Love Cannot Be Silenced

Joan Szymko, composer and director of the Aurora Chorus, introduced Sister Kathy Sherman, OSJ, above, by observing that the Vatican recently censured American Roman Catholic nuns for "spending too much time on issues like poverty and social justice." Sister Kathy Sherman was in Portland today to perform her famous anthem with the Aurora Chorus. She let me take a picture of her right after the last of several standing ovations. There's an excellent New York Times article about her that covers the controversy and her very generous response to it.

It's been a great weekend. Yesterday I went with a group of friends to see the documentary, Lesbiana: A Parallel Revolution, which is about my age-mates and the work we did as lesbian feminists in the 1970s and 1980s. The music, the books, the news of the people in the film were my music, my books, my news. The film doesn't cover my particular community in New Orleans, where the energy was passionate and vital. That community started a Rape Crisis Center, organized Take Back the Night marches, ran a clothing exchange and a bookstore, organized art exhibits, and ran a feminist theatre.

I had marched as a teenager in the civil rights movement; I was a fledgeling, licking envelopes and marching in the peace movement; but it was in the women's movement that I really learned the meaning of political action. The film covers the issues we talked about and the controversies we processed (endlessly), and it expresses our passion with a sense of humor. I loved it. And then this afternoon, I went to the choral performance with TerriG (who is a member of Aurora but wasn't singing today) and Laurie and met Sister Kathy Sherman. My heart is full.

And shy little Kismet seems a trifle calmer.