Karen Smith, founder of the nonprofit We Wield the Hammer, revealed her journey from a corporate job in Oakland to training in metal arts in Senegal. After a transformative divorce, she sought creative fulfillment through jewelry making and metalsmithing. Upon learning about the challenges women face in Senegal due to patriarchal traditions, she decided to pursue her craft as an apprentice there. Her new nonprofit aims to empower women and break societal barriers surrounding metalworking.
I was working at a corporate job here in the Bay and I hated it, she said. I really wanted to be doing something creative, but I had a more traditional life that I was living.
He said to me, Do you know that Senegal has a saying that women don't wield a hammer? And I said, No, I don't know that.' And he said, Do you also know that the way this gets transmitted is from father to son?
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