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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1996)
just out ▼ fobruary 2. 1996 ▼ 37 The C enter f o r Lesbian T h erapy Presents: AMAZON TRAIL Make a noise .WORKSHOPS Sat. Mar. 23 The requirements , Let us acknowledge the passing of Terri Jewell poet, author and voluptuous outlaw by Lee Lynch “Bom Libran in Louisville, Kentucky. Spent 1974-1982 on East Coast and learned that les bian writing is valid and needed on this planet. I 'm stubborn and insolent, so rejections make me write that much harder. ’’ —Terri Jewell, in a biographical note from the quarterly Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, Fall, 1983 America. Terri Jewell, a wild, loving woman. Stephanie Byrd, also a poet, knew the spirit of Terri Jewell. “We used to like to go out in the country a lot. One of the last things we did together was go fossil hunting in the White Water River Gorge in Indi ana. We’d wander around, and if we didn’t make our destination that was OK. Sometimes we’d erri Jewell was more full of life and stop and take pictures of wildflowers. We laughed plans and projects than any three a lot. other women I’ve ever known. She “One time we saw a great big sow taking a was like a power line, thrumming leak, and Terri wanted to get a close-up shot. The with barely contained energy. When sow had a litter. I knew about sows from child I met her some years ago at a writing workshop at I warned Terri. But she had to get closer. hood and the National Women’s Music Festival, she pro She was a large woman— we both are— and nei jected warmth, enthusiasm, support and empathy. ther one of us is given to moving quickly. When I’d seen her name everywhere, yet there was no that sow came at her, I swear to God, Terri jumped grandstanding. She was just another dyke writer back six feet at least. It was the funniest thing.” anxious to learn and to share what she knew. I never knew until her let ter to me of Jan. 10, 1995, that there was another side to Terri, although I should have seen it in her work. In one poem she wrote that she “hugged death/ like a thick, blue blanket,/ its borders em broidered/ with shiny new bullets/ saved for that time/1 could choose passage out.” I think I didn’t want to know. Terri Jewell died in late November. Just a year be fore, on Oct. 17, 1994, she’d w ritten me: “My 40th birthday..,this40th year, Lee, is gonna be prime. I FEEL it.... I feel quite grown! The outlaw in me is ready to ride, girlfriend! Where do I go Terri Jewell next?!” Next came a list of ac Dorothy Hoogterp, another Michigan writer, complishments that Terri managed even while remembers: “Sometimes when she would give a supporting herself full time with a straight job. reading it would be absolutely hilarious. She We’ve lost the author of The Black Woman’s could bring down the house, hamboning, using Gumbo Ya-Ya, Quotations by Black Women and her whole body, while she recited.” the poet who published Succulent Heretic. Terri’s Dorothy reports that Terri’s poem from Succu poems, articles and stories have appeared in over lent Heretic was used to start the memorial service. 300 periodicals including The African-American I imagine Terri’s delivery: Review, Calyx, Kentucky Poetry Review, Women o f Power, Spare Rib and The Black Scholar. Her anthology Dreadwoman Locksister: It A in ’t All SHOW YOU HEAR About Hair is being completed by Stephanie among my people it is rude to listen to another Byrd. Karen Willis is helping prepare Terri’s The without making noises o f acknowledgment, a Black Woman’s Perpetual Calendar. Both works famous anthropologist now deceased said the are scheduled for publication by Crossing Press. invention o f the boat started racism, it is rude Terri received a grant for and had completed a to listen to this silently, many men and many series of poems about James Baldwin. One of her women say a good woman accepts their vision dreams was to write The Black Lesbian Culture o f whom she should be in the world, it is Book. She also wanted to do a book on black dangerous to listen to this without sucking comediennes and another on black women phi one’s teeth, i am a black woman, i am a lesbian, now make noise o f acknowledgment. losophers. Where did Terri, a self-described “voluptuous “A lot of women call me for closure,” said outlaw,” even Find time for her straight job, for Stephanie Byrd, gently. “But you know, I figure deep depressions? Terri went out to that lake and she followed a “Thanksgiving,” Terri wrote me in a letter, “is higher calling.” the yellow light, Xmas flashes red.” Now let’s make noise, all in our own ways, to On the other hand, how does any black lesbian protest Terri’s unbearable pain, to celebrate her keep going with the unendurable rejection of this exuberant life, and to extol the extraordinary gifts society as constant companion? How can there be she gave us. health when a seemingly invincible racist patriar chy prances across the television screen, trumpets “Show You Hear, ’’from Succulent Heretic, 1994, from talk radio shows, and runs our homeland Opal Tortuga Press. Permission by Stephanie with a ruthless unconcern for most of us? Terri Byrd. Jewell, thorn in the side of heterosexist white T One of her dreams was to write The Black Lesbian Culture Book. She also wanted to do a book on black comediennes and another on black women philosophers. Yardbirds An innovative program of workshops, groups & for healthy relationships couples Single: Is there a healthy therapy __________ relationship for me? designed Sat. Apr. 6 Unique and Unusual Gifts for Home and Garden to assist lesbians in creating satisfying & enduring relationships 288-9985 Presenters: Kao R hiannon, Ph.D., 20 years experience specializing in lesbian therapy. 2200 NE BROADWAY 8 blocks East of Lloyd Center Mon-Sat 10-8 p.m. Sun 12-5 p.m. • WATERING C ANS • PLANTERS • BOOKS • N e lly Kaufer, M A , co-author of A Woman's Guide to Spiritual Renewal C ouple groups form ing soon! For information phone Nelly at 248-0759 or Kao at 248-0018 Just out has m oved up in the w orld. O ur little w o rld , a n y w a y . W e ’v e m o v e d o n e flo o r up in th e sa m e b u ild in g w h e r e w e ’v e b een sin c e 1 9 9 3 . F in d us at the C o n v e n tio n P la za at 123 N E 3rd, ju st up in S u ite 4 6 5 .