The other day, I read a newsletter article about Daisy Chain Fields, the music festival that took place last weekend in Irvine, CA, and the author, Jessica Valenti, said this about what it felt like to be there: “In a country determined to suffocate us, Daisy Chain gave women room to breathe.”

..room to breathe. 

giving women room to breathe.

I can’t stop thinking about it: what that must have felt like: so many people. all that safety. When was the last time I felt that in a public space? paid place or free to enter. The curiosity and interest, the basic joy of being, that moves among us when there is room to breathe. When? Where was I?

room to breathe

for women

in a male-unless-otherwise-indicated world —

is not just a liberatory experience.

To generate space where you can let go of vigilance, of anticipation, of your personal knowledge about the inherent possibility of attack based on gender, on simply being female that we all live with, and feel yourself in the midst of room to breathe:

is an act of imagination

a sacred space of celebration

of being alive.

I wasn’t there, but I’m inspired. Just reading it, I began breathing it in, found myself full-body imagining it: what it must have felt like: so many people. all that safety.

room to breathe.

—-

References and treats

Jessica Valenti: Abortion, Every Day newsletter • IG page • website • books

Daisy Chain Fields: IG page • website