 and welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Joining me today are attorney and author Daphne Barbie-Wooten, retired professor and author Dr. Catherine Waddell-Takara and artist and former instructor of adult education Kimberly Keynes. Today we're going to talk about Sisters Across Oceans, a VAE to West Africa Poetry Exchange. Ladies, happy new year and welcome to Sister Power. Happy new year. Happy new year. This is a, you know, it's, today is a different day. We know we're not going to talk about it, the one year anniversary of this, but today we have some good news. We have a happy poetry book that everyone must have. And we're going to speak with Catherine Takara and tell us about the process of putting this book Sisters Across Oceans together. Well, I love poetry and my daughter has lived in Africa. And so she also is a poet and was interested in doing an exchange with African poets, men and women, and West Oakland poets. And she did that exchange successfully, making it through technology, keeping in contact, using the Wrencher form, which is the last verse of one person's poem. And then we had a partner and they would use that last verse to create their own poem. So it was kind of like a call and respond, which was a great idea. But before we could do our project, because it seemed like I talked to Carla, my daughter, about it. I think that it would be a great idea for the links to be involved in something like that because we have a committee or we call it a facet called International Friends. And that seems like a great way for us to make the international connection. And so Carla set it up where we would be with Ghanaian women. But before we could begin the project, I gave two writing workshops with several of the links because some of them said, oh, I can't write, but of course everyone can write. And so we had our two workshops and some nice poetry came out of it. And then we were partnered up with an African counterpart and we began our exchange of poetry, which ended after I guess about six or eight weeks of working together. And then we wanted to do a book. And of course, funding is always an issue, but we persisted anyway. I was going to publish it with my press specific Raven Press LLC. And the process began. It was a wonderful idea to ask Kimberly to create the cover. And then we worked with a graphic artist who was able to take our concepts and her concepts in particular and to make this incredible cover eye-catching just perfect for a bookstore or for anyone. And then of course, it was all the stages of editing and redoing and you're dealing with people or working with people of another main language sometimes and even our own languages vary. And so with my press and particularly, I like excellence. And so it took a while to get us to that point where all of us were at our best. And we could do this book. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, thank you. You mentioned Kimberly, she's the artist. And I call it a happy book. It's so beautiful. Let's discuss the beautiful cover of Sisters Across Oceans. Thank you, Sharon. This cover is a collaboration of an interwoven fabric of generations beginning at the bottom is the young children of our generations to come. In the middle is the ladies who represent Hawaii. And then in the background is our ancestors and our sisters who represent Africa. And so it was just all interwoven into one fabric bringing it all together. Beautiful. This happy book is beautiful. And Daphne, coming to you, you posted a beautiful picture of all the authors. You well, first laid your eyes on this beautiful book. There's retired judge Sandra Sims and Catherine, Kimberly and Daphne. Tell us about that experience. Well, it was Kwanzaa, day of Kwanzaa. And Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday which celebrates the first fruit. And so I'd like to think that Sisters Across Oceans is one of the first fruits. So at any rate, this is perfect for Kwanzaa and a Kwanzaa present because we had just finished Christmas. And we met Catherine Takara, publisher and author. We met her at Windward Mall and we took this impromptu photograph of four of the people. And mind you, we have about 18 people who have placed poetry in the book. But four of us were there and we picked up our first fruits which was the Sisters Across Oceans book. And it was a delight to look and to read and the book also has pictures of everyone who participated a little bit about them, short little biography. And I really like the meshing, the coming together of the different poems. For example, my partner was Appeal Core and Appeal Core is actually a very well-known Ghanaian poet and artist and she actually spoke at the Sundance Festival. So the artists that were involved in this, especially from the Ghanaian side and the Hawaii side, of course, were very prominent, well-known artists and they've had their own poetry published in books before, been on television before in Ghana. And so it was so much fun. And if I may, I'll be real quick, but one of the things I just wanna share with the audience is as Catherine de Carre mentioned, it's rent sheet, meaning you take the last line of your partner's poem and you put it in your poem. So very briefly, I'll just tell you what my partner, Appeal Core did. Her last line in her poem about a grandmother is like the queen that you always were. So I used her line of poetry and picked it up in my short poem called For the Queens. Like the queens, like we queens, like us queens that we are and always were. Celebrate, celebrate our destinies, goals, loves, likes, powers, ups and downs and many spirals leading to a better world. Hail to the queens with peppermint breath, a pie of kisses, mango smiles, we celebrate. Remember, we are loved by the queens in our lives, Nefertari, Asantawa, Nanny of the Maroons, Amatorre of Kandaka, Beyonce, Makiba, Rihanna, Hatshepsut, Lili Okalani, Kamala Harris. And I'm gonna add Stacey Abrams, although that's not in my poem. Queens, we celebrate our queens within us. Thank you. That can be an example. Yeah, lovely, absolutely lovely, lovely for sure. Catherine, what is the value of this collaboration? Well, I love several things. I love to explore identity issues and I love travel and I love diversity and have spent four times in Africa, West Africa and South Africa and that we share common issues that we share the coloration of our various skins, that we share our struggle and resistance to oppression and colonialism and trying to be forced to be something that we are not and to take a good strong back and eyes to the sky of our possibilities. Those were all factors that really, I don't know gender thing, of course, women, women, women, strong women, legacies of women. Those were things that were exciting to me and we explored together whether it was who is the mama or who am I or what are the forces around me, the circumstances, the conditions, how they change, how we can help them to change, those kinds of things. This sounds like a love story. This sounds like a lot of love to me. Kimberly, how does this experience impact you the most? It was a growing period for me and I'm sure it was for all of us from the very beginning of the basic questions, the very basic question of who am I. I remember sitting in a cave at the beach answering that question on a Zoom call and it was such a wonderful spiritual experience for me to try to think of the basic elements of who I am because I never really think like that. And just the whole process was growth and then meeting our sisters and sharing love and sharing our experiences. It was just a wonderful experience. The whole thing was a huge impact for me. It's a very positive experience. And I do wanna say that after I left the ladies at the mall, I had to go across the store and I took the book and I opened it up and I began to weep. I just absolutely cried. I'm so glad I was a theater crying for everybody because I was so overwhelmed with emotion because I thought about my grandmother who also lived in Africa for a few years and I looked at the poem that I wrote about her and I just thought how proud that she would have been to know what we have done to bring all of this together. And it was a very big impact on me, on my life. And I wanna thank you all for allowing me to be a part of this. So thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Daphne. What was enjoyable about working on this book of poetry? I really enjoyed reading everybody's perspective and view and meeting different sisters in Africa, Pia Cour, my partner, but not just her, but others and listening to other poems with a back and forth of call and response was really wonderful how they picked up. And I tried to think about what was the main theme in this wonderful book. And I think the main theme is women empowerment, pain homage to your mother or your grandmother or great, great ancestors. I mean, there's even one poem in there from one of the Ghanaian sisters about a woman who's in chains in the dungeon, slave dungeons in Ghana, but yet loving her daughter that she just had. Just the love that came out of it in this very hard reality poem. But it's just beautiful, as Kimberly says. You just sit there and cry and reading these poems. I mean, because it's love and it's honoring our ancestors. Absolutely. I spoke to Kimberly afterwards and she told me how she cried, but I was so overjoyed myself because it's a beautiful, happy book. I said that before and we have for our sister view, sister power audiences where you can purchase this book. We're gonna show that everyone should have a happy book. And this is one of them. So let me ask you this, Katherine, why sisters? Well, I think there was a natural kinship with the diaspora, African women. But in addition to that, the links organization of which we are all a part of, one of our themes is not only sisterhood, but service. And I think that that idea of standing tall and in honor, not only of those humans, but in honor of spirit is very, very impactful on each of us as we move through getting to know each other and offering. In this case, it's words and connection as our service. I mean, it could be soothing other people to be many different things. But right now, and it could be anything that we do in our professions, but collectively, we have done something I think quite different and quite moving and enlightening even. Yeah. Kimberly, will there be upcoming projects? I certainly hope so. I'm hoping that we can continue with this with our links Hawaii links and ladies in Africa. And if we do, I'm so looking forward to it to continue to grow. This is an ongoing process and I would love to continue to be a part of it. Oh, good. Daphne, what did you learn from the women and writing and collaborating with these sisters? Well, I learned that Kimberly is a wonderful artist, although I had heard and I always knew that but she did a really wonderful job on the cover. But I also learned that no matter where you are in the world, that there are similar themes in our lives that we honor and respect. And that was so pleasant to me to see that no matter where you are in this world, you can still reach across the waters with the words and communicate and share stories. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's just beautiful. And Catherine, why poetry with partners? Well, you get to know another person. You get to know different ways of envisioning or seeing and experiencing the world, particularly if it's an international connectivity. I would like to say for the title in terms of how we put this book together, there were several ideas. And Daphne, being very active in the whole production besides me and Carla on a regular daily or almost daily basis, she was very instrumental in steering us to this compact, yet very meaningful title, Sisters Across Oceans, floral. Because we're across two oceans, not just one, but two. And so it's almost like a little miracle that we're doing it. And I'll just say quickly that there seems to be enough interest and I've talked to my daughter about it that we can perhaps do another collaboration starting in the springtime. And this time with women either from Nigeria or Kenya, that is the plan. So we'll see how it develops. We're gonna have more workshops. That is good news. Daphne, what do you hope others who read this beautiful happy book will take away from the poetry? Well, it's interesting that you asked that because I have been, I hadn't been soliciting feedback, but I have gotten a lot of feedback from mainly my friends. And they say, oh, I noticed that somebody from, well, a person, a woman, a good friend of hers was from Ethiopia and she would always call on her mother when she, her mother is deceased, but she'd always call on her. Say, well, if my mother was here, this is what she would do. And so when she read my book, she said, oh, this makes really good sense. It makes sense that you call on your mother and your ancestors to protect you for protection. And so it made her realize different cultural ways of coping, if you will. And she got an appreciation from that. So I think the people that have read it, one woman was upset with me. She's a good friend of mine. She was saying, how can you write about queens? I sell classes. You need to write about other people besides queens. And then when she read the book, she wrote me a wonderful email. Oh my goodness, this was such empowerment. Women empowerment, let's have more of this. So you see, it gives you a different perspective. I mean, I saw where she was coming from, but once you read the book, she loved it because it wasn't just for queens. It was for everybody. And actually all of us are queens, right? Or kings too? Rulers. What do we rule the world? We rule the world. Women rule the world, absolutely. And I want to come back to you, Kimberly. You're an artist and you've done so many beautiful paintings. I have, I'm sure, a half a dozen of here. Thank you. A half a dozen of them for here. So just take us back to, you're looking at a blank canvas. How did you draw from the point to put it on paper? Well, I have to say, I was caught at a very good time. At the time that I was asked to do the book cover, I was experimenting with just using pure color and not anything too muted. And so when they came up with the idea for the book cover, I wanted to, first of all, make sure that it was very colorful, very vivid and very simple. Not simple shapes, not anything exaggerated with shadows or anything. More like what I call folk art. And I just, with, you know, with just ideas, you know, Catherine gave me ideas and Daphne looked over different works that I did. And we just kind of collaborated and came up with, you know, some ideas of, you know, what would look best. And that's what happened. But I must say though, I have a sketchbook that's got a million sketches of what was gonna be on this cover. And I still save them, but I have tons, tons of different ideas. So it took a while to come up with the last final project. Wow. You know, I'm gonna read something very quickly, Catherine. I want you to explain this to me. And sisters, or to the audience, in sisters across oceans, these poets affirm self-determination and power of the will to survive, fight back, change, inspire, conscious, evoke consciousness and offer courage. Offer us some courage here, more courage. I think that we are channels of invisible energy that we can open to that are powerful. And if we are still and listen, and then allow that energy to come forward in whatever, however we individually express ourselves, it brings forth, it calls forth the courage to go beyond the ordinary, to go beyond fear and inertia maybe, or just being mechanical. Hi, how are you, fine, how are you? You know, I mean, we tend to be very mechanical in how we live and a project like this, and poetry in particular, calls attention to and brings the intention to being open. And the arrow goes both ways, you know? It's like you're being open to each other or to higher forces or whatever, but at the same time you're given forth. So it's almost cyclical, but it's also spiraling up to create something very, very fine, a very fine energy. And I'm so proud that we could do this. I mean, there's one point in there about George Floyd, and it's a very powerful point, but the thing about it is, and she mentioned, and we all know, he was calling his mama, you know, and that goes back to some of our earlier comments that there is this connection, visible and invisible, that we can tap into. I love it. And once again, you know, you can view it, Sister Power Viewers, you can purchase this book on Amazon, Bars and Noble, Bookshop.org, and there's a list there for you, and we're gonna show the website page. But Daphne, I wanna ask you, who else was involved? Ooh, we're talking about 18 people, and I'm gonna read them to you right now. Willie Binner, then. Appear, Cora, Serum, Ashang, Api. Katherine Takara, of course, Paula Major. Marquisha Arabe Taylor-Darko, and we have Katherine Takara, of course, and Patricia Rejoice, Akusua Benuena, and mind you, when you get this book, you can read all about these wonderful women who participated. We have Regina Cook, and she was paired up with Brittany Tachi. We have Ava Beeman, who did the George Floyd poem. We have Celestine Nudano, who was paired up with Shauna Sherman, and Shauna Sherman was from California. And we had Wu Dem of Hua Parko, and she was paired up with Alison Francis, who is a professor at Chaminade. We had Kim Kees, of course, with Crystal Terry. We have Sandra Sims with Amua Fuwa, Saifua Cecilia, wonderful poems. So there was a whole bunch of different perspectives, and call and response to each perspective, like a pen pal, but more than a pen pal, because it's actually creative and responding to a poem written, and then writing a poem in response. Yeah, Kimberly. Yes. Celest, what was your takeaway from this book? I do want to mention, and I do want to mention on the book cover, in the center, in yellow on top, that inspiration came from my mother. For her arms to raise up, and it's actually from an image where she was raising her arms up in such joy, and she was in a garden. And also the two images on the top was my daughter and her friend, and they were actually dancing in such joy on the beach. And so I wanted these flowing movements to be on the top to represent our African sisters. Love it. What was your takeaway, Catherine, very quickly before we close? Celest, your takeaway from, did you, how many books do you have out now? Of my own, I have nine, and I'm just about to have a Haiku collection, so that'll be 10. But we have been publishing other people. In fact, during COVID, I think there've been four books in the past two years that we have a small press been able to do. I've been working really hard, and of course, being stuck at home. But what is my takeaway? What was the question expected? Your takeaway from writing the poetry very quickly. 30 seconds left. Well, I did write a long poem about my mom, which created a, which made me go back in my memory bank. But I think that what was most exciting and hopeful for me, encouraging for me, was that here we were, what, nine, 18 women, who actually, we worked with only our partner, but beyond our partner. It's like, it's like, like we were mirroring around, you know, skipping along. I mean, it was such a positive joining experience, I think, and conjuring up the emotion and the intellect and the spirit and all of those things, each of us in our own way. Well, okay, Queens, we are out of time. And we'll have to wrap it up. I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. This is Sister Power. We've been talking with Daphne Barbie-Wilton, Catherine Waddell-Takara, and Kimberly Keyes. Thanks to all for being here. And thanks to you, our listeners for listening. I will see you next Thursday, January the 20th, for more Sister Power on Think Tech. And I want everyone to get this book. I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Aloha. Aloha.