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Words in space! Permaculture, Queerness and Feminism Article is up!

interview with Nicole: http://www.permanentculturenow.com/permaculture-queerness-feminism/

What a surreal experience. Nearly 9 months after I saw down to answer the questions of Nicole Vosper of UK's Wild Heart Permaculture, I get the email. Our interview is published online on Permanent Culture Now. 9 months (i dont have to mention the symbology). This article was written lifetimes ago, and yesterday. Of course I winced at my wordiness, the buzzy vocabularly, the backwards and forwards grammar. But I also smiled. Because I love the person who answered those questions. Back then (yes, back then... only 9 months ago) I was burning fresh from Occupy, I was frustrated with activism and an activist, I was tired of wary of revolution and a revolutionary, i was disgusted by academia and an academic. I was angry and thought the right words could explain myself into wholeness. And in some ways they do. In so many ways they don't. Just like a child, a project that I started at one moment in my evolution has suddenly been born and has an identity unique and throbbing on itself, separate from the journey of me, yet still connected. My own jounrey has moved away from the wordy venom of that time - I feel tenderly towards those who inadvertantly oppress, because I recognize their foibles as my own and embrace the opportunity to learn and heal these habits together. Still, I respect where I was coming from at the time; it was a necessary step before the turning inward that is now my teacher. I think my favorite point of the article is that diversity is about joy and real-life friendship. Ironically, my main point was that words just get in the way and there is real relationship at stake! And of course, there are lots of parts of the interview that now have an even deeper truth, so much more physicalized now that I smile to know that back then, I already knew:

Nicole: Big question but in short how does society need to be re-designed for real gender & sexual liberation? What role can permaculture designers play?

Annie-Rose: Start loving yourself! Love other people, people who are different from you! Stop being afraid! To me there are many correct answers to this, all of which require that folks believe that they have the right to be happy.

Please take a look at the article and share your thoughts. I could talk more about the article, but I'm more interested in your thoughts!

guilt.

credit: http://www.thegully.com/essays/puertorico /010430vq_calderon.html learn more

I have not dared to travel outside of North America for almost 10 years. Let me be clear - I haven't had the cash or the need to leave North America, and 10 years without international travel isn't exactly something to whine about. What I mean though is that I couldn't conceive of it; I couldn't let my mind imagine my body elsewhere. Cash was one reason, another was that I have wanted to understand the upsurdly huge country I was born in before I expanded my brains too much. But guilt was the biggest reason that I couldn't imagine international travel. Internalized colonialist guilt. Shit's real. Allow me to explain.

I have been terrified of what it means to travel, as a United State-ian (what is the word for that? there is no word for that! only more colonialist-whiffing "american!" WTF?!?). How could i possibly eat authentic local food, when the words authentic+local+food are probably in a new McDonald's ad for McRibs, coming to a puebla near you? I was frozen with fear of extracting resources, cultural, spiritual, and material. Of furthering a well-worn pattern of American self-centeredness ("All the world is my oyster!"). I have been stuck in a stasis of guilt. This is stasis, cause guilt doesn't do anything. It is an important stage to go through, cause it's so very sad what has happened in this world and it shows some useful empathy to internalize it just a touch. But guilt, in my case, has resulted mostly in fear and motionlessness. It has gone on too long. It was well intentioned, yay, awesome, but guilt doesn't change the screwy importation patterns and misplaced government spending; it doesn't undo cultural shame and imported diabetes. For me, guilt damned my learning about these issues to paper only. Without real engagement, all I could do was read zines and get mad, get more guilty. That is an elite, detached sort of learning that leads to out-of-touch non-profits. It was so obvious to me that to learn about helping the earth, I needed to get my hands into it. Why did my desire to heal some of the United State's international impact convince me that the best thing i could do was stay silent and as far away as possible? I bring up this issue because I think it has pretty darn broad implications. People have guilt because they are cis-gendered men so they freak out and leave the room when rape is discussed. People have guilt because they are not a person of color so they start sweating and panicking as soon as they're the only white people in the room. This guilt has important roots, but it is distracting us from the work at hand. It is distracting us from the reality that oppression is not the end of the story. Oppression is the first step on the path to liberation, a path which we must actively create. No one else is going to do it. I am asking, of me, of you, of your cat if that is somehow applicable, to take your tinges of guilt as an invitation. Here are some loose steps:

Look at your guilt-moments closely. Those are teaching moments. They are telling you what your shadows are; they are telling you what boundaries your soul is secretly aching to press up against. This is not easy work! Guilt comes cloaked in many guises - you may feel offended, attacked, isolated, defensive, bored. Learning to identify when guilt is at play may take awhile.

Press into your guilt - ask questions of those who trigger guilt in you, be humble, research more about the sources of your particular guilt. Read some history. Be honest about what you do and do not know. Mostly, mostly mostly mostly, listen.

Be an ally. Talk to those cis-gendered dudes friends about what you've learned, talk to other United States-ians about what you heard. Help bring these topics out of the shadows. And, following all that most deeply satisfying listening you've been doing, see how you can help. No, you don't have to found an organization, but maybe you can contribute to efforts that are already underway.

This is serious healing work. In this gloriously changing universe, it seems we need to look at our wounds and our burdens, look at them honestly, and embrace the pain of healing. It will be uncomfortable. It will make you cry. It will situate you in the community of life and transform stasis into freedom. Change comes from tiny itty bitty individual actions - don't doubt the importance of this work, even if it seems self-involved. Everything that flows from it will be far stronger, wiser, and kinder.

So anway, I'm in Puerto Rico right now. Of course I start my international exploration by diving into the belly of the beast and landing in a modern-day colony. I have no grasp of what's going on. I'm only at the beginning of asking my questions. But in this quiet space of listening I can feel minute layers of my silence and ignorance evaporating. I still have no answers, but I am no longer afraid to look for them.

yes yes yes, there is a home for this! Earth and Activism and Spirit orbit with Starhawk and the Earth Activist Training Permaculture-Palooza

there is a home for this! yay yay yay! those words kept landing with a thud in my stomach throughout the 2 weeks of Earth Activist Training. They landed like comfort, like warm tea on a cold day. Mmmmm, relax, spread out, there's a home for this and you're inside it. I've had a funny hunch that permaculture is an important lens for me. I've worktraded on permaculture sites, tried (unsuccessfully... so far) to get permaculture classes started, written articles about queer permaculture (more on that some other time). But honestly it was all a hunch - my own experience was my greatest proof that permaculture and real liberatory social justice are one in the same. we can talk about composting our poop into fertile soil one moment and then discuss effective methods of direct action the next? we can talk about dealing with police brutality in the same breath as rainwater harvesting? oh wow oh wow yes! Starhawk's E.A.T. course, which she taught with Charles Williams, is freaking amazing. As she went over the syllabus each item lodged itself in another nook of my brain, found a fold yearning for exactly that flavor to chew on. There was already space for this knowledge, all i needed was the content to fill in the corners and expand the edges of this now-huge space. this approach to permaculture constantly examines the human relationships that go down alongside the earth sustainability work. we spent 2 nights talking about non-hierarchical organizing and methods to make a meeting functional fun and effective. we talked about magical activism. baby we even devised some magical activism. On the activism front, this shit is potent. After so much analysis, heartache and headbreak over Occupy, I came to quite a few conclusions about what makes organizing work. It all aligns with permaculture principles. Observe first. Value the marginal, the edges, those with less power. Form coalitions that can thrive autonomously, not with constant leadership from outside. I could go on. Permaculture extends these ideas into physical realities. It explains through a lens of natural systems that makes these abstract concepts so much more tenable. Diversity isn't just a cute thing people think theyre supposed to want. it is the core essential necessity of a healthy reality. Blam. If you look at something as if it's a problem, it will stay a problem. if you look at something as if it's information, than it's a solution. Blam. Also, the intergenerationality of the group was as important as the course content. I have been hungering for relationship with my elders. Here i found many generations interwoven and conscious of how important this fabric is for any future progress. We talked about the struggle to expand the narrowing confines of gender binaries, how to talk about a goddess who is not only a goddess, what earlier feminist movements have to teach youth today and what healing needs to take place. Many new questions, and damn it felt good to sit with people who aren't within 15 years of my age. Permaculture is as ancient as humanity. This word encapsulates a whole history of people living together with the earth. These past 2 weeks I felt for the first time that I was honoring the ancestors and indigenous peoples of this land in a way that was authentic and active, not guilt-ridden and defeated. this is the beginning of something. Spirit and magic can be manifested and harnessed to increase human capacity for love and creativity. this is no joke, no subtle thing. This is the power ritual holds for the transformation of life. I'm telling ya. I've held such a distance between myself and spirituality for so long, the vestiges of scientific conditioning clinging to me and hissing "that doesn't make sense!". But here i found that the things that inspire me about science can be the wellspring from which my spirituality gushes - i can marvel at cells and water and star dust and pound the earth in ecstatic frothing. Woopee!

#feminism #earth justice #permaculture #event analysis #community #education #paganism #cultural appropriation #intergeneration

yes yes yes, there is a home for this! Earth and Activism and Spirit orbit with Starhawk and the Earth Activist Training Permaculture-Palooza

there is a home for this! yay yay yay! those words kept landing with a thud in my stomach throughout the 2 weeks of Earth Activist Training. They landed like comfort, like warm tea on a cold day. Mmmmm, relax, spread out, there's a home for this and you're inside it. I've had a funny hunch that permaculture is an important lens for me. I've worktraded on permaculture sites, tried (unsuccessfully... so far) to get permaculture classes started, written articles about queer permaculture (more on that some other time). But honestly it was all a hunch - my own experience was my greatest proof that permaculture and real liberatory social justice are one in the same. we can talk about composting our poop into fertile soil one moment and then discuss effective methods of direct action the next? we can talk about dealing with police brutality in the same breath as rainwater harvesting? oh wow oh wow yes! Starhawk's E.A.T. course, which she taught with Charles Williams, is freaking amazing. As she went over the syllabus each item lodged itself in another nook of my brain, found a fold yearning for exactly that flavor to chew on. There was already space for this knowledge, all i needed was the content to fill in the corners and expand the edges of this now-huge space. this approach to permaculture constantly examines the human relationships that go down alongside the earth sustainability work. we spent 2 nights talking about non-hierarchical organizing and methods to make a meeting functional fun and effective. we talked about magical activism. baby we even devised some magical activism. On the activism front, this shit is potent. After so much analysis, heartache and headbreak over Occupy, I came to quite a few conclusions about what makes organizing work. It all aligns with permaculture principles. Observe first. Value the marginal, the edges, those with less power. Form coalitions that can thrive autonomously, not with constant leadership from outside. I could go on. Permaculture extends these ideas into physical realities. It explains through a lens of natural systems that makes these abstract concepts so much more tenable. Diversity isn't just a cute thing people think theyre supposed to want. it is the core essential necessity of a healthy reality. Blam. If you look at something as if it's a problem, it will stay a problem. if you look at something as if it's information, than it's a solution. Blam. Also, the intergenerationality of the group was as important as the course content. I have been hungering for relationship with my elders. Here i found many generations interwoven and conscious of how important this fabric is for any future progress. We talked about the struggle to expand the narrowing confines of gender binaries, how to talk about a goddess who is not only a goddess, what earlier feminist movements have to teach youth today and what healing needs to take place. Many new questions, and damn it felt good to sit with people who aren't within 15 years of my age. Permaculture is as ancient as humanity. This word encapsulates a whole history of people living together with the earth. These past 2 weeks I felt for the first time that I was honoring the ancestors and indigenous peoples of this land in a way that was authentic and active, not guilt-ridden and defeated. this is the beginning of something. Spirit and magic can be manifested and harnessed to increase human capacity for love and creativity. this is no joke, no subtle thing. This is the power ritual holds for the transformation of life. I'm telling ya. I've held such a distance between myself and spirituality for so long, the vestiges of scientific conditioning clinging to me and hissing "that doesn't make sense!". But here i found that the things that inspire me about science can be the wellspring from which my spirituality gushes - i can marvel at cells and water and star dust and pound the earth in ecstatic frothing. Woopee!

#feminism #earth justice #permaculture #event analysis #community #education #paganism #cultural appropriation #intergeneration

O.U.R.Ecovillage: Kids Camp!

I got a call Saturday night, 9pm, 2 weeks ago. Brandy said "the person who was supposed to be running kids camp on monday cant anymore. If you still want to do work-trade for the E.A.T. course, can you come out? tomorrow?"

GUH. I ran home, hyperventilating and sweating. I had applied months earlier to do work trade at OUR Ecovillage for the EAT Course. EAT = Earth Activist Training, and it is the Permaculture Design Certificate course that Starhawk started and teachers. Why was i so rabid for this course? instead of re-capturing how i had been feeling, heres the blurb i sent my new permaculture friend Nicole in the UK describing my desires (sent months ago) : "I am hungry for all permaculture skills (I have a lot of experience with natural building, composting toilets, and rainwater catchment systems, less experience with gardening), but what I'm looking for specifically is a permaculture practice that places social justice at the center of the work. I am very interested in permaculture as a lens on liberation. I am a queer, feminist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist individual, and all of these things are very tied in to permaculture for me. I believe that permaculture has the ability to transform how people organize, how we create self-sufficient alternatives to dominant structures, how we achieve liberation of oppressed people, and how we shift activism from an "anti-domination" stance to a "pro-liberation" stance. To me the domination of women, of queers, of people of color, and of the earth are all part of the same nasty mindset. I am most interested in projects that have strong racial, gender, and economic diversity. I'm super excited about learning from women and transfolk." So basically i was searching for permaculture that had social justice at its core. i searched and searched, but was having a surprisingly hard time actually finding groups that were doing this work. lots of people sprinkle it on top, but really focusing on social permaculture? it was often an afterthought. Starhawk is one of the founders of Eco-Feminism and modern Paganism; she is a huge social justice activist and one of the most important nonviolence advocates, particularly during the anti-nuclear movement of the 90s.nAnd I didn't know this at the time, but she's also super involved with, basically, organizational theory. How groups of people work. What sort of organizing is empowering, inspires action. What meetings make us sing and what meetings make us glaze over. How to achieve non-hierarchy, easier said than done. And ths is basically all of the stuff i think about all the damn time (thus, this blog.) Social Permaculture. give it to me. ok ok ok ok ok okok okokokokokokokokok, there needs to be more conversation about this class, which actually started a week ago. Spirituality, building, solutions, direction, acceptance, expansiveness, ritual, forgiveness, coalescence, magic, challenge, etc etc all come to mind. seriously folks, this shit is poppin off and we gotta chat. but for now, let's get back to that phone call. Basically, it was ridiculous and meant taking a plane, but i couldn't turn away from this. i had been holding this in my heart for months. i found out a had a bunch of miles that would expire unless i used them, and on monday morning i was on a 6am plan bound for Victoria, BC, Canada. Tuesday morning, Kids Camp! began!

and it was great. no one involved knew they would be earlier than the thursday before it started (thats 4 days). there were 16 kids, ages 5-10. 3 counselors. Us counselors joked often about how crazy it all was - all thrown into it, no schedule, everything and i mean just about everything off the cuff. but the kids were so creative and amazing, kind and ready to learn. and this place, this place. this place is an endless well of fun stuff to do, cause guess what, that's what happens when communities come together and decide to do stuff. this ecovillage is full of projects, from farm work and animal care to building with mud and clay and making your own butter and wandering in the woods. we actually pulled it off because the community held space for the kids, because us counselors were badass at checking in about each others needs and boundaries, and because this sort of place is ripe with spaces to learn. oh, and mostly cause the kids were amazing. if anything our realization that it was actually chaotic was the most negative part of kids camp, cause the actual days went very well. it's a funny thing. Brandy, the director of OUR Ecovillage, kind of irresponsibly dumped a huge load on 3 unknowing people, assuming theyd figure it out. And we grumbled that it was irresponsible, but you know what? She was right. We figured it out. And it was great. Learning can be funny.

#permaculture #event analysis #community #intergeneration

O.U.R.Ecovillage: Kids Camp!

I got a call Saturday night, 9pm, 2 weeks ago. Brandy said "the person who was supposed to be running kids camp on monday cant anymore. If you still want to do work-trade for the E.A.T. course, can you come out? tomorrow?"

GUH. I ran home, hyperventilating and sweating. I had applied months earlier to do work trade at OUR Ecovillage for the EAT Course. EAT = Earth Activist Training, and it is the Permaculture Design Certificate course that Starhawk started and teachers. Why was i so rabid for this course? instead of re-capturing how i had been feeling, heres the blurb i sent my new permaculture friend Nicole in the UK describing my desires (sent months ago) : "I am hungry for all permaculture skills (I have a lot of experience with natural building, composting toilets, and rainwater catchment systems, less experience with gardening), but what I'm looking for specifically is a permaculture practice that places social justice at the center of the work. I am very interested in permaculture as a lens on liberation. I am a queer, feminist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist individual, and all of these things are very tied in to permaculture for me. I believe that permaculture has the ability to transform how people organize, how we create self-sufficient alternatives to dominant structures, how we achieve liberation of oppressed people, and how we shift activism from an "anti-domination" stance to a "pro-liberation" stance. To me the domination of women, of queers, of people of color, and of the earth are all part of the same nasty mindset. I am most interested in projects that have strong racial, gender, and economic diversity. I'm super excited about learning from women and transfolk." So basically i was searching for permaculture that had social justice at its core. i searched and searched, but was having a surprisingly hard time actually finding groups that were doing this work. lots of people sprinkle it on top, but really focusing on social permaculture? it was often an afterthought. Starhawk is one of the founders of Eco-Feminism and modern Paganism; she is a huge social justice activist and one of the most important nonviolence advocates, particularly during the anti-nuclear movement of the 90s.nAnd I didn't know this at the time, but she's also super involved with, basically, organizational theory. How groups of people work. What sort of organizing is empowering, inspires action. What meetings make us sing and what meetings make us glaze over. How to achieve non-hierarchy, easier said than done. And ths is basically all of the stuff i think about all the damn time (thus, this blog.) Social Permaculture. give it to me. ok ok ok ok ok okok okokokokokokokokok, there needs to be more conversation about this class, which actually started a week ago. Spirituality, building, solutions, direction, acceptance, expansiveness, ritual, forgiveness, coalescence, magic, challenge, etc etc all come to mind. seriously folks, this shit is poppin off and we gotta chat. but for now, let's get back to that phone call. Basically, it was ridiculous and meant taking a plane, but i couldn't turn away from this. i had been holding this in my heart for months. i found out a had a bunch of miles that would expire unless i used them, and on monday morning i was on a 6am plan bound for Victoria, BC, Canada. Tuesday morning, Kids Camp! began!

and it was great. no one involved knew they would be earlier than the thursday before it started (thats 4 days). there were 16 kids, ages 5-10. 3 counselors. Us counselors joked often about how crazy it all was - all thrown into it, no schedule, everything and i mean just about everything off the cuff. but the kids were so creative and amazing, kind and ready to learn. and this place, this place. this place is an endless well of fun stuff to do, cause guess what, that's what happens when communities come together and decide to do stuff. this ecovillage is full of projects, from farm work and animal care to building with mud and clay and making your own butter and wandering in the woods. we actually pulled it off because the community held space for the kids, because us counselors were badass at checking in about each others needs and boundaries, and because this sort of place is ripe with spaces to learn. oh, and mostly cause the kids were amazing. if anything our realization that it was actually chaotic was the most negative part of kids camp, cause the actual days went very well. it's a funny thing. Brandy, the director of OUR Ecovillage, kind of irresponsibly dumped a huge load on 3 unknowing people, assuming theyd figure it out. And we grumbled that it was irresponsible, but you know what? She was right. We figured it out. And it was great. Learning can be funny.

WHATS BeeN GOinG On?!?! 1st: Grandma Turned 90

My grandmama turned 90 a couple of weeks ago. Me, my mama, her two sisters and everybody's respective kids and partners gathered in western mass. to celebrate. and wow.

my grandma was always extremely strong, direct. encouraging. with her dementia she has softened; she is kinder than ever, constantly grateful, always smiling, shaking her head and saying things like "i cant believe it" or "youre gorgeous." it's like all of the love juice that has always been a part of her actions is now bubbling to the surface, being articulated in the only words she thinks worthwhile saying. what used to be what she did but never said, now she says. she says love. i realized that this wasnt new (i used to think that her dementia was bringing on this new uber-loving thing) when i saw all of her children gather for her birthday. her children are all, first and foremost, incredible mothers. the three sisters are strong, deep, giving, unbelievable mothers. they are fierce. they support eachother. the incredible mothering that my grandma provided has extended itself and thus increased exponentially, as the next generation has taken her love in, digested it through each personal lens, and spread it onto their own families. at the birthday i saw the magical transmutation of love and skillful mothering through the generations. it doesnt stop. it is steady fire. the more you give it, the more it grows. this is a clan, there are secrets to these skills; not discrete things you can write down, but ways, intentions, care. all hail grandmothers.

#feminism #self-story #intergeneration

WHATS BeeN GOinG On?!?! 1st: Grandma Turned 90

My grandmama turned 90 a couple of weeks ago. Me, my mama, her two sisters and everybody's respective kids and partners gathered in western mass. to celebrate. and wow.

my grandma was always extremely strong, direct. encouraging. with her dementia she has softened; she is kinder than ever, constantly grateful, always smiling, shaking her head and saying things like "i cant believe it" or "youre gorgeous." it's like all of the love juice that has always been a part of her actions is now bubbling to the surface, being articulated in the only words she thinks worthwhile saying. what used to be what she did but never said, now she says. she says love. i realized that this wasnt new (i used to think that her dementia was bringing on this new uber-loving thing) when i saw all of her children gather for her birthday. her children are all, first and foremost, incredible mothers. the three sisters are strong, deep, giving, unbelievable mothers. they are fierce. they support eachother. the incredible mothering that my grandma provided has extended itself and thus increased exponentially, as the next generation has taken her love in, digested it through each personal lens, and spread it onto their own families. at the birthday i saw the magical transmutation of love and skillful mothering through the generations. it doesnt stop. it is steady fire. the more you give it, the more it grows. this is a clan, there are secrets to these skills; not discrete things you can write down, but ways, intentions, care. all hail grandmothers.

Asheville, NC: Who's laughing?

Undocumented, underpaid, migrant labor was used to make this mouthwatering corn-fritter, not the henna-ed hands of that white guy with dreads at the farmers' market? What a zinger!!! Photo credit: Ashevile Travel Blog

stream of consciousness poem: Being in Asheville is so... beautiful confusing money organic white lies normal bubble disappointed obvious vegan gluten-free accessible priviledge everywhere pseudo-liberal hippies confusion what's real? whole grains farms work-trade secret possibilities hidden currents normal abnormal cool different real different? mountains sunsets clouds dramatic jokes cause we're uncomfortable jokes cause we have to running up mountains running down mountains yoga cultural appropriNation duh is it funny? I've been around a lot of jokes about the lack of people of color and the general homogeneity of whiteness here in Asheville, NC. It's an effort to make it funny, to acknowledge it, to let people know that you notice, to make you feel better about it cause you're in on how fucked up it is so you can't be a perpetrator of racism. I'm not sure it's very funny. It's good to acknowledge it, better than to pretend it's neutral or absent. But I can't help feeling that this is a handy little tool to make folks feel better about it instead of getting mad about it. Instead of asking hard questions about why that is; instead of doing something about it. The people who I'm thinking of have excused racist behavior as "just a part of things." which, yea, is obviously true, but the whole point of bringing up how things are racist is to change the fact that they are a part of things, not to prove that alien's must be temporarily inhabiting the flesh of these usually-normal-but-suddenly-extraterrestrially-racist people. These jokes come from people who say things like "all people have a responsibility to know what compost is," clearly assuming middle-class, mildly-liberally-educated, and most likely white people. These are, I assure you, not bad people. They are just isolated in a white-dominated culture that teaches people how to think critically about earth practices but not how to think critically about modern race in the U.S. These jokes come from me too, so what's that? Comedy can play a huge role in getting folks to talk about what they don't want to talk about. With all of the controversy around Daniel Tosh's fiercely defended rape jokes, it's clear that there's a real re-evaluation of the role of comedy needed in this country. Comedians have long held an important role in airing out dirty laundry, getting a nation to see what it wants to ignore. But it can also reify bullshit. So if I respond to someone's comment about a black person with "What? a black person in Asheville?" what does that do? My intention is to show how ridiculously homogenous it is here. The snarl of my lip is there because this upsets me. But am I actually just doing what white people have done for ages and ages - made jokes at the expense of people of color? normalize racism? well shit. I'm going to have to think about this.

#white domination #it ain't easy #comedy #racism #humor #Asheville #cultural appropriation #Daniel Tosh

Asheville, NC: Who's laughing?

Undocumented, underpaid, migrant labor was used to make this mouthwatering corn-fritter, not the henna-ed hands of that white guy with dreads at the farmers' market? What a zinger!!! Photo credit: Ashevile Travel Blog

stream of consciousness poem: Being in Asheville is so... beautiful confusing money organic white lies normal bubble disappointed obvious vegan gluten-free accessible priviledge everywhere pseudo-liberal hippies confusion what's real? whole grains farms work-trade secret possibilities hidden currents normal abnormal cool different real different? mountains sunsets clouds dramatic jokes cause we're uncomfortable jokes cause we have to running up mountains running down mountains yoga cultural appropriNation duh is it funny? I've been around a lot of jokes about the lack of people of color and the general homogeneity of whiteness here in Asheville, NC. It's an effort to make it funny, to acknowledge it, to let people know that you notice, to make you feel better about it cause you're in on how fucked up it is so you can't be a perpetrator of racism. I'm not sure it's very funny. It's good to acknowledge it, better than to pretend it's neutral or absent. But I can't help feeling that this is a handy little tool to make folks feel better about it instead of getting mad about it. Instead of asking hard questions about why that is; instead of doing something about it. The people who I'm thinking of have excused racist behavior as "just a part of things." which, yea, is obviously true, but the whole point of bringing up how things are racist is to change the fact that they are a part of things, not to prove that alien's must be temporarily inhabiting the flesh of these usually-normal-but-suddenly-extraterrestrially-racist people. These jokes come from people who say things like "all people have a responsibility to know what compost is," clearly assuming middle-class, mildly-liberally-educated, and most likely white people. These are, I assure you, not bad people. They are just isolated in a white-dominated culture that teaches people how to think critically about earth practices but not how to think critically about modern race in the U.S. These jokes come from me too, so what's that? Comedy can play a huge role in getting folks to talk about what they don't want to talk about. With all of the controversy around Daniel Tosh's fiercely defended rape jokes, it's clear that there's a real re-evaluation of the role of comedy needed in this country. Comedians have long held an important role in airing out dirty laundry, getting a nation to see what it wants to ignore. But it can also reify bullshit. So if I respond to someone's comment about a black person with "What? a black person in Asheville?" what does that do? My intention is to show how ridiculously homogenous it is here. The snarl of my lip is there because this upsets me. But am I actually just doing what white people have done for ages and ages - made jokes at the expense of people of color? normalize racism? well shit. I'm going to have to think about this.

#white domination #it ain't easy #comedy #racism #humor #Asheville #cultural appropriation #Daniel Tosh

fuckyeahdisingenuousliberal

[Picture: Background: 8 piece pie style color split with light blue and green alternating. Foreground: White man with black-rimmed glasses wearing a pink and black striped t-shirt, a small black bag strapped over his shoulder, and visible tattoos on his arms. Top text: “Discussing your serious social justice issue is really inspiring and awesome.” Bottom text: “But why aren’t you reassuring me that i’m not part of the problem”]

Because really, shouldn’t we be talking about me instead of your problems?

yumadwhiteboy-blog

Now that work has taken over my life my blog will just be reblogging this shit. Thanks.

thereisonlymake-blog

a moment of silence for how many times you've heard this in real damn life.

Some bitty thoughts on Resisting Racism: Queer Liberation is Collective Liberation Workshop

Jenna and Damien (facilitators of the workshop) and Ian (Provdience-based queer organizer and artist extraordinary) celebrating the warm feeling of "woah, we talked about some heavy shit" after the workshop.

Traveling organizers! what a thought! what a dream! Last weekend Jenna Peters-Golden and Damien Luxe blew in to town for a weekend of doing. The two bad-asses facilitated a refreshingly (not being sarcastic! truthfully!) 4 hour long workshop about how racism manifests itself and what queer liberation has to do with all forms of liberation. It was refreshing cause it didn't have to end as soon as we got started. 15 people came, which is wildly wonderful considering the time commitment. It speaks to the hunger of people to connect the queer movement to broader struggle. We almost had enough time to and enough detail to get really specific with our dreams. One exercise had use imagine the collaboration of two historical activist groups who never actually had anything to so with each other. I was in the group combining the American Indian Movement and the Boston Women's Movement. This was surprisingly fruitful, but so rushed that we couldn't get very creative and I felt anxious the whole time about getting a chance to speak or about one person talking the whole time. So, note to all facilitators: give lots of time to the creative side of things! I felt like most time was spent on clever tricks for understanding racism, taught by the folks in the front of the room to the folks in the back of the room. Because it was an audience of activists, I think more time could have been spent sharing our own opinions and experiences, and spent on building alternatives. Remember y'all, i'm in a hyper-action-ey mood lately, so i guess take this criticism with a grain of salt. or don't. There were almost only white people in attendance, which we didn't mention, but I just mentioned, so there. Is there a growing attempt on the part of white activists to get real about their anti-racist work? Is this just guilt? Is this just a tiny subsect of people who were already convinced that there's such a thing as modern racism? Where is this coming from and where is it going to? My hope is that more folks are waking up to the pervasiveness of racism in the United States, that more folks want to figuring out how they can DO something about it versus comment on it often, that folks are increasingly seeing how racism operates at every level of society and identity.

What is the conversation around race in organizations and communities that you are a part of? What are the actions people are taking?

I'm particularly interested in groups that aren't explicitly anti-racist, such as feminist groups and queer groups - are y'all organizing around race?

#questions for you #solidarity #LGBTQ #event analysis #community #tactic #education #queer liberation

Some bitty thoughts on Resisting Racism: Queer Liberation is Collective Liberation Workshop

Jenna and Damien (facilitators of the workshop) and Ian (Provdience-based queer organizer and artist extraordinary) celebrating the warm feeling of "woah, we talked about some heavy shit" after the workshop.

Traveling organizers! what a thought! what a dream! Last weekend Jenna Peters-Golden and Damien Luxe blew in to town for a weekend of doing. The two bad-asses facilitated a refreshingly (not being sarcastic! truthfully!) 4 hour long workshop about how racism manifests itself and what queer liberation has to do with all forms of liberation. It was refreshing cause it didn't have to end as soon as we got started. 15 people came, which is wildly wonderful considering the time commitment. It speaks to the hunger of people to connect the queer movement to broader struggle. We almost had enough time to and enough detail to get really specific with our dreams. One exercise had use imagine the collaboration of two historical activist groups who never actually had anything to so with each other. I was in the group combining the American Indian Movement and the Boston Women's Movement. This was surprisingly fruitful, but so rushed that we couldn't get very creative and I felt anxious the whole time about getting a chance to speak or about one person talking the whole time. So, note to all facilitators: give lots of time to the creative side of things! I felt like most time was spent on clever tricks for understanding racism, taught by the folks in the front of the room to the folks in the back of the room. Because it was an audience of activists, I think more time could have been spent sharing our own opinions and experiences, and spent on building alternatives. Remember y'all, i'm in a hyper-action-ey mood lately, so i guess take this criticism with a grain of salt. or don't. There were almost only white people in attendance, which we didn't mention, but I just mentioned, so there. Is there a growing attempt on the part of white activists to get real about their anti-racist work? Is this just guilt? Is this just a tiny subsect of people who were already convinced that there's such a thing as modern racism? Where is this coming from and where is it going to? My hope is that more folks are waking up to the pervasiveness of racism in the United States, that more folks want to figuring out how they can DO something about it versus comment on it often, that folks are increasingly seeing how racism operates at every level of society and identity.

What is the conversation around race in organizations and communities that you are a part of? What are the actions people are taking?

I'm particularly interested in groups that aren't explicitly anti-racist, such as feminist groups and queer groups - are y'all organizing around race?

#questions for you #solidarity #LGBTQ #event analysis #community #tactic #education #queer liberation

Fuck This; or how I feel on Youtube; Or Sexism is more than a Feeling

This was set off by a conversation with my father. He was complaining that he'd heard all about this "war on women" thing, but couldn't see how women's rights are being particularly eroded right now, why there's a war on women specifically at this moment in time. I answered that it's harder to get an abortion now than it was ten years ago. That one in six women get raped. That women still get paid an average of 77 cents to a man's dollar, less if you're a woman of color. All these arguments seemed to fall flat on him - those were issues of access, of economics, not gender. Those were long-standing issues that have gotten better, not worse. None of those things are rights that the national government has impeded.

I realized that I need more facts in my toolbelt. I need numbers, ratios, trends, graphs that help break down the invisible oppression that mediates most women's lives, killing them, raping them, preventing them from realizing their dreams, keeping them from health, love, and intimacy. Ok.

I will begin compiling my own and create a post with the most poignant information (i'll cite whoever sent me the info), so we can all use this in our toolbelt of education. Please send your factoids (cited if possible) my way.

Re-post this or respond, and we'll make a great resource for everyone!

In the meantime, here are some interesting youtube trends I've noticed. I was really excited to find Anita Sarkeesian's series, Tropes vs. Women. Get's into some of the nifty bullshit I'm almost entirely used to. So I get all excited and then start clicking on links that pop up on the page - featured videos, etc. At first I'm thinking - wow, Tropes vs. Women is so smart, so well produced, and it has so many views! Until I noticed how many views these other videos were getting. Note how youtube works: you see an opening image, a title, and the number of views. With that in mind, check out these popular videos and imagine what sort of culture results in these numbers.

#4 The Evil Demon Seductress (Tropes vs. Women) : 95,978 views

#1 The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Tropes vs. Women) : 145,746 views

Anti Feminist : 326,101 views

Mumbai Girl Forced in Jungle : 740,762 views

#feminism #questions for you #solidarity #community #tactic