Grandma leads the way
Herb Hecsh
Joan Wile's story begins like this: A woman comes to the big Apple to be a jazz singer. She does the night club circuit, studio work as a singer, and eventually forms her own trio, in which she sings and plays keyboards and bass. Next comes jingle writing, songwriting, and ultimately musicals. "Five of my 8 musicals have been produced Off- and Off-Off Broadway," explains Wile. "I won ASCAP Popular Awards for many years through 2009; was a runner-up in an American Song Festival; and won Westport Arts Council Award for Most Promising New Musical."
It's the stuff on many a classic tale...until we get to 2003. That's when Joan Wile organized Grandmothers Against the War which, she says, "became a full-time pursuit after we became an international story after our arrest and jailing at the Times Square Recruiting Center when we tried to enlist." After that, Joan's credentials grew in another direction:
- Published many articles, both political and humor
- At the request of Citadel Press, wrote a book, Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up For Peace
- Listed in Who's Who in America and many other Who's Who volumes.
- Many civic awards for her work with the grannies, including the Wings of Justice Award from BuzzFlash
- Spoke at the United Nations in November 2009 at their Conference on Aging
As Joan and her group now expand their work to include collaboration with the children of Afghanistan, I thought its be the perfect time to interview her for Planet Green.
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"Guantanamo" - words, music, and vocal by Joan Wile
My Conversation With Joan Wile
Planet Green: Our pop culture tends to portray grandmothers either as kindly elders who only exist to soothe or as a burden to their family via illness. But since when does pop culture define reality, right? So, how easy was it for you and the other grannies to break the mold?
Joan Wile: I suppose I'm a bit unusual as a grandmother in that I was always in music/show business where gender was not a factor. Even in the 50's when I began singing, before the women's lib movement, I never felt handicapped by being a woman. All that mattered was my talent. Being a woman in the entertainment field, of course, I had to worry about my looks more than I would have liked. So, in that sense, I was a victim of society's mold. My grandmother was a poet and a legal proofreader, and a divorcee. My mother, also a divorcee, twice, was a statistician with a master's degree. Both she and my grandmother worked full-time, so I was never cultivated in an environment where women stayed at home.
I've never conceived of myself as a stereotypical grandma, even at my present age, 79. And, the grandmothers in my peace groups don't fit the mold, either. Most are professional people with definite views and goals of their own quite apart from anything husbands or society expects of them. Perhaps in a sophisticated city like New York, particularly in Manhattan, many women have broken free of the image of grandmothers as rocking-chair-bound, cookie-baking old women who spend their time watching soap operas and knitting sweaters for their grandkids.
PG: How did you meet the women in your peace groups and when/how did the concept of "grandmothers for peace" emerge?
JW: It was kind of a magical process. I can't really pinpoint how it happened. However, I must say that were it not for e-mail, I don't think I could ever have pulled it together. That was my principal means of contacting other women. I just emailed every older woman I knew whose beliefs, as far as I knew, more or less coincided with mine. I made a few telephone calls, too, and spoke before a local Democratic club. It must have been an idea ready to happen, because so many women, and some men, responded. People told people and those people told people. Most of the ones who formed the initial group were strangers to me.
PG: Were you calling it "Grandmothers for Peace" then?
JW: Before I explain, I want to clear up the matter of the name. Grandmothers for Peace International is a group that has been around for many years with chapters all over the country and in some foreign ones, as well. It is a multi-issue group. I was not aware of that organization when I got my idea for Grandmothers Against the War, which is what I call my group. My idea was to specifically protest the war in Iraq. I believe it was an original concept then for grandmothers to go out on the streets, as we did, and oppose the invasion of Iraq.
As for me, the idea occurred to me in the middle of the night after seeing a tragic and shocking photograph. It was in TIME Magazine and was of a 12-year-old Baghdad boy, Ali, who had lost both arms, was badly burned all over his torso, and whose entire family was killed—this havoc was wreaked by our bombs. I was absolutely haunted by it and thought to myself, "I've got to DO something"
An insomniac, I was wide awake in the wee small hours when the idea hit me—GRANDMOTHERS. Grandmothers Against the War. "Yes," I thought, "that will play—grandmothers are deemed caring and wise. If we say this war is a bad thing, we won't be dismissed as a bunch of drug-addled kids but will be taken seriously." Thus, our little grass roots movement was born.
PG: And now your work has expanded to include the children of Afghanistan, right?
JW: Yes, it is a delightful new tack I'm taking in my effort to end the war in Afghanistan. I read online about a group of young people, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV), who live in a village 100 miles north of Kabul. They work tirelessly to bring peace to their country under very difficult circumstances. They have to hike through snow and cold many distances to get to their meetings; their schooling is sporadic and under-supplied, and, of course, they are subject to the horrors of the war we are waging there.
I decided to organize a group of peace grandmothers and friends to "adopt" them. We spoke to them for over an hour a couple of weeks ago on Skype, we email with them, and some of our grannies are planning to visit them in Afghanistan in the spring with treats and school supplies. I already love them as if they were my biological grandkids.
Joan Wile's "Adopted" Grandkids
PG: How can readers get involved?
JW: There are many grandmother peace groups throughout the U.S. If you contact me at joanwile263@aol.com, I will steer you to one near you or tell you how to form your own chapter—it is very easy to do. If you're in my territory, New York City, just come to my vigil held every Wednesday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in front of Rockefeller Center on the west side of Fifth Ave. between 49th and 50th Sts. It's the best-known and largest vigil in New York City. Don't worry that if the weather is bad we might not be there, because we ALWAYS are. In snow, sleet, heat, wind, or downpour, we hardy old women are there. Once we meet you, we'll keep you posted about all our other rallies, events, performances, and protests. JOIN US!!!
