A conversation about myth, survivors, voice and power under patriarchy.

In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, host Jessie Huth is joined by poet and author Nikita Gill to discuss her latest book Hekate, a mythic coming-of-age story rooted in exile, survival and the politics of power.

They explore Hekate as the goddess of liminal spaces and the vulnerable, why Gill chose to tell a story from the “losing” side of war, and what happens to women and children when history is written by victors.

The conversation also touches on female rage, the fear it provokes, and why stories are never neutral.

Ranging across Greek myth, modern politics, displacement, trauma and freedom, the episode examines the deep relationship between language, justice and voice.

Topics covered

What drew Nikita to Hekate, goddess of crossroads, keys, liminal spaces and magic.
How Hekate begins with exile and displacement after the Titanomachy, echoing the realities of refugees and conflict in the modern world.
How family history shaped Nikita’s politics and interest in displacement.
What happens to women and children on the losing side of war, and why history often erases it.
Why Nikita spoke to modern worshippers of Hekate and what she learned.
Hekate as a goddess of survivors, including survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
How patriarchy attempts to neutralise rage and why female anger is politicised.
Mothers, the absence of a village, and why maternal voices are ignored.
How stories and language shape politics, and how populists use narrative.
What it means to find your voice when the world wants you to shrink.

Quotes to Listen For

“There is no point making yourself so small, that you live half a life, to appease a beast that hates you anyway.”
“Poets are the emotional historians of humankind.”
“If you want to find where fascism starts, it starts in language.”

About Nikita Gill

Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet who has the attention of 840,000 Instagram followers worldwide for her work. Her work offers a shift of perspective which centres women in both Greek and Hindu myth as well as folklore. She has given a TEDx Talk, spoken at every major literary festival in the UK and been shortlisted for the Goodreads Choice Award in poetry three times, the Childrens Poetry Award two times and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. Gill has written seven poetry collections.

Links

For more on Nikita Gill's book, Hekate see here.
Follow Nikita on Instagram here.

About the Podcast

How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests (mostly women) how they found or reclaimed their voices, on every level.

Through intimate conversations with writers, activists, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they've made, the lives they've lived and the inner transformations that made it all possible. We talk about turning points and resistance, doubt and silence, creative risk and process, as well as the messy business of becoming.

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Keywords:

Nikita Gill, Hekate, feminist mythology, female rage, survivors, women’s voices, patriarchy, power, myth and politics, exile and refugees, displacement, storytelling and justice