Beth Filar Williams

  • University Libraries
  • Professional Librarian, 2014
Beth Filar Williams

At Our Core: Women Writing About Power, by Sandra Martz

At our core is one of those random books I picked up at a local independent bookstore on display years ago and have found myself opening it up to read random pieces, enjoying every one. This anthology of stories, poems, and photographs offers a variety of women’s voices and their personal stories or emotions related to power. Every unique piece inspires me in a different way and has helped me through the years in both my personal and professional life. My feminist roots I suppose were instilled in me from my mom from childhood (picture my Brownie troop singing Helen Reddy’s I am Woman) and into adulthood such as through my volunteer work with the Women’s Resource Center in Durango, CO (running Girls to Women, Women to Girls conferences for 8th grade girls). I have come to recognize how power influences and defines our society and our connection to the earth. I yearn to empower girls, women and all people to know who they are and what they can do with their unique lives and spirit, living in harmony – not in power – with the earth. One of my favorite meditative and moving pieces in this book is "call" –

Is has been said that while women sleep the earth shall sleep. But listen! We are waking up and rising and soon our sister will know her strength. The earth-moving day is here. We women wake to move in fire. The earth shall be remade