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#TEDwomen: “She Does Not Know Her Beauty” by Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
Sadly, I could not attend TEDxWestminster, London, to watch the live streaming of “TEDWomen: Reshaping the Future”, started yesterday and finishes today.
About TEDWomen
TEDWomen was created in the spirit of TEDx movement.
The TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.
This is the first TEDwomen, the theme: 'How are women and girls reshaping the future?' This inaugural event "... invites men and women to explore this question in depth. From the developing world, where a single microloan to a single girl can transform a village, to the West, where generations of educated women are transforming entire industries, women are powerful change agents, intellectual innovators, idea champions."
I have been following the day's events via the TEDWomen website and blog. It's a shame that I will not be able to listen to all the interviews with the 18 female heads of state as I don't have $100 to but the full podcast.
If you don't know or have forgotten
Alongside politics, this conference introduced us to wonderful artistic talent, such as the soulful poetry of Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo, who spoke at TEDWomen yesterday.
Here is a little from her poem, “She Does Not Know Her Beauty.”
I dedicate this to those of you who don't know, or have forgotten, how beautiful you are and, how much beauty you bring to those lucky to be around you:
“My name is Iyeoka Ivie Arabomen Okoawo.
My father named me after my grandmother.
My name means I want to be respected.”She does not know her beauty
She thinks her brown skin has too many flaws
If she could see her image in the Unogbo River where her mother was born
She would knowBut the city holds no clear streams
West side streetlights shade the sunset’s miracles
And the concrete covers the soft memory of the earth’s unborn seedBlack is the color of her press and burned hair
She thinks her curls are too tight and short
If she could feel her natural birth locks blow in Arimogija’s fresh breeze
On the hill her father once stood
She would knowBut the girl does not know her own beauty
She thinks her lips are too thick
If she could hear Benin men whisper thoughts across the Atlantic ocean
Praying to touch her heart to win her for just one kiss
She would know…butClick here to read the rest and here to listen to an audio version
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