Ritual Feeding; Women and Food Makes Metaphoric and Literal Sense.

Summary

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"I'm dealing with menopause and the aging process in a lot of my poems," [Jennifer Lagier] says. "Image, appetite, body changes, anger. The whole process is reminiscent of puberty, these confusing shifts I have no control over, I can't understand. I keep hoping that after a hot flash I'll become a butterfly or something. Instead I just become sweaty."

The first "Women and Food" reading, held at Seaside City Hall in 1996, was organized by Donna Wobber and Susan Hoffman. Since then the event has happened "sporadically." It hasn't happened in two years, according to Lagier, who took over the organization when Hoffman moved away and Wobber found herself too busy to do it. "Although one year we got ambitious and did it twice," Lagier says.

Each "Women and Food" reading includes a one-evening-only art installation, called "The Table of Life," featuring symbolic place settings made by the poets. Lagier describes the concept as a local version of Judy Chicago's famous installation "The Dinner Party," which included place settings devoted to famous feminists, notable women and metaphoric concepts like The Goddess Within.

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Ritual Feeding; Women and Food Makes Metaphoric and Literal Sense.

"It taps into so many metaphors," says Jennifer Lagier through bites of sushi. "You're talking about things like appetite, nourishment, hunger, emotion."

We are sitting at the Shogun Restaurant on Main St. in Salinas with fellow poet Maria Garcia Tabo...

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