Dear editor:
I was recently a victim of injustice by perpetrators who were supposed to support every woman on this campus. It was an offense to all women who fight to be heard every day.
I will not be silenced. This is my story. I am a woman, a poet, a feminist - neither of these comes before the other.
As an artist, I was chosen to present my work March 21 at Women in the Arts, sponsored by the women's studies department. There was to be a magazine that held an artist statement for every artist in the show. I handed over my statement in poetic form, only to be told it could not be presented as such because of its contents. As a feminist, I stand for equal rights, and my statement clearly showed the lack of such rights.
My artist statement was censored right out of the magazine. Next began a war over my own words, and how offensive they might be.
My poetry, because of my artist's statement, was assumed to be slanderous to both men and women and therefore deemed offensive. I will not be the first to say this is not the case. My poems are sometimes abrasive, but they tell the story that needs to be told.
I will not hide the truth. I will display it. From the stance of the women's studies department, this was not something of which they approved. My poetry was said to be good, and worthy of presenting. The fear I might "ruin" Women in the Arts, however, was too large to let me tell my message.
I was cut from both the magazine and the show. As if this weren't enough, I was not told, and had to find out by phoning the department well after the decision had been made.
Women in power attempted to silence me as well as the story of all women that must be heard. The fear of my message led to me being cut from Women in the Arts.
This is a battle I feel I both won and lost. I won because I made people afraid. They knew what I was going to say was true. I lost because I could not share my own work as an artist in a forum with other artists who would have appreciated what I had to say. I will not be silenced.
Meadow Smith
freshman
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