Hey Gender Justice LA TO!
We have an exciting performance/action coming up, and our next TO workshop (THIS SUNDAY, March 2, 2-5pm at The Labor/Community Strategy Center) will help us prepare for it! Even if you can't attend the performance/action (see below for details), we'd love to have you join us for the rehearsal--your input is very valuable! As always, no experience necessary. Just bring yourself and food to share if you're able (no-pressure potluck).
GJLA TO, in collaboration with Micha Cárdenas of Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets), is planning to respond to the increases in police and security at USC. Some of you may know that we no longer meet in our former space in the McClintock building on USC's campus. This is because we felt that increased policing and ID-ing made the USC campus unsafe for our community.
To process and respond to this, as well as to other increased policing efforts, join us at our regularly scheduled TO workshop this Sunday AND at our upcoming performance/action!
Local Autonomy Networks :: Los Angeles (with Gender Justice LA)
USC School of Cinematic Arts Gallery, SCA 120
6:30 - 8:30: Workshop using Theatre of the Oppressed
8:30 - 9:00: Opening Reception
We'd love to see you there!
--------------------------
On March 8th, Gender Justice LA's Theatre of the Oppressed Group will be joining with Local Autonomy Networks, a project started by Micha Cárdenas, to host a workshop and performance about the militarization of college campuses and community-based responses to violence. Starting with the question "Does this look like safety to you?" this eveningwill respond to the recent policy at the University of Southern California to set up mini borders, complete with metal expanding fences and computer-aided checkpoints, at all of their entrances at night. These checkpoints, reminiscent of both the US/Mexico border and the Israel/Palestine border, reinforce a militarized mindset that contradicts USC's image of having integration with the surrounding community. ID checks such as these only serve to make transgender people and undocumented people unsafe, effectively excluding them from the community. Join us for a three-hour workshop that will culminate in a performance just outside of the checkpoint where we will use Theatre of the Oppressed to embody what safety looks like to our community of gender non-conforming and transgender people of color and allies.
Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets) is an artivist project focused on creating networks of communication to increase community autonomy and reduce violence against women, LGBTQI people, people of color and other groups who continue to survive violence on a daily basis. The networks are both online and offline, including handmade wearable electronic fashion and face to face agreements between people. The networks are being established through a series of workshops, performances, presentations and discussions at art, activist and academic venues in the Americas and Europe. The project was started by Micha Cárdenas but is rapidly expanding into an ecology of networks involving many artists, hackers and activists.Autonets includes a line of mesh networked electronic clothing with the goal of building autonomous local networks that don’t rely on corporate infrastructure to function, inspired by community based, anti-racist, prison abolitionist responses to gendered violence. The Autonets garments, when activated, will alert everyone in range of the the local mesh network who is wearing another autonet garment that someone needs help and will indicate that person’s direction and distance.
These technologies are being developed through workshops and collective design processes, inspired by existing networks of horizontal knowledge production in queer, transgender, survivors of gender violence and diasporic communities. We are currently in collaboration with groups wanting to use Autonets to reduce violence against genderqueer and trans people of color in LA, prevent disappearances in Bogotá, Colombia, help provide safety for sex workers in Toronto and facilitate queer youth of color to avoid violence in Detroit. Autonets is fashion hacking for social reorganization, recoding the meaning of fashion symbols such as hoodies that have associations ranging from Trayvon Martin to the Black Bloc, or femme fashion elements like dresses and bracelets, into symbols of connectivity and autonomy.
Gender Justice LA is building a strong grassroots multi-racial coalition of transgender people and allies to advocate for our rights, win concrete improvements in our lives, and challenge oppression.
Are you ready to help us transform Los Angeles?
DETAILED CONTACT, SCHEDULE, and LOCATION/TRANSPORTATION INFO:
If you haven't already, join us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gjlato/
Save the dates for our upcoming free T.O. workshops:
Sunday, February 17, 2-5pm--THIS SUNDAY
Sunday, March 3, 2-5pm
Saturday, March 9, time TBA (tentative)
Sunday, March 10, 2-5pm (tentative)
Sunday, March 17, 2-5pm
Sunday, March 24, 2-5pm
Sunday, March 31, 2-5pm
Sunday, April 7, 2-5pm
Saturday, April 13, time TBA
Location and Transportation Details for the Labor/Community Strategy Center:
The address is 3780 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90010 (nearest cross-street is Western Ave) in Koreatown. We'll be on the 12th floor. There is a window to a security guard who will let you in. If you don't see the guard, there's a phone number to call to be let in. Let them know you're going to the 12th floor, to the Strategy Center for the Gender Justice LA TO workshop.
Good public transit options are the Wilshire/Western purple line stop, the Big Blue Bus Rapid 7, and the 720 LA Metro bus. If you're driving, there is free street parking (don't forget to read the signs!) or some lower-cost validated parking (1.5 hours free with purchase from Ralphs, 2 hours free with purchase from Novel Cafe) at the parking structure on Wilshire/Western.
As always, email us with any questions or concerns or call Ezak at the GJLA office at 323-960-9279.
discoholicmusic
kianamaiart
2087
titsay
turnnoffyourmind