Christal Cooper
Red
Sky: poetry on the global epidemic of
violence against women
edited by Melissa
Hassard, Gabrielle Langley, & Stacy Nigliazzo
On May 21, 2015, friends Stacy Nigliazzo and
Gabrielle Langley attended a poetry workshop at the Houston, Texas’s
coffeehouse Café Brasil where they heard from poets such as Kenan Ince, Nancy
Pearson, and Brooke Lightfoot.
When Stacy returned home later that evening she
received a phone call from a mutual friend informing her that their friend
Caroline Minjares had been murdered by her estranged boyfriend, who then
committed suicide.
Caroline Minjares
“I was shocked and
angry, and profoundly sad. I’d never
personally known anyone who’d been murdered before.” Stacy said in a Facebook interview.
Caroline and Stacy worked together at the
Neighbors Emergency Center in Houston, Texas as ER nurses. Stacy described Caroline as a dedicated professional
and loving mother to her two daughters.
“The
last time I saw her was just after a fall sunrise, a shift-change. She had a beautiful smile, even after twelve hours
overnight on the unit.
Caroline Minjares
The next day Stacy read
an article about Caroline’s murder and was shocked and petrified to find that
the article headline listed the perpetrator’s name but not Caroline’s name. The
article even went as far as to wish the perpetrator’s family and professional
community (Caroline’s perpetrator was a
firefighter) peace during this time; but no mention of Caroline or her
community of nurses.
Caroline Minjares
“And it wasn’t just one article,” Stacy
stated. “To this day, not a single headline bears her name.”
Caroline Minjares
Stacy sent an email to KHOU a Houston News
outlet condemning the news outlet for not mentioning her name: “The very least you could do is mention her
name in the heading, or even perhaps lead with Houston nurse instead of Houston
firefighter. Let’s be clear about who
the victim is, here. I seriously doubt
she slit her own throat.”
Stacy used the news reports to craft the erasure
poem “Triptych” in honor of Caroline’s memory, and sent the final draft to
Gabrielle Langley to review. The poem “Triptych”
was published in Lumen on July 6,
2015. (http://www.lumenmag.net/blog/triptych)
Melissa Hassard, poet,
partner and manager editor of Sable Books (www.sablebooks.org) read the poem and contacted Stacy with the
idea of an anthology of poetry addressing violence against women.
Melissa Hassard
“I’d
been working on this issue, from dealing with revelations in my own life about
my father, then offering writing workshops to survivors of domestic violence,
and am always looking for ways to address violence against women — to talk
about it, to bear witness, to ask why.
I read Stacy's poem online, and reached out to her immediately — and it turned
out that she and Gabrielle were already talking about this kind of project as
well, as it was so important to them,
too — and so we gathered our ideas, found a time to talk, and put this
together.” Melissa stated in an email interview.
Melissa Hassard
Melissa, Stacy, and Gabrielle sent out a
call for submissions to the anthology and received close to 1000 poems.
“We had a long reading phase, largely due to the difficult nature
of some of the poems; I was personally triggered by some of the material. But
Stacy, Gabrielle, and I would often take notes on the poems and we had several
conversations about the individual poems and we were really open to defending
or listening to one another’s thoughts on the work.”
They
narrowed down the selection of poems from 1000 to 350, still too many for the
anthology.
“We realized if we
wanted as broad a body of work as possible, we were going to have to limit our
choices to one poem per poet. Personally, I had to sit down with some of the
poems for a long time, just listening.
One poem would call out for the next.
It felt like a divine hand was at work more than once.”
Stacy, Gabrielle, and Melissa all decided
that this anthology Red Sky was to be more than just a book of poetry.
Melissa
explained in greater detail: “Every time you compile a book around an
issue you risk exploiting the very people that you are trying to provide voice
or haven. Red Sky is no different, and we were and are very mindful at
all times that real, flesh and blood women, including non-binary women and
trans women — women experiencing very real violence — are at the center of this
book.
This book, then, cannot
be a product, and as such, all proceeds from sales of Red Sky go to the
Global Fund for Women (https://www.globalfundforwomen.org)
Readings are difficult,
because the material is difficult, and I myself have been triggered by more
than one poem in the collection. Readings are difficult, and yet these voices
of women are powerful and moving. We’d like to continue to do them, and we’d like
to reach more women who may need to know they are not alone. This book speaks
the truth of women’s lives — and protests that too many lives have been cut off
too quickly. Finding ways to do this is what we were and are called to do.
Global Fund For Women web photo logo
We cannot thank the
family of Caroline Minjares enough for blessing this book with their love, and
we hope to continue to lift up and honor her memory.”
Caroline Minjares
Red Sky (with a compelling jacket design by Daniel Krawiec (https://www.facebook.com/dakrawiec)
consists of 100 poems by 100 different poets.
(Names, photographs and contacts of poets listed at the end of this piece).
Daniel Krawiec, far left, web logo photo.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
But I prefer to
interpret the poem in a different way – a way that gives the abused all the
power.
Don’t make it rhyme; be quiet when you tell it.
Give it no rhythm, don’t clothe it in beauty,
just walk into the room of it without knocking.
The speaker of the poem is giving the woman sole power by not
limiting her speech by how nice her words should sound or rhyme, how expensive
her clothes are, and how expensive her makeup is. In fact, there are no limitations, the woman,
as a testimony to her own abuse, is all powerful – and does not even need to
knock in order to enter.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
You could tell it in third person Like this:
a woman stands in front of a mirror like wallpaper
(she carries bouquets of purple and yellow
that bloom in loneliness).
In the first line of the second stanza the
woman has the power to tell it in the third person. This could be interpreted in two ways – she
is the victim of abuse or she is a witness of another woman being abused, which
can be just as traumatic. Being a
witness to a violent act can leave someone paralyzed just like wallpaper on the
wall. They are frozen in fear. But even if the witness can not speak out of
fear, she can at least relay her message of truth by simply holding bouquets of
flowers, which are usually the gift the perpetrator gives his victim as a way
of manipulation. She holds onto the
flowers, which sets her apart from the wallpaper. She is no longer frozen.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
Talk about why she barely recognizes herself
in that kind of light.
How it’s not just the way the light falls
on her features, her layers of skin and fat and skeleton;
not just the bruises she blossoms into,
but the way she blends into every room,
though this one is all tint and flatness.
Tell that the room has no windows.
The woman is
creating layers around her deepest self where the perpetrator cannot
reach. When she looks in the mirror she
does see the bruises but realizes that the perpetrator never touched her soul,
the real her, and because of her ability to have this protective layer around
her deepest self, she has been able to outsmart her perpetrator.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
The place the woman occupies as she looks in the mirror has no
windows, no outlet, not to keep her in prison, but to prevent the perpetrator
from hiding and from hiding her face – which is a testament to the horrors the
perpetrator has done. As a result, the
perpetrator will be made visible and will be held accountable.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper.
This third person in this room with no windows is now the one in
control – revealing in every light of who the perpetrator is, what he has done,
and forewarning others that this specific man exists and he is to be held
accountable.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
The woman is now
able to look in the mirror and see all those layers that are evident of his
abuse, which is very painful. She has to
strip those layers not in self-denial or denial of the abuse, but to reveal her
true identity – that of a complete all-powerful woman.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
You could tell it like it happened to you.
Touch it, but let it be sparse: the tile is so cold it feels
wet.
The metal edge of the medicine cabinet is bent and sharp.
The sound of the air conditioner is as empty
as a room when the music ends.
Mention that any other sound now
would be as startling as birds taking wing.
You should try to give it some mystery, too,
at least one line only those invited can enter:
say that she maps her own disaster with silence.
I find the first two
lines of the third stanza the most liberating because it gives the woman
permission to NEVER be “thankful” or even “positive” about experiencing the
violence. A victim of violence should
never say, “It made me stronger” because the woman is giving power to her
perpetrator for making her a stronger person by his act of violence against
her, which is absurd. The violence or
the perpetrator never makes the victim more positive or stronger or
better. Rather, the victim’s response to
the violence and to her perpetrator is what makes her stronger, positive, free,
and uplifted. This takes the power and ability completely away from the
perpetrator; and gives all power back to the woman.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
Now is the time for the third person and the deepest part of the
woman to meet face to face and mourn what the perpetrator has done; Do what it
takes to make herself healthy again – even if it is the tile of a hospital room
or a psychiatric ward, medication in a medicine cabinet, an empty room where
only she and music coincide.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
The last three lines of the third stanza are particularly
liberating to women of violence who do not wish to talk about their
experiences. Some women respond to acts
of violence in different ways and some women heal in different ways. It’s okay for a woman to be mysterious as
long as she is able to face the reality of what was done to her, and seeks
whatever help is necessary to live a fruitful, meaningful, and happy life.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
Or it could be interpreted in this way – the woman is now in her
own room, where windows are white and beautiful – where she has control of what
creatures fly in. At first this new
sense of freedom is frightening, because she’s been so used to living in this
third person – but now that the perpetrator and what he did to her has been
exorcised – it is now time to integrate all parts of herself and reveal them to
the world – inviting all those to enter – but only those who respect her, even
the parts of her that will forever remain a mystery.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
Or just walk around her.
She won’t even notice you’re there.
When you leave, you’ll leave her standing alone in the mirror,
as naked as when you came in.
She’ll never be able to deny what happened to her – but she has to leave that part of her life
behind looking at the mirror always reaffirming that she is not imagining
things, that it wasn’t just a misunderstanding, or that she didn’t wear too short
of a skirt, or that she egged her hubby on which led him to hit her. No, she will always be there naked – a
testament to his guilt. But the full and
complete woman, person she is, has to look at her looking in the mirror and go
on with her life.
You have seen it so many times you know what will happen.
You can say why it happens.
This time, you could save her life if you like.
This time, you could save her life if you like.
copyright by christal ann rice cooper
There are others who have unfortunately been victims of what she
has been a victim of. It is time to join
with these others, develop nurturing relationships, and it is in these relationships
that healing will be granted upon the woman.
Or you can just tell it and don’t give any reason.
And always remember. She
doesn’t owe anybody a damn thing!
Leila Allen
E. Kristin Anderson
Shawn Aveningo
Carol Barrett
Tina Barry
Zeina Hashem Beck
Shaindel Beers
Denise Benavides
Shavawn M. Berry
Casandra Faith Broaddus
Sivan Butler-Rotholz
Andrea Blythe
Hélène Cardona
Kathrine Cays
Jane Chance
Emily Rose Cole
Beth Copeland
Heidi Czerwiec
Carolyn Dahl
Cortney Davis
Lori Desrosiers
Chelsea Dingman
Ryler Dustin
Angela Martinez Dy
Rebecca Foust
Joy Gaines-Fiedler
Janice Moore Fuller
Martha K. Grant
Jaki Shelton Green
Chera Hammons
Melissa Hassard
Tony Hoagland
Faith Holsaert
Trish Hopkinson
Kenan Ince
Alice-Catherine Jennings
Edison Jennings
Sonja Johanson
Quincy Scott Jones
Fady Joudah
Athena Kashyap
Debra Kaufman
Loren Kleinman
Ellen Kombiyil
Richard Krawiec
Gabrielle Langley
Jenna Le
Stephanie Levin
Lisa Lewis
Jessica Lohafer
Ashley Lumpkin
Cecile Lusby
Djelloul Marbrook
David Tomas Martinez
Carmel Mawle
Marty McConnell
Addy McCulloch
Seth Michelson
Denise Miller
Tracy Mishkin
Thylias Moss
Kathleen Nalley
Stacy Nigliazzo
Ashley Nissler
Naomi Shihab Nye
Katherine Durham Oldmixon
Linda Parsons
Rebecca Pierre
Deborah Pope
Kevin Prufer
Molly Pershin Raynor
Maria Rouphall
Carly Sachs
Metta Sáma
Judy Schaefer
Penelope Scambly Schott
Rebecca Seiferle
B.T. Shaw
Shoshauna Shy
Sue William Silverman
Karen Skolfield
Andrea Witzke Slot
Alison Stone
Melissa Studdard
LaWanda Walters
Leslie Waugh
Monica Wendel
Chris Wise
Laura Madeline Wiseman
Andy Young
Katherine E. Young
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