Mary Black never expected a poem she wrote and recorded in an hour to spread like wildfire on social media. Black is an actress who is used to playing characters on stage, but Quiet is her own voice, she said.
"I think it was just something that was sitting inside me for a really, really long time," Black said.
"I'm used to playing different people and different characters, so this time I was just wearing my own face and telling my own story and got so much support, and so I think telling the truth, it's important, it's necessary, it's very needed right now."
Using her voice is like medicine, she said."I think that silence plagues our communities, and our nation, really," she said. "Just recently, we as a nation, we pretended these things weren't as bad as they are and they don't exist, but they're so evident in so many communities."
Black will perform Quiet as part of the 2016 Cabaret of Monologues: Stolen Sisters put on by Sarasvati Transformative Productions for International Women's Week.
"It's really grown into something so much bigger than I had ever anticipated."
Source
"I think it was just something that was sitting inside me for a really, really long time," Black said.
"I'm used to playing different people and different characters, so this time I was just wearing my own face and telling my own story and got so much support, and so I think telling the truth, it's important, it's necessary, it's very needed right now."
Using her voice is like medicine, she said."I think that silence plagues our communities, and our nation, really," she said. "Just recently, we as a nation, we pretended these things weren't as bad as they are and they don't exist, but they're so evident in so many communities."
Black will perform Quiet as part of the 2016 Cabaret of Monologues: Stolen Sisters put on by Sarasvati Transformative Productions for International Women's Week.
"It's really grown into something so much bigger than I had ever anticipated."
Source
VIDEO
thank you for speaking your truth many just turn away.
bless your soul.
I know your pain Mary Black I have Zuni Grand daughters...:( a fifteen year old who drinks daily...my soul cries with you...
Wow so much truth I hope this inspires more people to speak such truth. It's not like we all don't see what is being done. How can we live with ourselves if we don't do anything. and for God sake please give them their children back if I was native I would not have my kids I would have lost them all when they were babies. Hope this new government does right by the people who suffered so much so we could all be here.
thanks, very powerful and true!!
Powerful and meaningful word. Absolute. From an artist's perspective, I thought the cadence could have switched up at times, soft and swell into the emotional delivery. It came off as too hard, too much. Just constructive criticism. I believe you'll reach a lot more and evoke more emotion If you let the delivery breath more. Amazing work.
We can change things for the better for our people and all people. To do this we must all start working together by starting from the thought we are all one.
Beautiful and well-said. The emotion is deafening and needs to be heard. There are no excuses for the continued suffering! National wide coverage from the Obama, negro heads of churches and Hispanos in Pilsen, Chicago sending g water contaminated with lead because of corporate giants makes media aware of the crisis but nothing has ever been done for the Native Americans to prevent the toxins in water on reservations from giant corporations. No fresh bottled free water. Nothing in the media and empty promises from the Obama as another piece of Apache Ceremonial grounds are sold for mining to foreign I Teresa's by McCain and his cronies! Pathetic! - Geronimo 2 Donald Perez THE BIRDMAN
Bless you for your honest heart, it speaks to me as a white mother to 2 grown children with Cherokee blood....both have struggled with alcohol, and my son: death by suicide. My prayer for your sacred lands and people is to fully realize your anointed part in leading the reservations in self sufficiency....you now have technology to compliment your ancient traditions of healing land and souls. Band together and remember you have many white sisters who know, and pray for you all.
Women, and other vulnerable people will always be told to shut up, and that no-one wants to hear our story.
But our stories are truth, and ignoring the truth, believing lies - these are toxic to self and to those who have stories to tell. We should all speak out when we have something true to say!
Because i am white, does not mean i don't know of your pain and suffering, or that i don't hold close to my heart all that you and your people mean to me. " The grey dawn breaks and shatters the quiet stillness within my being, for once again i am left an empty shell, the scalding tears' that flow from my eyes'and empty my soul of all that i have cared for you,are more than my heart can bear."//]]\\ <> rhg
a love for the First People that words alone cannot describe.
Teach your people, young and old, a martial art. That way you can maim the bastards.Very dime moves can be very deadly
Teach your people, young and old, a martial art. That way you can maim the bastards.Very dime moves can be very deadly
Teach
Truth be told... historical trauma, trauma never leaves. I remember as children we were always taken from mom by tha system placed in several foster cares. I remember tha sexual violations to my body threats to be killed. Indigenous Women are the backbones of our families. We are called survived, if we even survive
WoW! The simple truth that must continue to be told. It rips at your soul and will not stop until things change and justice prevails.
Potent, truthful and a shocking mirror to the governance of Australia.