Radiant Voices: 21 Feminist Essays for Rising Up Inspired by EMMA Talks
Radiant Voices:
21 Feminist Essays for Rising Up Inspired by EMMA Talks
Edited by Carla Bergman
Brindle & Glass, 2019; 224 pages; $22
Reviewed by Heidi Greco
I’ll admit ignorance. Before reading this book, I hadn’t heard of the EMMA Talks and didn’t know what they are. Named after political activist Emma Goldman, these presentations are like the better-known TED Talks, offering perspectives on important topics of the day. But the EMMA Talks come with a difference — all of them are by people who identify as women, whether cis, trans, or two-spirit.
Organized into five chapters, the collected pieces cover a wide range of topics, with all of them viewed through the lens of feminism. And even though the word “feminism” doesn’t appear in every piece, its abiding overtones imbue these works.
Oddly, it’s only in one of the last entries that I encounter a definition of feminism — or maybe it’s just that I finally discover one I feel comfortable with. One of the richest pieces in the collection (I could “mine” it for any number of precious nuggets), “My Journey to Islamic Feminism” is by Dr. Amina Wadud. Born in Maryland, her “…father was a Methodist minister who raised me in a God-conscious household.” The path from this beginning leads her through several explorations of mind and faith, including an extended period as a Buddhist, but as the essay’s title indicates, she eventually embraces Islam. Part of this experience finds her studying the Qur’an with men, the only people qualified to lead such examination; in turn, this leads her to her own woman-based interpretations of that holy text, and she eventually joins with several other women to form the Sisters in Islam. It is within this group that they “…moved into… a feminism that still breathes, and a feminism that can be challenged from within and without.” In other words, a feminism that is alive.
That word, alive, seems to be the basis of every piece in this book, even when it’s reminding us of some horror from long ago, such as the punishments for “any criticism” a wife might make against her husband. One of these devices, “…the ‘scold’s bridle,’ also called the ‘branks,’ [was] a sadistic contraption made of metal and leather that would tear the woman’s tongue if she attempted to talk.” Clearly, it is not only today that women often feel silenced, though every time that has occurred, women have sprung to life collectively and worked for change, just as they did in the day of “branks” and ducking stools.
While there are many powerful pieces in this collection of Radiant Voices, not all of them live up to the strengths exhibited by others. One of the reasons for this, I am sure, is that an oral presentation does not always “translate” into a written one. For one thing, the passion we might hear in a speaking voice cannot always be expressed in black-and-white words. That’s why I am glad many of the pieces contain URLs for links to the original presentations, so we can view and listen to them. Overall, despite the range of voices, whether raw or academically polished, these are words that advocate working together — whether at economic ventures, acts of social advocacy, growing and making food, or even discovering rituals for ourselves. To conclude, I must borrow the words Michelle Lorna Nahanee uses to close her inspiring piece on the Squamish people and their rediscovery of their matriarchal heritage: “The best part of the story is the agency and power it took to stay Squamish under the overt, normalized violence of colonization. The strength of Squamish Matriarchs, past and present, continues to lift us.” Indeed, these are, as the book’s subtitle suggests, Feminist Essays for Rising Up, no matter what piece of this earth we may occupy. »