Struggle Is a Circle

dynamicafrica: Posing. Photos from Sabelo Mlangeni’s series...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:13:24 -0400

Posing. Photos from Sabelo Mlangeni’s series ‘Country Girls’, an intimate portrait of gay life in the countryside of rural Mpumalanga, South Africa.

2003 - 2009.

strugglingtobeheard: siddharthasmama: provocatoria: socialisma...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:04:37 -0400

strugglingtobeheard:

siddharthasmama:

provocatoria:

socialismartnature:

Amazing 9 year old Asean Johnson brings the crowd to their feet at Chicago school closings rally

Asean (ah-Shawn) goes to Marcus Garvey Elementary School, slated for closure by the Chicago Public School administration, an un-elected board who’s members are appointed by Mayor Rahm Elmanuel, former Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama

More Info On School Closings Protests Here

===

Daaaamn. Watch this 9-yr old student stand up and spit hot fire at a mass rally against the Chicago Mayor and Public School administration who are trying to close his and dozens of other schools in mostly non-white neighborhoods.

The future of social justice activism.

Crying. Black and brown children shouldn’t have to grow up so fast. This kid is absolutely amazing, but I wish we lived in a world where he could just play with his friends, hang out with his family or spend time worrying about if that girl down the street has a crush on him, instead of having to take on the responsibility of advocating for himself and other black, brown and low income childrens’ education. POC kids can never just be kids, man.

Bolded that last sentence for the cot damn truth.

jesus. this child. wow. so real. i get so mad at the government because like… you hate black radicals but you create them!!! you see this!! this child just wants to go to school and have some safety!!!! thats what he wants. and he can’t have it. because he’s Black and poor. and his friends are too. so these children are acutely aware of this. and we hate Black radicals in this country but we spend every day creating them. give the kids what they need. this child tho!!

cokekitty: OpenDyslexic is a free-to-use font that is designed...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:57:20 -0400

cokekitty:

OpenDyslexic is a free-to-use font that is designed to help those with dyslexia read better. The text is weighted, having a heavier bottom, which is thought to increase readability for dyslexic people. You can download it for free here.

I don’t have dyslexia myself, but in the event any of my followers do, I thought I’d share. Maybe it will help people.

angry-hippo: blackcatfactory: We made a Writing to Prisoners...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:41:56 -0400

angry-hippo:

blackcatfactory:

We made a Writing to Prisoners FAQ zine. Check it out!

http://zinelibrary.info/writing-prisoners-frequently-asked-questions

Also: Here is my quick list of shit that you should never do when writing to a prisoner-

1. Do not put a circle A on the letter or envelope. Many prisons and jails consider “anarchists” to be a gang. I once got thrown into a gang control unit in New Jersey because someone sent me a letter with a circle A and the words “vegan power” on the envelope.

2. Do not mention the prisoner’s sexual preferences unless they have expressed that they are comfortable with discussing it. All prisons have slightly varying cultures, but in general, men’s prisons are hyper masculine and homophobic. Mail does occasionally get stolen, mis-delivered, or read by the wrong folks. You could be putting someone in harms way! Even at women’s prisons, the guards read all incoming mail and a homophobic guard could do a lot of harm to someone.

3. Do not compare your situation to theirs. If I had a dollar for every fucking time someone in the free world referred to the outside as “minimum security” or told me that they understood what I was going through because the college dorms were so very hard on them… You don’t understand incarceration unless you have been incarcerated, and I don’t mean for a weekend after a protest. Spending years under constant surveillance, threat of violence, and without the most basic liberties is unique, if you haven’t been there don’t pretend that you have.

4. Write on plain paper with a plain ball point pen. Don’t put stickers on anything, and don’t enclose postage unless the prisoner has specifically said that they are allowed to receive it. Remember, no glitter, no staples, just paper!

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:40:19 -0400

decarceratepa: Only 4 days left until the March to Harrisburg: ...

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:46:15 -0400

decarceratepa:

Only 4 days left until the March to Harrisburg: why are YOU marching?

In only 4 days, Decarcerate PA and our allies are marching over 100 miles to the Capitol in Harrisburg to demand a budget that funds communities, not prison expansion. Every day from now until the march begins, we will be posting a photo of a different marcher and the reasons why they believe this action is necessary.

This march is a huge undertaking, and we need your help!

-         Come to the kick-off rally! Join us on May 25^th at noon in Love Park, or join us along the route. Or join us for our arrival in Harrisburg on June 3^rd (there will be buses coming from Philly to register go to http://action.fightforphilly.org/page/s/rsvp). For more information and a schedule of events, visit http://decarceratePA.info/march

-         Help us spread the word! Repost these countdown photos on facebook, twitter, and tumblr. Hand out flyers, forward this information along to other organizations, and encourage your neighbors and communities to get involved.

-         DONATE! We need money, food, and supplies to make this march happen. We are also looking for an additional support vehicle to make the trip with us. You can donate money at http://decarceratePA.info/donate. To donate food, support or supplies, get in touch with us at DecarceratePA@gmail.com or call (267) 217-3372.

-         If you are marching with us for 1 mile or for 100, let us know why you are marching! Write it down, take a pic, and send your photo to DecarceratePA@gmail.com

Invite your facebook friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/557929134229487/

More info: http://decarceratePA.info/march

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DecarceratePA

Tumblr: http://decarceratepa.tumblr.com/

Thank you for your support!

superqueerartsyblog: Some of the maincharacters from The Circle...

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:44:21 -0400

superqueerartsyblog:

Some of the maincharacters from The Circle and Fire, two books about Swedish teenager problems and witchcraft! Really great books that I wish had been available for me in my earlier teens. ♥

is this available in English?

angryqueershakespeare: misandry-mermaid: samorchard: I did a...

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:20:29 -0400

angryqueershakespeare:

misandry-mermaid:

samorchard:

I did a comic about marriage equality…

Literally me right now looking at this glorious piece of art

reblog every time

glitterandmetal-yt-da: snorlaxlovesme: so i cleared my throat today and and then someone poked me...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:42:46 -0400

glitterandmetal-yt-da: snorlaxlovesme: so i cleared my throat today and and then someone poked me...

thematerialworld: [Photo by Adam Feldman] Last night, Adam...

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:42:02 -0400

thematerialworld:

[Photo by Adam Feldman]

Last night, Adam Feldman (theater critic for Time Out New York) organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson, the Black gay man who was killed in the West Village Friday night. We gathered on 6th Avenue and West 8th Street, on the corner where he was shot in the face. It was an intense, emotional event. I’m bad at estimating these things, but I think there were around 100 people there. While a few speakers betrayed an upsetting short-sightedness about how violence operates in our society, most were eloquent and inspiring. In no particular order:

Performer and playwright Justin Sayre started things off with a volcanic, passionate sermon about the perceived danger of queer love — how the straight world fears us for the very thing that makes us most powerful, and so the only response is to love harder, love louder, and love more than ever. His tone set the stage for the event, and allowed people to fully feel the emotions we’d all been locking up tight.

Photographer and ACT UP vet Jon Nalley revealed, shockingly and emotionally, that Mark Carson is also the name of a fallen ACT UP comrade. Jon schooled the crowd about the true cause of AIDS death (not the HIV virus, but government neglect and institutional heterosexism), highlighting the connections between one Mark’s death and the other’s.

Long-time activist and Stonewall vet Jim Fouratt pointed out something that SHOULD be obvious, but which hadn’t occurred to me — that there used to be a hospital TWO BLOCKS from that corner, but in the wake of St. Vincent’s closing, Mark had to be rushed to Beth Israel all the way across town. Perhaps, in the distance between these hospitals, Mark’s life could have been saved. In that sense, the politicians that allowed St. Vincents to be converted to a luxury condo high rise — politicians like lesbian mayoral candidate Christine Quinn — may have gay blood on their hands. Jim helped us understand how depriving a gay neighborhood of a hospital is inherently homophobic and violent.

A trans woman who was once homeless in that same neighborhood spoke intensely about how vigils shouldn’t be the only time we come together, and how we must take our struggle to the U.N. to fight for queer safety internationally, and hold the U.S. to the highest possible global standard.

A member of Queer Fist read a first-person account of the Stonewall Riots, in which a gay rioter’s head was injured on that very corner, his blood pouring into the street. Another rioter screamed into the city, “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF YOUR BROTHERS!” It was chilling, to consider the bloody history of that location.

Another Queer First member pointed out that this murder was allowed to happen because the killer had access to a gun, and that the supporters of gun rights, deep down inside, are primarily afraid of the specter of the Black gunman, who will infiltrate their towns and homes. These gun rights advocates feel they need weapons to protect themselves from their racist fantasy. It underscored how racism fuels violence against ALL peoples.

Khaela Maricich from The Blow was like: we’re all going to die anyway, and it’s better to die being yourself and expressing your love and your identity than hiding it and living longer. Her comment was somewhat insensitive to queers in greater danger than her, like trans people and people of color, but I understood what she was trying to say.

An older trans man shared that he was attacked in Manhattan only a few days ago, and reminded the crowd, with tremendous grief in his voice, that trans people are killed CONSTANTLY in this country.

A straight mother spoke because her adult son in another city asked her to, so she could share her love and support with us.

Interestingly, a straight young woman who lives on that block confessed that her initial impulse was to text her gay friends, warning them to “dial it down” so that no one on the street would know they’re gay, but that, after hearing the speakers, she realized that this was the wrong lesson - that we should “dial it up,” to demand our right to exist. ”DIAL IT UP” became a chant, briefly.

A Black gay man spoke with great anguish, commenting on how not many other men of color were in attendance, and laying out so clearly how different queer people have unique challenges and specific circumstances — that Mark Carson’s life as a Black gay man was significantly different from the lives of the white gay men who made up the majority of the crowd.

A few speakers mentioned the importance of hate crimes legislation, and thanked the police for their cooperation with the vigil, and one speaker even said, “THANK YOU TO THE NYPD OF TODAY FOR NOT BEING THE NYPD OF 1969!” and though I had been resisting the urge to speak, that was my last straw

I got up on the box and said something like this:

I hope this doesn’t sound callous, but I was not surprised by this death. Queer people are killed in this country all the time. I have always thought of myself as someone who is vulnerable to murder. Four trans women were killed in the month of April alone — four in one month! So when things like this happen in our neighborhoods, we need to ask ourselves what this violence means. And we have to be skeptical about solutions like hate crimes legislation, which just feeds the prison industrial complex — an industry that profits from the imprisonment of queers and people of color. One third of all adult Black men in the U.S. are in prisons, and trans people are disproportionately arrested and locked up. We cannot continue to support this! And while I’m sure individual NYPD officers were polite in the lead-up to this vigil, we cannot forget that the NYPD ritually harasses trans people and people of color in this city! Trans women are arrested simply for walking down the street! So when we talk about how queer people need to be “safe,” we have to ask ourselves what “safety” really means — because the NYPD does not makes us safe! It harasses and imprisons us! We must reckon with these connections — that Mark Carson’s death is an extension of the violence that oppresses so many others, from the institutional violence of governments to the random violence of a crazy guy with a gun.

I make a living speaking in front of people, but talking at this vigil was terrifying. As I spoke, I felt myself hyperventilating, and I worried I would vomit. After I stepped down, I sat on the curb a few yards away from the crowd, catching my breath.

I wish I had specifically named the Stop & Frisk policy that makes queers and people of color vulnerable to police harassment. I wish I had called out Christine Quinn for supporting this policy.

I wish I had acknowledged a previous speakers’ disappointment about the lack of people of color in attendance. I wish I had pointed out the sad truth: that our queer “community” is still so segregated, such that when a white person organizes a vigil and spreads the word through his social networks, that message will not automatically filter into Black queer circles. When I mentioned this afterwards to Ted Kerr from Visual AIDS, he added that many queers of color are not willing to make themselves vulnerable to the kind of police surveillance that surrounded the event. This hadn’t occurred to me, and reminded me that so many aspects of our queer condition are so complicated, and we all have so much to learn and understand about each other.

When the event was over, I was surrounded by friends and colleagues. People whom I respect, and who inspire me on a regular basis — the people I came to NYC hoping to meet, and the people who keep me here. I was proud of Adam for making this happen, and proud of my community for showing up.

But I was sad too — not just about the senseless death of this man — but that there didn’t seem to be anyone at this vigil who knew him. It seemed indicative of the intense divide amongst queer people in this city.

Tomorrow night, there will be another rally — this one sponsored by the (often idiotic) LGBT Center and featuring Christine Quinn herself — the lesbian mayoral candidate whose policies hurt queer people and may have allowed Mark Carson to die. I will not be in town for this event, but I am fixated on it. Will there be resistance to the party line? Will Quinn be heckled? How can we best honor Mark Carson’s death? What comes next?

fuckyeahmarxismleninism: Hands Off Assata!

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:36:42 -0400

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Hands Off Assata!

lachucha: Assata is innocent! This print has a few defects in...

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:24:37 -0400

lachucha:

Assata is innocent!

This print has a few defects in it because the good ones are in the studio, but you get the idea.

ch4nnels: learn it live it love it

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:12:35 -0400

ch4nnels:

learn it live it love it

mitraf: decolonize media, decolonize history

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:48:30 -0400

mitraf:

decolonize media, decolonize history

thepisfor: 4 new starlets now in the shop!!! Natalie, Sofia,...

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:46:39 -0400

thepisfor:

4 new starlets now in the shop!!! Natalie, Sofia, Aubrey, Zooey (revisited), & Beyoncé

S6 is offering free shipping today, May 16, maybe even through the weekend!

Help a TWOC survive summer

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:21:43 -0400

Help a TWOC survive summer: mocosyamores: Hi everyone, I’m getting over my shame and internalized...

Dollars Over Decency: School Kids Without Money Have Lunch Taken Away And Thrown Out | Addicting Info

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:25:11 -0400

Dollars Over Decency: School Kids Without Money Have Lunch Taken Away And Thrown Out | Addicting...

Soy fe@ y content@: Community Letter #1

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:09:08 -0400

Soy fe@ y content@: Community Letter #1: lettersforourcommunity: TRIGGER WARNING: This letter...

janetmock: Help kickass trans activist and singer KOKUMO fund...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:01:57 -0400

janetmock:

Help kickass trans activist and singer KOKUMO fund her second annual T.G.I.F. (Trans*, Gender Non-Conforming, Intersex Freedom) Pride Rally in Chicago. It’s rare for our movement to support spaces created by trans women of color. Let’s make a change.

Contribute funds here or reach out to T.G.I.F. organizers in Chicago (kokumomedia[AT]gmail[DOT]com) for opportunities to help with organizing or assisting with the 2013 rally.

Photo

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:51:48 -0400