Alice Walker: Calling All Grand Mothers

Members of The Sisterhood, 1977, a writing collective/circle founded by Alice Walker and June Jordan in NYC. Front row, left to right: Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, Louise Meriwether; back row, left to right: Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Alice Walker, Audrey Edwards, Toni Morrison and June Jordan. abladeofgrass.org

Alice Walker’s poem “Calling All Grand Mothers,” from her collection Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems (New World Library, 2010), calls on the grandmother spirit but also on us to clear the way for a wise woman's perspective and work—today, tomorrow, and the next day. Although the poem was published a decade ago, it asks a question that still goes unanswered: Isn’t it impossible to know what the difference would be if we were to put females first, until we actually do it?

Calling All Grand Mothers

We have to live

differently

or we

will die

in the same

old ways.

Therefore

I call on all Grand Mothers

everywhere

on the planet

to rise

and take your place

in the leadership

of the world

Come out

of the kitchen

out of the

fields

out of the

beauty parlors

out of the

television

Step forward

& assume

the role

for which

you were

created:

To lead humanity

to health, happiness

& sanity.

I call on

all the

Grand Mothers

of Earth

& every person

who possesses

the Grand Mother

spirit

of respect for

life

&

protection of

the young

to rise

& lead.

The life of

our species

depends

on it.

& I call on all men

of Earth

to gracefully

and

gratefully

stand aside

& let them

(let us)

do so.

― Alice Walker

Please go here for the original: https://www.grandmotherproject.net/blog/calling-all-grand-mothers