The short story: While taking an eight-month sabbatical from her life as a documentary filmmaker, Debra Roberts made pilgrimages to southern India, Hopi land, and the Black Madonna region in the south of France. She emerged from these experiences with her offering, Prasad for Women, a series of talks for Fifth World Women Walking Upright. For all women … now. Prasad is a Hindu word for a substance, often food, which has been invested with Divine grace or blessed. In India, prasad is offered in places like temples, often in the form of sweet sticky rice, crystals of sugar, or sometimes a special drink. The food is blessed by a priest, a holy person, or a revered teacher and it is believed that this blessing passes on to the person who receives the food. Debra has come to believe that women are the prasad of our times.
The longer tale: Debra Roberts has lived and breathed arts and spirituality all her life. Her work as an artist has taken her to England (where she lived for eleven years), Northern Ireland, Europe, and various cities around the United States. In New Mexico, she worked with Coyote Gathers His People, a Native American performing troupe, and was Director of the New Mexico Literacy Theater, a company that toured and promoted literacy in pueblos, schools, prisons and rehabilitation centers around the Southwest. These experiences of the arts in service to multicultural communities profoundly impacted her, as does her friendship with elders and Medicine people from many traditions. A meeting with Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya, a messenger of Hopi prophecy who spoke about the vital importance of women stepping forward into this Fifth World, also particularly and profoundly touched her.
In 1997, after a series of strong dreams about film making, Debra started Heron Productions LLC, a multimedia company that makes compelling documentaries, music and educational videos. A few years later, she also founded Little Pearls, a non-profit company that makes “tiny films that open hearts and minds” (littlepearls.org). In late 2004, Debra went on an eight-month sabbatical that included pilgrimages to India, Hopi land, and the Black Madonna region of southern France. She emerged from these experiences with her offering, Prasad for Women, a series of talks for Fifth World Women Walking Upright. For all women … now.
Debra is also a Master Beekeeper, Founder of The Honeybee Project (thehoneybeeproject.com), teaches natural beekeeping, consults with other artists around the U.S. on honeybee-influenced projects and installations, does presentations on the mystical side of beekeeping, and writes about bees. She is completely bee-sotted. She now divides her time between her devotion to honeybees (and especially teaching women interested in beekeeping), her Fifth World Women newsletter, and time with her beloved family outside Asheville, NC. She can be contacted at debra@fifthworldwomen.com.
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