Premier

Last night was my first in San Francisco. After not sleeping for about 36 hours sans a 3 hour nap on the plane I was pretty exhausted. But I managed to keep it together enough to go to Criminal Queers: A Night of Performance Protest Abolition:



Jason was a lovely computer programmer polygamist from the early 90's:



It was held at the SomArts building on 934 Brannan st:



There were various installations, sculptures and paintings that were hosted by the Queer Cultural center as part of the National Queer arts festival:



The main event of the night included speakers discussing various topics involving queer issues related to the prison industrial complex. Nat Smith talked about Critical Resistance. Miss Major introduced the digital storytelling project. Bea and Xan from the Bay Area New Jersey 4 Solidarity Committee discussed the continuing efforts to support them. Ralowe T. Ampu gave a brief synopsis of a Gay Shame event to protest the Lower Polk Neighbors. To close the performances, Chris and Eric from Gay Shame showed a trailer from their upcoming film "Criminal Queers," a sequel to their first piece "Homotopia". Criminal Queers visualizes a radical queer struggle against the Prison Industrial Complex and toward a world without walls. The event was used as a fundraiser for the TIP [Trans/Gender Variant in Prison] Committee.TIP's mission is to end the discrimination, medical neglect, abuse and violence experienced by transgender and gender variant people, and people with intersex conditions (TGI) in CA prisons.

Critical Resistance is a grassroots organization working toward building an international movement to dismantle the prison-industrial complex. It has existed for nearly ten years and was founded by Angela Davis, Rose Braz, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore among others. From their mission statement: "Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe." Their vision is to create genuinely safe, healthy communities that respond to harm without relying on prisons and punishment. Their Ten Year anniversary is coming up this fall.

Here is little background on the NJ4 from their website:

"On August 18, 2006, seven young African American lesbians traveled to New York City from their homes in Newark for a regular night out. When walking down the street, a man sexually propositioned one of the women. After refusing to take no for an answer, he assaulted them. The women tried to defend themselves, and a fight broke out. The women were charged with Gang Assault in the 2nd degree, a Class C Felony with a mandatory minimum of 3.5 years. Patreese Johnson was additionally charged with 1st Degree Assault. Three of the women accepted plea offers. On June 14th, 2007 Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20), and Renata Hill (24) received sentences ranging from 3 1⁄2 to 11 years in prison."

The injustices surrounding the NJ4 serve as important site for opening up discourse around the intersections of race, gender and sexuality. Queer women of color face compounded forces of oppression and vitally need the support of allies across the country. There will be an event in solidarity with the NJ4 this Tuesday June 24th with Angela Davis and Kimma Walker from 7-9pm at the Women’s Building (3543 18th St. San Francisco).

Gay shame is a queer direct action group that has been organizing in San Francisco for the last seven years. Through spectacle and queer theater they work to confront the hypocrisies of the assimilationist LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) ‘left’ use. They use direct action as a way to open a discussion around rights discourse and assimilationist LGBT activism. Ralowe talked about how Gay Shame is currently working on a campaign to expose how Lower Polk Neighbors along with the non-profit sector coerces homeless youth into operating as a private cleaning crew for their community business district.



There was a sizable turnout.



It was an excellent welcome to San Francisco