The Jaded Hippy

Abortion Access and the Military

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:57:00 +0000

There Are No Coat Hangers in Iraq

via ouyandan

The ACLU is interested in hearing from servicewomen, military dependants, and their health care providers about difficulties accessing abortion due to military policies. If you have any information, or would like to share your story with us, please contact us at rfp@aclu.org or 212-549-2633, or write to us at Reproductive Freedom Project, 125 Broad St, 18th Fl., New York, NY, 10004. Any information you provide will be treated as confidential.

Also, anyone who knows me personally may contact me if they feel more comfortable, and I will contact the ACLU on their behalf. Also, if you are pregnant active duty, and have been told that you have no rights or choices about how and when you give birth, and that you are not allowed to decline any medical procedures or services during your childbirth procedure, and would like to talk to the ACLU, I am willing to also contact them on your behalf. Your name can be kept confidential.
Active Duty does not mean you have to give up your reproductive autonomy. I want to help.

More Occupation Info

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:06:00 +0000

In Response to Criticisms Over Our Inclusion of an Antiwar Demand

First of all, we’d like to reiterate that our demands as they appear on this blog, in their entirety, were and are a political statement, and/or indictment of the capitalist system, and are representative of our belief that no issue can be truly isolated from any other.

Despite this fact, we HAD actually given President Corrigan a list of our campus-specific demands, which he ignored anyway. The campus specific demands were as follows:

1. That the 93 million dollar recreation center not be built. We see the recreation center as a move to gentrify and privatize campus, since it would require another mandatory fee hike.

2. That union painters be rehired.

3. That the Ethnic Studies Resource Center be reopened.

4. That we are given full disclosure of the budget. We need transparency to understand how the cuts have been implemented and how they will be implemented in the future.

5. We demanded that President Corrigan attend the General Assembly and have an open discussion with students to address these grievances, among others.

To read their FAQ regarding this issue click to read on.

Update on the Occupation

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:01:00 +0000

Just a really quick update since I am still doing some finals work (BUT THE END IS IN SIGHT OMG).

So at 3am that morning the police basically arrested everyone who was barricaded inside and dispersed the protesters outside. Then this afternoon we (the students) all got a letter from the President of the Uni telling us what irresponsible people the protesters were and how he really really is invested in "free speech" but that he still couldn't let that go on.

Interesting.

And that's the last I've heard. :)

The Occupation of San Francisco State

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:52:00 +0000

This morning I got a call from the SF emergency line telling me that classes normally held in the Business building were canceled. "Odd," I thought.

It wasn't until this evening that the word spread and I happened to see it, the Business building is being occupied by some radical left wing nutcase students (aka, my kind of people)!

So, I am spreading the word. This is becoming more and more common as the budget crisis here gets worse. When this was tried at UC Berkeley the police did not take too kindly to it. Please keep your thoughts focused on the safety of these students. I'll bring updates on what I see tomorrow when I am on campus, though it will already be a busy day for me.

The occupiers also have a Wordpress blog up, so check it out! we are still here.

Patrick Stewart on violence against women

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:21:00 +0000

Patrick Stewart here is talking to Amnesty International about his childhood experiences with domestic violence. It might be triggering for some, as he is quite candid. It was a bit triggering for me. But I love that he is speaking out about this, because, well, he was Picard, and so I have that weird feeling of some sort of relationship to him through growing up watching him. So, anyway, I'm sharing.

21 Guns with American Idiot Cast!!!

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:35:00 +0000

SQUEE!

So, if you aren't as awesome as me and haven't gotten to see American Idiot the musical yet, check out this new version of 21 Guns that Green Day recorded with the cast!

It's fabulous, and I'm pretty sure that's Rebecca Naomi Jones (aka WHATSERNAME w00t!) on lead vocals.

Click HERE to launch the music player!

I almost never write poetry...

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:25:00 +0000

I was having an argument about this story about Alma Chacon and was musing on the pure absurdity of national borders and who is "legal" and "illegal" within those artificial boundaries and my brain just started getting all poetical, so....thought why not share... (If it's not clear, I was thinking about these things from Alma's and other mestizas and indigenous folks' perspective.)

"Illegal"

How can I be
Illegal
On the land my people come from?

"Illegal"
You declare me
As you pave over the bones of my ancestors.

A line drawn
Treaties signed
By people who were visitors to our country.

Now you declare me the visitor
Me the intruder
Me the unwanted guest.

But your economy thrives
on my bent back

And the ones in charge,
they know it.

The Abuse of an Asylum Seeker

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:39:00 +0000

Via Questioning Transphobia and VivirLatino I found the story of Esmeralda:

Courage comes in many different forms. For Esmeralda, a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico who faced horrific circumstances in immigration detention, it came in the form of seeking justice. Kept in a segregated cell with other transgender detainees, Esmeralda never realized that her experience in detention would match the trauma of discrimination she had faced back home. But her story is also one of hope for change.

While the Obama administration has pledged to reform the detention system, its promises do not go far enough. Spread over a patchwork of more than 500 county jails, privately run prisons and federal facilities, immigration detention is a $1.8 billion business estimated to hold 442,941 detainees in custody in 2009 alone.

Transferred far away from their homes and families, stories are rife of how detainees are denied visitation, access to lawyers, medical care, and are subject to physical and verbal abuse. Many vulnerable people, including asylum seekers, pregnant women, children, lawful permanent residents and even U.S. citizens are among those detained.

Listen to Esmeralda’s voice of courage and take action now to fix a broken detention system.

Restore Fairness

Electronic Civil Disobedience - the Transborder Immigrant Tool

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:29:00 +0000

Via my tumblr blog Rags 'n' Bones:

thecurvature:

abbyjean:

From a group calling themselves Electronic Civil Disobedience comes the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a simple mobile application intended to aid and abet border-crossers from Mexico to the United States by mapping the safest routes to take.
the application uses Spatial Data Systems and GPS “for simulation, surveillance, resource allocation, management of cooperative networks and pre-movement pattern modeling (such as the Virtual Hiker Algorithm) an algorithm that maps out a potential or suggested trail for real a hiker/or hikers to follow.” In addition to allowing would-be illegal immigrants quick and simple access to map information, the application’s creators hope it will “add an intelligent agent algorithm that would parse out the best routes and trails on that day and hour for immigrants to cross this vertiginous landscape as safely as possible.”
On startup, the app finds GPS satellites. Once the user begins moving, the app acts as a compass that shows the direction the user is heading and also shows the direction a user must travel to reach a “safety site.”
The app seems to originate from a hacktivist group out of UCSD - hardly a historical hotbed of technological innovation, but close enough to the US-Mexican border to have a significant impact on the politics of technology in that area.
the app’s creator, Ricardo Dominguez, said, “We looked at the Motorola i455 cell phone, which is under $30, available even cheaper on eBay, and includes a free GPS applet. We were able to crack it and create a simple compass-like navigation system. We were also able to add other information, like where to find water left by the Border Angels, where to find Quaker help centers that will wrap your feet, how far you are from the highway - things to make the application really benefit individuals who are crossing the border.”

Brilliant idea. How long until the U.S. government finds some way to shut it down?

Hopefully no time soon...

Thanksgiving/Day of Mourning

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:18:00 +0000

Thanksgiving in my family has always been a time, some years the only time, when most of us come together and spend time with each other. This, and that this all revolves around food, has made it my favorite holiday for a very long time.

The Thanksgiving Mythology has never played a big role in this family celebration.

Though elementary school was a different matter...

These days I still love my family holiday but I also feel more and more that there is a political element to the very fact that the holiday exists that I do not want to ignore. That I can't ignore.

I haven't figured out, yet, what this means for me, or what practical steps I want to take to reconcile the two meanings of the day. The last few years it has meant a engaging in purposeful mindfulness of these two meanings. And so to that end I thought I would post this link, "illuminating Native heritage through photography," which I got via Cecelia. And my political spirit is with those at Plymouth in their Day of Mourning.

This year I will be focusing my energy both in looking to the truth of the past, being grateful for my present and on hope for a better future; where we do not deny or hide our past but acknowledge it and do everything we can to make sure we correct things so that tomorrow is better than today.

Green Day - East Jesus Nowhere on SNL Featuring Will Ferrel

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:01:00 +0000

That's funny right there.

Lou Dobbs and a Mariachi Band

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:31:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 1

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

The interview is a bit, meh, but, the opening, and his uncomfy face, is, great. The end.

Vigil TODAY in Lake Merritt

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:14:00 +0000

PRESS RELEASE
TIME: Sunday, November 22, 3:30pm
LOCATION: Mac Arthur and Grand Ave. at Lake Merritt
CONTACT: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Liz Latty
PHONE: (510) 282-5223
EMAIL: morethanavigil@gmail.com
BAY AREA COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO HOLD VIGIL FOR QUEER/TRANS TEENS MURDERED IN MARYLAND AND PUERTO RICO

Though it happened a week ago, I just caught up with this story, so here's what happened.

A queer and/or trans teenager in Puerto Rico, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, was killed after she was picked up by a man for sex and he discovered her "male genitalia". She has also been reported predominantly to be a "gay male", though as Helen G notes in the link provided that she was dressed as a woman and that her killer seemingly believed her to be one when he picked her up.
Links and more information found here.

Also of note in this case is the way the local police have been commenting on the victim. The former officer in charge of the case had this to say:

“When these type of people get into this and go out into the streets like this, they know this can happen to them.”

Thankfully THAT asshole was taken off the case. We'll see if it gets better on that front from here on.

The same week, in Baltimore, Maryland, queer fifteen-year-old Jason Mattison, Jr., was raped and stabbed to death in his aunt’s home by an adult male, a family friend with whom, according to a Baltimore police spokesperson, Mattison allegedly had a “forced sexual relationship.”

(From the press release of this vigil) More information on this case can be found here.

There are other events and vigils that have been popping up all over the country. Events for Jorge can be found here For Jason, here.

New "End of Time" Preview

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0000

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Can't wait!

And if you haven't seen Waters of Mars yet, do, it was great.

Oscar Grant News - New City Picked!

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:49:00 +0000

Via the East Bay Express

In a victory for prosecutors and the family of Oscar Grant, a judge has sent the murder trial of ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle to downtown Los Angeles, according to the Trib and the Chron. Mehserle’s defense team had wanted the case moved to conservative San Diego County, where the jury pool likely would have been more sympathetic to police officers.

I am quite relieved by this decision, even if it does appear it was made for monetary and not fairness reasons.

And I will continue to follow this story and bring you updates. :)

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009 - California

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Tomorrow, November 20th, 2009 is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. This is when we remember all the trans women and men who have died this year as a result of transphobia/hatred and violence. Below you will find the listings for all the events happening in California, if you don't live here, please see THIS LINK for events happening in your area!

Alhambra, California
Thursday, November 19, 2009
6:15pm - 8:15pm, Room 7002
California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University
1000 S. Freemont Ave., Alhambra, CA 91803
For more information email,
Johanna Malaret at, jmalaret@alliant.edu
—–
Chico, California
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
5:30 PM
California State University Chico
Meet at trinity commons for march.
After the march meet at room 210 at the BMU.
In case of rain, meet at 5:30, Rm 21 at BMU.
—–
Eureka, California
Friday November 20, 2009
6:30pm - 7:30pm
Humboldt County Courthouse Lawn,
corner of 5th & I STREETS in Eureka, CA
contact: Karin@Humboldtpride.org
—–
Fresno, California
Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
6:00 - 10:00 PM
at the Big White House
1095 N. Van Ness Ave. and Alhambra (South of Olive), Fresno
Contact: info@Trans-e-motion.org
—–
Haywood, California
Details TBA
—–
Long Beach, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:00 PM
on the four corners of Broadway and Junipero
—–
Oakland, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
at Preservation Park, Nile Hall
Doors will open at 7PM and the ceremony will start at 7:30 and we will end by 9:30.
Contact: Tiffany Woods at twoods@tri-cityhealth.org
—–
Orange County, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:30pm - 8:00pm
The Center OC
1605 N Spurgeon St, Santa Ana, CA 92701
For more information, please contact Daniel Shad at daniel.shad@eqca.org
Or visit: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=171231820885&ref=mf
—–
Sacramento, California
Saturday, November 21 2009
6:30 PM
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
2620 Capitol Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95816
—–
San Diego, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
Beginning at 6:00 PM
LGBT Community Center
3909 Centre St, San Diego, CA 92103
for more information email: cmaddocks@thecentersd.org
—–
San Jose, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:00 PM
Billy DeFrank LGBTQQI Community Center
938 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126.
—–
Santa Barbara, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
Beginning at 6:00 PM
at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
Corner of Anacapa And Anapamu Streets Santa Barbara, CA.
—–
Santa Cruz County, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:30PM - 8:30
Watsonville Plaza, 358 Main St, Watsonville, CA
Website: http://bit.ly/1iheMU
—–
San Francisco, California
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
7:00 - 9:00 PM
CIIS California Institute for Integral Studies
1453 MISSION ST
3rd Floor - Namaste Hall
—–
San Francisco, California
Thursday, November 19, 2009
11:00 - 1:00
San Francisco City College
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=157922757660&ref=ts
—–
San Francisco, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:00 - 8:00 PM
API Wellness Center
730 Polk Street (corner of Ellis)
For more info: Leeza Edwards, Co-chair of SF TEAM
415. 724.1680 or lavendergoddess@mac.com
—–
San Francisco, California
Transgender Day of Remembrance Shabbat
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:30 PM
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
290 Dolores Street (corner of 16th Street)
San Francisco, CA 94103
For more info: http://www.shaarzahav.org/node/1852
—–
Stockton, California
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Central United Methodist Church
Beginning at 6:00 PM
Contact: elena.kelly@comcast.net
—–
West Covina, California
Saturday, November 21, 2009
2:00 PM
Safe haven Community Christian Church
Contact: Eva-Genevieve Scarborough at evagenevieve@gmail.com
—–
West Hollywood, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:00 PM
The event begins at Matthew Shepard Human Rights Triangle
(Santa Monica Blvd. at Crescent Heights)
where there will be an unveiling of the first Transgender Memorial Plaque, commemorating those who have been murdered due to anti-transgender violence and hatred.
For more information, please contact Karina Samala at 213-999-0456.

Didn't we already work through that?

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:38:00 +0000

This is something I see alot, A LOT.

It's that whole linear historical trajectory thing that "Western" people love. That "progressive view of history", right?

Don't know what I'm talking about? For instance, this:

Whenever I tell my mom (who was a women studies professor and general all-around ass-kicking feminist when I was growing up – 70s and 80s) about all of the fighting in online feminist communities about intersections and such – she just shakes her head and is all “I thought we worked through all of that years ago! I can’t believe people still aren’t getting it!”

I've seen this sentiment a lot. Like "the feminist movement" already covered this, why do people still not know (only one out of many movements this sentiment is applicable to)?

And as long as I've been hearing it, I've been wondering a) what to do about it and b) why it happens (in that order, because doing something about it is, to me, very important).

At first I thought, "well, there's always new people coming into the movement, they're n00bs, they have to learn the ropes and they're making mistakes because they're n00bs and that's what n00bs do". *Dusts off hands* Done!

But when I saw the quoted comment above today and that thought went through my head but another thought followed it: "But WHY DON'T the n00bs of today start off with more information? HASN'T all this good work been done and useful knowledge produced? WHY isn't it sticking?"

I mean, us, the generation of knowing how to use computers, and our younger siblings or children, growing up in a world that never didn't have computers and video games. They know how to use these things. They learn very, very early on how to use this stuff because it's all around them, it has saturated their daily lives.

So, why are the n00bs of today as seemingly woefully ignorant as the n00bs of forty years ago?

That comes to my head as I puzzle about this? Because we don't have that saturation of info, not at all.

What are we saturated in, growing up? For the most part? The same old shit. That's what. For as long as we (womanists, feminists, anti-racists, socialists, LGBTQ activists, dis/ability activists etc. etc.) have been doing this work, something is preventing our hard work from becoming part of the social fabric.

Fuck, that is a depressing thought.

So now, the next thought (to rattle around in my brain for another year or so) how the fuck do we change that? Because it seems like every generation thinks they've done it, but clearly we keep coming back to this place.

Art Sharing

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:11:00 +0000

Every once in a while I like to share here some of the really good stuff I've been sharing on my random shit blog Rags'n'Bones. And, I swear, I put up a lot of randomly good stuff!

What I'd like to share today is this artist, who draws on Styrofoam cups:

Cuz that's just cool.

Gay Men "Trespass" On Mormon Property

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Oh man, this is special.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Mormon Church Trespassing

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

U.S. Speedskating

Michigan Wants to Make a Doctor's Note Mandatory for Acupuncture

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:55:00 +0000

bfp brought this to my attention:

I found out from my acupuncturist that the state of Michigan is considering requiring it’s citizens to get a doctor’s referral to go to an acupuncturists. So, in other words, rather than hearing from a friend that she went to acupuncture and that person deciding to give it a try too–Michigan wants to make it so that you have to go to a doctor first, and then, if the doctor is willing to actually give you the referral, you can go to the acupuncturist.

Many people who know about the history of midwives in the U.S. know why this is such an extraordinarily bad idea. But for those who don’t know that history–what this particular requirement would do is first and foremost, place an incredibly unfair burden on those people who don’t have health insurance. Those who are unable to afford a doctor would simply have yet another health alternative option removed from their already limited health arsenal.

As some of you know, I'm a big fan of the working class (or community) acupuncture model. My husband was able to take advantage of it for about six weeks while we were living in Oakland, and though we have had to eliminate all such expenditures since our move, we plan to go back to weekly appointments at our local shop when we can.

And let me make this very clear: that was the first regular health care of any kind that my husband had gotten for well over a decade. If we had needed to get a doctor's note first, he never would have been able to do it at all (and that's assuming the first doctor we went to would even refer us at all, because you know how some Western Medicine practitioners respond to "alternative" medicine).

If this goes through in Michigan, it will only be a matter of time before it gets picked up somewhere else, because you know how states like to feed off of these issues of "public health" that demonize the poor. So please, if you support this health model and its goals, don't just sit back and be glad it's not your state considering making it inaccessible to the very people it was created to help, at least sign this petition and let them know why what they're doing is such a very bad idea.

For more info, please follow the link to bfp's post!!!

Muñoz and Halberstam

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Did you see my tweet a few days ago that read: "Oh dear, Jose Muñoz and Judith Halberstam getting my critical eye today! I'm sure they'd be devastated if they knew, devastated! #yeahright"? Well, this is what I was writing...

So last weekend I read the first chapter from Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics by Jose Muñoz and “Mackdaddy, Superfly, Rapper: Gender, Race, Masculinity in the Drag King Scene” by Judith Halberstam.

Basically and in brief, they both center on visual and performance art with a focus on gender, race, class and sexuality. Muñoz’ piece is an examination of the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat, concentrating on what these works tell us about Black male gender roles and self-identity. Halberstam’s essay focuses on drag king performances, primarily in London and New York, with special regard for the history and unique aspects of male impersonation within Black lesbian communities. While each essay covers a number of potentially overlapping issues in practices of art, to me the topic they are especially speaking to each other about is Black masculinity. And while they both have some compelling points, they both also frustrated me in parts, which is, shockingly, what I'm writing about.

In the opening of his chapter, Muñoz talks about the “strategies and rituals that allow survival in such hostile cultural waters” and his “compulsion to try and articulate…these practices of survival” (37). He acknowledges a hostile cultural environment, in which Black men (as the later discussion is about) must take on strategies to survive. Yet later on he brings up bell hooks’ analysis of Basquiat's paintings, seems to become quite defensive at her articulation of Basquiat’s work illustrating a “lack” for/in the Black cis male body. Now, I only have the quotes he provided to go by, however, in my view, hooks is saying pretty much what Muñoz himself is saying: a hostile culture creates a situation where survival is the paramount thing for Black men.

Survival.

And survival often prevents self-actualization, does it not? To me, this is the “lack” hooks is talking about regarding the half-formed lines of Black male bodies in Basquiat’s work. It is a lack of a wholistic identity. A consquence of a kyriarchal belief system suspicious (when not down right afraid) of Black masculinity (embodied by men, or women).

Given this base misunderstanding, it is perhaps understandable that Muñoz then continues to misunderstand hooks' analysis, specifically revolving around the lack of the feminine in Basquiat’s paintings. The world of the female is that which must be rejected for masculinity to assert itself (so the kyriarchal narrative goes), sons must “cut the apron strings” and become independent, eradicating the devalued feminine traits which might label them as anything but "truly" masculine.

What I think hooks is trying to call attention to through pointing to the lack of “a world of blackness that is female or a world of influences and inspirations that are female” (55) is not, as Muñoz suggests, “the very same logic that Moynihan Report disseminated” (56), but instead a side-effect of survival in a culture which actively devalues blackness and femaleness. For Muñoz to acknowledge at the start of the chapter how in awe he is that (queer) children of color learn to survive in a world specifically hostile to them and at the end of the same deny that perhaps that survival comes at a personal cost seems naïve.

Similarly, I had some reservations about Halberstam’s analysis and theorizing, primarily around what I read as an almost outright dismissal of the resistance of many of her interviewees to her theorizing of their drag king performances (109). I find it extremely problematic that her response to the “frustration” of her interviewees at her questions is to defend her approach and not to consider the possibility that she might be doing something wrong. I do not think it is ok to take people’s lives out of their subjectivity and use them for one’s own purposes (as is a pattern in some feminist/gender theory, especially queer and trans gender theory), and sadly I read some of that in this article.

I was especially concerned with her assertion that “theory does not have to be beholden to subjective experience in any linear way” (109). I interpret this to mean that she believe theory is, in the end, independent of subjective experience, thus she can feel ok making theory from the lives of others (in this case, from drag kings, both white and of color) and yet is not beholden to their opinions of her theorizing. This especially rubbed me the wrong way as she characterized her interviewees blanketly as "lesbians" and "women." Are we really to believe there was not one trans man in attendence? If there wasn't, why not? This seems a rather important issue to choose to leave entirely out of the discussion.

In another vein, questions like this one: “how do we explain the predominance of white drag kinds in urban scenes?” seemed naïve at best. That the answer “racism” does not explicitly follow at any point in the piece, but only vague and unexamined references to “social stratification” (128) or “complicated relations” between white drag kings and drag kings of color (107), earned her no cookies from me.

THANK YOU

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:54:00 +0000

I'm feeling really shiny right now and I just want to take a moment to thank some people, because fuckin A you lot have made me smarter over the past months or years as the case may be. Like, seriously. I have been really, really, conscious especially over the past month how much I owe you all, for so many reasons.

I see other students in some of my classes struggling with concepts that I'm like, oh man, I totally get that (NOT ALWAYS THOUGH, I'm not THAT arrogant), and SO MUCH of that is thanks to all of you, who have already challenged me to think about things from so many different angles and introduced me to new ways of thinking about gender and sexuality and race and just being in the world.

And really, I have to take a second to just thank you for it. And to let you know that these words you're throwing out into the internets, yes, they are impacting people. Fuck the trolls and fuck the assholes who refuse to get it. I can tell you for sure, for absolute sure, that your words and stories and thoughts have impacted me. And I love you all for it.

Renee, Brandann, Cara, Voz, Bint, bfp, Monica, mamita mala, Cecelia, Lisa, Black Amazon, Slyvia... There are many this is addressed to, so many, but especially to you. Thank you.

Possible Serial Killer in North Carolina and the MSM Doesn't Care

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:50:00 +0000

I will admit I am woefully out of touch with what's going on in the blogosphere. I've not been under 500+ articles in my Google Reader for over a month and when I do have time to read I rarely feel the pull to write. I guess that's just the life of a student. But when I was emailed this story recently, and was able to read it, I knew it was something I wanted to highlight, so while I'm not going to add much commentary... do I need to? What's happening here seems pretty clear, and it's been commented on many times before (especially by blogs like What About Our Daughters?), but I'll say it again just in case it's new to you, dear reader: the media only jumps on stories of missing white women. If you're a woman of color, you are apparently not missed. The continued media silence on the possible serial killer(s) in Cuidad Juarez show this all too clearly; hundreds of woman disappearing or dead and almost nothing said. And here it is again, multiple murders, clearly connected, and not a peep.

Read the full story here, excerpts below.

Ten women have been found slain or have been declared missing in Rocky Mount, N.C., in recent years. But the rest of the country hasn't heard about a possible serial killer stalking the young women in this Southern town of 60,000. The latest victim, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, was identified on Oct. 12. Why have the Rocky Mount homicides been largely ignored?

"When you think about the famous missing-person cases over the last few years it's Chandra Levy, Natalee Holloway, and Laci Peterson," notes Sam Sommers, associate professor of psychology at Tufts University. All these women had a few things in common—they were white, educated, and came from middle-class families. The victims in Rocky Mount—which residents describe as a "typical Southern town," and is about 40 percent white and more than 50 percent black—were different. They were all African-American, many were poor, and some had criminal histories including drug abuse and prostitution.

"If it was someone of a different race, things would have been dealt with the first time around; it wouldn't have taken the fifth or sixth person to be murdered," says Andre Knight, a city-council member and president of the local NAACP chapter. "All these women knew each other and lived in the same neighborhood; this is the sign of a potential serial killer. When it didn't get the kind of attention it needed, it made the African-American community frustrated."
[...]
But the national media did show some interest in the story after it was revealed that five women were murdered in or around the town. "Nancy Grace called and wanted to have some of us on her show, but before it aired there was a white woman from Georgia that went missing. The Nancy Grace show was canceled," Knight says. HLN network, which broadcasts Nancy Grace, confirmed that Knight was booked for the show, which was ultimately canceled to profile the disappearance of Kristi Cornwell, a white woman from Blairsville, Ga., who went missing during an evening walk.

Mangos With Chili!

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:02:00 +0000

Mangos With Chili: the floating cabaret of QTPOC bliss, dreams, sweat, sweets & nightmares
proudly presents the premiere of:
BELOVED: A Requiem for Our Dead
because we refuse to forget you
Featuring:
Nalo Hopkinson
Charleston Chu
E. Rose Sims
SoliRose
Nico Dacumos
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ms. Cherry Galette
and more
With video by Storm Florez, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, and more
November 6th and 7th, 8PM
The Lab
2948 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds
November 15th, 8PM
Hechos en Califas Festival
La Pena
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds
In this highly anticipated premiere of the newest Mangos With Chili production, we invite you to join us at the crossroads for a night of conjuring, memory, mourning and celebration. Through elegies of story, song, dance, drag and more, the Bay Area’s noted and notorious queer and trans people of color performance crew will honor our erased, fallen and slain queer and trans people of color family lost to hate crimes, war, colonization, and genocide. We will celebrate our queer legacies and the ways we’ve found to survive through the beautiful resistance of memory, and whisper stories about grief, loss, healing, sweet darkness, and walking between worlds towards rebirth.
Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead will feature the brilliance and blaze of renowned Caribbean speculative fiction storycrafter Nalo Hopkinson; multimedia invocation performance art heart wrench by playwright and poet Nico Dacumos; In Memoriam, a new collaborative dance theater work by Charlston Chu and Cherry Galette; ancestral prayer/spoken love letter by writer and theater artist Rose E. Sims; a mixed media jazz dance cabaret extravaganza by Charleston Chu, an autobiographical musical journey traversing the Middle East and African Diaspora by virtuoso trio SoliRose; the powerful truth renderings of queer Sri Lankan writer and performer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; and the premiere of Moorish Salt a burlesque-dance theater/ritual performance art piece by fusion dance artist and theater-maker Cherry Galette.
Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality performance of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face. Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco based arts organization CounterPULSE, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators: www.counterpulse.org. Mangos With Chili is supported by the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation, and the generous support of our community of donors.
Both venues are wheelchair accessible. The show contains material of adult nature. Parental discretion advised. Please refrain from wearing scented products to ensure that audience members and performers with multiple chemical sensitivity can attend.
For more information:
mangos.with.chili@gmail.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com

Thanks to: bfp

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

whatsername.gw.org@gmail.com (whatsername) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:55:00 +0000

Awesome!