Jael Uribe, Woman Scream creator in Women For One. Here we share her story.
Here is my SCREAM
Dear Women For One Community,
I am so proud to post this story of wisdom and more importantly, action by
a fabulous human being and poetess. Jael Uribe has transcended her
story and inspired thousands with the actions she has taken to improve
the world. This is her story of founding the Women Poets International Movement – MPIwhich
has transcended the Internet to work together towards a common goal;
it has brought together poets, followers and friends in a social
movement that transcends all borders. The MPI has nearly 20,000
followers, and monitors directly more than 500 female poets from
different countries. Please check out Jael’s site to learn more and join
her at the 3rd Annual Scream Festival in March of 2013.
I became aware of how much I wanted to tell my story the day I was
asked to write an essay about how I became a poetess. I was faced with
looking at the inner depths of myself and the hidden truths and pains I
hadn’t yet overcome. I realized important facts about my life that led
me to writing, despite how difficult they were to admit and endure.
Writing that essay wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It cost me
blood and tears, and to tell the truth, I wrote it with the fear of
being exposed, with the anxiety of knowing a part of me would be out
there for unknown eyes to see. I wrote it, but I still cannot re-read
it. It was too painful.
A few years ago, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. I faced a very
agonizing process overcoming it, and a difficult post-surgery recovery. I
became a very dark person and from this experience, I became somewhat
of a hermit. I used writing to journal about my fears, doubts, angers,
and stresses to alleviate my pain. One day I was reading through my
notes, and I realized the power of my own writing. I had finally
discovered my inner voice. I thought that if journaling helped me, then
maybe it could help other women too. I wanted to know their stories and
to do that, I knew I had to tell my own for them to read.
Even though my illness was discovered just in time and I did not have
to go through the difficulties of chemotherapy, no words can describe
the emotional, psychological, monetary, social, and physical challenges
that the news brought me. I was in the middle of my youth, with so many
plans for the future that were unfulfilled. I was at the top of my
career, in a well-paid position, with a man I cared for by my side who
had a smile that lit the sun. I had all the little things that many can
only dream of, and losing it all in a blink of an eye at the sound of 3
words - You have Cancer, was something I never
expected. I took a quiet look at the doctor’s lips as they moved in
slow motion and suddenly, his words were silent to me. I felt like life
hit me where it hurt the most. Cancer is called the silent killer, and I learned this the hard way.
Listening to my own voice gave me a new resolution to complete an unfinished idea. It gave me direction towards founding the Women Poets International Movement (MPI).
I founded MPI when I was all alone at home facing unemployment,
depression, and sinking into the turbulence that was wrapped around me.
As I sat there alone, my computer became my best friend and gave my
writing a fresh new direction, and somehow, a sense of purpose. I met
wonderful people- lots of women that were such good poetesses, but that
didn’t have the time to explore their writing because of their household
and family obligations. These women were powerful and just didn’t even
have a clue of how much good they could do by sharing their words with
others. They were women lost in the ordinary, just like me.
Women Poets International was
born on the internet as a blog to share the writing of these new
friends who wrote poetry. I found strong voices of women who wanted a
chance to become more. They are women of hope who support a dream I
believed in and make it their dream too.
One night the idea of creating a poetry festival for those women to
participate in came to me and stole my sleep. There was no way I could
gather the women together since I didn’t have the resources to host an
event that big. So I asked them to create events individually in their
own cities with the help of other women that followed the movement. Now
these women could meet each other and share their experiences and their
poetry plus, the bonus of becoming part of an international poetry
festival. To my surprise, many of them agreed to launch events locally,
but it wasn’t until the news about a poetess who was killed in Mexico
while claiming justice for the murder of her daughter due to domestic
violence, that I knew our festival needed to grow and become greater
than it was by giving it a sense of purpose. I understood that our
festival would have to pursue a goal that mattered to us all; it had to
be our SCREAM. So, I founded the Woman Scream International Poetry
Festival (Grito de Mujer) to honor women and to raise our voices against
violence through poetry for the first time in March 2011. It spread its
wings to 17 countries where 44 events were created by women poetesses,
non-poetesses and even 4 men who supported our cause.
Now many institutions, poetic groups, musicians, actors (both women
and men), and events in different countries and languages want to be
part of Woman Scream.
The dream that began in the Dominican Republic transcended Latin
America and Europe to the 5 continents, to plant the seeds of what we
hope to convert into humanity’s patrimony. We believe that letting some
of these women coordinate events in their own cities empowers them, and
engages the leader that has been sleeping inside them. We are aware that
achieving this for some is a total challenge, but we also know by fact
how enriching the experience can be.
Woman Scream (Grito de Mujer)
is a legacy for the world. We thank the women who supported us in the
beginning and that still help us today. They’ll never be the same after
they SCREAM.
Jael Uribe
Dominican Republic
Founder of Women Poets International Movement
http://jaeluribe.blogspot.com
http://mujerespoetasinternacional.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/womenpoetsinternational
December 2012
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