#raceriottour

[softerxsoftest-blog]

Prepping my relief print workshop for the POC zine fest tomorrow, crying about this beautiful press #poczineproject #raceriottour #3spac

[purochingoncollective]

[poczineproject]

SAVE THE DATE: October 31, 2013 #RaceRiotTour in Minneapolis!

Much love to Chaun Webster, POCZP Midwest Coordinator, who has also functioned as the local organizer for our Minneapolis date <3

Message from Chaun: 

This October the POC Zine Project will be in Minneapolis for the Race Riot! Tour. Free Poet's Press via CCLP (Cleveland Critical Literacy Project) will be hosting two events on October 31st that you won't want to miss.

First, from 3-6pm, will be a family friendly event with candy, music and zine making at our house-so bring the whole fam!

After that, we will have a poetry reading at The Lowry Cafe from 7-10pm. Addresses are on the flyer. PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR!!!

Will some POCZP tour members be in costume??? WHO KNOWS... <3 ;)

Both of these events are sliding-scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. Please give what you can; all funds go toward gas and other essential tour costs.

VENUES, TIMES & ADDRESSES

HallowZine Event: 2400 Lowry Avenue N, Minneapolis, MN 5541

3-6pm

Lowry Cafe - 2207 Lowry Ave N, Minneapolis, MN 55411

7-10pm

Image and caption credit: Chaun Webster, POCZP West Coast Coordinator

______________

WANT MORE?

Meet the first-ever #RaceRiotTour wellness team <3

Meet Tracey Brown, 2013 #RaceRiotTour dedicated driver/mediator! <3

Meet Nyky Gomez, POCZP distro partner & 2013 #RaceRiottour member

Meet Nia King, 2013 #RaceRiotTour member

Meet Anna Vo, 2013 #RaceRiotTour member

We will share more 2013 #RaceRiotTour member bios between now and our kickoff date, October 3, 2013 in NOLA. We have 19 confirmed touring members so far <3 Bookmark our #RaceRiotTour landing page, as we will update it with all bio links and other important information in the coming days.

______________

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $10, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour, the Legacy Series and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

[poczineproject]

ZINESTER SPOTLIGHT: Anna Vo, 2013 #RaceRiotTour Member

[DESCRIPTION: Anna Vo, POCZP Touring Member]

Anna Vo was the first person to travel from outside the U.S. to volunteer with POCZP, as a touring member on last year's #RaceRiotTour. <3

To our delight, she's back! You can meet Anna at ALL 2013 #RaceRiotTour dates, as she is a full-time touring member <3

Anna will be providing mediation support as a grievance counsellor at all POCZP events and within our touring vehicle, as needs arise. Anna will function as part of the POCZP Wellness Team. We appreciate her service.

ABOUT ANNA VO

Anna works with different types of activist communities and sectors to address racism, power, privilege, gentrification, inclusive practices, squatting law (squashcampaign.org), community accountability and transformative justice. The most fun/rewarding part of it all is running empowerment workshops and programs for PoC only. 

She also works for free on community consulted architectural projects in different cities/countries, and organizes free schools, fests, autonomous spaces, etc. She currently lives in Berlin where she works as a social worker, counsellor and mediator.

Anna has played music (hardcore, solo folk: annavo.bandcamp.com), etc.) for over 10 years, has run a black metal/noise/doom record label (An Out Recordings: anout.bandcamp.com) for 6 years, and is also forever making a comic, and finishing a novel about growing up Vietnamese in a government housing project in a white Australian beach town.

Her zines, posters, and other info can be downloaded here: annavo.wordpress.com. She currently plays guitar and sings in a xvx feminist dark hc band xfirstworldproblemx (xfirstworldproblemx.bandcamp.com) and screamo band broken 'ships (brokenships.bandcamp.com); and drums in doom/improv/noise band Mourning Star.

She is seeking work/housing/hangout opportunities in the United States :-) So, say hi!

Here’s what Anna had to say about joining this year’s Race Riot! Tour experience: 

I couldn't pass up this opportunity to join the tour again this year. There were so many beautiful, challenging, reflective, strong moments during last year's Race Riot! tour.

The power of intentional space-making was palpable, and we got emotional, we processed in different ways, and at different rates.

I'm looking forward to this tour, and a possible change in focus... Although I appreciate my DIY punk bubble, I'm excited about sharing with a broader cross-section of people, and working with inspiring PoC struggles from lots of different perspectives (especially around indigenous sovereignty in North America).

There's lots of crappy dispiriting things going on in our shitty world (the 'justice' system, remorseless violence, exploitation, trafficking, abuses of power) and while we fight for small shifts or big changes, what keeps us going is making genuine, awesome connections with lovely people with common goals of social justice.

I'll be finishing three zines especially for this tour, one of which reflects on the 6 years of the NT Intervention in Australia, my perzine The Swan the Vulture #4, and another is the latest issue of Fix My Head, now co-editted with Osa from Shotgun Seamstress.

I'm looking forward to meeting you all!

______________

WANT MORE?

Meet the first-ever #RaceRiotTour wellness team <3

Meet Tracey Brown, 2013 #RaceRiotTour dedicated driver/mediator! <3

Meet Nyky Gomez, POCZP distro partner & 2013 #RaceRiottour member

Meet Nia King, 2013 #RaceRiotTour member

We will share more 2013 #RaceRiotTour member bios between now and our kickoff date, October 3, 2013 in NOLA. We have 19 confirmed touring members so far <3 Bookmark our #RaceRiotTour landing page, as we will update it with all bio links and other important information in the coming days.

______________

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $10, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour, the Legacy Series and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

[poczineproject]

ZINESTER SPOTLIGHT: Nia King, 2013 #RaceRiotTour Member

[DESCRIPTION: Nia King & her LOVE & ROCKETS shirt <3]

This isn't the first time we've featured Nia King on POCZP's digital platforms but it's definitely one of the most exciting announcements so far: 

Nia's joining the 2013 #RaceRiotTour caravan! Look out for her during the following dates/cities:

10/19/2013 - San Francisco, CA

10/21/2013 - Davis, CA

10/23/2013 - Portland, OR

10/25/2013 - Seattle, WA

Nia will be documenting the NorCal/Northwest leg of the tour through photography and video. She will also be selling two new zines on tour, one tentatively titled Ain't No One Paying Your Ass to Be There: Words of Wisdom from Queer and Trans Artists of Color, and another called Art School is Hell. Her old zines will also be available, either through her, or through Brown Recluse Distro.

Here's what Nia had to say about joining this year's Race Riot! Tour experience: 

The POC Zine Project's work is SO important! When I was growing up, it was really hard to find zines by people of color. Zines gave me a place to process what it meant to be mixed when I didn't have a mixed community, and allowed me to connect with other writers from multiracial families like Shannon Perez-Darby (From Here to There and Back Again), Aidan Aberrant (Ataxia), and Claudia Leung (MOONROOT). Lauren Jade Martin's zine Quantify was particularly influential in helping my understand myself as a mixed-queer person.  As a largely unregulated and uncensored form of media, I think zines are a really powerful tool for self-expression and community-building in communities that are historically excluded from having their voices heard and their faces seen. Zines offer us the opportunity to "become the media," which allows us to shape the way our stories are told, a crucial step in self-determination.

ABOUT NIA KING

Nia King is a queer mixed-race art activist from Boston, MA living in Oakland, CA. She is the author of zines such as Angry Black-White Girl, MXD: True Stories by Mixed-Race Writers, the Borderlands series, and The First 7-Inch Was Better: How I Became an Ex-Punk.

She is also the creator of the short film The Craigslist Chronicles, QTPOC Comics, and the podcastWe Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise. While much of her older work focuses on mixed-race identity, her new work focuses on the lives of queer and trans people of color and the power of art as a tool for social change.

______________

WANT MORE?

Meet the first-ever #RaceRiotTour wellness team <3

Meet Tracey Brown, 2013 #RaceRiotTour dedicated driver/mediator! <3

Meet Nyky Gomez, POCZP distro partner & 2013 #RaceRiottour member

We will share more 2013 #RaceRiotTour member bios between now and our kickoff date, October 3, 2013 in NOLA. We have 19 confirmed touring members so far <3 Bookmark our #RaceRiotTour landing page, as we will update it with all bio links and other important information in the coming days.

______________

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $10, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour, the Legacy Series and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

[poczineproject]

ZINESTER SPOTLIGHT: Nyky Gomez, 2013 #RaceRiotTour Member and Zine Partner

[Description: Nyky Gomez, founder of Brown Recluse Zine Distro and 2013 #RaceRiotTour member. Photo credit: Nyky Gomez]

What would we do without Nyky Gomez? Not only is she coordinating our 10/25/13 Seattle tour date for #RaceRiotTour, she is taking time away from her life needs to tour with POCZP from Tucson to Seattle! 

ABOUT NYKY

Nyky Gomez is a fourth generation Mexican-american of Apache and Comanche descent. Nyky writes Skinned Heart Zine, connecting her personal experiences in life to political and social themes in hopes of creating conversation that will lead to big and small change.

Her writing focuses on her experiences as a Brown women involved in punk and activist sub-culture, relationships, healing from abuse,family, resistance culture, assimilation and feminism. Nyky also currently operates Brown Recluse Zine Distro, a project dedicated to centering zines written by People of Color started in the spirit of visibility.

Nyky spends her days making her dreams and visions into mixed media collages, writing Skinned Heart Zine, gardening, spending time in the woods, learning the fine magical art of reading tarot and weaving spells with her water family. Dominatrix and social worker for pay, creative spirit, warrior, bruja, punkera and feminista by nature.

She is a lizard-hearted desert born Tejana currently living in Seattle, Washington with her husband and dog.

IN NYKY'S OWN WORDS

Zines have been a vital component of my life for the past 13 years. On more than one occasion reading a zine that was relevant to my experience as a Queer Woman of Color saved me from the depths of despair. The POCZP is such an important component in documenting our very meaningful histories and making them accessible to those of us who need them the most.

I really wanted to be apart of this tour for a variety of reasons, the number one reason being a selfish reason, getting to connect with so many talented and inspirational POC writers and artists. Supporting one another and encouraging other POC folks to document their histories is a form of resistance to assimilation and oppression in all it's forms.

We're also excited to announce that Nyky/Brown Recluse Zine Distro is POC Zine Project's official #poczines partner for 2014! BRZD will soon begin carrying zines archived through POCZP. We will share more about what this means after #RaceRiotTour.

If you have anything to spare, please join us in making a donation to help BRZD succeed. BRZD is sister distro with No Shame Distro, an East Coast POC zine distro. <3

[DESCRIPTION: Brown Recluse Zine Distro store homepage (September 2013)]   

[DESCRIPTION: Brown Recluse Zine Distro website homepage (September 2013)]

About Brown Recluse Zine Distro

Brown Recluse Zine Distro was created to support and center zines written predominantly by POC folks of all identities. This project was born out of passion for zines and frustration at the lack of representation and meaningful zine material for People of Color. I scoured through zine distros with a fine tooth comb and found that just like everywhere else in the dominant culture there was a serious lack of material written by POC folks in these distros. This is not because there is a lack of zines written by People of Color, because there are hundreds of self-published works written by People of Color.

My personal zine collection is full of POC zines and zines that are of interest to us. So after many years of reading zines, writing zines and observing zine culture I decided to start a zine distro that centers our voices and presents our large contribution to zine and DIY culture. BRZD is dedicated to our struggles, our projects and our zines. Brown Recluse Zine Distro was born in the spirit of visibility and in the spirit of celebrating our cultures and inter-sectionality.

BRZD exists to strengthen our ties and highlight out inter-sectional relateable experiences. BRZD is here to offer a place to locate POC zines without spending hours browsing the internet. BRZD is currently owned and operated by me, Nyky Gomez; Mexicana, Tejana, Feminista, Writer, Mixed Media/Collage Artist, Punkera, Bruja, Warrior.

______________

WANT MORE?

Meet the first-ever #RaceRiotTour wellness team <3

Meet Tracey Brown, 2013 #RaceRiotTour dedicated driver/mediator! <3

Meet Nyky Gomez, POCZP distro partner & 2013 #RaceRiottour member

Meet Nia King, 2013 #RaceRiotTour member

We will share more 2013 #RaceRiotTour member bios between now and our kickoff date, October 3, 2013 in NOLA. We have 19 confirmed touring members so far <3 Bookmark our #RaceRiotTour landing page, as we will update it with all bio links and other important information in the coming days.

______________

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $10, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour, the Legacy Series and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

[poczineproject]

RELEASE: POC Zine Project's 2013 #RaceRiotTour Wellness Plan Statement

Edited* by Pati Garcia, POCZP Wellness Team Lead

POC Zine Project is taking #RaceRiotTour to 20 cities between October 3 - November 9 , 2013 (full list of cities & touring members to be announced September 1, 2013). 

Since this is POCZP's first national tour and it will involve over 20 rotating tour members, it was critical for #raceriottour organizers to make self-care and caregiving resources available as part of the tour experience.

We have created a wellness team as POCZP's pre-emptive response to individual and communal needs that may come up around emotional, spiritual and physical health for the members who are present for the tour duration. Rotating tour members will also be provided with care that will be scaled to their presence on the tour.

WHY IS A WELLNESS STRATEGY A CRITICAL COMPONENT FOR THIS YEAR'S #RACERIOTTOUR?

In the absence of a wellness team in our first year, POCZP found that there was a negative impact on the performance, the interpersonal relationships between tour members as well as individual’s health.

The first tour resulted in many positive outcomes, but our own self-care practices suffered to varying degrees and that did affect how we experienced the tour. - Daniela Capistrano, founder of POCZP

Decisions around self-care would also invariably impact relationships with audiences and broader community. In addition, the absence of intentional spaces to debrief the experiences of systemic violence that we sustained; including racism, sexism and ableism, negatively affects the capacity to engage in sustained coalition and movement building. The wellness plan is POCZP's ongoing transformative process that works to acknowledge & address these issues.

As part of our commitment to creating movements in solidarity with and as Indigenous folks that are more humane and in conscious symbiosis with all life, our practice of wellness is inseparable from our work and organizing.

As holistic health care practitioners, we are bringing resources including knowledge, herbs, tinctures and embodied practices to contribute to our individual practices of health and care as well as the communal.

ABOUT THE #RACERIOTTOUR WELLNESS TEAM

[DESCRIPTION: POCZP #RaceRiotTour Wellness Team member Pati Garcia during POCZP's speaking engagement at the 2013 L.A. Zine Fest.]

My role  [Pati Garcia] as a wellness person on this tour is to offer emotional support and presence for the tour members to be able to unwind, and chill. I've been trained as a shiatsu/acupressure massage therapist, birth attendant and Sexological Bodyworker/Somatic Sex Educator.

I've found that there are many ways to bring peace to chaotic situations and want to offer these tools as ways to cope with the rigorous schedule of a tour like this one. I want to make sure that the touring members have what they need at any given time, and that they feel supported as we trek the USA speaking on difficult subjects such as race.

The POCZP #RaceRiotTour Wellness Team are here as guides to support—with your consent.

We recognize health and safety are relative concepts that are deeply affected by social location, including ability, race and gender as examples, for the purpose of the space we share together, we are proposing these agreements:

• These are offerings, not obligations.

We are here to offer you resources and support, you don’t have to take anything.

• Practice with consent.

Both with us and others, remembering that consent is an ongoing negotiation.

WHAT #RACERIOTTOUR MEMBERS CAN EXPECT

[DESCRIPTION: Excerpt from mini #zine 'Mapping Grief' by anon (2013) from POCZP's #amc2013 #poczines workshop with @moonrootzine]

The wellness team aims to provide ease with the ongoing movement of the tour. This means having primary needs covered: water, food, comfort, privacy, time alone, and time together.

Beyond the primary needs, we will provide essential and simple remedies for common ailments. Teas for stress, belly aches, head aches, colds, and menstruation.

Another element that will be available is transitioning rituals in order to properly welcome tour members and integrate them into the tour, and at the same time a ritual to ease them out when they move on from the tour.

We are aiming to make transitions smooth and intentional. In essence, we are bringing a sense of reprieve amidst a giant effort to be seen and heard as POC across the USA.

The wellness team will also do orientation calls in September with touring members who will be with us for three tour dates or more. The purpose of these calls is to compile critical information on specific needs, allergies, triggers, etc. and to help facilitate agency around defining what needs are (some people aren't used to practicing self-care! We're here to help).

MESSAGE FROM DANIELA, POCZP FOUNDER

Community,

We shared the mistakes we made during last year's #raceriottour (view prezi) so that we would set a new standard for this year's tour. In response to feedback, I prioritized Native/Indigenous Solidarity, self-care and caregiving for this year's tour planning process.

Mainstream artists tour with their own wellness teams. People who plan corporate-sponsored tours understand the importance of having such a team in place.

With that in mind, the self-care practices of those donating their time to POCZP are just as important to nurture, so we are being proactive to address these needs to the best of our ability, as a 100% volunteer touring group.

#RaceRiotTour's first-ever wellness team is comprised of Pati Garcia and two more TBD members (with support from volunteers). 

We look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks.

- @DCAP

WHERE IS THE NATIVE/INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY STATEMENT?

Thank you for your enthusiasm! We have been working on the strategy, and that language informs the statement's language. Our next step is to share our statement & strategy with Native individuals and orgs to get feedback. 

Based on that feedback, we will modify both the statement and strategy & then share all that info by November 15. Thanks for your patience! If you are Native and/or support a Native organization and want to be involved, email [email protected].

______________

WANT MORE?

Meet the first-ever #RaceRiotTour wellness team <3

Meet Tracey Brown, 2013 #RaceRiotTour dedicated driver/mediator! <3

Meet Nyky Gomez, POCZP distro partner & 2013 #RaceRiottour member

Meet Nia King, 2013 #RaceRiotTour member

We will share more 2013 #RaceRiotTour member bios between now and our kickoff date, October 3, 2013 in NOLA. We have 19 confirmed touring members so far <3 Bookmark our #RaceRiotTour landing page, as we will update it with all bio links and other important information in the coming days.

______________

DISCLAIMER: Since we are a fluid project that is constantly changing, this statement may be altered between now and the October 3, 2013 kickoff tour date in New Orleans. We will announce updates.

______________

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $10, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour, the Legacy Series and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

*Kim Crosby contributed to this statement's language. She is no longer a part of the 2013 #RaceRioTour due to scheduling conflicts. POCZP founder Daniela Capistrano also contributed to the statement.