Kendrick's:
Monday, October 20, 2014
Swimming Pools
Matisse dissected paper painted blue into the fragmented silhouettes of swimmers, divers, and stars. The figures were pinned onto the wall until his death in 1954.
Kendrick's:
Kendrick's:
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Shut up, Man
They say I act white, but sound black, but act black, but sound white, but what's my sound sposed to sound like? I think I sound aight. I sound tight. Ey el, don't worry bout how I sound aight?
Friday, May 30, 2014
star people are beautiful people
Whether it knows it or not, the current LGBT movement owes a huge debt to this hirstory created by a long legacy of people who identified as drag queens, drag kings, transvestites, cross dressers, genderqueer and those who move between and evolve their language for their gender identity and gender expression in ways that are confrontational, provocative and humor filled.
Since the early days following Stonewall LGBT organizations like the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) and Lesbian Feminist Liberation began championing the assimilation imperative, believing that if the law -in their case the anti-discrimination bill Intro 475- said good things about gays and lesbians then they would be free. The effects of this strategy were felt most violently by the people who couldn’t or wouldn’t assimilate into the white professional gay image of these organizations. In an interview with Bob Kohler, Marsha described her experience going to one of GAA’s meetings:
I went to GAA one time and everybody turned around and looked…they weren’t friendly at all. It’s just typical. They’re not used to seeing transvestites in female attire…When they see me or Sylvia come in, they just turn around and they look hard.
The assimilation imperative became so overwhelming that trans people were kicked off the protected identities list in the anti-discrimination bill in hopes that it would pass New York City Council more quickly. As Sylvia put it in an 1992 interview with Randy Wicker on the Christopher Street Pier, Marsha P Johnson, Bubbles Rose Marie, and other street queens catalyzed the movement for gay liberation only to be violently kicked out & exiled “when drag queens were no longer needed in the movement!” This violence continues today through the historical erasure of the many contributions of Sylvia & Marsha, sex workers, homeless people, people of color and poor trans people from the riots at Stonewall.
Also, tomorrow: The New Black takes viewers into the pews, onto the streets, and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland, charting the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.
The post film discussion will focus on how the Black LGBTQ community finds spiritual healing in Seattle.
the unbearable whiteness of publishing
POCs in children's books
Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books? Where are the future white personnel managers going to get their ideas of people of color? Where are the future white loan officers and future white politicians going to get their knowledge of people of color? Where are black children going to get a sense of who they are and what they can be?
And what are the books that are being published about blacks? Joe Morton, the actor who starred in “The Brother From Another Planet,” has said that all but a few motion pictures being made about blacks are about blacks as victims. In them, we are always struggling to overcome either slavery or racism. Book publishing is little better. Black history is usually depicted as folklore about slavery, and then a fast-forward to the civil rights movement. Then I’m told that black children, and boys in particular, don’t read. Small wonder.
*
“And in all of those thousands of books, I’m just not in them?”
“Well...um...yes.”
“Are there books about talking animals?”
“Oh, sure.”
“And crazy magical futures?”
“Absolutely.”
“And superpowers? And the olden days when people dressed funny? And all the combinations of those things? Like talking animals with superpowers in magical futures ... but no me?”
“No you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re brown.”
*
Diversity in publishing has been in the news often in recent weeks. A study from a University of Wisconsin-based commission reported that just a tiny percentage of children's books last year featured non-white characters, and an essay by Pulitzer Prize winning fiction writer Junot Diaz, published in The New Yorker, attacked the "unbearable too-whiteness" of creative writing classes...
The book world has long struggled to advance from diversity panels to actual diversity, operating under a contradiction between its liberal, pluralistic ideals and the narrow range of its own population, especially in positions of power. Non-whites are absent, or close to it, on executive boards throughout, from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR). Overall, the industry has few prominent non-white publishers, editors, agents, booksellers or book critics...
"Clearly any attempt at a fix will have to confront a multitude of formidable structural challenges," Diaz said, "but that means that the structural commitment to diversity has to be equally as formidable."
On the Lack of Diversity in Publishing
Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books? Where are the future white personnel managers going to get their ideas of people of color? Where are the future white loan officers and future white politicians going to get their knowledge of people of color? Where are black children going to get a sense of who they are and what they can be?
And what are the books that are being published about blacks? Joe Morton, the actor who starred in “The Brother From Another Planet,” has said that all but a few motion pictures being made about blacks are about blacks as victims. In them, we are always struggling to overcome either slavery or racism. Book publishing is little better. Black history is usually depicted as folklore about slavery, and then a fast-forward to the civil rights movement. Then I’m told that black children, and boys in particular, don’t read. Small wonder.
*
“And in all of those thousands of books, I’m just not in them?”
“Well...um...yes.”
“Are there books about talking animals?”
“Oh, sure.”
“And crazy magical futures?”
“Absolutely.”
“And superpowers? And the olden days when people dressed funny? And all the combinations of those things? Like talking animals with superpowers in magical futures ... but no me?”
“No you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re brown.”
*
Diversity in publishing has been in the news often in recent weeks. A study from a University of Wisconsin-based commission reported that just a tiny percentage of children's books last year featured non-white characters, and an essay by Pulitzer Prize winning fiction writer Junot Diaz, published in The New Yorker, attacked the "unbearable too-whiteness" of creative writing classes...
The book world has long struggled to advance from diversity panels to actual diversity, operating under a contradiction between its liberal, pluralistic ideals and the narrow range of its own population, especially in positions of power. Non-whites are absent, or close to it, on executive boards throughout, from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR). Overall, the industry has few prominent non-white publishers, editors, agents, booksellers or book critics...
"Clearly any attempt at a fix will have to confront a multitude of formidable structural challenges," Diaz said, "but that means that the structural commitment to diversity has to be equally as formidable."
On the Lack of Diversity in Publishing
Thursday, May 29, 2014
On the limited impact of using the word diversity in museums
Tokenizing diversity does not very far-reaching effects on changing museum viewership...why would it?
Museums must consider ways to help visitors understand what it is that we do in fresh, engaging, practical ways. What we do is promote and preserve culture—not just a dominant white culture—but a shared culture. When communities of color do not see equal representation of cultural heritage in our exhibition schedules and programming, we send the message that museums are founded upon a dominant culture’s values. We imply that visitors of color are invited to participate and reinforce the notion that they somehow exist outside the dominant system. Moving forward I would like to advance our conversations on “diversity” by substituting “diversity” for a more inclusive term such as “fullness” or “completion” which I hope connotes an innovative manner in which the museum can elevate a more integrated vision. I would argue that “diversity” cannot merely exist to provide a diverse experience for a dominant culture. True “diversity” means that the visitor of color would need to feel that their very presence did not constitute the diversity.
Museums must consider ways to help visitors understand what it is that we do in fresh, engaging, practical ways. What we do is promote and preserve culture—not just a dominant white culture—but a shared culture. When communities of color do not see equal representation of cultural heritage in our exhibition schedules and programming, we send the message that museums are founded upon a dominant culture’s values. We imply that visitors of color are invited to participate and reinforce the notion that they somehow exist outside the dominant system. Moving forward I would like to advance our conversations on “diversity” by substituting “diversity” for a more inclusive term such as “fullness” or “completion” which I hope connotes an innovative manner in which the museum can elevate a more integrated vision. I would argue that “diversity” cannot merely exist to provide a diverse experience for a dominant culture. True “diversity” means that the visitor of color would need to feel that their very presence did not constitute the diversity.
these are gorgeous.
Cannupa Hanska on nativeappropriations.com: "Put a crystal on it."
I especially like the feather cock and balls in the center, third image.
I especially like the feather cock and balls in the center, third image.
The Urban Res
Kent Monkman, Aka Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Confronts Native American Myths.
Take down that modernist bull, friend.
Take down that modernist bull, friend.
must see: Matika Wilbur
Wilbur, 30, has documented nearly 200 tribes so far, visiting cities and remote reservations. She says Project 562 is a way for her to address inaccurate stereotypes as well as to educate people about contemporary indigenous communities. “I’ve been dreaming about the idea of changing the experience for our children,” she says. “The goal is to create an environment in our society that allows our children to be who they are, legally, socially, so that our social construct changes, so that when a non-Indian meets an Indian person, that exchange is different.” In City Arts article Tacoma Art Museum exhibit info
Note the differences in the images chosen to represent the exhibit...
Sunday, May 4, 2014
good essay, terribly titled.
"It’s almost as if people have forgotten that struggle includes struggling. You might have to lose your job. You might have to lose your life. That’s what it takes for change to happen. There’s no easy way to do this. If you’re scared to stand up for yourself, for whatever reason, all I ask is that you stop pretending...Isn’t the discomfort of oppression enough? There’s plenty of solutions, just no easy ones, but if we can shift to courage instead of cowardice, there’s more than enough solutions to guarantee our success. Guarantee. Next time you’re complaining about how this country was built on us, take a second to think about the fact that it still is. If we want to, we can shut this whole place down.
So make a decision between cowardice and courage, and if you choose courage, step it up. Step it up in any of the myriad of ways that are available to us. I’ve named a few. Name a few more."
Friday, May 2, 2014
soon to come for the incluseum!
For http://incluseum.com I will be writing a blog about making the museum world a POC friendly place.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Kwanzaa and the Ghettoizing of Otherness
On Salon: "It is just so wrong, disrespectful (and yes that was done with a full frontal Aretha-esque finger snap!)"
...Along with the ecstasy of being 'special' when you are of a non-dominant group, comes the agony of being boxed into that identity--essentialism. Must every person of African descent enjoy/celebrate Kwanzaa? W Kamau Bell takes a look.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
On reactionism vs. cooptation/adaptation: postcolonial strategies
Mobutu vs. Moped:
"Authenticité has made us discover our personality by reaching into the depths of our past for the rich cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. We have no intention of blindly returning to all ancestral customs; rather. We would like to choose those that adapt themselves well to modern life, those that encourage progress, and those that create a way of life and thought that are essentially ours."
OK, so that's if you believe there is such a thing as 'essentially ours.'
See also: Vice Guide to Faschion
OK, so that's if you believe there is such a thing as 'essentially ours.'
See also: Vice Guide to Faschion
Monday, April 14, 2014
sorority princess cutouts
the prank that never was: the white princess cutouts on the lawn of a local sorority, painted brown/tan. my husband's silent protest against the reigning ideal of white beauty and its effect on women of color.
Gentrification, Segregation in art + life
I've recently had the pleasurable agony (?) of stage managing a play for a friend Tyrone Brown-his company Brownbox Productions (a Seattle-based theatre company dedicated to the creation, development, and production of re-imagined Black theatre). It's called The Negro Passion Play--asking the question, "What if Jesus had been born black and in the Jim Crow era Southern US?"
One notable thing about it is the literal suspension of disbelief when it comes to segregation.
We seat the white audience first in house right, and then the black audience separately, second, in house left. Then for the second act, there is an announcement that the audience is allowed to desegregate. The first two nights, nary one or two black souls drifted over from house left to house right. Yet, the white audience quickly moved over to the black side.
I am totally reading into it more than needs to be read into it--but that's what art historian-theorist-pretentious people like me do--it brought to mind this general idea of gentrification, segregation in our city and culture, and 'white' art spaces vs 'black' art spaces--the difference between going to a theatre event in North Seattle vs one in South Seattle--the fact that a friend of mine went to a 'controversial' theatre reading and not a single soul mentioned anything about race, in a primarily white audience in north Seattle (U-district, which really isn't that white, but North vs. South generally moves from mostly white to much nonwhite)--the dynamics are so obvious. When I attend an event at Langston Hughes Cultural Center, I know what or whom to expect; when I attend a non-black event, I know what or whom to expect (generally, white folks).
What happens when Drake crosses over into Lily White Turrell-territory?
What happens when country musicians incorporate rap into their songs?
How do we move beyond these entrenched spaces and places that are race-based, or can we? As a non-black, non-white person, where/do I belong in either of those spaces?
One notable thing about it is the literal suspension of disbelief when it comes to segregation.
We seat the white audience first in house right, and then the black audience separately, second, in house left. Then for the second act, there is an announcement that the audience is allowed to desegregate. The first two nights, nary one or two black souls drifted over from house left to house right. Yet, the white audience quickly moved over to the black side.
I am totally reading into it more than needs to be read into it--but that's what art historian-theorist-pretentious people like me do--it brought to mind this general idea of gentrification, segregation in our city and culture, and 'white' art spaces vs 'black' art spaces--the difference between going to a theatre event in North Seattle vs one in South Seattle--the fact that a friend of mine went to a 'controversial' theatre reading and not a single soul mentioned anything about race, in a primarily white audience in north Seattle (U-district, which really isn't that white, but North vs. South generally moves from mostly white to much nonwhite)--the dynamics are so obvious. When I attend an event at Langston Hughes Cultural Center, I know what or whom to expect; when I attend a non-black event, I know what or whom to expect (generally, white folks).
What happens when Drake crosses over into Lily White Turrell-territory?
What happens when country musicians incorporate rap into their songs?
How do we move beyond these entrenched spaces and places that are race-based, or can we? As a non-black, non-white person, where/do I belong in either of those spaces?
Respectability Politics, working within the system, and nuances of Ban Bossy
The more you make radical ideas "palatable," consumable to the mainstream and status quo, the less it's going to be about movement or revolution and the more it's going to be about stasis and staying-the-same-tion.
We have a right to be Malcom X angry and radical. It may not be a sustainable way to be so wrapped up in the pain of the world, but we(some of us) need to let off steam--consider it as a safety valve/slow release of anger, catharsis, rather than a passive-aggressive, submerged activism.
Concerning all this, about the Ban Bossy campaign, which is about striking using the word "bossy" (especially in relation to females taking leadership and authority) in order to enact gender parity (I think?)...I don't feel particularly angry about the campaign or anything. But in discussion with my rad woc solidarity friend Dana, we discussed a Facebook thread amongst our friends.
In response to Dana's posting of local black Feminist and new Stranger WOC (Represent!) Danielle Henderson's thoughts here...some of our friends disagreed with Henderson, more in favor of the Ban Bossy method (So I gathered from a cursory glance at the posts).
In response to the Friends' response to Danielle's response to Ban Bossy.... I personally think that to protect all potentially assertive women from pain (or criticism!) through thought and word policing may not be building in them the character and "fuck you" attitude that comes with having been roughed up, bullied, as well as the empathy and compassion from being in a marginalized position.
In other words, if the system is corrupt, rather than say "hey let's not talk about its corruption by protecting the vulnerable (delicate, floral? Hmm) women" I say, let's muck things up, fuck things up, and riff/revolution/jam til the system gets better.
And that's just my personal opinion/perspective/method. Thoughts?
We have a right to be Malcom X angry and radical. It may not be a sustainable way to be so wrapped up in the pain of the world, but we(some of us) need to let off steam--consider it as a safety valve/slow release of anger, catharsis, rather than a passive-aggressive, submerged activism.
Concerning all this, about the Ban Bossy campaign, which is about striking using the word "bossy" (especially in relation to females taking leadership and authority) in order to enact gender parity (I think?)...I don't feel particularly angry about the campaign or anything. But in discussion with my rad woc solidarity friend Dana, we discussed a Facebook thread amongst our friends.
In response to Dana's posting of local black Feminist and new Stranger WOC (Represent!) Danielle Henderson's thoughts here...some of our friends disagreed with Henderson, more in favor of the Ban Bossy method (So I gathered from a cursory glance at the posts).
In response to the Friends' response to Danielle's response to Ban Bossy.... I personally think that to protect all potentially assertive women from pain (or criticism!) through thought and word policing may not be building in them the character and "fuck you" attitude that comes with having been roughed up, bullied, as well as the empathy and compassion from being in a marginalized position.
In other words, if the system is corrupt, rather than say "hey let's not talk about its corruption by protecting the vulnerable (delicate, floral? Hmm) women" I say, let's muck things up, fuck things up, and riff/revolution/jam til the system gets better.
And that's just my personal opinion/perspective/method. Thoughts?
To Read: Glissant/Opacity
From Frieze: "By emphasizing language and literature, Glissant gave his global political project of creolization an aesthetic dimension. At the same time, he provided the concepts of French Post-structuralism-rhizome, difference, alterity-with a fresh playground and an exemplary story: the diaspora of African slaves, the archipelago, the 'Creole garden' where, in contrast to the monocultural plantation, a diverse range of plants protect and support one another...
(
I love that idea.)
...'The Thinking of the Opacity of the World’ – is the eleventh chapter in Glissant’s last major publication Philosophie de la Relation. Poésie en étendue (Philosophy of the Relation. Poetry in extension, 2009). The 150-page book – an extension of his earlier Poétique de la Relation (1990; Poetics of Relation, 1997) – was celebrated by French critics as the culmination of a lifetime of thinking, writing, resisting. Throughout, Glissant uses not only the eponymous philosophy and poetry but also aphorisms, quotations, chronicles, recitations, even conversations."
(
I love that idea.)...'The Thinking of the Opacity of the World’ – is the eleventh chapter in Glissant’s last major publication Philosophie de la Relation. Poésie en étendue (Philosophy of the Relation. Poetry in extension, 2009). The 150-page book – an extension of his earlier Poétique de la Relation (1990; Poetics of Relation, 1997) – was celebrated by French critics as the culmination of a lifetime of thinking, writing, resisting. Throughout, Glissant uses not only the eponymous philosophy and poetry but also aphorisms, quotations, chronicles, recitations, even conversations."
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Native Appropriation of Hipster Culture/real america
Shout out to Zachary Stocks for introducing me to the awesome work of Steven Paul Judd, some viewable here.
"The 3rd in my NDN GQ Hipster series. Mixing photo's from the 1800's (in this case Black Horn - Hunkpapa - 1872) with pictures from today. Looking good then and now." - Steven Paul Judd
Cute!
 |
| Statue of Liberty in Jingle Dress by Steven Paul Judd. |
Saturday, April 5, 2014
chase your dreams, says Spike Lee
Echoing one of my favorite songs(Sit tight-@2:28, 4:20) at the time I decided to chase my dreams in a more, say, sacrificial manner very recently (i.e. cutting off financial security from myself) it was a pleasure to see Spike Lee encourage emerging adults at today's amazing Solid Ground community building luncheon, which took place on the day Dr. King was assassinated in 1968.
The director's tenor was jovial, funny, and quite a bit less acerbic than I expected; inspirational, because though he cited sad truths (e.g. the school to prison pipeline for brown and black men) he also encouraged new generations of dreamers and artists to live bigger than their practical, protective folks would wish for them. It hearkens back to this recent article that has inspired me as well about San Francisco's old Chinese chasing buses:
The director's tenor was jovial, funny, and quite a bit less acerbic than I expected; inspirational, because though he cited sad truths (e.g. the school to prison pipeline for brown and black men) he also encouraged new generations of dreamers and artists to live bigger than their practical, protective folks would wish for them. It hearkens back to this recent article that has inspired me as well about San Francisco's old Chinese chasing buses:
no such perfect intersectional justice | why i seek POCinema
My tendency to tear everyone down for whatever way they are contributing to or indicative of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, etc. is complicated by the general intersections and nuances people naturally have in their personalities, associations, and tastes.
Examples:
1) Local Seattle artists of color such as Wanz are supporting, touring and making music with Macklemore, who through no fault of his own has raised my rankles (because despite his catchy songs, for many of us his Grammy wins are emblematic of white supremacy). If you just watch how different the performances at the Grammys (read:comfortable white space) were from those at the NBA All-Star Games (read:comfortable brown space), it is notable how Jay-Z, Pharrell, and other black superstars didn't seem to care at all about the Grammys and did lackluster performances, yet at the NBA All-Star games, their performances were outstandingly brilliant and confident.
2) Picasso annoys me because people praise him despite to me what seems especially considering his affairs and philandery reputation, very violent and objectifying of women--just within the visual content of some of his artwork. And yet, Spike Lee's grandmother, as I learned today--a woman of African descent taught (in a Jim Crow south, segregated school) art for fifty years, and her favorite artist was Picasso. A somewhat circular multicultural artistic influence, considering how inspired Picasso was by African sculpture.
That's collage/pastiche, baby.
3) I dislike and judge Heidegger for his Nazi associations, but love the fact that my theologian friend's spiritual awakening occurred through through Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, TS Eliot's The Waste Land,and Heidegger. i.e. there must be something redeeming (literally) there.
4) I am tempted to write off Bill Murray completely for stomping on a white guy dressed up as an indigenous person for a sports game. But The Royal Tenenbaums and Groundhog Day are so incredibly good, and he employs a rakish, embittered Bill Murray-ness I can relate to so perfectly in both!
5) Esther Leslie's sarcastic commentary on our shared writer-hero Walter Benjamin in her biography of his life. He was progressive and lovely in thought, yet clearly believed in male dominance/superiority in some small quips in his writings.
6) I h-h-h-hate it when snooty progressives say basically they're too good for hip-hop because it's so misogynistic, materialistic, and homophobic when they have noooo connection to or interest in the culture and have never tried, but I'm probably giving hip-hop the benefit of the doubt instead of calling those that need to be called out--I'm hesitant to judge, say, the glorification of wealth, abundance, and barbecues when it comes from a place of lack (as opposed to a Wolf of Wall Street type situation). Speaking of rap music, that reminds me of Nelly raising blood for his sister on a campus where sisters on campus were protesting his music video. He was trying to do good. They were trying to do good.
If you think about this, it's really not that complicated to think that you can love someone and they can be flawed. Art and people and the people who make art are the same in this way. But/and--as a woman of color, I love finding artists that speak to me artistically and in a way that empowers--i.e. that don't disappoint me and bring me and other marginalized groups down in some way. So, would I rather watch a film made by people of color starring people of color than your garden variety white male artistic production? Yeah, maybe. Does that make me biased against white male art? Yeah, maybe. But, can I seek art that represents me and those like me instead of passively accepting dominance by an unspoken "norm" of white straight cis maleness, in an endless vast sea of power, privilege, education, status, of said group? Um, I think so. I don't want to perpetually be invisible or at the margins of every story, because by definition I cannot be in my real life story. Why should I be relegated to the edges in my artistic endeavors and consumption?
Examples:
1) Local Seattle artists of color such as Wanz are supporting, touring and making music with Macklemore, who through no fault of his own has raised my rankles (because despite his catchy songs, for many of us his Grammy wins are emblematic of white supremacy). If you just watch how different the performances at the Grammys (read:comfortable white space) were from those at the NBA All-Star Games (read:comfortable brown space), it is notable how Jay-Z, Pharrell, and other black superstars didn't seem to care at all about the Grammys and did lackluster performances, yet at the NBA All-Star games, their performances were outstandingly brilliant and confident.
2) Picasso annoys me because people praise him despite to me what seems especially considering his affairs and philandery reputation, very violent and objectifying of women--just within the visual content of some of his artwork. And yet, Spike Lee's grandmother, as I learned today--a woman of African descent taught (in a Jim Crow south, segregated school) art for fifty years, and her favorite artist was Picasso. A somewhat circular multicultural artistic influence, considering how inspired Picasso was by African sculpture.
That's collage/pastiche, baby.
3) I dislike and judge Heidegger for his Nazi associations, but love the fact that my theologian friend's spiritual awakening occurred through through Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, TS Eliot's The Waste Land,and Heidegger. i.e. there must be something redeeming (literally) there.
4) I am tempted to write off Bill Murray completely for stomping on a white guy dressed up as an indigenous person for a sports game. But The Royal Tenenbaums and Groundhog Day are so incredibly good, and he employs a rakish, embittered Bill Murray-ness I can relate to so perfectly in both!
5) Esther Leslie's sarcastic commentary on our shared writer-hero Walter Benjamin in her biography of his life. He was progressive and lovely in thought, yet clearly believed in male dominance/superiority in some small quips in his writings.
6) I h-h-h-hate it when snooty progressives say basically they're too good for hip-hop because it's so misogynistic, materialistic, and homophobic when they have noooo connection to or interest in the culture and have never tried, but I'm probably giving hip-hop the benefit of the doubt instead of calling those that need to be called out--I'm hesitant to judge, say, the glorification of wealth, abundance, and barbecues when it comes from a place of lack (as opposed to a Wolf of Wall Street type situation). Speaking of rap music, that reminds me of Nelly raising blood for his sister on a campus where sisters on campus were protesting his music video. He was trying to do good. They were trying to do good.
If you think about this, it's really not that complicated to think that you can love someone and they can be flawed. Art and people and the people who make art are the same in this way. But/and--as a woman of color, I love finding artists that speak to me artistically and in a way that empowers--i.e. that don't disappoint me and bring me and other marginalized groups down in some way. So, would I rather watch a film made by people of color starring people of color than your garden variety white male artistic production? Yeah, maybe. Does that make me biased against white male art? Yeah, maybe. But, can I seek art that represents me and those like me instead of passively accepting dominance by an unspoken "norm" of white straight cis maleness, in an endless vast sea of power, privilege, education, status, of said group? Um, I think so. I don't want to perpetually be invisible or at the margins of every story, because by definition I cannot be in my real life story. Why should I be relegated to the edges in my artistic endeavors and consumption?
call and response
the response to bearing witness to massive and continued injustice is art. Trauma births beauty and shit fertilizes roses. And it feels good to channel the pathos.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
teachable moments
As a person who thirsts for justice and righteousness though imperfectly, when viewing say-small acts of prejudice and or ignorance, online or in person, you have to pick and choose your battles. Otherwise you will get crushed under the weight of the burden of teaching every ignorant thought action and deed you are witness to. Not that it's not worth trying--just know that there's a practical way to go about it without getting burned out and that generally is, choosing which moments are a time to teach and which moments are a time to trust that the prejudiced act will be encountered by another person or situation(and not take on the responsibility yourself). Learning self-care when you want to sacrifice self for others is imperative to keep on keepin' on in the struggle. A friend told me, you need to feed yourself and rest so you can get up and fight the next day (and the next one..etc.)
solidarity
When we judge one anothers' life work or intentions we undermine the solidarity and bridges we can build across cultures, politics, socioeconomics, etc. Artists and activists encountering each other: If you don't like someone's art or way they're going about their social activism, you can state it, respectfully, but don't tear them down or question their right to do things in the way they feel called to do them. Support each other while holding each other accountable for self-destructive or generally destructive methods.
Careerism and Vocation and Power
Rhyming with and riffing on thoughts from bell hooks Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, furthering one's career and prestige by climbing on top of others seems at times a hindrance to living values of love and respect for peoples' humanity. A career and accumulation of power and influence can be exciting and come with many benefits, but often at the cost of relationships based in truly mutual affirmation. If the normative way to gain success is through accumulation of wealth, power, domination, and hierarchy, I want nothing to do with it.
Here's to dreaming and pioneering even when it's outside the normative mode, coming from another immigrant kid and kindred free spirit:
"So by 30, I quit my corporate job, sold my possessions, and went traveling for three months. Three months turned into three years. I lived on organic farms and communes; I taught English at a monastery on the Burmese border; I studied Buddhism in Tibet, yoga in Indonesia, and boys in Australia. It was awesome. I was alive. And I came back to California saying things like, 'Let’s just trust the universe and let the gifts come.' And I actually meant it."
from Christy Chan on the cultural roots of ballsy aunts and uncles.
writing as poison/cure
I've been thinking of Derrida's writings on the pharmakon while recently feeling the birth pangs of writing and understanding its simultaneously poisonous and medicinal effects.
"The ‘essence’ of the pharmakon lies in the way in which, having no stable essence, no ‘proper’ characteristics, it is not, in any sense (metaphysical, physical, chemical, alchemical) of the word, a substance."
Writing is hard.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
this time that was never ours, we must now possess
http://bombmagazine.org/article/2948/junot-d-az Junot Diaz on Science Fiction and People of Color:
And I’ve definitely been wanting to write science fiction/fantasy, to write genre, to use some of those models to strike out in (for me at least) new directions.
Why this continued commitment to genres? So much of our experience as Caribbean Diasporic peoples, so much of it, exists in silence. How can we talk about our experiences in any way if both our own local cultural and the larger global culture doesn’t want to talk about them and actively resists our attempt to create language around them? Well, my strategy was to seek my models at the narrative margins. When I was growing up those were the narratives that most resonated with me and not simply because of the “sense of wonder” or because of the adolescent wish fulfillment that many genre books truck in. It was because these were the narratives that spoke directly to what I had experienced, both personally and historically. The X-Men made a lot of sense to me, because that’s what it really felt like to grow up bookish and smart in a poor urban community in Central New Jersey. Time-travel made sense to me because how else do I explain how I got from Villa Juana, from latrines and no lights, to Parlin, NJ, to MTV and a car in every parking space? Not just describe it but explain the missing emotional cognitive disjunction? I mean, let’s be real. Without shit like race and racism, without our lived experience as people of color, the metaphor that drives, say, the X-Men would not exist! Mutants are a metaphor (among other things) for race, and that’s one of the reasons that mutants are so popular in the Marvel Universe and in the Real. I have no problem re-looting the metaphor of the X-Men because I know it’s my silenced experience, my erased condition that’s the secret fuel that powers this particular fucking fantasy. So if I’m powering the ship, at a lower frequency, I’m going to have a say in how it’s used and in what ports of call it stops.
For another example, we have as a community been the victim of a long-term breeding project—I mean, that was one component of slavery: we were systematically bred for hundreds of years—but in mainstream literary fiction nobody’s really talking about breeding experiments. If you’re looking for language that will help you approach our nigh-unbearable historical experiences you can reach for narratives of the impossible: sci-fi, horror, fantasy, which might not really want to talk about people of color at all but that takes what we’ve experienced (without knowing it) very seriously indeed. Shit, they’ve been breeding people in sci-fi since its inception (The Island of Doctor Moreau) and the metaphors that the genres have established (mostly off the back of our experiences as people of color: the eternal other) can be reclaimed and subverted and expanded in useful ways that help clarify and immediate-ize our own histories, if only for ourselves. To quote Glissant again: this time that was never ours, we must now possess. Because it certainly has no problem possessing us any time it wants.
And I’ve definitely been wanting to write science fiction/fantasy, to write genre, to use some of those models to strike out in (for me at least) new directions.
Why this continued commitment to genres? So much of our experience as Caribbean Diasporic peoples, so much of it, exists in silence. How can we talk about our experiences in any way if both our own local cultural and the larger global culture doesn’t want to talk about them and actively resists our attempt to create language around them? Well, my strategy was to seek my models at the narrative margins. When I was growing up those were the narratives that most resonated with me and not simply because of the “sense of wonder” or because of the adolescent wish fulfillment that many genre books truck in. It was because these were the narratives that spoke directly to what I had experienced, both personally and historically. The X-Men made a lot of sense to me, because that’s what it really felt like to grow up bookish and smart in a poor urban community in Central New Jersey. Time-travel made sense to me because how else do I explain how I got from Villa Juana, from latrines and no lights, to Parlin, NJ, to MTV and a car in every parking space? Not just describe it but explain the missing emotional cognitive disjunction? I mean, let’s be real. Without shit like race and racism, without our lived experience as people of color, the metaphor that drives, say, the X-Men would not exist! Mutants are a metaphor (among other things) for race, and that’s one of the reasons that mutants are so popular in the Marvel Universe and in the Real. I have no problem re-looting the metaphor of the X-Men because I know it’s my silenced experience, my erased condition that’s the secret fuel that powers this particular fucking fantasy. So if I’m powering the ship, at a lower frequency, I’m going to have a say in how it’s used and in what ports of call it stops.
For another example, we have as a community been the victim of a long-term breeding project—I mean, that was one component of slavery: we were systematically bred for hundreds of years—but in mainstream literary fiction nobody’s really talking about breeding experiments. If you’re looking for language that will help you approach our nigh-unbearable historical experiences you can reach for narratives of the impossible: sci-fi, horror, fantasy, which might not really want to talk about people of color at all but that takes what we’ve experienced (without knowing it) very seriously indeed. Shit, they’ve been breeding people in sci-fi since its inception (The Island of Doctor Moreau) and the metaphors that the genres have established (mostly off the back of our experiences as people of color: the eternal other) can be reclaimed and subverted and expanded in useful ways that help clarify and immediate-ize our own histories, if only for ourselves. To quote Glissant again: this time that was never ours, we must now possess. Because it certainly has no problem possessing us any time it wants.
Drake fux with Turrell.
Recently Hyperallergic reported that rapper Drake was interested in purchasing a work by renowned light/perceptual artist James Turrell. There have also been reports that a 'sign' that the art world bubble is about to burst is in the citation of artworks in hip-hop lyrics. While this is not a new phenomenon I have noticed it more often in younger artists' work and recent songs--from A$ap Rocky to HOVA and Kanye.
The loaded insinuations around hip-hop and the art world have been rather problematic and had connotations uncomfortable to grapple with that relate to the nature of the institutions making up the art world, and how deeply entrenched within those institutions is the idea of "high culture" and being a beacon of light onto the ("less"-enlightened) masses.
While I am fully in support of the arts as a medium for human expression, the disconnect between the rather insular art/museum world and the community, despite efforts on both parties' parts, continue to elude the best experts and art lovers. Additionally, art doing away with the supposed disconnect between high and low skillfully navigates both worlds but is not often willing to admit the cultural products of people of color (or other 'niches,' for example hip-hop, when in the highest of the highest echelons and recognition, that comes to mind). Could you imagine Richard Hamilton or Andy Warhol's most famous works incorporating, say, images from Ebony Magazine, or multiples of Chuck Berry instead of Elvis?
Having been fully in under-funded and underprivileged circles that admire production in an authentic way of people of color in an arts capacity, and well-funded and privileged circles that admire production from similarly privileged circles, the problem of 'ne'er shall the two meet' is seemingly intractable. Now that this problem's become more notable from articles insinuating that hip-hop (read: low/mass/nonwhite/black culture) having a handle on art (or Sean Combs re-re-nee Puff Daddy) means a death knell is sounding for *The* Art World Proper (It may be noted that there are those within hip-hop noting Jay-Z's Abramovic-heavy-art-world-forays were possibly a sign that his hip-hop apex is over, as well).
The loaded insinuations around hip-hop and the art world have been rather problematic and had connotations uncomfortable to grapple with that relate to the nature of the institutions making up the art world, and how deeply entrenched within those institutions is the idea of "high culture" and being a beacon of light onto the ("less"-enlightened) masses.
While I am fully in support of the arts as a medium for human expression, the disconnect between the rather insular art/museum world and the community, despite efforts on both parties' parts, continue to elude the best experts and art lovers. Additionally, art doing away with the supposed disconnect between high and low skillfully navigates both worlds but is not often willing to admit the cultural products of people of color (or other 'niches,' for example hip-hop, when in the highest of the highest echelons and recognition, that comes to mind). Could you imagine Richard Hamilton or Andy Warhol's most famous works incorporating, say, images from Ebony Magazine, or multiples of Chuck Berry instead of Elvis?
Having been fully in under-funded and underprivileged circles that admire production in an authentic way of people of color in an arts capacity, and well-funded and privileged circles that admire production from similarly privileged circles, the problem of 'ne'er shall the two meet' is seemingly intractable. Now that this problem's become more notable from articles insinuating that hip-hop (read: low/mass/nonwhite/black culture) having a handle on art (or Sean Combs re-re-nee Puff Daddy) means a death knell is sounding for *The* Art World Proper (It may be noted that there are those within hip-hop noting Jay-Z's Abramovic-heavy-art-world-forays were possibly a sign that his hip-hop apex is over, as well).
on the entrenched value of hierarchy
While I don't consider myself to be very Lacanian, I enjoy the idea of jouissance (hence the blog name). That union of self with universe and the mother. From whence does hierarchy proceed following the non-sense that characterizes jouissance?
Hierarchical thinking and structure really contribute to some terrible things that have happened in our society and continue to happen--colonialist-imperialist domination of the minds and bodies, women defined in relation to men, etc. Is there some value to hierarchy that maximizes efficiency? Or does it inherently devalue persons as lesser than and more than each other--reducing them to capital, goods and services rendered? I want to say that we could do without the hierarchy...but, as many have witnessed and tried (and continue to try) to practice, democracy and egalitarian thinking is. just. hard.
the difficulty of being intersectional
Once you have finally begun to become comfortable in the box you've been boxed in, how do you branch out and reach out to other 'boxes'? How do you fortify coalitions without losing your own identity? How do you remain yourself without the box (Indeed, can you?). Within the Asian-American-Straight-Cis-Female box, I remain proud yet hesitant to rest on that pride as though it is more worthy than other prides, especially those with less privileges.
In my young adulthood I have finally grown comfortable in my own skin. I would note that Beyonce and Kanye West have also come to a point in their careers where they are free to do be who they want to be--they've established their careers enough to go off the cuff a bit. It's freeing, terrifying, and awesome. But we--all of us--have got to stay vigilant and remain educators and allies to those who aren't at that spot yet, as well as keep watch over our own privileges and ways we may be continuing oppression of other folks.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
AFROFUTURIST events in Seattle this week!
PechaKucha Feb 27 @ 6:30-9p featuring Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Charles Mudede, other local greats, and yours truly:
PKN SEA vol. 51: AFROFUTURISM
Facebook Event Page.
Where is the future and what does it look like? Afrofuturism is many things including an exploration of the possibilities that extend beyond the here and now. Afrofuturists have helped to re-framed the dialogue about racial equality by presenting complex narratives that among other things examine worlds ravaged by oppression to promised lands beyond race and time. Luminaries like Nick Cave, Octavia Butler Janelle Moneae, Sun Ra and Wangechi Mutu and many more have contributed mind blowing ideas by re-imagining future worlds and communities through sound, literature and visual art. We invite you take a trip back to the future with local thought leaders and visionaries to a place beyond race and time.
The event is FREE, but space is limited and we expect a full house. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
Feb 28 @6-10p
EMP site to buy tixx.
Facebook Event Page.
Attend a tribute to Octavia Butler, member of EMP's Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Octavia's Brood
Enjoy film footage of prolific science fiction writer Octavia Butler, and an interactive reading presented by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown, co-editors of Octavia’s Brood—an anthology of science fiction inspired by social justice movements. Also, readings from David Walker and Gabriel Teodros.
Music provided by DJ Sassy Black (aka Cat of THEESatisfaction)
Special Tribute Performances by Gabriel Teodros and Felicia Loud
More information about Octavia's Brood: SciFi from Social Movements: http://octaviasbrood.com/
March 1 @ 3-5p Octavia Butler Emergent Strategy Session – Seattle
Adrienne will lead an interactive strategy session based on the work of Octavia Butler
Seattle University, Admissions and Alumni Building
3- 5 pm
Donations
Facebook Event Page.
PKN SEA vol. 51: AFROFUTURISM
Facebook Event Page.
Where is the future and what does it look like? Afrofuturism is many things including an exploration of the possibilities that extend beyond the here and now. Afrofuturists have helped to re-framed the dialogue about racial equality by presenting complex narratives that among other things examine worlds ravaged by oppression to promised lands beyond race and time. Luminaries like Nick Cave, Octavia Butler Janelle Moneae, Sun Ra and Wangechi Mutu and many more have contributed mind blowing ideas by re-imagining future worlds and communities through sound, literature and visual art. We invite you take a trip back to the future with local thought leaders and visionaries to a place beyond race and time.
The event is FREE, but space is limited and we expect a full house. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
Feb 28 @6-10p
EMP site to buy tixx.Facebook Event Page.
Attend a tribute to Octavia Butler, member of EMP's Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Octavia's Brood
Enjoy film footage of prolific science fiction writer Octavia Butler, and an interactive reading presented by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown, co-editors of Octavia’s Brood—an anthology of science fiction inspired by social justice movements. Also, readings from David Walker and Gabriel Teodros.
Music provided by DJ Sassy Black (aka Cat of THEESatisfaction)
Special Tribute Performances by Gabriel Teodros and Felicia Loud
More information about Octavia's Brood: SciFi from Social Movements: http://octaviasbrood.com/
March 1 @ 3-5p Octavia Butler Emergent Strategy Session – Seattle
Adrienne will lead an interactive strategy session based on the work of Octavia Butler
Seattle University, Admissions and Alumni Building
3- 5 pm
Donations
Facebook Event Page.
Friday, January 24, 2014
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