ruth weiss was open to new experiences and new people in her life; Not just open, but welcoming. ruth’s work was experimental. It was as if she were a scientist for humanity. This is what it is all about for me when I read her book, can’t stop the beat; The Life And Words Of A Beat Poet. She not only wrote about the people close to her even about people she just met, she turned them into songs, into poems. Some capture people’s spirits in photos, ruth captures people’s spirits in poems.

Though I spent several years working with ruth on the documentary, that day spent hopping from place to place, person to person, memory to memory, highlighted the interconnected and ageless nature ruth possessed. These places lived with her, well-worn stones of stories that became embedded in the very homes they inhabited.

July 31st, 2021 is the one-year memorial of ruth weiss's passing. We remember ruth weiss as the exemplar of courage against conformity, inventiveness against the edicts of social acceptability, and standing up against the iron feet of oppression. She showed us the universal importance of strength of character, integrity, and the virtues of living a simple and valorous life.

ruth weiss’ success came even in the face of prejudice, paving the way for many other women coming up behind her and using her art to galvanize creative minds. Her works’ existence act as resistance and bode well for the voices of the unheard. As for what the world of poetry holds for women of the twenty-first century, we can only wait and see.

The theatre lights dimmed, and three musicians took the stage; then, a short woman with teal hair walked to the podium and, without hesitation, began to speak in a raspy, baritone voice. She was a sockdolager. She was exceptional and forceful. The effect was unexpected and unique. We were in the presence of an original, a valorous, provocateur.

ruth adhered to Chinese horoscopes, which consist of twelve cyclical years based on animals. Born in 1928, Ruthie began life in the Dragon year, which also proved to be specifically an Earth-Dragon year. With each Chinese horoscope, comes a rotating element attached (earth, wood, fire, air, and metal). And ruth weiss embodied and protected Mama Earth throughout her long life.