Butterfly Wings ∈ {Becoming, Freedom, Migration, Flight}
“A butterfly marks the moment a woman claims the freedom to become.”
Elizabeth Blackwell
(The first female physician in the United States)
“Wings unfold where women refuse the limits written for them.”
Margaret Sanger
(Birth control activist and pioneer of reproductive rights)
“Transformation is the quiet revolution of women.”
Judy Chicago
(Feminist artist, creator of The Dinner Party)
“Migration is also a form of freedom.”
Monarch butterfly
(Symbol in feminist and migrant justice activism)
“Queer Butterfly: I exist.”
Jess X. Snow
(Artist and filmmaker exploring queer, migrant, and borderless futures)
CITATION
Judy Chicago. “Elizabeth Blackwell Place Setting.” Brooklyn Museum. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/166097.
Judy Chicago. “Margaret Sanger Place Setting.” Brooklyn Museum. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/166100.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Woman’s Robe with Butterflies.” The Met Collection. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/70499.
Oakland Museum of California. “Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland.” https://museumca.org/on-view/judy-chicago-butterfly-oakland/.
Perret, Meg. “‘Migration Is Natural’: Monarch Butterflies as Symbols of Environmental Justice and Queer Migrant Identity in Art-Activism.” Environmental Humanities 17, no. 2 (2025): 371–92. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-11713438
CITATION
Clifton, Lucille. Two-Headed Woman. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.
Clifton, Lucille. “Lucille Clifton - October 12, 1983.” Voca, University of Arizona Poetry Center. October 12, 1983. https://voca.arizona.edu/reading/lucille-clifton-october-12-1983.
Barnett, Richard D. “Polydactylism in the Ancient World.” PDF. DrMsh.com. https://drmsh.com/PaleoBabble/PolydactylismAncientWorld.pdf
" i was born with twelve fingers "
“ i was born with twelve fingers
like my mother and my daughter.
each of us born wearing strange black gloves extra baby fingers
hanging over the sides of our cribs
and dipping into the milk
somebody was afraid we would learn to cast spells
and our wonders were cut off
but they didn’t understand the powerful memories of ghosts.
now we take what we want with invisible fingers
and we connect
my dead mother my live daughter and me
through our terrible shadowy hands.”
— Poet Lucille Clifton(African American, Feminism, 1936-2010)
“a characteristic of giants … or of people with super powers or extra strength” Richard D. Barnett
(Historian of ancient art and archaeology)
CITATION
British Museum. “Creation Narratives and Feminine Power.” British Museum Blog, August 22, 2022.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/creation-narratives-and-feminine-power.
Brooklyn Museum. “Fertile Goddess Place Setting.” The Dinner Party Collection.
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/166066.
Chrisler, Joan C., and Ingrid Johnston-Robledo. Woman’s Embodied Self: Feminist Perspectives on Identity and Image. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2018.
Grahn, Judy. Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
UNESCO. “Ancestral Shellfish Harvesting, a Living Heritage of the Women of the Saloum Delta.” September 30, 2025.
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/ancestral-shellfish-harvesting-living-heritage-women-saloum-delta.
UNESCO. “Culture of Jeju Haenyeo (Women Divers).” Intangible Cultural Heritage.
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/culture-of-jeju-haenyeo-women-divers-01068.
Menstruation | Moon | Month…
Ocean Tides Remember Where Female Power Begins
“an intrinsic connection between water, creation and female power.”
Oshun
“The menstrual cycle has long been symbolically linked to the phases of the moon.”
Women's lunar cycle traditions
“In every tide, life returns through her.”
Fertile Goddess
“The sea yields to those who know how to read its tides.”
Women of the Saloum Delta
“Strength can be carried in breath, salt, and memory.”
Jeju Haenyeo
“Menstrual time and lunar time have been intertwined in cultural memory.”
Judy Grahn