June Community Gathering - “Creative Process" #1: Mary Hamer

​A few weeks ago, Lady Brain Collective member Tori Roze wrote and submitted a piece of writing for the Lady Brain Presents blog (look out for it later in this series) in an effort to help lift our collective spirits as so many folks in our creative community struggle with the uncertainty and grief that comes with living during a global health crisis. Her work inspired June's community gathering/collective journaling project called “Creative Process." Instead of hosting a traditional performance showcase, we asked Lady Brain Collective members to submit written work that expresses their unique experiences of living, working, creating, and surviving through the pandemic. In the time since we received Tori's submission, a massive resistance to white supremacy and police brutality erupted across the nation (spawned by the successive murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd).

As the month of June unfolds, we want to offer our blog to members as a blank canvas, a journal, a microphone, a megaphone, or any other instrument they may need right now. We will bear compassionate witness to whatever our members are experiencing in this moment, and in doing so, create a time capsule for them to process, document, and express their feelings. We believe these reflections may also help folks in the community who might be having trouble articulating their own thoughts and emotions around the current state of the world. 

“Creative Process" starts now:

image description:
colorful writing pens overlaid on photo of Mary Hamer,
​who is playing keyboard and singing into a microphone.
original photo credit: Darci Fontenot

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​“38 Years" by Mary Hamer

For 38 years I've been “without" you
And yet you searched for me. 
It took a virus to break years of silence
To admit you, to set you free. 

Reflection, introspection.
Now admitting to myself
These things I shoved aside
Were all set amongst the shelves 
Of loud indoctrination,
Of quiet giving in
To what the world did want from me,
And not a “living sin." 

And for so long I could not admit. 
I could not let me see.
For I thought the last thing I needed
Was a new identity. 

And now I stand before you,
Laying bare my soul,
Saved and not forgotten.
Finally, I am whole.