peace midwife for Mendy Knott
by janice willis barnett

I first heard peace activist and poet, Mendy Knott, read her work in Johnson City, Tennessee. When she mentioned the women’s open mic reading she helped host in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, I knew I had to be part of it. But it took me several months to work up the nerve to go. I was afraid that Mendy and the other Lesbian women in the group wouldn’t accept me because I was straight. Thank goodness, I finally had sense enough to confront that silly fear.

Mendy became my mentor, a believing mirror for my emerging artist self. I will always think of her as a midwife helping bring to birth the writer within me. I know that many of the other women artists, Lesbian, straight, and in-between, whose lives she has touched feel the same way. She has helped us “come out” as creative human beings regardless of our sexual orientation. In this world where homophobia is being promoted for the sake of political control, I say that is peace in action.

When the women of the Blue Moon
come together
in the world’s oldest mountains,
we speak out.

Red-headed Sweetgirl takes the floor
singing about change.
Time was when our sister Mendy
helped us give birth to ourselves.
Now she’s gone,
done told us to carry on -

hopped in her white pick-up with a butch swagger
and headed south to help pull
other women wedged sideways, feet foremost, butt first on out.

Come sisters.

She’s passed the torch to us.
Take the floor, speak your truth.
Witness your life in the box, out of the box, on the hump.

Be a super hero, a courageous coward, one still, small voice.
Travel your darkness and find your light.
Go where the wild things are.
Mothers, daughters, grandmothers
keep coming,
keep speaking at the Blue Moon
of rage, hate, hurt, prejudice, injustice,
joy, love, lust
-women loving women,
women loving men,
nurturing,
sacrificing for your children.

Keep standing your ground,
honoring your you
coming on through.
Butch, fem, straight, crooked,
young, old, in the middle.
let’s all come out

       together.

Janice Willis Barnett has published short stories, essays, and articles in various publications. Her essay, “My Soldier” is part of Mendy Knott’s “Peacework” CD. Janice’s roots go back to the early 1800’s in Yancey County, NC, but she currently resides across the mountain in Unicoi, TN.
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