Trish Abalo

Growth resides at the intersections, and within deep love.

[hopefullearning]

[hopefullearning]

tw: mention of rape, trans rape

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July 2, 1998: When drag queens were arrested, what degradation there was. I remember the first time I got arrested, I wasn't even in full drag. I was walking down the street and the cops just snatched me.

We always felt that the police were the real enemy. We expected nothing better than to be treated like we were animals-and we were.

We were stuck in a bullpen like a bunch of freaks. We were disrespected. A lot of us were beaten up and raped.

When I ended up going to jail, to do 90 days, they tried to rape me. I very nicely bit the shit out of a man.

I've been through it all.

In 1969, the night of the Stonewall riot, was a very hot, muggy night. We were in the Stonewall [bar] and the lights came on. We all stopped dancing. The police came in.

They had gotten their payoff earlier in the week. But Inspector Pine came in-him and his morals squad-to spend more of the government's money.

We were led out of the bar and they cattled us all up against the police vans. The cops pushed us up against the grates and the fences. People started throwing pennies, nickels, and quarters at the cops.

And then the bottles started. And then we finally had the morals squad barricaded in the Stonewall building, because they were actually afraid of us at that time. They didn't know we were going to react that way.

We were not taking any more of this shit. We had done so much for other movements. It was time.

It was street gay people from the Village out front-homeless people who lived in the park in Sheridan Square outside the bar-and then drag queens behind them and everybody behind us. The Stonewall Inn telephone lines were cut and they were left in the dark.

One Village Voice reporter was in the bar at that time. And according to the archives of the Village Voice, he was handed a gun from Inspector Pine and told, "We got to fight our way out of there."

This was after one Molotov cocktail was thrown and we were ramming the door of the Stonewall bar with an uprooted parking meter. So they were ready to come out shooting that night.

Finally the Tactical Police Force showed up after 45 minutes. A lot of people forget that for 45 minutes we had them trapped in there.

All of us were working for so many movements at that time. Everyone was involved with the women's movement, the peace movement, the civil-rights movement. We were all radicals. I believe that's what brought it around.

You get tired of being just pushed around.

We got a building at 213 East 2nd Street. Marsha and I just decided it was time to help each other and help our other kids. We fed people and clothed people. We kept the building going. We went out and hustled the streets. We paid the rent.

We didn't want the kids out in the streets hustling. They would go out and rip off food. There was always food in the house and everyone had fun. It lasted for two or three years.

We would sit there and ask, "Why do we suffer?" As we got more involved into the movements, we said, "Why do we always got to take the brunt of this shit?"

Later on, when the Young Lords [revolutionary Puerto Rican youth group] came about in New York City, I was already in GLF [Gay Liberation Front]. There was a mass demonstration that started in East Harlem in the fall of 1970. The protest was against police repression and we decided to join the demonstration with our STAR banner.

That was one of first times the STAR banner was shown in public, where STAR was present as a group.

I ended up meeting some of the Young Lords that day. I became one of them. Any time they needed any help, I was always there for the Young Lords. It was just the respect they gave us as human beings. They gave us a lot of respect.

It was a fabulous feeling for me to be myself-being part of the Young Lords as a drag queen-and my organization [STAR] being part of the Young Lords.

I met [Black Panther Party leader] Huey Newton at the Peoples' Revolutionary Convention in Philadelphia in 1971. Huey decided we were part of the revolution-that we were revolutionary people.

I was a radical, a revolutionist. I am still a revolutionist. I was proud to make the road and help change laws and what-not. I was very proud of doing that and proud of what I'm still doing, no matter what it takes.

Today, we have to fight back against the government. We have to fight them back. They're cutting back Medicaid, cutting back on medicine for people with AIDS. They want to take away from women on welfare and put them into that little work program. They're going to cut SSI.

Now they're taking away food stamps. These people who want the cuts-these people are making millions and millions and millions of dollars as CEOs.

Why is the government going to take it away from us? What they're doing is cutting us back. Why can't we have a break?

I'm glad I was in the Stonewall riot. I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought: "My god, the revolution is here. The revolution is finally here!"

I always believed that we would have a fight back. I just knew that we would fight back. I just didn't know it would be that night.

I am proud of myself as being there that night. If I had lost that moment, I would have been kind of hurt because that's when I saw the world change for me and my people.

Of course, we still got a long way ahead of us.

[thecreatorsproject]

Woodoo: 45 second stop motion animation plays with wood and fire. 

[hopefullearning]

Artist: Andre Maat

[hopefullearning]

"Letters From Camp" shows young Muslim Americans reading letters from WW2 Japanese American incarceration camps. Credit: DC filmmaker Frank Chi (2:31)

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/letters-from-camp/#wyVy0eTxdSPUPYBR.99 Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

[hopefullearning]

This will make your day, I promise. Eva, a 10-year-old, applied to our summer fellowship program amidst mostly computer science Phds and seasoned urban designers. A summary of her pitch: “The streets of Paris are sad. I want to build a robot that will make them happy again. I’ve already starting learning how to code on Thymio robots, but I have trouble making it work. I want to join the program so the mentors can help me.”  Here is my reply to her.

Dear Eva,

The answer is yes. You have been selected as one of Paris’ first-ever Summer Innovation Fellows among an impressive pool of candidates from all across the world: accomplished urban designers, data scientists and hardware specialists.  I love your project and agree that more should be done--through robotics or otherwise--to improve Paris’ streets and make them smile again.

I am writing to you personally because your application inspired me. There was nothing on the website that said the program was open to 10 year olds but--as you must have noticed--nothing that said that it was not. You’ve openly told us that you had trouble making the robot work on your own and needed help. That was a brave thing to admit, and ultimately what convinced us to take on your project. Humility and the willingness to learn in order to go beyond our current limitations are at the heart and soul of innovation.

It is my hope that your work on robotics will encourage more young girls all over the world--not just to code, but to be as brave as you, in asking for help and actively looking for different ways to learn and grow.  More good news: I wrote to Thymio, the robotics company whose tech you use and asked if they could designate a specialist to personally help you. They have decided that that person will be their President himself. They will also be providing you their latest robot.  

Welcome aboard our spaceship, Eva. We’re very much looking forward to meeting you in person.  

All the best from Paris, Kat Borlongan Founding Partner, Five by Five www.fivebyfive.io

PS Please ask your dad to call me :)

[hopefullearning]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RncBhUje9KY)

[hopefullearning]

There have historically been two career paths professionals pursued in the field of international development: That of a specialist and that of a generalist. 

Specialists bring a deep expertise in a specific area like forestry, microfinance or reproductive health. Generalists, not necessarily experts in any one sector, bring the ability to effectively manage and implement development projects, honing their expertise in operations, finance and donor regulations.

As the global development field becomes more highly specialized — and many of the project management positions generalists once occupied are increasingly filled by local professionals — the role of the international generalist has been on the decline.However, there is a new career path emerging for professionals who don’t necessarily want to pursue a specialization but want to play a meaningful role in global development: the “integrator.” Over the past few months, I have increasingly heard leaders across multiple development disciplines use this term to describe what has quickly become a critical role to achieving development results.

So what is an integrator?

An integrator is someone who understands multiple specialties and how they impact each other and excels in fostering collaboration between various stakeholders who may not be accustomed to working together, like government, private sector and civil society.

Solving complex challenges like food security, climate change, global health and extreme poverty will require multidisciplinary approaches with input from a wide array of specialties and actors. Historically, generalists could work between silos, applying their project management expertise where needed. But to stay in demand in today’s world, they will need to increasingly work across silos, fostering collaboration, seeing connections and building partnerships between stakeholders to achieve meaningful results.

[hopefullearning]

- Shane Claiborne

[hopefullearning]

I suspect that dancers who have danced for years without injury probably discovered early that it is not how much turnout you have that is important, it is how you use what you have.Therefore, it is imperative to know how to use it!

What you need to know to make the most of your turnout:

How the hip functions

What is improvable and what is not

How to increase turnout safely and without injury

What you can do to maintain optimum turnout for your body

This joint is a ball and socket joint, which allows for a wide range of motion on all three planes (sagittal, lateral, and transverse).  The hip joint can produce flexion (forward of the body), extension (as in standing, not the unfortunately labeled lifting of the leg which is actually flexion in anatomical terms), abduction (away from the midline of the body), adduction (toward the midine of the body),inward rotation (turning-in), and outward rotation (turning-out).  Most dance movements are a combination of these actions.

Turnout Is A Verb

Although we sometime use the word turnout as a noun or a position (i.e. “Your turnout could be better.”), it is more appropriately thought of as an action, a verb.

Because outward rotation is not the body’s natural state, the work does not stop once the position or desired degree of rotation has been attained. Instead, outward rotation of the hips requires continual action within the body, even when the rotation is held in a position (like ballet 5th).

Aside from these natural limitations, turnout is only hindered by problems in how we have nurtured (or not nurtured) the muscles and tissues surrounding the hip, and perhaps our mental state or expectations. There are three ways in which a dancer can nurture their ability to turnout and to actively maintain that turnout during movement:  Awareness, Release, and Strengthen Without Tension. 

[hopefullearning]

Awareness

Awareness comes from developing an understanding of how the body, or specifically the hip joint in this case, works. We’ve talked about this in Part I. And then adjusting or bringing attention to the way you think as a result of this understanding.

Release

Too much tension in the musculature around the hip joint is often responsible for limiting the degree of turnout. Therefore, releasing that tension is key if you’d like to improve outward (and inward) rotation. Tight inward rotators inhibit outward rotation and visa versa. Dancers have varying methods which they use to accomplish release in the hips. Some use passive and lengthening stretches and others utilize props like balls to facilitate an opening within the joint.

Strengthen Without Tension

Many dancers have more turnout capability than they are able to use because they lack the strength in their outward rotators and supporting muscles to fully open and maintain turnout in the hips. Strengthening these muscles is a gradual process and can be done primarily during technique class, focusing particularly on rotation during plié, fondu, and passé/retiré exercises. 

What I hope you take away from this article is that it is not the degree to which you are capable of turning out, but the healthful and educated approach to achieving your potential for turnout that is important.

As for the importance of turnout itself, I believe it is only as important as we allow it to be. Even most ballet professionals, I think, would agree that having extreme turnout is trumped by mastering the ability to properly execute and maintain the degree of outward rotation that exists.  This attitude, when applied to training or teaching, can transform a student’s technique. Coupled with the knowledge of how turnout works, it allows the dancer to dance longer and stronger.

It is never too early for a dancer to begin to make anatomical and kinesthetic connections to the movements they are producing in dance class.

Dancers should always strive for better efficiency in movement. It’s about making the effort count, rather than wasting it.

“If the turnout is mastered early and properly, the student, and later the dancer, does not have to waste energy on the placement but instead can concentrate on the muscle energy needed to  jump higher to turn better, and to control the weight of the leg.”

– Istvan Ament, A Systematic Approach to Classical Ballet: A Four-Year Program

Do you think too much emphasis is placed on the degree of turnout? If so, what are some ways that teachers or educators can correct this?

Do you think the ballet aesthetic is changing?

What are some images, stretches, or exercises relating to turnout that have worked for you?

[hopefullearning]

(via What is Woman? (de Beauvoir + Metroid))

French Existentialist philosopher, Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, or simply… Simone de Beauvoir sought to answer the question: What does it mean to be a woman? In her book, The Second Sex, she famously asserted that: woman is Other.

Woman is not Man. And Man has historically defined what it means to be HUMAN. As such, woman lives with the reality of gender oppression. Unable to easily navigate the world free from oppression, women have to assert their freedom and climb the social ladder.

Like Sartre, de Beauvoir believed that people are nothing but their actions—that we are defined by the choices that we make. But in the case of woman, their identity as the Other is impressed upon them by a male dominated world.

You see, a woman’s facticity—or the social and biological facts of her life that she has no control over—limits her freedom. But does not mean she isn’t free! In fact, she flees her freedom when, for example, she thoughtlessly buys into the feminine stereotypes dictated by a male-dominated society. This acceptance is a type of inauthenticity.

Simone De Beauvoir’s answer to the question: “what is woman”, is that “no answer is adequate because a fundamental ambiguity marks the feminine being” (-Simone de Beuvoir. The Second Sex. 1956. Translated by H.M. Parshley. Printed by Lowe and Brydone. Great Britain. Page 264)

If our human condition is ambiguity, it means that we exist and create our meaning through the choices we make. Therefore Simone asserts, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

The process of being subjugated by patriarchal forces and being TOLD who and what they are is part of the process of becoming a woman. (-Simone de Beuvoir. The Second Sex. 1956. Translated by H.M. Parshley. Printed by Lowe and Brydone. Great Britain. Page 273)

To live authentically people must live their own lives and accept their radical freedom. Or not.

[hopefullearning]

Existing While Black and Trans

Update: June 29, 2016

“Meagan's case garnered national attention, and has been an important reminder to those in the criminal justice system and who run businesses and other public accommodations in Iowa that transgender people are explicitly protected by our civil rights laws from discriminatory treatment. Given the attack on transgender people happening across the country, we are proud and thankful to work here in Iowa where transgender people are afforded dignity and protection under our state law. As Meagan's case demonstrated, public accommodations laws are about far more than bathrooms and it is important that we protect transgender people from discrimination in public life so they may go about their lives without fearing harassment, discrimination, arrest or violence simply because of who they are.”

[hopefullearning]

The refugee who sold pens to feed his daughter now owns 4 businesses

VIDEO: "I wish every Syrian refugee could have the same opportunity."

[purplebuddhaproject]

Everyone needs to believe in something, but I don’t think that belief is something that can be taught. I believe in the pureness of dog’s souls and the unspoken bond between sisters. I believe that you have to leave a place in order to discover how much you love it. I believe in the stillness of a Saturday and I believe you don’t need to understand life in order to live it fully. Confusion is half the beauty, confusion is half the journey. I believe there are countless soul mates for every living person and I believe they are around every corner. At any given moment, I believe there are things at which to marvel at - a never ending stream of chances to fall in love with the world. Flowers bloom despite frost bitten stems and strangers smile despite the heartache in their lungs. I believe in dreams. I believe I am as free as I make my mind up to be. I believe there is no person or power that governs how I live. I believe that a person can base an entire religion around falling in love with being alive. The sun rises every morning and asks nothing of me in return; I could learn a lot from that single selfless gesture.

(via purplebuddhaproject)

[hopefullearning]

The Colonial Origins of Conservation: The Disturbing History Behind US National Parks

We love our national parks, but it's time to recognize that conservation dogmas were originally rooted in colonial conquest and genocide.

“This iconoclastic revolution is urgently needed, and there's no better time: 2015 is the 125th anniversary of Yosemite National Park, and 2016 completes a century for the United States National Park Service. These are highly symbolic anniversaries: Conservation dogmas were rooted in colonial conquest and were inextricably bound up in the genocide committed against Native Americans. Both lies - that of the wilderness and that of the inferiority of some human beings - were in full flower by 1916, though they were seeded earlier when the US began to invent the parks model that is still, all too harmfully, exported around the world.

When today's environmental leaders press for curbs on immigration and population, it can only call to mind this violent past. Did David Brower, for example, founder of both Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute, have to assert that having children without a license should be a crime - given that he had four of his own?

Few environmentalists protest at the theft of tribal lands or stand for indigenous rights. For example, John Burton, of the World Land Trust, formerly of Friends of the Earth, and Fauna and Flora International, openly opposes the very idea, though other key players, some in Greenpeace for example, have signaled support for tribes.

The unexpurgated history of conservation matters because it still shapes attitudes toward tribal peoples. Conservationists no longer pretend to be saving their "race," but they certainly claim to be saving the world's heritage, and they mostly retain a supercilious attitude toward those they are destroying.

Such attitudes must change. Conservation nowadays, particularly in Africa and Asia, seems to be as much about land grabbing and profit as anything else. Its quiet partnerships with the logging and mining industries damage the environment. Tribal people are still abused, even shot, for poaching, when they're just trying to feed their families, while "conservation" still encourages trophy hunting. The rich can hunt, the poor can't.

In spite of the growing evidence to the contrary, many senior conservationists can't accept that tribal peoples really are able to manage their lands. They're wrong. It's a great con trick and it's time it was stopped.

Other conservationists are keen to do better. They deserve to know there's a groundswell of public support behind them, pushing for a major change in conservation to benefit, finally, tribal peoples, nature, and us all.”

(Major themes: The Eviction of the Ahwahneechee People From Yosemite, Scientific Racism in the Conservation Movement, Widespread Support for Eugenics)

[hopefullearning]

Bittersweet Like Me: When the Lemonade Ain’t Made For Fat Black Women & Femmes

I watched the beautiful and amazing Lemonade visual album on Saturday, centered and very open

“Lemonade has themes of Southern Gothic, Black femme supremacy, Black magic, Black transcendence, Black religion and spirituality, betrayal and abuse, survival and resistance. In all of the beautiful visuals, poetry (written and adapted by Warsan Shire) and storylines, the vulnerability and struggle was never reflected in a fat Black body. And the limited representation in Lemonade could easily be quantified as accessory trauma tropes — in which we never see bigger Black femmes and women incorporated into a deep truth-telling experience like Beyonce and her thinner cameos, but rather as a tragedy in the background for effect. Southern Blackness is inextricably linked to bigger Black femmes’ and women’s bodies. Our bodies symbolize the birthright of Black struggle while also representing the lineage to white plantation/white supremacist functionality. The rich history of the Deep South and the violence around troping, codifying and oppressing Black women and femmes is centered on mammification, sexual violence excused through hypersexual mythologies, denial of beauty, animalizing our humanity and utilizing our bodies as a literal and symbolic vessel for the continuation of slavery and subordination.

The references to mammification (caretaking, being everyone’s keeper) withinLemonade’s visuals, poetry and lyrics speak to a violence that is inherently constructed around fatness, Blackness, womanhood and femmehood. I imagine the Fannie Lou Hamers who have always been maternal figures to everyone around her, expected and praised for being that nigga for all the people in her life but never receiving love and protection in return.I think about the Big Mama Thorntons singing their pain, creating innovative magic through resilience but getting their legacy and craft appropriated and snatched. Black fat women and femmes are always expected to play support systems to everyone in the world (even to other black women and femmes) while being politically denied healthy access to sexuality/sexualization, gender conformity and humanity. 

As we continue to examine and enjoy Lemonade, I search for the stories of fat Black femmes and women who have been raped, sexually exploited, beaten, politically ignored and are expected to remain strong, resilient — and silent–  in their pain and experiences. I continue to search for the fat Black girls who are always the shoulder to cry on for the Beyonces of the world. I continue to question where the Aunt Jemimas (read: fat black women/ femmes in servitude) are, the fat black women and femmes who are tired of servin’ everybody, feeling like it’s them vs. everybody, feelin’ overwhelmed with people needing them and draining them.

I wonder where the Sheilas (Jill Scott’s character in Why Did I Get Married?) are — the fat Black women who are married to ain’t-shit ass niggas who continue to drain you of love and apologies while giving you nothing but self-hate in return. I wonder where the Big Mamas are at — the grandmas and nanas who always find ways to make Sunday dinner, who are berated for their physical health but never get asked about their mental health and grief from life in a world that was never created for their survival. I wonder where the little Black fat girls are who get told no one will ever love them or hold them or adore them — the Preciouses of the world who have experienced more trauma than care.

And I continue to wake up every day physically and emotionally TIRED.

My love for Beyoncé doesn’t come with silence or complacency. My critique of her doesn’t only happen when she’s dropping an album. The space I hold for her is not conditional, but rather intentional. I love Bey. I love Bey’s pop culture power and political growth. And I also hope to see Black fat femmes like me in her work centered on Black girl pain and Black girl magic — specifically because there is no story of black pain deeper than that of fat Black women and femmes.”

[hopefullearning]

A Student Traveling Through Costa Chica Picked Up A Camera to Let Afro-Mexicans Tell Their Story

Even though it's a bit unpolished, Andy Amaya made a short doc that gives voice to those that rarely get a chance to speak up.