Media Maven

[populse]

#PopPoliticsChat May: Steven Universe

#poppoliticschat is back!

#PopPoliticsChat is a hosted online conversation series that connects pop culture fans, social movement community members, and pop creatives through conversation and action opportunities. 

May’s topic: Steven Universe

If you have a kid in your life, you may already be familiar with Cartoon Network’s groundbreaking animated series Steven Universe, focused around (and this is a very simplified description) a magical little boy and his non-traditional magical family.

While the show is not a household name, Steven Universe has one of the most passionate online fanbases of all ages, and it’s consistently the most popular TV fandom topic on Tumblr each week (according to Tumblr site Fandometrics).

The show is loved by fans and critics as celebration of diverse families and relationships, and is one of the most woman-centered, queer-friendly shows on TV. It’s also the first Cartoon Network show helmed by a woman, showrunner Rebecca Sugar. (formerly a writer on Cartoon Network’s other hit, Adventure Time)

The show is truly radical in showing diverse families in various racial and gender configurations and celebrating the diversity of its characters, genders and families.  The show also deals with immigration (both the extra-planetary and earthly kinds), mental health, people with disabilities, and more.

In our next #poppoliticschat on Wednesday, May 24th from 9 EST to 10:00pm EST, three social justice minded pop culture fans and organizers will talk about questions about the show’s themes and their applicability to organizing work, familial conversations and more.

Our guests:

Veronica I. Arreola is a professional feminist, writer, and a mom to a 13-year-old girl. She fell in love with Steven while watching free TV on a plane flight and hasn’t stopped singing his praises since. Veronica serves on the board of Bitch Media. You can find her at her blog, Viva La Feminsta (vivalafeminista.com) and on Twitter & Instagram at @veronicaeye talking politics, parenting, pop culture and sometimes all the above.

Mia Birdsong is a family visionary who has spent more than 20 years fighting for the self-determination and pointing out the brilliant adaptations of everyday people. In her current role as Co-Director of Family Story, she invites us to expanding our imagination of what a family can be. Mia, whose 2015 TED talk “The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True” has been viewed over 1.5 million times already, has been published widely and speaks at universities and conferences across the country 

Charles Pulliam-Moore is a writer at io9 where he writes about inclusion, representation, race, and sexuality in geeky pop culture. His work has been featured in Slate, PBS, and NPR. He’s one third of the @BoozyBreakfast Friends Steven Universe podcast. Ask him about his feminist agenda.

#poppoliticschat Host: Elana Levin (@Elana_Brooklyn), Director of Online Organizing of Make the Road Action and Co-Host of Graphic Policy

The Cultural Pulse and its #PopPoliticsChat is sponsored by the Culture Lab.

[populse]

#PopPoliticsChat - From the Comic Books to the Streets: Superheroines of Color Fighting Back Today

#PopPoliticsChat is a new hosted online conversation series that connects pop culture fans, social movement community members, and pop creatives through conversation and action opportunities.

With our first chat, From the Comic Books to the Streets: Superheroines of Color Fighting Back Today comic fans and social justice organizers will answer questions and discuss the significance of the blockbuster Ms. Marvel and the newly-released Ms. America in comic books and the real world. The popularity and release of these barrier breaking superheroines by Marvel comics also comes while Marvel is fire for canceling titles by creators who are LGBTQ and/or people of color and while Disney/Marvel CEO Bob Iger sits on Trump’s Economic Advisory panel.  

On Wednesday, March 22, we’re bringing together pop fans and social justice activists discuss the role of and need for these barrier breaking superheroines, imagine the kinds of stories that we need for this political time, and share ideas for audience members on how to create and take action together.

#poppoliticschat Host: Elana Levin (@Elana_Brooklyn), Director of Online Organizing of Make the Road Action and Co-Host of Graphic Policy

Special Guests:

Desiree Rodriguez (@boricuadesiree) is a columnist and Editorial Assistant for Lion Forge Comics’ Catalyst Prime. Desiree also writes for The Nerds of Color and Women Write About Comics. 

Nelini Stamp (@NelStamp) National Membership Director @WorkingFamilies. Lover of sci-fi & wizards. Troublemaker with @ResistHere, #ResistTrumpTuesdays.

Ardo Omer (@ArdoOmer)  is a senior editor at Women Write About Comics and a contributing writer at Book Riot. She has bylines at Comics Bulletin, Hyperallergic and Slate. Batman goes to her for advice.

#PopPoliticsChat  takes place on Wednesday, March 22 from 8:30 EST to  9:30pm EST

Want more information on Ms Marvel and Ms America? Check out our #PopPoliticsChat Reading List:

Essential Comics to Read:

America #1 by Gabby Rivera, Joe Quinones, (buy it here)

Ms Marvel Vol 1 : No Normal  by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona (buy it here)

Essays: 

Ms Marvel creator G. Willow Wilson interviewed by our featured guest Ardo Omer 

Being Latinx in Comics: Ignorance, Erasure and Whitewashing  by our featured guest Desire Rodriguez

Ms Marvel as iconic hero against Trump

America Chavez, Marvel’s first queer Latina superhero, is definitely pro-punching Nazis

Bonus reading:

Muslim, Immigrant, Teenager, Superhero: How Ms. Marvel Will Save The World (Religion Dispatches)

America Chavez Gives Me Hope For Queers of Color Everywhere (Autostraddle)

Muslim American superhero Kamala Khan has become a real-world protest icon (Vox)

America Chavez 1 Review (Black Girl Nerds)

The Cultural Pulse and its #PopPoliticsChat is sponsored by the Culture Lab.

[tracyvs]

The Big Problem With Taylor's New Music Video That Nobody's Talking About

Know your history.

[annfriedman]

The “Women’s Health Issues” Pie

If this is 100% not you, donate.

More pie charts here.

[victoriousvocabulary]

PARABLE 

[noun] 

1. a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

2. a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.

Etymology: Middle English parabil < Late Latin parabola, “comparison, parable, word" < Greek parabolḗ, “comparison”, equivalent to para-, “beside, alongside of, by, beyond”+ bolḗ, “a throwing”.

[Christian Schloe - Fable]

[tracyvs]

Prince releases video for his song “Baltimore.” 

We’re tired of the cryin’ The People are dyin’ Let’s take all the guns away.

Peace is more than the absence of war.

[tracyvs]

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Natalie Paul, and Clarke Peters are all part of the cast of HBO’s miniseries "Show Me a Hero," which hails&

Pivot off the pop culture moment. Economic, racial justice and political organizers have an opportunity to use this upcoming mini-series to engage their communities, pitch op-eds and engage in other creative & digital tactics to advance a conversation and move a narrative. ‪#‎culturechange‬

[tracyvs]

PopUp: July 10, 2015-#WhitePeople, UnReal binge, Feminst Pirate Chantey & more

CALENDAR IT

#youth #race #television #documentary

Have you seen the trailer for MTV’s “White People” documentary yet? Directed by Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitizer Prize winning journalist and founder of Define American is set to premiere on July 22 at 7 CT/8 ET.  Vulture writes some more about it here.  

Twitter hashtag: #whitepeople Tweet: @joseiswriting

BINGE IT

UnReal on Lifetime. Yes, I said it: Lifetime. Based on the behind-the-scenes machinations of a Bachelor/ette type show, it is dark, hilarious, and incredibly well-written and acted. (”Lifetime?” you skeptically ask. “Lifetime,” I firmly repeat.) It’s written and produced by and starring women. The storylines focus on how the producers deliberately manipulate the contestants also weave in issues of race, body image, mental illness, and the television industry profiting off the worst of humanity. There’s also some steamy moments and a thread of romance.   Some good background articles on UnReal: IndieWire to the New Yorker And an interview with co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro starts with a bang: 

The Mary Sue: You introduced Rachel’s character (Appleby) with a pretty strong statement, by putting her in a shirt that states, “this is what a feminist looks like.” What did you want audiences to take away about her from that kind of statement?

FANS ARE BUZZING

#gender #heroines Entertainment Weekly: Supergirl trailer pilot premieres at ComiCon Click in to see what fans are buzzing about after watching the premiere Why relevant: Super heroes are everywhere: movies, shows, toy aisles, and more. But where are all the women and people of color? That’s why many are waiting with bated breath to see how CBS’ Supergirl (to premiere October 26 on CBS) will pan out. Will it be a girl who happens to have powers whose storyline revolves around clothes and boys or will it be more complex character and storylines a la Buffy?

MY SUMMER (feminist) HIT SONG....

... From the season 5 premiere of Comedy Central’s amazing comedy sketch show, Key and Peele. (Remember Michael   With lyrics like these:

“A woman has a right to a drink or two without worrying about what you will do! We’d say ‘YO HO,’ but we don’t say ‘ho,’ ‘cause ‘ho’ is disrespectful, yo!”

And it only gets better. Join me for a drink as we watch on repeat?

Oh--and lest, I forget, I’ll leave you with the beautiful meet up of Obama and Hilary’s anger translators.  Because that’s what we call #realpolitics.

[tracyvs]

Right to the gut

Powerful. "The Talk" by @michaeldantuono 

A photo posted by Manifest Justice (@manifestexhibit) on Apr 27, 2015 via Instagram.  

[tracyvs]

Inside Amy Schumer writer Christine Nangle got the idea for the sketch years ago when she was reading about the Steubenville rape case. It wasn’t just the brutality of the rape itself — a teenage girl was assaulted by multiple football players while she was too drunk to consent — but the aftershocks of that earthquake that intensified Nangle’s horror: how the picture of the victim’s unconscious body circulated among classmates and neighbors; later, how the high school football coach, Reno Saccoccia, allowed convicted rapist Ma’lik Richmond to rejoin the team. ...Eventually, Nangle landed on her focus: “It’s the adults who deserve our ridicule.” The element of the Steubenville case that lingered with her was “how permissive the town and the school were. So what’s a way I can get into the town? And I came up with the idea of setting it in Friday Night Lights.”

http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/04/22/3649528/clear-eyes-full-hearts-dont-rape-inside-amy-schumer-writers-tell-story-behind-sketch/

[tracyvs]

Artists secretly install bust of Edward Snowden in Brooklyn park

John Oliver had a surprise interview with him on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.  Now Edward Snowden has had a statute created of him and secretly installed in a Brooklyn Park.

Via Mashable: 

... the artists said they chose the spot because it is "loaded with significance and meaning and reverence of others." It positions Snowden, they said, "as a continuation of a story that began at the beginning of this country" — one represented in the plight of the captured Americans. "We feel that Snowden's actions really continue that story," said the artists. "It is built upon a set of ideals to live freely, not be confined or surveilled or monitored by your government. You can’t have freedom of expression to pursue liberty if you feel like you're doing it under a watchful eye."

Sadly, the parks department seems to have already covered the statute up with a tarp, but this act of art still has massive meaning.  

As Gawker writes:

The Patriot Act is up for reauthorization June 1, and with it, the legislative provisions that allow for the government surveillance revealed in leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. But nearly two years after handing over classified documents to journalists, most Americans are still too confused, apathetic, or just clueless about what data is being collected from them. 

If you missed John Oliver's interview with Snowden--check it. Cause as Oliver says:

"The fact is: We have this information now and we no longer get the luxury of pleading ignorance," Oliver says. "It's like how you can't go to Sea World and pretend that Shamu is happy anymore when we know that at least half the water in her tank is whale tears." 

[upworthy]

An anonymous person complained that their school doesn’t have a club for white people. Bad move.

[tracyvs]

Welp-I’m done for the day. That just knocked my socks off. #culturechange

[tracyvs]

When art meets big data

Great article in NY Times today, “Learning to See Data.”

Scientists are starting to work with artists to figure out how to best visualize big data. 

FOR the past year or so genetic scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York have been collaborating with a specialist from another universe: Daniel Kohn, a Brooklyn-based painter and conceptual artist. Mr. Kohn has no training in computers or genetics, and he’s not there to conduct art therapy classes. His role is to help the scientists with a signature 21st-century problem: Big Data overload....

Scientists admit they need more than “just the fact ma’m” to understand how to tell the story of their data.

“A lot of the value of his input is jolting us out of our comfort zone, and making us aware that we can and should be thinking about the representation of data in new ways,” said John Greally, director of Einstein’s Center for Epigenomics, who brought on Mr. Kohn. “The problem today is that biological data are often abstracted into the digital domain,” Dr. Greally added, “and we need some way to capture the gestalt, to develop an instinct for what’s important.”

And to note, this work is not about producing the data and then bringing in Kohn, but about setting up an early collaboration.

“One thing I try to argue is that it’s not just about bigger machines to crunch more data, and it’s not even about pattern recognition,” Mr. Kohn, the painter, said in a phone interview. “It’s about frameworks of recognition; how you choose to look, rather than what you’re trying to see. Scientists often think of visual images like graphs as the end result of their analysis. I try to get them to think visually from the beginning.”

Take note, social justice friends and organizers, because the same integration should be applied to campaign and strategy development.  

From Spoiler Alert: 

Creatives think in terms of narrative, not in messages and talking points. Narrative is how we actively connect with the rest of the world,” (Gan) Golan says. “If you are mapping out campaign strategy and messaging, and you have options between different tactics and one lends itself to more visual messaging and storytelling of what’s happening within the culture—go with the cultural and visual strategy,” (Beka) Economopoulus says. “This allows us to develop a multimedia, multi-pronged campaign that plays out across media and on the ground with grassroots pressure.”

[micdotcom]

This 100% real quote is everything wrong with how we discuss diversity on television 

Hey Nellie, maybe TV is getting more diverse because everyone deserves to be represented and it makes logical and financial sense? Trust us, the white people are going to be fine.

[comedycentral]

Click here to watch Kristen Schaal and Jon Stewart discuss the future of wage equality on The Daily Show.

[tracyvs]

That about sums that up. 

[tracyvs]

The new Ms. Marvel and Thor are joining the Avengers this fall

Holy kickass diversity superhero(ines), Batman!

Marvel today announced that the popular new Ms. Marvel and Thor will join the All-New, All-Different Avengers this fall. It's great and wholly fitting news. Last October, Ms. Marvel #1 went into...

They say Miles Morales could be the next announcement.  

[tracyvs]

Kerry Washington brings it: I've not been afraid of inhabiting characters who are judged, and who are misunderstood, and who have not been granted full rights of citizenship as human beings. But here's the great irony: I don't decide to play the characters I play as a political choice. Yet, the characters I play often do become political statements, because having your story told as a woman, as a person of color, as a lesbian, as a trans person, or as any member of any disenfranchised community, is sadly often still a radical idea. There is so much power in storytelling, and there is enormous power in inclusive storytelling, in inclusive representations.