*I was inspired from the event to share the type of art that I do through this blog. Creative writing 🙂
I don’t do well in crowds especially in closed spaces. But I managed to talk myself into attending the last event of the ARTivism Lab series and I wanted to show up to support other feminists as well. Also I didn’t want to be an awful student.
“Now shuffle the cards” The tarot card reader told me in a sweet gentle voice.
I take a full sip of my gin & tonic that I ordered the moment I got to the event and immediately I felt my anxiety quiet down.
“Don’t be nervous” She said as she waited for me to grab the deck of cards.
I smiled and started fumbling with the deck of cards until I found a way to just jumble them up without looking awkward. I accidentally dropped them and they scattered all over the table.
“I’m sorry!”
“It’s perfect, I was going to ask you to spread them across the table anyways” she smiled and advised me to pick three cards. She goes on to tell me that her practice doesn’t predict the future but that she reads them based on the current moment and that every card read is open up to personal interpretation.
Well thats what I thought I heard because I was too busy trying to match her gaze and look like a totally normal functioning human being that doesn’t mind prolonged eye contact.
Death. Page of Cups. Six of Cups.
Those were the three cards that I’ve chosen.
I’ll be honest I forgot her own interpretation of the cards but long story short i’ll be ok if I don’t repeat the same mistakes from the past.
Oh how if only life were that easy.
I thanked her for her cheerful disposition throughout the reading. I tipped her because anyone willing to sit with me sober and talk about my problems is a blessing in disguise. I walked over to the corner of the room where there was more breathing room and I was sitting right next to the actual sound speakers so I could hear everything the speakers were saying.
The poems and films were so moving but Anne Willats personal life story on her struggles on starting a family made me very emotional. Being lesbians it was hard for them to adopt because of all the backwards stigmas against them as well. They did end up finding a sperm donor and after what seemed like forever they finally were able to conceive their own child. To know that after what they had to go through and yet still persevere through it all to start a loving family was so inspiring to me.
It really gave me hope for my own future family.
Someday.
Maybe.
Maybe I should learn how to drive first, I mean what kind of soccer mom takes a uber to drop their kids off?
The night moves on and the film “Lessons in Baby Dyke Theory” by Thirza Cuthand gets introduced. It was a very fun satire approach to teenage lesbian loneliness. She mentions before she showed the film that there was no sex education for lesbians back then and that immediately called out my own ignorance and privilege. I didn’t think about the Canadian sex education curriculums at all until I took this course and now it’s something I want to advocate and educate others on.
Overall I forgot about the crowd and admired and appreciated the art/projects by the strong, leading feminists of our time.
I down whatever drink I had left and made a promise to myself to take a feminist approach to everything that I do, all while ordering an uber home.