From the Farmhouse Table: July 2020
by Elise Miller, Interim Executive Director
“It’s like you looked both ways before crossing the street and then an airplane hit you,” a friend said to me about the times we’re living through.
That’s one way to sum it up! But as I sit here at the beloved Farmhouse Table at Hedgebrook, the view is as bucolic as ever – the rich array of green and blue hues, llamas grazing, wildflowers waving, and the sunlight enlivening the Salish Sea. I ponder how to hold this beauty alongside the disturbing landscape of fear, brutality, and loss that is front and center in society today – and one that has been painfully familiar to Black people, Native Americans, and other people of color in this country for hundreds of years.
How can we ensure, in the middle of a pandemic, that more women writers of color have access to this refuge so they can hone their vital voices into even stronger instruments of change? What can we do as an organization to better embody our highest aspirations both internally and in the world?
While we wrestle with these questions and many more, we are taking some specific steps forward. In celebration of the many exceptional women writers of color we’ve had the privilege of hosting, for example, we’re bolstering our social media activity to highlight their accomplishments.
Last month, in recognition of Black Lives Matters and Pride Month, we featured the writings and podcasts of some of Hedgebrook’s luminous Black, queer-identified alumnae. These included Ijeoma Oluo , Jacqueline Woodson and Anastacia-Renee.
This month, our theme is “revolutionary action”
We are honored to spotlight other galvanizing alumnae of color, including Pramila Jayapal, whose new book, Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman's Guide to Politics and Political Change, inspires us to become more courageous change-makers whether on the grassroots level or in national politics. We are also highlighting the vital work of Adrienne Maree Brown, Natasha Marin, and Dr. Seema Yasmin.
With our new virtual programming we are also reaching more writers than ever around the globe – many of whom would not have an opportunity otherwise to experience Hedgebrook’s teachers or retreat firsthand.
After a highly successful “pay-what-you-can” series of online classes and webinars the last three months, we are focused on creating a new webinar series to be launched in mid-August. Please keep an eye out for posts about those later this month.
On a very practical level, we’re transitioning our website, database, and email to new platforms in order to significantly increase our efficiency in light of our considerably smaller staff and budget. We ask you to please “pardon our dust” as we undertake this reconstruction. Though there may be some disruptions at first, we expect our work will soon be much more streamlined in order to better serve you and our global community.
In short, we are as active as ever. And we sorely miss having more activity on the land. We miss our writers enlivening our cottages. We miss serving the bounty from our garden to those gathered around the Farmhouse Table. We will no doubt get there again, and in anticipation of that time, we are putting all the necessary health protocols in place to safely open our doors again as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience, encouragement and support!