
Andrea van der Loo is a local writer who has three poems in “Sisters Singing,” including “Song of a Luscious Wench,” which ends with the following stanza:
No need for anything
but the sacred fire
of my own sweet breath
moving through me
on streams of quiet bliss
“I feel spiritually the most in the flow when poetry comes,” says van der Loo. “Some of the very finest experiences of my life are when the poetry flows and I feel really in tune. It’s delicious.”
Spiritual wholeness also motivates Carolyn Davis Rudolph, another local poet featured in “Sisters Singing.” “After I meditate, if I’m unsettled, I take out my paper and my notebook and I just write,” Rudolph says. “I will arrive somewhere that’s aaahhh, yes—this is my action or this is my truth.”
“Prayer is like any relationship,” explains Carolyn Flynn. “Prayer is how one shows up for the rest of the world … anytime you let yourself really pay attention and acknowledge the life around you, you’re in prayer.” Avraham agrees; “Prayer is about touching others and making a difference. We’re made out of energy and so when we pray, we’re connecting with everyone else and the one.”
John Malkin is a local musician and writer and hosts The Great Leap Forward every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. on Free Radio Santa Cruz, 101.1 FM, freakradio.org .
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