Yoniverse at Book Woman
Billed as a book release party, it was more like a caffeinated baby shower. No polite titters or modulated “oohs” and “ahhs” from this bunch of “impossible bitches,” as one of the seven contributors, Lydia Armendariz, called the collective. The “newborn” was a collection of spoken word poetry titled In a Loud Kitchen: voices of Yoniverse, and the seven Austin writers/birth mothers were happy, vocal, full of laughter, and unveiled pride. At the first in a series of release parties, the audience at this November 7 Book Woman reading were spiritual aunts, uncles, sisters, and mothers there to warmly welcome the new arrival.
In a Loud Kitchen is the product of Yoniverse, a collective of women writers “who seemed to be in a position to benefit from the support and resources that group interplay could offer,” Tammy Gomez, performance poet and In a Loud Kitchen editor, writes about the group’s creation. Members of Yoniverse include Armendariz, Rosemarie Croll, Tammy Gomez, B.C. Harrison, Sheel Kamal Kaur Mann, Josi Mata, and Melanie Rose Maxwell. Ranging from a great-grandmother to young women in their 20s, the common element among the Yoniverse women is the directness of their work. There is little room for subtext or metaphorical meandering in their aesthetic. The language is flinty and the testimonies unadorned. And this is what seems to draw these writers and their audience together: an aversion to the social preference for silence over speaking one’s mind, telling it like it is, or just plain talking back, along with the dog-tiredness of waiting for permission to tell the truth the way they know how to tell it. After all, the name “Yoniverse” comes from “Yoni, the sign meant to convey the shape of the external female genitalia, which the ancients recognized as the seat of female sexual power.”
Visually appealing “graffiti” pages for each writer do much to capture the spirit of each woman, and a companion audio cassette to In a Loud Kitchen � with selections not included in the book — should give readers a fuller experience of a Yoniverse event.
Copies of In a Loud Kitchen and the audio cassette are available at Resistencia Book Store, Book Woman, and other local book stores, or by writing to: Tejana Tongue Productions, 2423 Euclid Ave., Austin, TX 78704. Visit Yoniverse on the Web at: http://www.hyperweb.com/tammyg/tammy.html.
—Belinda Acosta
This article appears in December 18 • 1998 and December 18 • 1998 (Cover).