This art and poem are a collaboration by poets Karen Hansis Baker and Loretta Ichord and artist Georgia Herrick, whose works were part of Modesto Branch’s ekphrastic show, “Women in America: An Artistic Celebration of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment,” which took place last year at the Mistlin Gallery in Modesto, California.

 

“Dancer” by Georgia Herrick

 

A Woman’s Pride

By Karen Hansis Baker

The dancer steps out to watch

clothed in linen

cut from centuries old pattern

She wears her heritage

honors her lineage

stories in fabric, crafted from women’s hands

memory through needle and thread

sewn language more translatable than words

 

She observes the dance

where men have been the stars

snaking the line with flourish and skill

yet all return to the circle in the end

stepping together, arms joined above

 

She is proud of where she came from, where she stands

in her vision she imagines the circle expanding

peoples clothed in myriad of costume

a global choreography

women and men step in one by one

lead from the center

 

 

 

Proud To Be

By Loretta Ichord

Proud to be my

grandmother today.

To wear her costume

and feel her earrings brush

against my neck, knowing

they reflect the stars

where she resides.

 

Proud to wait for the music

like she waited.

Dance to the bouzouki, the klarino,

and the floghera.

Her feet were light and graceful as a doe.

I will try.

 

The drums and the tambourine

made her twirl and laugh like a happy child.

I will do this. For I am her today.

 

Eat bee sweet baklava

and tender dolmades.

Drink clear and silky Ouzo

To her. For her.

 

Proud to dance today and paint

tomorrow the new homeland

she gave my mother and me.

 

The flag fluttered and flapped

above her door.

Proud she became an American.

To cast her vote and not be denied.

 

Proud to be a woman

like her.

Proud to be.