LIVESTREAMs FROM NGO CSW65

In March of 2017, I was a part of a team of women who produced the 2nd annual International Women’s Festival Pacific Northwest in Vancouver, Washington. 

We were there to celebrate international Women’s Day by highlighting women’s accomplishments and also shining a light on the issues that women currently face worldwide. We had invited 6 vibrant, successful, and engaged women to be our speakers and share their inspiring personal stories. 

In telling their stories, several of the speakers revealed that they had experienced some form of sexual abuse. As this theme emerged the audience was asked if they would stand up if they had also experienced sexual abuse. I witnessed 3 out of 4 women in that room rise to stand. 

I knew that I was being called to do something to help empower women to thrive. I just wasn’t clear what that would be.

A month later I attended an international peace conference in Belfast where I met artists who were using their art to call attention to peaceful solutions to conflict. I was participating as a part of a panel for the Global Art Project for Peace. While there, my belief in art as a powerful means for building connection and community was reinforced and I came away with a commitment to use my unique artistic voice to engage on a much larger scale than ever before.  I now had a clear vision of what that could look like.

I imagined a collaborative weaving that would be a visual representation of women’s lives from around the world and a catalyst for collaborating on solutions to the challenging issues that women face globally.

Finally I could bring my expertise as an artist, author, champion of creativity, and women’s advocate together to join with my global sisters to raise our voices to be heard and to be seen.

Women’s Woven Voices was conceived.