Troisième et un

Best Video Ever. This pretty much is all I have listened to for the past few days.

Troisième

What a night! My evening went as follows. I attended a lecture at Modern Times Bookstore given by Terence Kissack on his new book Free Comrades. You can listen to the recording I made here. He investigates public records, journals, and books published between 1895 and 1917 to expand the scope of the history of queer politics in the United States. He examines the work of anarchists such as Emma Goldman, Benjamin Tucker, and Alexander Berkman all of which defended the right of individuals to pursue same-sex relations, often challenging the conservative beliefs of their fellow anarchists as well as those outside the movement who chastised queer people.

In Free Comrades Kissack examines the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, the life and work of Walt Whitman, periodicals including Tucker's Liberty and Leonard Abbott's The Free Comrade, and the frank treatment of homosexual relations in Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. By defending the right to enter into same-sex partnerships free from social and governmental restraints, the anarchists posed a challenge to society still not met today

After that I met up with my friends Alex and Cody (both of which I haven't seen in years) along with a few others and went to Taqueria Guadalajara. You've never had a burrito until you've had one out here in California.

We ended up going to a queer dance party in downtown. It was a benefit for the campaign to Free the San Francisco Eight. A little background: Eight former Black Panthers were arrested January 23rd in California, New York and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested New Orleans in 1973.

I was in a shitty mood and didn't feel like doing much other than drinking. I wanted to dance but couldn't find anybody that I felt like dancing with so I helped Eric Pass out fliers for this event. I did get another flier for a queer discussion group to be held on the same night regarding the assimilationist agenda of the pride movement. I'm excited to participate.

Alex and I left the party to hang out with some young punkers at their apartment. We mostly talked about tattoos, beer, and sludge/post-metal. Good times all around. Alex and I went back to crash at his place. It ended up being another excellent night.

Seconde

So I've spent most of the day sipping coffee in front of this laptop, occasionally eating leftover Mediterranean food and even more occasionally doing work. One of the many ways I procrastinate is by browsing street fashion blogs. Today I was a bit distraught when I discovered that three year old boys from Helsinki have a better sense of style than I do. Check out little Jemu. What the fuck?

I've drafted two preliminary sets of questions. I have a hell of a lot more work ahead of me but in the meantime I'll throw them up on here as a record of being somewhat productive today. I also found some fun little graphics that I will be posting at certain times after certain events. You figure out why.




The two sets of questions are fairly satisfactory so far. Check 'em.

Personal:

What is your age?
What is your biological sex?
What gender pronoun do you prefer?
Do identify with a particular race or ethnicity?

What does queer mean to you?
-Do you yourself indentify as queer?
-Could you talk about a few ways that you see yourself embodying what it means to be queer?
-Are there intrinsic links between queer struggle and challenging power? What are they?
-Is there a disconnect between queer theoretical discourse and queer praxis at the grassroots level?
-What constitutes this disconnect?
-Is their possibility for a synthesis?
-What might a synthesis look like?

What does masculinity mean to you?
-Are their different forms of masculinity due to race, class, etc.?
-Do you see cultural institutions reinforcing particular constructions of masculinity? What are they?
-Do you in identify with any attributes of masculinity? Why [not]?
-Do you see this as possibly conflicting with what it means to be queer? Why [not]?

What does femininity mean to you?
-Are their different forms of femininity due to race, class, etc.?
-Do you see cultural institutions reinforcing particular constructions of femininity? What are they?
-Do you in identify with any attributes of femininity? Why [not]?
-Do you see this as possibly conflicting with what it means to be queer? Why [not]?

Do you believe that the cultural connotations of what it means to be masculine as well as the cultural connotations of what it means to be feminine have limited the ways in which you can identify?


Theoretical:

If as Bulter posits, gender is a “construction that regularly conceals its genesis” and as such, the possibilities for the manifestation of alternative corporeal styles are entrenched in “punitively regulated cultural fictions” these alternative styles will necessarily always be suspect (Butler 1990, pg. 190). That said, despite the potential for re-entrenchment within dominant or hegemonic configurations of gender, are their possibilities for the construction of positive masculinities?

Butler asks “How might gender exist without constraints?” I ask “How might a feminist or feminine masculinity be performed by male bodied individuals?”

Do you believe that there are multiple levels or Deleuzian “plateaus” of gendered stylization? Does the stylized aesthetic of the sexed body also necessarily include “bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds” (Butler 1990 pg. 191)? For example, if a male bodied individual maintains a bodily aesthetic characterized by signs that by normative cultural standards would be considered thoroughly masculine e.g. full beard, muscular build, etc. yet performs variant forms of gendered stylization what may we consider him/her?

If gender is also an extroverted temporal identity performed through a “stylized repetition of acts” spaces for non-normative masculinity can only be opened up once an individual has passed through certain feminized temporalities e.g. open up oral and anal modes of penetration, interrogating sexist practices, rescinding control. I believe the possibilities for “alternative” masculinities exist only within or after passing through these temporal manifestations of style. Only once an individual experiences feminine corporal attributes can they break away from the dominant paradigm of normative masculinity.

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