Sarah Slater

Community-centric cultural worker, event producer, copywriter and festival director

[sarah-slater]

M4BLTV-SIXNINETEEN

[sarah-slater]

Apply today for a grant from @denverarts if you have lost work due to COVID-19 - first come/first serve grants of up to $1,000 are available per person for lost income due to cancelled concerts, exhibitions, residencies, classes and more. Visit denverarts.org to apply. https://www.instagram.com/p/B98SzS2Fxvq/?igshid=lz0cubs1ypgq

[sarah-slater]

Titwrench and ReCreative Denver Present:

Clothing Swap Crafternoon + In Bed By Ten Dance Party!

Saturday, March 7th 400 - 800pm at ReCreative Denver, 765 Santa Fe Drive

Donation $5-10 at the door and/OR a blank item of clothing

All ages are welcome to attend

Funds raised go towards the 10th Edition Titwrench Fest, happening this fall!

TITWRENCH is a creative platform and community featuring the finest in experimental and innovative music and performance, with a focus on highlighting womxn and queer artists.

DETAILS:

Bring your BLANK clothing items (tees, totes, hoodies, jean jackets etc.) of clothing to donate for screen printing and receive a free Titwrench print on the material of your choice. ReCreative Denver will provide live screen printing, low-cost/recycled crafting supplies, and sewing machines!

Refreshments by Garland for sale

Music by L.A. Zwicky

Secret Love Collective is partnering with us to host their signature jam, a daytime dance party known as...

IN BED BY TEN Promises: * 2 hours of SERIOUS dance freak out * You don't have to talk to anyone unless you want to * Seltzers of many flavors (no booze = wild without sauce) * Performance * Gender Neutral Bathroom * Selfies * Queer community (allies welcome) * Costumes welcome Accessibility for event * Wheelchair accessible on first floor of ReCreative Denver, where all activities are taking place. There are no stairs or steps at the entry ways. Second floor is available only by large staircase * Limited dispersed seating will be available * Service animals are welcome * One wheelchair accessible bathroom available on the first floor * Speakers will be loud enough that you can feel sound * There is no quiet area on the main floor because the space is so small, but there's a park next door and a dark room in the basement if someone needs space from people. Thank you to ReCreative Denver for hosting us! ReCreative Denver is a a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting creativity, community and environmental stewardship through creative reuse & arts education. Can't be there but still want to donate to TITWRENCH 2020!? Learn more about Titwrench Fest and give online to help support our festival and pay our artists! We are a 100% volunteer-led organization, so all donations go directly to performers, A/V, and general operating needs. For more info, email titwrench (at) gmail (dot) com ♥

[sarah-slater]

I’ll be DJing for my friend Eriko Tsogo’s new art exhibition at Understudy in downtown Denver on Friday, October 18th from 6-900pm. Free event. Here’s all the location and event details!

[edvarribeirodelima]

[sarah-slater]

Opinion | Toni Morrison, Revolutionary Political Thinker

She should be remembered for the sharp clarity of her social vision, as well as for her gorgeous words.

“Toni believed the writer had the duty to take a public stance. The novel was but one tool for doing this. Decades ago, she warned about the rising tide of authoritarianism in a series of astute and prescient lectures and essays. In 1995, she compelled us to heed the signs of people who “construct an internal enemy as both focus and diversion” and who “isolate and demonize that enemy by unleashing and protecting the utterance of overt and coded name-calling and verbal abuse.” These, she warned, were the first steps toward “a final solution.” These essays are as important today as they were when she wrote them. Perhaps even more so.”

[sarah-slater]

Neoma - Real (Official Video)

Real by Neoma Video Director: Tué Makeup Artist: Priscila Alvarado Streaming: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0XORS9qrc6wWDazNSmvQdx Apple Music: htt...

I got to catch a few songs by Neoma last night at #UMS2019 + what a treat! She just moved here to Denver from Ecuador too. I hope to see her again soon, because the sound and layout of the venue she played in (Irish Rover) was err..not so conducive to her powerful and tender lunar pop anthems.

[sarah-slater]

2018 in no particular order (aka the artistry that helped me get through it all)

ALBUMS

Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited

Blood Orange - Negro Swan

Jorja Smith - Lost and Found

Tirzah - Devotion

The Internet - Hive Mind

Seinabo Sey - I’m A Dream

Emily Sprague - Mount Vision

Camp Cope - How to Socialise and Make Friends

serpentwithfeet - soil

Fatima - And Yet It’s All You

Kali Uchis - Isolation

Empress Of - US

Chancha via Circuito - Bienaventuranza

Big Joanie - Sistahs

Sarah Davachi - Gave in Rest

EPs

Sudan Archives - Sink

Tierra Whack - Whack World

Cleo Sol - Winter Songs

Little Dragon - Lover Chanting

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Electronic Series Vol. 1 : Abstractions

CUTS

Chaka Khan - Like Sugar

Kelsey Lu - Due West

Yaeji - One More

Kate Bollinger - Do You Go Out Together?

MIDWIFE - RTD PT.3

Janelle Monae - Django Jane

Cat Power - Stay

Ari Lennox - Whipped Cream

BOOKS

Puro Amor - Sandra Cisneros

The Body is Not An Apology - Sonya Renee Taylor

See You in the Morning - Mairead Case

Tragedy + Time - Adam Cayton-Holland

Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg

The Last Black Unicorn - Tiffany Haddish

FILM

The Favourite

M.I.A.  // MATANGI // MAYA

Eighth Grade

We the Animals

Skate Kitchen

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Experiences/movements/moments

My first moogfest in Durham, North Carolina, with three dear friends - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED despite the 90% humidity (oy), NC is gorgeous and the pace of life felt slower and refreshing compated to Denver. But yea, MOOGFEST - esp recommended for music nerds of all stripes, in particular lovers of electronic and experimental music....got to see Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Jamila Woods, Lawrence Rothman, DJ Ali of A Tribe Called Quest live, and a conversation with Fatima Al-Qadiri.....also magnolias galore..have you ever SEEN a magnolia tree? Absolutely stunning.

Blood Orange at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles

Sweden in summer with some of my best friends for Titwrench Stockholm

Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Aurora Fox

Angel Olson at the Gothic

Madlib Meets Ethiopian Legend Ayélew Mesfin (in Denver!) How did I miss this show?!

R A R E B Y R D $ at Remixed Gifts, Underground Music Showcase, Denver

Presented at a conference for the first time, with Marisa DeMarco for CULTURE/SHIFT in Albuquerque

Kanopy.com - free movie/tv streaming with Denver Library card

Guested on a podcast for the first time

Steve Hauschildt at the Savoy, Denver

First residency invitation at The Music District in Fort Collins, Colorado

First community garden plot, mostly grew flowers and herbs and this here pineapple sage which is decidedly NOT hardy in Colorado but oh so lovely:

Valerie June at The Armoury, Fort Collins

Jorja Smith Tiny Desk Concert

Albuquerque, everything about it especially the people and sounds

Being less afraid of everything, trying at least

Practice/theory of non-violent communication

Cultivating courage, not hope

[iwantthebeat]

Men Without Hats - “Moonbeam”

[carolqueenblog]

Some Notes on the Tumblr & Facebook Adult Content Ban | Good Vibes

[W]e are outraged that Internet platforms, from social media to search engines, seem more prone these days to accept content steeped in hate and intolerance than that inspired by a playful or searching interest in sex. They call the former “free speech” while damning the latter as harmful—when in reality, it’s the other way around.

by Carol Queen PhD

Good Vibrations Staff Sexologist

Good Vibrations is not part of the Tumblr community—but just about all of our friends seem to be. From many of our blogger colleagues, to queer porn creators like Pink & White Productions, to the library and archives of the Center for Sex & Culture, Tumblr has been a home for many people who want to communicate their intense interest in (especially) alternative forms of porn and carry on other discussions about adult topics. We stand by them as they mourn—and rage about—the decision made by Tumblr’s owners to severely limit the sexual content of the site’s creators and curators. This action seeks to shame and marginalize sex-positive people, and its effect will be to disconnect community.

The Tumblr announcement came the same week as a decision by Facebook to police suggestive content was announced. “Mentioning sexual roles, sex positions, fetish scenarios, sexual preference/sexual partner preference…” as well as other content is banned under its updated Terms of Service. I don’t know about you, but I can’t do my job (much less have fun on the weekend) if I can’t talk about that stuff. There’s debate online and off as to whether the Tumblr ban was inspired by SESTA/FOSTA, but broad agreement that Facebook’s ban most likely was.

SESTA/FOSTA, which stands for Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act & Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, is a law passed in April 2018 that seeks to make internet platforms responsible for content they host that allows human trafficking to be carried out via these websites on these platforms. There are already laws against trafficking and many of its constituent activities. But the law passed nonetheless, and immediately began to impact the internet. No one in the adult industry thinks that trafficking is OK, but beyond that, it immediately became clear that the people with power—the government, the platforms themselves—could not tell the difference between coerced/forced sex (which is the component of trafficking SESTA/FOSTA really tries to go after) and consent-based sex work. From webcamming to prostitution, this law, and the bans that follow, hits sex workers especially hard.

How? Aside from street-based prostitution, these days most sex workers’ client- and fan-seeking happens online. Via platforms like Tumblr and many others, sex workers can put themselves out there, showcase their creative work, meet and–-most importantly—screen clients, and carry on with some level of safety. That’s at risk every time their community, and communications, are disrupted by bans like these. Many such disruptions have happened, across many platforms, since April, and sex work has gotten less safe.

We stand with the sex workers who are getting caught in the political crossfire as activists and politicians who do not know or care about their lives legislate away their hard-won online space and their safety.

It is bad enough that US (and many other countries’) politics is currently conducted in a way that disenfranchises and dismisses the interests and perspectives of many groups of people. Three of the communities hardest hit by this weaponized political polarization–the LGBTQ community, women, and sex workers—are among those most impacted by Tumblr’s policy change. (And it adds unconscionable insult to injury that Tumblr’s “go clean or go home” policy is being rolled out today of all days–on December 17, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.)

Beyond the sorry state of our politics, we are outraged that Internet platforms, from social media to search engines, seem more prone these days to accept content steeped in hate and intolerance than that inspired by a playful or searching interest in sex. They call the former “free speech” while damning the latter as harmful—when in reality, it’s the other way around. Some of the world’s largest—and certainly most powerful—companies are shifting the cultural ground under everyone’s feet. Movements and communities that have grown for decades are under enormous pressure as search engines and social media companies put a heavy thumb on the scale. This is unacceptable—and dangerous. And it’s bad business for companies to pull the rug out from under their own users and make individuals’ and communities’ existence more precarious—Tumblr itself might not be as huge as some, but it’s owned by Verizon, and no one argues that Facebook and Google don’t control vast swaths of Internet territory. But these businesses will get away with exiling sexuality-based cultures if we don’t speak up. We need to loudly say that we don’t want the platforms we use to engineer the sexuality community—and ordinary people who are just curious or charmed by the content they generate—off to the margins.

We stand with the sexy and sex-positive content creators of Tumblr.

Good Vibrations is part of the Free Speech Coalition (disclosure: Staff Sexologist Carol Queen PhD is a past FSC board member, and owner Joel Kaminsky currently sits on their board). Their statement on the Tumblr ban is eloquent:

https://www.freespeechcoalition.com/blog/2018/12/05/on-tumblrs-adult-content-ban/

[sarah-slater]

Erika de Casier - Do My Thing

Written and prod. by Erika de Casier, Mix by El Trick Video filmed by Catharina Stoltenberg. Edited by Erika de Casier. ©2018 Independent Jeep Music. All rig...

ERIKA DE CASIER - “DO MY THING”

[sarah-slater]

Synesthesia & creating your own score | Devonté Hynes | TEDxMarthasVineyard

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. A description of synesthesia and demonstration of how I use that to...

Synesthesia and creating your own score | Devonté Hynes | TEXxMarthasVineyard | 2014

[sarah-slater]

Toolbox for Interdependence

Mutual aid is a term to describe people giving each other needed material support, trying to resist the control dynamics, hierarchies and system-affirming, oppressive arrangements of charity and social services. Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government, but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.  

[sarah-slater]

Bust magazine’s two decades of being unapologetically feminist

How has the feminist print magazine survived for 25 years as glossies with deeper pockets have folded?

Growing up in the ‘burbs of Denver, finding Bust on the shelves at a newsstand in a strip mall was a saving grace.

[topcat77]

Wassily Kandinsky

 ‘Untitled’, 1918

[sarah-slater]

migration is beautiful

artwork by @favianna rodriguez 

[sarah-slater]

TIRZAH - DEVOTION (FEAT. COBY SEY)

“you can bring your tenderness to me...”