Sumter-Freitag published
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Dec 01/00) - Take a step into the world of women and well-being.
A newly published collection of writing by women, entitled Women's Bodies/Women's Lives, published by Sumach Press of Toronto, includes a golden Northern nugget, the poetry of Addena Sumter-Freitag.
The writer/performer of Stay Black and Die was asked by the editors to contribute her poetry.
Originally, she explains, the editors were simply going to choose two poems from all the contributors to this book of essays.
"But they chose 10 of mine, so they could do a whole chapter," says Sumter-Freitag, who works for the NWT Status of Women Council.
The volume unites 16 essays and stories on "what it's like to eat and breathe and move in a woman's body; what it's like to be mocked, excluded and deprived of rights because of having an 'imperfect' body or refusing to move it or use it according to other people's rules," writes author Paula J. Caplan on the back cover.
Sumter-Freitag's contribution came about after she read a poem at a women's conference in New Brunswick, also attended by one of the editors. That same editor later sat in the audience when Sumter-Freitag performed Stay Black and Die in Montreal.
"If you're always working in the same area (empowerment) ... this world is just so small with people doing action stuff," says Sumter-Freitag.
"The poems are about growing up, from a young girl to a woman, some of the things that relate to her life, her body, her mind. Things like body image and pressure from peers."
Sumter-Freitag has accumulated a lot of poetry over the years and she hopes to gather them up in a book in the near future.
"I want to do a book of my own, so this is really good for me."
The poet explains that she frequently writes for specific issues and events, such as the annual Take Back the Night march. Otherwise, she writes about "just everything, whatever hits you."
She recounts the story of travelling on a plane and being "hit." She spent the flight scribbling on an air sickness bag.
"It was pouring out of me so fast," she says, laughing heartily.
