Her Voice Carries

(soft piano) - [Female Voice] I'm a fine artist, I'm a public artist.

I work on murals as well as paintings.

But a lot of the work I'm doing and I'm passionate about is in the public space.

And I love that the audience is everyone that walks by on a day.

It's not about going to a specific space to see art.

It's about experiencing it on a personal level, and really taking ownership in it.

Thank you for taking the time, I so appreciate it.

- [Elderly Woman] Yeah I'm so glad we have a chance.

- So I sent you a little bit about the project.

But just to kind of revisit that, basically I'm trying to do a mural project with picking five different women in five different neighborhoods and painting them in a different neighborhood.

So kind of like transplanting them.

Every woman that I meet and chat with I feel like I also hear about other women to chat with.

So I think with the five women that I choose it's obviously not gonna span the entire experiences of all women everywhere.

But I am looking for women that are gaining inspiration and spreading inspiration.

I'm looking for women whose voices are carrying and are lifting up those around them.

And I think as well through understanding these women's stories I'm also understanding my own.

- I said I wasn't gonna do that.

- When the last assault happened, I remember getting in my sexiest outfit, putting the gun in my purse, and going to his house.

I remember I wanted to shoot him dead.

And I remember saying why did you do this to me?

Of course he's gonna let me in.

I was like okay let's see how this works.

And after being intimate with him I pulled out my gun.

It was a Sunday.

And I heard the people going to church.

We wrestled.

He took the gun from me and he could've killed me.

And there was a point of clarity in that that I said I don't want this anymore in my life.

He let me leave.

He took the bullets out the gun.

I took my little 22 mother of pearl gun and I left.

I just said I don't want it anymore.

And that's when the shift started happening in my life I believe.

I learned how to forgive myself.

I learned how to love myself.

And that's all this world is about.

Love, forgiveness, some more forgiveness, some more love.

And it keeps going in that cycle.

- [Artist] I think that the part with Imani that I respect so much and that I'm just so attracted to is the way that she loves everyone that she interacts with and the lack of judgment that she puts on people.

I think we live in a world where we are constantly asked to judge ourselves, to judge other people, to judge our surroundings.

Everything comes with judgment and with that chain.

And I think that she has this unbelievable ability to see beyond judgment.

And people are free to be themselves in her presence and I think that that's a really beautiful, admirable quality.

And I think I'm drawn to that.

I think there's a lot of different layers in which that shows in her life, but I think it's that quality that runs throughout it.

- I didn't want to be a pastor.

I didn't even think that was possible as a woman, to be perfectly honest.

I also didn't think I was smart enough or articulate enough or whatever.

All of those things that I've told myself in my badness.

And so I said okay I'll just go to seminary and take some theology classes.

Maybe that'll appease you, God, and then we can be done.

Nope.

And within a year I started the process of becoming a pastor and I can't imagine anything else that I would love to do outside of yoga.

Those two are the two arms of my life that I love.

Good morning.

Wow, everyone's really awake today.

I like that.

Welcome to worship.

As people are filtering in-- [Imani Voiceover] So my church reformation.

Not only are they white, it is white, German, Scandinavian, dig their heels in kind of congregation.

Primarily older.

50 to 80.

But I fell in love with them.

Because they decided to stay in the city.

They said we're gonna stay right here.

We're a bloomer, we're planted.

- The other thing that you should know that is this upcoming weekend we'll be going to Washington DC for the march on Washington along with Sarah Rutherford who is a beautiful artist.

All of you know her.

We have one of her pieces downstairs.

So I think it's gonna be a blessing just standing in solidarity with everyone in our community.

Alright?

Thank you.

(chatter) - [Sarah] I went to the march because I felt like there was not an option not to.

Part of the motto of the march was our voices carry.

That's exactly what this project is about for me.

I went for my voice to be heard, but I went to listen.

And I went to lift up the voices of others.

- You're on the corner of seventh street so if you go up seventh one block to Independence.

- [Sarah] So my mom did come to the march with me and that was really powerful and important.

My mom has always been a role model for me in my life.

But she also grew up during a time where she really operated within the system.

She was in the Miss America pageant in the sixties when women were burning their bras out front.

- [Speaker] I want to remind you that the reason why you are here today is because mothers and yoga teachers and organizers and bakers came out to organize.

Ordinary people made this happen.

This is your work.

You made this happen.

- [Crowd] This is what democracy looks like.

- [Sarah] It's a project called Her Voice Carries and it's all about how women's voices carry so I want to ask you how you want your voice to be heard.

- I want my voice to carry with strength.

- Inclusiveness, tolerance.

- I'm not apart of one group or identity or whatever.

I'm American, I'm Muslim, Arab.

So I want that to transcend.

- Don't give up.

Don't give up on your dreams.

Don't let a man tell you you can't do something.

- If we vote, our vote has to be counted.

If we speak, our voice has to be listened.

- I want it to be a voice of acceptance.

- If every one person does some thing, it'll multiply.

- My message is for the world.

All womans that they have to be free.

- This helps me to remember that my voice is as important as anybody's voice and that I will not be silenced.

You smell good.

- Thank you, I showered.

- You smell really good.

- Awesome, perfect.

And it's all in gift wrap.

- [Sarah Voiceover] For each of the women that I'm featuring, I'm going to be doing a charcoal drawing of them.

And the charcoal drawing is really about getting to know them, getting to know their features.

Kind of moving the charcoal around it really takes away a lot of the factors.

It's just black and white.

It's just with my hands.

It's very simple but through that simplicity I can get at the soul of who the person is.

And then I'm going to be doing a painting of them on wood with wood burning and stain, cutting it out.

Having it be a little more textile using a different variety of mediums.

And that painting will have a little bit more to do with their story.

So it's not just a portrait of their face, it'll be kind of some of the elements I'm going to be using in the mural.

This is the first time I've kind of laid out this path of doing each of these steps to then get to the mural.

It's really taking my time with it.

And the more I do, the more I draw them, the more I can really get at who they are.

- So about a month before the instillation part of the project started, I left my partner of seven years.

And it's so strange.

It's so strange to go from having a life with someone and then just no communication.

It's just bizarre.

It feels bizarre in a way that I haven't experienced before.

You lose a piece of yourself.

I mean I really didn't even understand what was going on until December.

I'd been going to therapy and I think I started to really understand that he was being emotionally abusive and he twisted the way I thought about myself.

So I need to work on restructuring that.

And I started reading about it and I thought oh god.

It's just hard when you read something you're like so much of this is what I've been going through.

And again, it makes you feel kind of crazy because you're just alone in it.

I don't know, I mean I feel like I have a window now into a lot of things.

I think the hard part is also forgiveness because I consider myself a strong woman so it's like the fact that I fell into a relationship that shifted my thinking and the way I think about myself makes me feel weak, so it's like trying to understand that I'm not weak and forgive myself for allowing that is also something that I think I have to do.

(snow blower revving) I so appreciate you taking time today.

Especially this looks great.

This is actually perfect.

It's nice to be able to chat a little bit and then I can kind of see more about what you're doing.

I just want to hear about all the work that you do and then I wanna understand how you came to have eight children.

- Nine now.

- Nine, that's right.

- I've got a six month old.

- Yeah, who I met.

- You met Sunday.

- I've always been really fascinated with the role of mother and trying to understand kind of how society views that role and then how that role is even on a personal level, being a woman and what that means and Trelauney is kind of the ultimate mother.

She's the mother in her home with her eight adopted children, nine total.

And then in her work with all these young mothers that she's helping to kind of gain confidence and to grow.

I would love to have Hannah come to your house if you're open for that.

- Who's Hannah?

- The photographer to photograph.

That would be fantastic.

So maybe we could set that up whenever that works for you.

If it was possible to do that at some point with daylight that would be great just in terms of taking the photo.

- Do a little bit more of a profile so if you turn your head even more this way to kind of get the hair.

- Y'all ready kids?

- [Trelauney Voiceover] So my life changed.

My life was supposed to go, when I turned 40, Britney would be 20 and by her being the only child, I would just have this world to explore.

I could do whatever I want, I could go when I want, come when I want, and all that change.

That all changed.

They dropped those two little boys off and my heart broke in half because all I thought was I want to make this world such a better place for them because of what they had experienced already.

Your start would not determine what your finish is gonna be.

- I think I'm seeking out strength and it manifests in different ways in different people.

But I think that initial core demonstration of strength was what my mother showed me when I was young.

The series I did of my mother as Wonder Woman feels very related to this series, even though this feels like the grown up version of it.

The series of Wonder Woman, I was exploring something at a young age and I wasn't quite sure what I was trying to hit at, and then is with more awareness.

But there's still that element of this superhero idea of all these women, but just not attaching it to some superhero that already exists.

Like showing the superhero within each of them.

- [Trelauney Voiceover] My job that I have today is with the University of Rochester.

I am an outreach worker who works with young moms with young babies.

We make sure that the baby is up to date on their well child visits, mom is up to date and healthy as well, housing.

If that's the issue, we take care of that.

Try to get them housing.

If they want to go back to school, we take them through the steps to get back in school.

So my job is, I'm a mom all day.

Taking care of these young girls and showing them how to-- It's not that you don't have wings, you just gotta know that they're there.

Utilize them because we have girls that fall into what I call generational curses where they feel like well my mom didn't have this or my grandmother didn't have this so this is the road I'm gonna take, too.

That's not to be so.

You can get a full-time job.

You can--all these things.

You can go on vacations.

All these things you can have.

These things, you can have these things, too.

It's about how you go about getting them.

- One of the arguments for same sex marriage.

I think it's such an interesting topic because for a lot of people, this seems like old news but you know how a lot of the things we look at in this class are actually fairly contemporary.

This is very contemporary.

- I remember where I was.

- Do you?

- When I heard the news.

- Yeah, yeah.

This is very new.

So when I was in your seat, when I was a college student, I actually said to my now spouse, and we are actually on paper same gender married, that I didn't think I would see same sex marriage in my lifetime.

So this is a time lapse video of legal marriage in the US based on when it was actually passed into law.

(video playing) - [KaeLyn Voiceover] We got married in Canada.

So the year that marriage equality became legal in New York, and interestingly marriage and children I should say is something I never thought I would do.

But marriage and kids was always something that Waffle thought that he would do.

- Oh look.

Look at you.

You're so little.

- [KaeLyn] We communicate queer family dynamics to our child in so many ways.

One is that we do our best to not put gendered expectations on her.

It's really about not limiting your child in terms of putting them in a gender box when they're very, very young.

Just treating her like a kid.

- Gender is so rigid in our society and I don't think it should be.

I think we just have to talk to her about being authentic and that's what we try and do in our every day lives and it's important to teach her that as long as you're being authentic and as long as you're not hurting anyone else there's no problem with it.

I think that's the biggest takeaway I want her to have growing up, just to live an authentic life regardless of gender.

There's nothing wrong with people who are different than you, 'cause I think that's the biggest problem when it comes to gender in our society and how we talk about gender is there's a stigma attached to it and I just want to teach Remy there are people who are different from here and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

- Remy you're stealing the show baby.

- It's kind of interesting in a way because she feels a little more than a peer than some of the other women in the project just I think from an age perspective and then even where she is in life.

Starting a family, things that I've kind of thought about in the same timeframe that she has been thinking about those things.

So there's something interesting about that for me.

And then the advocacy work that she does, the ACLU position.

Just all those aspects of ways she puts herself out in the world, navigates that space while being a mother as well, a new mother.

It's kind of, again from that peer perspective, I think I was drawn to her in that way.

Like having really rooted strong beliefs but also being able to work with a whole variety of people with different belief sets, which I think is a skill unto itself.

- [KaeLyn] Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

I could not have worked for two more quote unquote controversial organizations.

I don't think our work is controversial.

I think our work is common sense and I think our work is necessary because other people do not have common sense.

We do things that other people don't necessarily understand because they see things as right and wrong and we see things as fundamental freedoms or not.

So yeah, I absolutely am proud to work for an organization that stands up for everybody's civil liberties including LGBQ people including women, including undocumented people who we do believe are protected by the US constitution, and standing up for things that matter like racial justice like the freedom of speech and freedom of press and these fundamental values that our country was founded on.

And being an adoptee, I am proud to be an American because I wasn't born an American.

I don't take that lightly.

Like I believe these are things we need to defend to stay the country that we are, especially in these times of terrible and unprecedented challenges to our civil rights and civil liberties.

- [Male] Welcome, alright.

Braved the weather.

Awesome, thank you so much.

Come in, get warm.

Brutal out here.

Thanks for coming.

- Thank you for coming.

My name is Rachel.

I will be your host for tonight.

We have six seats up in the front otherwise you're not gonna see much of the show.

If you're chilling by the pie, I get it.

- [Sarah] I originally had wanted it to be all women that I hadn't known before.

She was the one exception.

- We at Poetry and Pie, as you know, are always here to elevate the voices of those who are not always a part of the larger cultural narrative.

- [Sarah] I mean everything that her work is about is really what this project is about and I think that's why I couldn't not include her.

She's all about lifting up the voices of others.

- I've just been building this righteous coven of spectacular butches and femmes and gender nonconforming writers of color who truly are just going to save the world.

They're changing it.

- Rachel is a poet, but through her poetry and through her community work she's really created a lot of opportunity and safe spaces for artists to find their own voice and really tell their own stories that are full of pain and beauty and kind of everything that comes in between.

- I wanted to do Pink Door primarily, at least originally, for pretty selfish reasons.

I was going through a severe depression.

It was like 18 months into the very worst turns of my bipolar disorder, I was suicidal every single day.

And so I thought well, I wonder if I could just have some really wild pajama party.

Like let's have the craziest sleepover of all time.

Because of the time, everyone was invited, and now it's exclusively for writers of color.

Women writers, trans women, gender nonconforming, agender.

Shame and grief and fear is what guides.

Hatred is what guides.

Misogyny is someone's fear of loss of power.

And so if you show to someone that there is empowerment in being able to talk about how you've been treated on this planet, I think that it's also such an important and mighty power to just lay that all out there and be very honest about it.

- Where I live, I don't go to anymore protests.

Because I'm a protest repeating the cycle of living, surviving, being threatened, escaping, and glorifying because I'm not dead.

(audience applause) (light music) - [Sarah Voiceover] On a personal level, they've been a very important organization to me in terms of just feeling like I had a space to go for my health care when I couldn't afford health care.

And then when people and patients and when staff come, they're kind of welcomed with this imagery.

The biggest images are not the protestors' signs of dead babies.

It's gonna be this kind of inspiring, uplifting image.

And that's why I'm feeling so overwhelmed with emotions surrounding it.

I also feel incredibly empowered because I'm painting Rachel and so it's like I just feel like I'm collecting all her strength and every day I show up with just this cocoon of strength given to me by the fact that I'm writing her words and painting her image.

It always felt really important to me to have the next generation working alongside of me for this project.

Representing these women that bring inspiration and then these are the next women that are gonna carry that torch.

Therese and Maribelle.

I worked with them on youth mural projects so I had to kind of explain to them, I'm an author of this project, you are the assistant.

This is different than the youth mural projects that we've worked on in the past.

But my hope is that they're gonna gain experience and, like I said, it was very important they got paid above minimum wage for this work and, I don't know, that they feel valued and important.

- Go team go.

So glad you two have finally met.

It's been like, how long?

I've been like you've gotta meet this girl.

- Having been a kid who every day was like, is this the last hit?

When my dad punches me in my head, will I come back to understand in some sense that kind of lived fear, that minute by minute worry and what that does to your body knowing that there are people in this world, whether I know them or not, whether they're buddies, whether I text them or not knowing that there are people who live like that every day of their lives.

It just awakens this visceral anger in me.

(talking in a foreign language) - [Sarah] I just really in my heart wanted Refugees Helping Refugees to be represented.

I just think they're such a valuable organization and concept.

The fact that these women in particular that have lived this experience are now helping others to kind of get settled as they embark on their new life here.

I just think there's something really beautiful about that.

- Refugee, wherever you come from, we are refugee.

And we try to help new refugee because I know the situation new refugee, I know their situation.

They're scared.

They can't speak what they want.

They can't ask anyone.

Now they learn English.

They're learning new tradition, cooking food.

They learn sewing machines.

I remember and I feel that's why I try to help whatever I can.

- [Sarah] When I met Safi, she just had this incredible light to her.

She'll engage with you in a way that you feel happy after.

And it's like why, where does--that truly comes from her spirit and from who she is and this decision that she's made to live this way.

And I think that takes great strength and courage.

- I came from Somalia.

They started a war so when they kill people in front of my house, me and my five kids escaped my country.

When we came to the United States, it was the end of life.

Looked like end of life because of your kids, it's five kids crying at the same time, hungry.

And you can't even give them water.

I think it's the end of the worst of feeling.

When I remember that time, I can't hold in my tearing.

- Picking up on where we left off last month, we were talking about the project that Sarah's looking to begin and considering having the image on our parking lot wall.

We have a large wall there, we're centrally located according to her proposal here.

We were presented with the information.

We didn't really discuss it last time so I think we'd like to.

- I think it's pretty progressive to start thinking about a Muslim woman on a Christian church.

Now if we start talking theologically, we are all part of the body of Christ.

I think that it's a bold statement.

The woman is Safi.

She is interwoven within the fabric of our community and people know her.

I think it would be a bridge builder as well.

- My hope for the mural is to begin to repair a breach from this church to our community.

And maybe even start some new debate and conversation.

The Gospel is a Gospel of love.

Love of God.

Love of neighbor.

It is a Gospel of justice.

It is a Gospel that defends the vulnerable.

And it commands us to be a place of welcome.

Of the foreigner and the care of the poor.

There are many things about which faithful Christians can disagree.

There are many.

But welcoming the refugee is not one of them.

Sarah, who is painting the mural, I was watching her yesterday.

And what I realized yesterday is she always starts with the eyes.

She always starts painting the eyes first.

And I didn't ask her this, and it could not be anything other than that's where she starts, but the eyes are the windows to the soul.

And this human, the sister Safi, yes she's Muslim, but she's our sister in humanity.

And when you see someone's eyes, it changes how you view them.

- We practice at one school and come to.

- [Woman On Speaker] All referees report to the fields please, thank you.

South Side GSD, report to field number two.

Tenth War Tigers, team one and team two report to field number two.

You can load that blue bin and those things on this cart and take it back over there for me.

The boys played football.

They went all the way through the program.

I just wanted to be engaged and what made me get more involved was each kid is supposed to have so many plays but you know coaches always have their favorites.

My kids wasn't getting in the allotted times they were getting in and I said I gotta get involved here.

I ended up getting on the parent committee and then I ended up getting voted as their president.

I still don't know anything about football but I got really, really good coaches and so we're on the sideline and everybody's cheering and they'll say so so so yay!

So they tell me what happened.

They're teaching me.

Every year I learn something more and more and more.

They teach me so now I kind of know what I'm talking about.

- You've made a lot of progress.

- So today I really want you guys to start sketching out the flowers and my goal with this wall was now that you've done two walls with me to start to do some of the process.

And I really want you guys to own as much of this as possible.

Obviously there's time factors, there's how you guys are feeling about it.

I'm gonna work with you, I'm not gonna leave you hanging as this is your first time really going from start to finish on it.

But I really want you to own as much as possible of it.

- I know that I have to do that but then my hands, I don't think I can do it.

- Girl you can do it.

We can paint over it.

- I did my very first mural project with Sarah about almost two and a half years ago, and that's the first time I ever worked with her.

She's the first boss that I've had that I've been able to have a friendship with, too, so it's not always business, business, business.

Like I'm able to talk to her about everything.

Like if I have advice that I want for life.

She gives really good advice.

I think the biggest thing I've learned from Sarah is self love, like loving yourself.

- At first I felt like I wasn't doing good at all but now I feel more confident, more fearless.

I don't have a really good connection with my family but Sarah's family to me.

- So that is one, two.

That's like two up.

One, two.

Can't you just add it to this?

- Yeah that's what I was gonna design 'cause I missed that whole line here.

- Oh I see what you're saying.

Yeah you missed that.

- [Younger Girl] I think that it's really important how Sarah's making it known what other women are doing in the world and how they're making it better and trying to help other people out when they were struggling and trying to do the same thing for other people.

- She's holding Sunday, her newest foster child who she's trying to adopt.

But while it is Sunday, I didn't want it to be just about Sunday.

It's really about kind of this image of her holding her all of these children and young mothers.

In terms of how many people are in her life and young people are in her life that rely on her and look up to her and have been impacted by her, the sheer number is kind of astounding.

So I had her head turned so I really want her to more represent children as a whole.

But then around the circle I chose each of her kids' birth stones and I painted those around the circle as well so they'd be represented, and they all love that.

They love that they had a piece in the mural, which felt important.

- It looks like almost that I'm looking up to Heaven or something, don't it?

Like I'm looking off like I know what I'm supposed to do and I'm doing it.

That's what it looks like to me.

- We're not open yet.

We've just been setting up.

It's gonna be a literary cocktail lounge so we're gonna have a lot of poetry readings and book signings and other fun stuff.

- [Rachel Voiceover] And so we're hoping that the spirit room will give home to all of the misfits and activist and artists in our town, people to see that really not pay enough attention to, which is wild because that's the life blood of this city is the black community and the brown community and the queer community.

It's just been too long that black women, especially black artists and writers, are fighting alone.

So it's great that I have this opportunity.

I want our opening night to just be a spectrum of all of the art activism that can happen.

Welcome to the spirit room.

(audience cheers) We're so happy that you guys have come out to help us with our grand opening.

(audience cheering) - I met a witch.

I met a witch and she gave me a name.

I can't tell you my name.

You will use it like it is yours.

- I do think Rachel chooses to focus on women, specifically women of color, because it's necessary.

If you want to survive, Rachel will help you survive.

Like she goes okay.

I'm not gonna just make a Facebook status.

I'm not just gonna discuss it with my friends.

I'm gonna do something about it.

I'm gonna make space for them.

I honestly believe that there are people, and it's not just me, it's people whose lives she has saved.

- It can be a violent act.

I think anyone especially of color understands how silence is a violent act and so for me to be the narrator of a life that would ordinarily be asked to be quiet and polite it's just something I've always kind of pushed back against.

And so if I can just partner up with these writers and show them what support looks like and how much their art is valued, it changes you.

It really does.

And Pink Door, we'll never take credit, but a lot of the artist who've come who are more in their shell have now just--I can do this.

And that's what you need.

You need that kind of kinship.

I purposely wanted me to be facing, 'cause whenever I come here to counter-protest I know where they're allowed to stand.

And I knew they would be to my right.

I was like Sarah just make sure I'm facing them.

(chatter) - [Sarah] When I met Safi, she was just so full of light.

I also loved the aspect of her having the dress shop in Somalia and then teaching women how to sew here.

Something about that fabric of her past being pulled into the present that I thought was really beautiful.

So I wanted to feature her, but that's also why I featured the hands of the other women in the mural because I really felt like it was this collective community effort that goes on there.

So I really wanted Refugees Helping Refugees to be represented in the mural.

(soft piano) - Sarah was painting one day and one of the members said can you make her a little lighter, Safi, so that she's more relatable?

And even now it still makes me sick.

And the ground underneath me collapsed.

Those fractures just created a sinkhole for me.

Each time I'm astounded about how they don't see this woman before them that's a woman of color.

And to say to make Safi more relatable, to lighten her skin.

I'm heartbroken.

That's where it is right now.

So I guess part of my wish of will this bring some conversation and controversy.

I just didn't know that it'd hit me so close to my own personal being.

- Hi.

- How are you?

Sarah.

- Do you like it?

- Yes, wow.

- It's not small.

- No, no it's not.

Perfect, wow.

- I'm gonna write it right in there.

- So I think Safi will be welcomed by some in this congregation, but by no means not by all.

And I think she knows that.

I think in her wisdom she knows that.

- Thank you.

- Hey, let me get set up.

Yoga.

- [Imani Voiceover] Sometimes I say it's the best part of my week to go to jail.

- Then move your head a little bit, left to right.

Loosen up your neck.

- [Imani Voiceover] I was invited to come and connect to women in jail, and as soon as I came over, I had this love moment of every woman that was in the room and so I go to the jail because I see the possibility and each and every person as soon as I land my eyes on them, I'm just there to give them tools in order to do what's next in their life, whether it's yoga or not.

And they teach me a lot about humility, stripping away whatever ego, arrogance stuff that can pop up in all of our lives.

And they keep you really grounded and truthful and humble so I get a lot of that out of it.

And I get this unconditional love from them, and it's pretty lovely to find love in jail.

So that's what I get from them, unconditional love.

- Just kind of let the blood go back down your body.

- [Imani Voiceover] And at the end of the class, in particular, their legs are up the wall.

I give them an assist in regards to human touch for their life because they're not allowed to touch each other, all of those things in jail.

And so I place my hands on their shoulders.

I take my hands underneath them, lengthen out their necks, touch their temple in this kind of hippie dippy way of saying that your intuition is correct.

Trust you.

You have everything that you need inside of you.

I'm just helping you stretch and direct it out.

One woman who caught me off guard and almost had me in tears and she said I had never been touched in a positive way without expecting something.

I wanted to say ever?

And she comes faithfully to yoga.

She said I don't get out until next August.

I will be here every time and I come because you're here.

- I've been thinking about this a lot during this project, and it's almost worse during because this mural project is about this, but every single mural there's been at least one instance of someone sexually harassing us, me or us.

I can't make it through one mural without at least one person saying something.

That belittles me or reduces me to that.

It's so sad.

I've literally been in a snow suit basically.

Just sweatshirts, hats.

Like you can't even tell I'm a woman.

And that's where it's such a power thing.

It really is just about asserting power.

It's not like you're really attracted to me right now.

You can't even see me.

You just wanna mess with me basically.

- You okay?

- Yeah.

I just needed an Imani hug.

It's not all the way finished.

- I don't care.

- I know, I'm just telling you it's not all the way finished.

Alright.

- Oh my god, it's beautiful.

Thank you.

- Yeah.

You're the tallest one so I put you on a really tall one.

- A really tall poppy.

- [Imani Voiceover] Oh the tears.

I was embarrassed, I was humbled.

I'm really good at not seeing my value in the world.

And yoga has taught me to see my value.

My faith has taught me to see my value.

Again and again I have to always revisit it.

And to see that I go my gosh.

The same message that I say to people, you're good, that applies to me, too.

My hope for the people at Reformation Lutheran Church is that they're reformed.

To see that the light and love that is within them is the same light and love that is in other people.

I'm staying until they kick me out.

And every now and then I do think, am I gonna get kicked out for that one?

And then they don't.

So there is something, that spark of divine in them, that goes oh yeah.

Oh there it is.

(light music) - The book is called Girls Resist: A Guide to Activism, Leadership and Starting a Revolution.

Broken down in a way that a 14 year old reader could understand it hopefully.

They asked me for a 40,000 word manuscript, which I was like how am I ever gonna write that much?

I turned in a 70,000 word manuscript so there's a lot of editing that had to be done, and it's a how to guide for how to make change in the world if you're a girl mad as heck and ready to do something.

What I really love about the book is that it's not me telling you what to do, it's me saying here's the toolbox.

I'm passing it down to you but you're gonna decide how to use it.

And young people today are gonna lead us into the future, so I'm ready and waiting and listening for what comes next.

- Hey.

- Hi.

- How are you?

- Good.

- I think that the book for girls that KaeLyn has just written about activism really kind of embodies a lot of the aspects of her work so I was definitely thinking about that.

The comic book store was kind of an accident, but I also in some ways really love it.

That series I did of my mother as Wonder Woman ten years ago, I feel like there's something about that aspect.

And then also the fact that these women really are heroes to me, kind of thinking about what makes a super hero, what makes a hero.

So I do really like that tie in.

- [KaeLyn Voiceover] I'm trying to think.

I don't feel like it's one specific moment for me that has moved me to be a feminist honestly.

I think a collection of a lot of different small moments over time.

Growing up queer in a rural place.

Growing up practically the only Asian person besides my sister in my family and also in the place where I grew up, so having this really early experience of feeling othered.

And then being a woman, of course, and a girl.

It doesn't surprise me at all that out of a random sampling of six women from very different backgrounds you'll find that they share this one thing in common.

That they've been assaulted or in an abusive relationship or traumatized by abuse or harassment in some way.

I'm surprised, to be honest, the number isn't 100%.

Statistically we know that the number is at least one in four for sexual assault alone, and that's just reported sexual assaults.

But the reality is almost every single person I know, almost every single woman I know, has had this experience in her life.

- Oh it looks so good, Sarah.

Oh my goodness.

It's so good.

It looks so much like me.

- I'm glad.

- It's so nice.

I also really like that you didn't Photoshop me at all.

Like it's all of my arms, the way that I am, my face and my chins.

I like that.

- [KaeLyn Voiceover] I feel very honestly just very humbled by it and in awe of Sarah's incredible gift.

It is beautiful.

And not only that but it's really powerful and it feels like me.

I don't think I was expecting it to feel so true.

I am in awe of the other five women that are apart of this film and part of Her Voice Carries.

I am totally in awe of them.

But I know so many people are doing so many incredible things that may never be known outside of their immediate communities so I hope that's the bigger takeaway.

I hope the bigger takeaway is that we are really cool, interesting people, but that there are exceptional women everywhere in your own life that have really interesting stories that you should get to know.

- So the bar's gonna be here.

This wall is gonna be the wall with all the artwork and we're gonna hang lights and have it be more traditional gallery style.

There may be quotes from the women on the wall as well, we need to kind of see how much time I have.

And then we have the stage.

There's gonna be two different bands playing.

And then in the middle of that we're gonna have all the women have a chance to speak if they want to, and then I'm gonna speak as well.

So that's kind of the overall idea of the space and the flow of the night.

Today we're having some help coming in and hopefully getting it in shape.

So I think with all of these women, there's this element of going on their own journey and finding their own voice and finding their own power and then using it to help others find their voices, find their story.

Through this project I really have found my own voice, and that's something that I didn't even know that I was searching for, and I questioned a lot along the way as if my voice really mattered, and it was really through featuring these women and showing value and raising them up that I also was given strength and power.

I feel like a completely different person at the end of this, two years later.

So thank you all for coming tonight for the celebration of the completion of this project I've been working on for over two years.

So I did want to announce that in two weeks from now I'm gonna start on my national tour for Her Voice Carries.

I'm really excited.

(audience cheering) So I'm gonna be taking the project on the road, and then hopefully next year just continuing this and traveling the country and continuing to honor women that are lifting up the voices of others.

So thank you so much for being here and for the support for the entire project.

Thank you.

(audience cheering) (upbeat music)