An evening full of talent...

Tonight the Law Center co-hosted a house party with Hedgebrook (a women's writers retreat) featuring Bishakha Datta, the 2008 Hochstadt winner (Hedgebrook award). Hot on the heels of our Gala, we invited a small number of donors and supporters out to this event. Though we had a relatively small turnout but Bishakha was incredible! She had spent the last 5 weeks at Hedgebrook working on a book about sex workers in India. She, as a feminist, had been forced to rethink her feelings of prostitution as she had learned and felt that it was the same as exploitation - it was exploitation, violent and wrong. Like many things in life, it wasn't always that black and white. Prostitution was all gray - like life. (She said, "Human beings are just messy things.") There are some women who are trafficked/sold into prostitution; there are few women who choose prostitution; but mostly there are women who end up there because of the opportunities life offers - which is to say very few... Stay home with an abusive husband who doesn't work - or go work and make money to support your family... Be sold into prostitution, get out after a year, go home, present the money you saved to your husband (who sold you into prostitution), get the money taken from you, and get thrown back out on the street, this time with your children. If your client pays you for agreed upon services, then it's a commercial transaction. If your client doesn't pay or abuses you, then it's exploitation. She has so many incredible stories about women. And she had a humble and non-judgement way of telling these stories.

Her organization had done much to create dialogue between feminist groups and the prostitutes who had organized themselves into an organization which translated into "unstoppable." She was a filmmaker, organizer, feminist and writer. And many of the guests tonight were also writers. It was amazing to be in a room full of so many writers. The ED of Hedgebrook (which I've known about since college) went to the University of Iowa and was part of the playwrights program - arriving the year I left. Her mentor was my mentor. There were a few people who were alumnae in the program. There was a woman who wanted to apply to the program. There were Law Center supporters and Hedgebrook supporters. It was a great gathering of impressive women.

Throughout the evening I was telling the story of how I was introduced to Hedgebrook as a playwright student at the University of Iowa. I kept thinking, why am I not the writer I was 10 years ago? And in the past it was a struggle to call myself a writer. But I found it easy tonight to say why I wasn't a writer. When I left from the Peace Corps, I was needing an agent. I had been produced at region theatres. I was ready for my next step in my writing career. On my last night in Cleveland, I helped tear down the set of my last play (both evenings were sold out), went home, finished packing up my apartment, drove back to my parent's house, packed my bags and woke up my dad to take me to the airport. Then I left for 2 years. I wrote nearly 1,000 letters (I kid you not) and wrote plays and short stories. But when I returned to the States, I became an activist - essentially. And that's the problem - is finding time to write. And that's what Hedgebrook does - is give you time to write - in a quiet place without the rest of the world pounding down on you. And it's great to be a part of it - even if it's just through house parties.