Half-breed

Read The New Jim Crow!

2012-01-16T21:51:00.001-05:00

One of the courses I am instructing for Spring 2012 is a new class I have named "Freedom Reconsidered: Literature of Incarceration." Using nonfiction, creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry the class will explore contemporary realities of incarceration in the United States and the multitude of effects that reach well beyond prison walls.

Freedom Reconsidered website

The first book that we will be reading is Michelle Alexander's excellent and fierce, The New Jim Crow. As part of the course, we will try and recruit 100 or more people to read the book with us and share their thoughts about incarceration in the U.S. with us on the class website: http://freedomreconsidered.tumblr.com/ (link above). The website will grow as the course develops.

If you can join us in reading this book, please email me, or reply here, to have your name added to our list of readers (feel free to use first name only or first and last).

The following are two interviews with Michelle Alexander:

interview on NPR

interview on Democracy Now

Next publication coming soon! Please support this project!

2011-12-16T17:00:00.005-05:00

The small press I co-founded, Thread Makes Blanket, is working on final editing and details surrounding the publication of our first paperback book (third publication). We are raising money for the over $7,000 in total costs. Please visit the indiegogo page to support this project (click on box above). Also, please forward to folks who you think would be interested.

The book is:

Justice Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda
by Ezra Berkey Nepon

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT HERE

Check out the images I just uploaded on our website:
threadmakesblanket.com

Thread Makes Blanket website

Additionally, as a part of this project, artist Abigail Miller has designed a poster that will be part of the People's History Poster Series curate by Josh McPhee. Other posters in this series, as well as the other Thread Makes Blanket publications, are available at justseeds.com

Literary Salon Success!

2011-12-16T16:40:00.005-05:00

Lots of people showed up last night to talk about literature and listen to excellent readings by Ezra Nepon, Nathan Long, Lovella Calica, Maleka Furean, Ben Goldstein, Mythili, and others. All the seats were taken and there was barely any room on the floor. Definitely going to need to find a bigger space next time.

These salons will be quarterly with the next one happening in March 2012.

Grow Strong: 5th Annual Benefit Party for the Mill Creek Farm

2011-11-28T23:39:00.002-05:00

Join us Saturday December 3, 2011 7-10 pm at Yard's Brewery (901 N. Delaware Avenue) to celebrate the end of our 6th season. Party features brewery tours, djs, light food and desserts from local restaurants, cash-bar, raffle and silent auction.

Tasty treats will include:

Tamales from Honest Tom's Taco Shop
Crepes from Beau Monde
Cupcakes, cookies, and whoopie pies from Flying Monkey Patisserie, Sweet Freedom Bakery, and Whipped Bakeshop

Great gifts in the silent auction including:

Tickets from Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, The Painted Bride, and Arden Theatre Company
Gift basket from Philadelphia Distilling
Gift certificates to your favorite restaurants
Books, yoga, massage, art from local artists, bike gear including a from R.E.Load bags

and much more...
Tickets ($20) available at the door or in advance online by following the Paypal link below.

Wooden Shoe 35th Anniversary Party

2011-11-28T23:36:00.000-05:00

5-8pm
Saturday, Dec. 3rd

Founded in 1976, The Wooden Shoe is an all volunteer, collectively run anarchist bookstore in Philadelphia.

I will be DJing on the early side of things, Erik Peterson will be playing songs later in the evening.

2011-11-20T15:32:00.002-05:00

11/12/11

Occupy Philadelphia recently celebrated one month of occupying Dilworth Plaza in front of City Hall. Last night, the General Assembly decided, after a week of discussion and an epic five-hour meeting in the cold, to stay at City Hall, despite the city’s impending construction plans for the plaza. It has yet to be seen whether this act of defiance will disrupt the relative ease Occupy Philly has operated with. The mayor may stop making midnight meet and greet visits. The police may send in more plain-clothes agitators. The following are some highlights and notes:

As is gets colder the protest has contradicted and grown. A couple of carpenters built pallet houses for some of the homeless who lived in the plaza before Occupy began, who will likely be there after. The numbers of homeless have increased too, and while this, like everything, is not without its complications, people are working together to align the needs of the longtime residents with those newer to the neighborhood. The concrete surrounding City Hall is brighter than usual: tent green, blanket blue, cardboard sign brown, endless flyers white. There are three meals a day. There are children. Not only are there children, but there is a kids movie series. There is a library. People actually volunteered to be on the Sanitation Committee. There continues to be an outpouring of support.

We’ve lost count of how many times we have marched around City Hall.

We watched the Phillies lose their last game of the season here. It was projected onto a big screen, and over a 100 people (including some amused cops and journalists) watched. Some worried that it would make us the laughing stock of the Occupy movement, others insisted it just made us more American. After the game was over I, a semi-retired DJ, jumped on youtube and played the following radical music videos: 5 Million Ways to Kill a C.E.O. by The Coup, Latinomerica by Calle 13, Millionaire by Kelis feat. Andre 3000, and video by the talented rapper Invincible before some self-appointed someone, “I’m on _____ and ______ committee,” told me to turn it off. I told the newborn official (or undercover cop) I would turn it off, but I didn’t care what committee they were on. They seem genuinely pissed I wouldn’t recognize their power. I write of this to: 1. Share some great music videos with you. 2. Show how Philly Philly is—baseball game watching at the protest (no committee self-selected spokespeople dared interrupt while on) and 3. Remind of how quickly we can become what we fight against. I don’t know that Occupy Philly won’t last forever, but I do know that power confused committees and infighting may threaten as much as the coming snows.

There was a surreal moment on Halloween when Angela Davis, in town for a conference, led a march sixteen blocks from UPENN to City Hall, where she proceeded to lead a short rally.

I see people for whom activism is not new struggle to balance the old meetings and organizing with the new. It can be exhausting, but the energy of Occupy Philly is infectious. Still, there are questions of how can we integrate this movement into existing social justice campaigns, or should we? What we want is bigger than a list of demands, more than some illusion of a clear agenda.

Speaking of, are these new recruits for ongoing work? Maybe. We hope so. Those who have found their way to City Hall because their belief in the system wore off, because they finally looked it up and realized that capitalism and democracy are inherently contradictory terms.

There is what I will go ahead and call “red baiting.” It is primarily directed at the anarchists. I want to tell people they don’t need to be scared, that acts of anarchy happen everyday, are a vital part of how the Occupy movement operates (self-determination, mutual aid, no leaders, etc). That part of how humans get into messes like the U.S. economic system is by giving power to people who will kick you when you are down and say it is for your own good.

We watched the footage from Oakland. The brutality recalled so many times past, even if we just restrain ourselves to this country. I remember the mini-tanks used against us in Miami, and the eighteen different types of “non-lethal” bullets.

The people are fighting. The people have never stopped fighting. It is impassioning to see so many more. The people know that we can do better, so much better, because we’ve been that—if only in moments. We have managed and we can manage more. There is so much more than hope—there is action.

www.occupywriters.com

2011-11-12T21:13:00.002-05:00

by Francine Prose

As far as I can understand it myself, here’s why I burst into tears at the Occupy Wall Street camp. I was moved, first of all, by what everyone notices first: the variety of people involved, the range of ages, races, classes, colors, cultures. In other words, the 99 per cent. I saw conversations taking place between people and groups of people whom I’ve never seen talking with such openness and sympathy in all the years (which is to say, my entire life) I’ve spent in New York: grannies talking to goths, a biker with piercings and tattoos talking to a woman in a Hermes scarf. I was struck by how well-organized everything was, and, despite the charge of “vagueness” one keeps reading in the mainstream media, by the clarity—clarity of purpose, clarity of intention, clarity of method, clarity of understanding of the most basic social and economic realities. I kept thinking about how, since this movement started, I’ve been waking up in the morning without the dread (or at least without the total dread) with which I’ve woken every morning for so long, the vertiginous sense that we’re all falling off a cliff and no one (or almost no one) is saying anything about it. In Zuccotti Park I felt a kind of lightening of a weight, a lessening of the awful isolation and powerlessness of knowing we’re being lied to and robbed on a daily basis and that everyone knows it and keeps quiet and endures it; the terror of thinking that my own grandchildren will suffer for whatever has been paralyzing us until just now. I kept feeling these intense surges of emotion—until I saw a placard with a quote from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” And that was when I just lost it and stood there and wept.

http://radoccupyphilly.wordpress.com/

2011-11-12T18:28:00.002-05:00

I am DJing at this-- promises to be one of the best dance parties in quite some time

2011-11-12T14:54:00.002-05:00

2011-11-12T14:47:00.003-05:00

literary salons upcoming

2011-11-05T13:37:00.001-04:00

I have been tossing around the idea of hosting literary salons here at Fancy House for awhile now...
Old school. With coffee, wine, liquor. Short readings, longer discussions or maybe the other way around. I think it is important to share written work. That discussions seeded in lines grow. I imagine friends who are more the reader type reading work from their favorite authors. I imagine myself and others pushing our own writing to catch the ear of listeners on couches, on cushions, on stools and chairs. Maybe hot cider, maybe guest readers. Probably guest readers. I want Maaza to read from her forthcoming novel, Fulvia to explain about Socrates and love, Andrea to share new ever complicated poems, Ben to write something short and tight and powerful just for the reading.... I want to hear people read their favorite poem--their pleasure in it infectious for the audience.

I am going to start putting the first one together. Maybe ask Asia to use her space. I am thinking mid-December. When I am done with classes and other people may be getting a chance to pause too. If you are interested, or would like to help out, please communicate.

Staying Power Benefit and Dance Party

2011-11-05T13:13:00.005-04:00

Update: This was an amazing dance party for a great cause! I got to DJ with two amazing Pittsburgh DJs (see pics below), AND meet some steady immigrant rights activists who are hard at work here in philadelphia. To learn more about these great organizations, check out the following links:

Media Mobilizing Project

Dream Activist PA

JUNTOS

One Love Movement

Staying Power
Benefit for One Love Movement and DreamActivist PA

$5-$20 sliding scale
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
10-2am

The Ballroom @
William Way LGBT Community Center
1315 Spruce St.

DJ Half Breed
DJ Mary Mack
DJ Amor Secreto

make/shift

2011-10-31T15:57:00.003-04:00

Check it out:

http://www.makeshiftmag.com/

2011-10-21T17:21:00.002-04:00

2011-10-21T17:11:00.000-04:00

Oct. 27th 8pm

2011-10-17T21:25:00.000-04:00

If anyone is interested in attending this reading at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, I know some people who are driving out that evening. Email me if you want a ride.

Calle 13 in NYC-- brilliant

2011-10-17T21:06:00.001-04:00

More politics than a punk show... amazing energy. Beautiful.

This second clip is from the show in Miami the day before--- better quality than I was able to find from the NYC show:

October 6th, 2011 starting at 9am

2011-10-06T00:10:00.007-04:00

2011-10-04T23:02:00.003-04:00

Queer Lit Fest in Mt. Airy Oct. 14-16th

2011-09-26T13:47:00.001-04:00

I'll be reading at 6:30pm at Big Blue Marble Books here in the Mt Airy section of Philadelphia on Friday, October 14th. Then, author Samantha Barrow will be reading from her work. Afterwards we are both going to be on a panel discussion.

This is the first night of the 3 day Queer Lit Fest. Though I will be out of town the rest of the weekend (unfortunately missing excellent writers such as Nathan Long), I am honored to be a part of this event.

The full schedule will be posted soon, check it out:

Big Blue Marble Books website

2011-09-26T12:34:00.005-04:00

As I was finalizing the course materials for the Latino History and Culture course I am preparing for a free correspondence course for prisoners in solitary confinement in PA (offered by Books Through Bars), I came across an article by critical race theorist/academic/law professor, Richard Delgado, The Law of the Noose: A History of Latino Lynching.

If, instead of reading this article, someone had told me that Mexican Americans were continually lynched during the same period of time that Blacks were continually lynched (roughly 1882-1968) I wouldn't have thought they were lying. I believe I have a fairly adequate understanding of human injustice and incapacities, so it is not surprising per se. But, I have never thought about it before. Which has something to do with the impact Delgado's article is having on me. I have become temporarily obsessed, searching the internet, checking the sources Delgado lists, searching for images like the one pictured above.

Findings:

While the numbers of Mexican Americans lynched are significantly lower than the numbers of Blacks lynched (and, also, the number of whites) the percentage is the highest of all three groups given that there were significantly fewer Mexican Americans during the height of lynching in the United States. This is not a competition. The histories of these three groups of peoples have significant, incalculable differences, but still, that fact lends weight here.

Mexican American lynchings were, as was the case with many Black lynchings in particular, often in combination with a spectacle, an audience, a celebration, a gathering of families to watch. The bodies of the dead were also at times dismembered. Body parts were taken as souvenirs.

The lynchings took place primarily in the Southwest and to a lesser degree the Midwest.

Delgado questions why this history is not better known, has only relatively recently come to light. His musings about language (much of the documentation of the lynchings appeared in Spanish language papers) and the ways that history has overwhelmingly been written (by dominant social groups) make sense.

I can't help but connect this omission to the ways that the race/ethnicity/social status of Mexican Americans has been historically slippery. In the classes I teach, I push to show the absurdity, arbitrary nature and ever shifting status of Mexican Americans in order to help students (hopefully) more thoroughly appreciate the constructions of race/ethnicity/divisions in the United States and the economic interests (etc) behind them. I wonder if the omission of the routine lynchings of Mexican Americans plays into a historical narrative that would rather admit just the bigger, more obvious examples (Black lynchings and oppression) if they must admit anything other than the grand luck that is US economic domination at all.

Many students express, understandably and in a variety of ways, a desire to move forward. To forget slavery, genocide, miseducation, systematic inequalities, lynching... Some find themselves defensive, insistent that they didn't do any of it. That things have changed (look! there and there! a black president! or worse, grumbled musings about "reverse racism" and "affirmative action"). That their path was earned, or at least that their luck isn't their fault. And it isn't, but every semester I hope to slow them down some. To spend more time between the there and potential there-- more time where we are. And in order to do that, it is vital to have a more honest, more complicated, understanding of where we have been.

At the beginning of his essay Delgado asks an interesting question that I would like to end this post with:

"What do tangible things mean, and for whom do they hold meaning?"

link to Delgado article
If the above link doesn't work for some reason, the article is easily available in full pdf form through a quick web search.

trailer for A Class Apart, PBS film that examines the fluidity of Mexican American status

photos and history of important Mexican American figures

"I ain't rich, til he is rich, til she is rich, til we is rich"

2011-09-21T11:30:00.000-04:00

one evening, one hundred 7inch records

2011-09-18T03:12:00.001-04:00

Inspired by a scene in Just Kids by Patti Smith, I decided my birthday party should include one hundred 7inch records while party guests worked on their crafting projects. As hoped, it was a beautiful evening. Thank you to everyone who came out.

The record list below is a collaborative effort, with Bull, Karen, Sarah, Danielle and Corina all contributing records. The records played from 2:50pm to 2:13am.

1. Huggy Bear

A. Steppin on Bugs, Limit 2 Surf

B. Tuff Lovin, Code Fucker

Label: Gravity Records

2. Unwound

A. Corpse Pose

B. Everything is Weird

Label: Kill Rock Stars

3. Las Senoras

A. Digitacion, Elasticidad

B. Ansiedad Cerebral, Desolation

Label: Solo Para Punks

4. Jawbreaker

A. Busy

B. Equalized

Label: Shredder Records

5. Zounds

A. Demystification

B. Great White Hunter

Label: Broken Rekids

6. Crownhate Ruin

A. Better Still if They Don’t Know

B. Everyminute’s Sucker

Label: Dischord

7. The Cannanes

A. Simple Question

B. Fall, Dreadful, Outasite

Label: Ajax Records

8. Fatback

A. Backstrokin

B. Love Spell

Label: Spring Records

9. Version (?)

A. Back Out

B. Merciless

Label: Fat Eyes Records

10. King Floyd

A. Groove Me.

B. What Our Love Needs

Label: Chimneyville Records

11. Victory At Sea

A. Wishes

B. Simple

Label: Magic Eye Singles

12. Make-Up

A. Free Arthur Lee

B. Tell it Like a Version

Label: K

13. Marvin Gaye

A. What’s Going On

B. God is Love

Label: Tamia

14. Stockpile

A. Body Politic, Soviet Death Dealer, Erosion

B. Tongues, Your Trap, The Fear

Label: Destroy Me Records

15. (Penelope and) The Avengers, Live in SF ‘78

A. End of the World, Summer of Hate

B. We Are the One, I Believe in Me

Label: European reissue of the “Summer of Hate” EP, Lost Music

16. Johnny “Guitar” Watson

A. Broke and Lonely

B. Cuttin In

Label: King Records

17. Younger Younger 28s

A. We’re Going Out

B. Valerie

Label: V2 Records

18. Bad Brains (live ’87)

A. Pay to Cum

B. At the Movies

Label: Caroline Records

19. The Dream Academy

A. Life in a Northern Town

B. Test Tape #3

Label: Warner Brothers

20. The Penquins

A. Earth Angel

B. Hey Senorita

Label: Glenville Music

21. BowWowWow

A. Work

Label: EMI

22. The Crystals

A. He’s A Rebel

B. I Love You Eddie

Label: Phillies Records

23. The Clash

A. Should I Stay or Should I Go

B. Inoculated City

Label: Epic

24. Sade

A. Smooth Operator

B. Spirit

Label: Portrait Records

25. The Slits

A. In the Beginnning

B. There Was Rhythm

Label: Roughtrade

26. Bikini Kill

A. New Radio

B. Rebel Girl, Demirep

Label: Kill Rock Stars

27. The New Birth

A. It’s Been a Long Time

B. Keep On Doin It

Label: RCA

28. X-Ray Specs

A. Oh Bondage Up Yours

B. I Am a Cliché

Label: Virgin

29. Three Mile Pilot

A. This Divine Crown

B. The Open Sided

Label: Golden Rod Records

30. Queen

A. Bohemian Rhapsody

Label: Electra

31. Skewbald

A. Grand Union

Label: Dischord

32. Fugazi

A. Furniture

B. Hello Morning

Label: Dischord

33. Minor Threat

A. Salad Days

B. Stumped, Good Guys

Label: Dischord

34. Dag Nasty

A. You’re Mine

B. Staring At the Rude Boys, All Ages Show

Label: Giant Records

35. Slant 6

A. What Kind of Monster Are You?

B. Semi Blue Tile, Thirty-Third Vision

Label: Dischord

36. The Brat

A. The Wolf/ El Lobo

37. Judas Priest

A. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming

B. Diamonds and Rust

Label: Columbia

38. Phil Collins

A. Against All Odds

B. The Search

Label: Atlantic

39. Baxondale

A. An American Friend

B. You Know the Rules

Label: Evil World Records

40. Blatz

A. Fuk Shit Up, Fuk New York

B. Lullaby, Blatz to the Future, Hustler

41. V/A

A. Mineral- Crazy, Jimmy Eat World- Second Crush

B. Sensefield – Every Reason

Label: Crank

42. 7 Seconds

A. Skins, Brains, Guts, No Authority, Redneck Society, Baby Games

B. Racism Sucks, This is My Life, AntiKlan, We’re Gonna Fight

43. Atom and His Package

A. (Lord It’s Hard to Be Happy When You’re Not) Using the Metric System

B. Nutrition, Hats off to Halford

Label: Vital Music Mail Order Records

44. Native Nod

A. Bread

B. Hightide in Alaska, Back to Mimsey

Label: Gern Blandstein

45. Cap’n Jazz

A. We Are Scientists!

B. Sea Tea, Troubled By Insects

Label: Underdog Records

46. Moss Icon

A. Ghost, Last

B. Dance, Ditch

Label: Vermin Scum

47. Bruce Springsteen

A. I’m On Fire

B. Johnny Bye Bye

Label: Columbia

48. Pat Benatar

A. Hit Me With Your Best Shot

B. Prisoners of Love

Label: Crysalis

49. Born Against

A. Eulogy

B. Rising With Mary

Label: Veriform

50. Duran Duran

A. The Wild Boys

B. (I’m Looking For) Cracks in the Pavement

Label: Capitol

51. Life’s Blood

A. Never Make a Change, Left Me Behind, Stick to It, Guilty as Charged

B. Youth Enrage, Not for the Weak, Catch Our Breath, It’s Not in Yr Heart

Label: Combined Effort

52. The Brook

A. 26 Bird Calls

Label: Droll Yankees Ink

53. Pink Floyd

A. When the Tigers Broke Free

B. Bring the Boys Back Home

Label: Harvest

54. Crimpshrine

A. Butterflies, Situation

B. Easy Answers, Inspiration

Label: Lookout

55. The Marvelettes

A. Beachwood 45789

B. Someday, Someway

Label: Tamla

56. Hugh Masakela

A. Riot

B. Mace and Grenades

Label: Uni

57. Contropotere

A. Quello Che Ha, Zona Luce

B. Nau Fraga, Briganti

Label: Skuld Releases

58. Uncle Tupelo

A. Saugent Wind

B. Looking for a Way Out, Take My Word

Label: Rockville Records

59. Wipers

A. Image of Man, Telepathic Love

B. Voices in the Rain, Alien Boy

Label: Park Ave. Records

60. Jawbreaker (bootleg)

A. Rich, Caroline (demo 89)

B. Boxcar (Unplugged @Gilman ’92)

61. Born Against/ Universal Order of Armageddon split 7”

A. I am an Idiot, Entire Vast Situation

B. Painfully Obvious, Bit Part in a Bad Movie

Label: Gravity

62. Sticks and Stones

A. Sound, Less Than Free

B. Contempt, Reason to Care

Label: Onslaught Mardate Records

63. Operation Ivy

A. Junkie’s Runnin Dry, Here We Go Again, Hoboken

B. Yellin in My Ear, SleepLong, Healthy Body

Label: Lookout

64. Neurosis

A. Empty

B. Day of the Lords, The Choice

Label: Allied Recordings (pressing of 1000)

65. Shotmaker

A. Believe In, Rope and Pulley

B. Add and Subtract, Fine Day

Label: KungFu/Manticore Records

66. Mukilteo Fairies

A. Taken Advantage, Strangulated Boy, 4 Letter Love

B. Ripped Out, Nasty Disposition, I’m Spun

Label: Kill Rock Stars

67. Conflict

A. Mighty and Superior

B. To Whom It May Concern

Label: Mortarhate Records

68. Men’s Recovery Project

A. Total Lockup System, Use the Brain, Email is a Men’s Room, Ronald Reagan, Ye Part 9, New York Times

B. My Demands, Problems, Encounters, America, Normal Man

Label: Gravity

69. Arctic Flowers

A. Slouching Towards Bethleham

B. Neon Tombs, Technicolor Haze

70. Stevie Wonder

A. For Once in My Life

B. Angie Girl

Label: Tamia

71. The Need

A. Jacky O’ Lantern

B. Lamp, Pony 4 Honey

Label: Outpunk

72. The Need

A. Majesty, DPDT, Crush

B. 96 Needles, Crown, Kathy Quaalude

Label: Kill Rock Stars

73. The Zeros

A. Main Street Brat

B. Handgrenade Heart

Label: Last Laugh Records

74. Huggy Bear

A. Herjazz

B. Prayer, Pro No From Now

Label: Wiiija Records

75. The Third Sex

A. Feed Me, My Expense

B. Mombies

Label: Kill Rock Stars

76. Sam Cooke

A. Chain Gang

B. Cupid

Label: RCA

77. Irma Thomas

A. Break-a-way

B. Wish Someone Would Care

Label: Imperial Records

78. The Temptations

A. Power

Label: Gordy

79. Syl Johnson

A. Is It Because I’m Black?

B. Let Them Hang High

Label: Twinight

80. Mecca Normal

A. Forlorn

B. He Didn’t Say

Label: K

81. James Brown

A. Ain’t It Funky Now (Part 1)

B. Ain’t It Funky Now (Part 2)

Label: King Records

82. Fred Wesley and the JBs

A. Doin it to Death

B. Everybody Got Soul

Label: People

83. JJ Williams

A. Make A Believe

B. Gonna Have a Murder on Your Hands

Label: Capitol

84. Starship

A. Sara

B. Hearts of the World

Label: Grunt

85. Elliott Smith

A. Needle in the Hay

B. Alphabet Town, Some Song

Label: Kill Rock Stars

86. Sleater-Kinney

A. Get Up

B. By the Time You’re Twenty-Five

Label: Kill Rock Stars

87. Team Dresch

A. Hand Grenade, Endtime Relay

B. Molasses in January

Label: Kill Rock Stars

88. Ike and Tine Turner

A. Come Together

B. Honkey Tonk Women

Label: Minit

89. Los Crudos

A. No Estoy Convencido, Curiosidad, Porque

B. Tu Lo Ensenaste, Lucha Para Quete, Escuchen, Corrido Jodido

Label: Lengua Armada

90. La Termina

A. Esta al Caer, Altos

B. La Espera, Reflexion

Label: Solo Para Punks

91. Gwen McCrae

A. It Keeps On Raining

B. Rockin’ Chair

Label: Cat

92. Clarence Carter

A. Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love

B. I Hate to Love and Run

Label: Atlantic

93. The Rance Allen Group

A. Ain’t No Need of Crying

B. If I Could Make the World Better

Label: Truth Records

94. Kellee Patterson

A. If It Don’t Fit, Don’t Force It

B. Be Happy

Label: Shadybrook

95. Bobby Bland

A. Today I Started Loving You Again

B. Too Far Gone

Label: ABC

96. Avail/ (Young) Pioneers split 7”

A. Avail: New #2, Lombardy Street

B. (Young) Pioneers: Join or Die, French Colonial Running Dogs, Death to the Coalition

Label: Lookout

97. Emily’s Sassy Lime

A. Dippity Do-Not

B. Sneaking into Yer House, Bait and Switch

Label: Kill Rock Stars

98. Wormwood

A. Circus

B. Seven

99. Nina Simone (remixed)

A. Four Women

B. Come Ye

100. Nina Simone

A. Gin House Blues

B. You Can Have Him

Label: Colpix

2011-09-04T00:47:00.001-04:00

Had to take some head shots... much thanks to Karen for dealing with my un-photogenic ass... karenkirchhoffphotography.com

2011-08-24T23:41:00.002-04:00

Sept. 10th

2011-08-21T20:04:00.000-04:00

kane and/or I will be reading the letter featured in the new publication

Reading in Pittsburgh! August 28th

2011-08-17T01:08:00.002-04:00

As part of my residency here, I have a public reading on August 28th. I will be reading a story and a short selection from the novel-in-progress I've been working on. The fabulous Adriana Ramirez will be reading too. I am excited to team up with her for this event though I am shooting myself in the foot a bit since she is a professional and talented performer. I know, I've seen it.

The Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writer-in-Residence Program and Justseeds present:
Readings by
Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
and
Adriana Ramirez
SUNDAY, August 28th, 2011
6:30pm
3410 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA
light snacks and refreshments will be provided
the store will be open starting at 2pm-- arrive early to check out the lovely art and merchandise, including an exhibit by artist Thea Gahr
come around back to the second floor entrance

Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela is Pittsburgh's Cyberpunk Apocalypse writer-in-residence for the month of August. She is a 2005 recipient of a Leeway Transformation Award. Marissa is a co-founder of Thread Makes Blanket, a small press out of Philadelphia. The first two publications, including Letter from Tombs Prison, 1917 which features work from Justseeds artists Mary Tremonte and Shaun Slifer are carried by Just Seeds and will be available for purchase. The night before this reading, she will be DJing with Mary and Project Sappho on a mythical and yet very real toxic island. Marissa lives in Philadelphia.

Adriana Ramirez, nonfiction writer and performance poet, has over fifteen years experience in theater, spoken word, and advocacy. Once ranked the 26th slam poet in the world (iwps 2006), she helped found and co-hosted the Latino/Indigenous Showcase at the National Poetry Slam; she now hosts the Steel City Slam in Pittsburgh. Her poems and writings have appeared on the internet, on subway station walls, and occasionally, on pieces of dead wood. She love technology and refreshments—mineral water, limes, and cheap Mexican food. Adriana lives in Pittsburgh, where she is writing a book about her death fantasies, Colombia, and the way we tell stories around violence. She roots for el tricolor in the World Cup.
Adriana teaches at The University of Pittsburgh.

Adriana and Marissa first met when Adri was presenting at AWP in New York City, but more officially met when they both attended VONA, an annual workshop for writers of color in the bay area. Yep-- this is national.

Links for almost everything listed above are below:

Just Seeds
Cyberpunk Apocalypse
Adriana Ramirez
Mary Tremonte
Shaun Slifer
Thea Gahr
Thread Makes Blanket
VONA

2011-08-11T01:55:00.001-04:00

“The best art always breaks that pattern of what we think is our experience. That’s the great, humanizing effect of literature. Chicano writers are capable of all sorts of things, not just writing about immigration or poverty or working-class lives or geography. I want to start new discussions. Here we have a Chicano writer writing about Hitchcock—what do we do with that?” --Manuel Munoz

Link to Harvard Magazine article about author Manuel Munoz

Youth Food Bill of Rights

2011-08-03T16:31:00.000-04:00

I'm proud to share what some dear friends have helped create here in Philadelphia:

http://www.youthfoodbillofrights.com/

What a lovely thing for Jo to help work on and leave Philadelphia with as she moves west for graduate school.

writing residency in Pittsburgh

2011-08-03T14:57:00.001-04:00

Just starting out on my month long writing residency here in Pittsburgh, PA. I've moved in and am starting to get my bearings. The room is a lovely triangle of a room with a classic writing desk by the window.

I am excited to be here since have so much work to get done on the novel. It is coming along, I swear. My earnest, funny-looking baby.

I'll be reading here towards the end of the month. Details about this will be posted as soon as I know them.

second publication out now!

2011-07-19T21:15:00.002-04:00

Letter from Tombs Prison, 1917 is out now!

This is Thread Makes Blanket's (the small press I co-founded) second publication.

Check it out: www.threadmakesblanket.com
link to thread makes blanket
you can order via paypal, at justseeds.com or purchase this booklet at many independent bookstores and infoshops across the country.

This publication features a silkscreened pull-out poster reprint of a beautiful, still-relevant letter that Alexander Berkman wrote to Emma Goldman in 1917 when he was being held in Tombs Prison. Also included are essays which address how people such as Berkman and Goldman, leading anarchist organizers in their time, continue to serve as inspiration.

Credits:

Includes writing by Julie Herrada, Emily Abendroth, Anna Martine Whitehead, Shaun Slifer and Megan Gibes

Artwork by Mary Tremonte
Silkscreening at the Braddock Public Library's Screenprinting Shop in Braddock, PA

There will be a release party on Sept. 10th at Wooden Shoe Books here in Philadelphia. More details will be posted here as it gets closer.

teaching

2011-07-13T00:54:00.001-04:00

I waited to announce this here until it was official-official, but I have a new job!

A full-time, one-year appointment at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing.

It even comes with a nice title. Though I've known about it for awhile now, I'm still in a bit of disbelief. The academic job market is tough, and the competition tougher. I'm honored to have been selected.
Also, I've be asked to participate in Stockton's reading series-- it looks like I'll be reading the evening of Oct. 27th. I will post more details here for any of you who might be able to make it out there that evening.

I'm also excited to be designing a correspondence course in Latino History and Culture for inmates in PA (with primary focus on inmates in solitary confinement) that will be offered free of charge through Books Through Bars. Emily Abendroth is organizing this ambitious new project and I'm excited to get to be an instructor/facilitator. If anyone has any pdfs or book selections they can pass along, please do. I'm still looking for a few more strong streamlined readings.

2011-07-09T14:17:00.002-04:00

Detroit Bike City from Alex Gallegos on Vimeo.

just found this on youtube looking good Ralph-- I can't believe I didn't hear about this from you!

rare spaces

2011-07-08T01:18:00.003-04:00

Idyll Dandy Acres from America reCycled on Vimeo.

please consider contributing to the indiegogo fundraising campaign for IDA

see more here

wugazi

2011-07-07T00:00:00.003-04:00

Sleep Rules Everything Around Me by WUGAZI

You can now get all of the songs for free. Go to wugazi.com and scroll down to download all of "13 Chambers."

I am really loving this album. It is hard to do Wu-Tang or Fugazi justice and the Wugazi boys have managed to honor both. They even included my all time favorite Wu line (see if you can guess correctly).

It is my brain circa 1996... or whenever it was. I was just telling the story (via text of all things) of how I was an angry, curious girl in Catholic high School who was listening primarily to NW dykecore music (but also plenty of Dischord stuff--in particular Rites of Spring, Slant 6 and Fugazi) when I stole my brother's copy of 36 Chambers. It was the first rap album I ever liked, ever grew to love. A little while later a crazy but brilliant skater kid introduced me to GZA's Liquid Swords and I truly understood what rap/hip-hop could be.

Obviously, this Wugazi album takes me down memory lane, sure, but it is more than that. It proves how the music of Wu-tang and Fugazi is still relevant and isn't as far apart as we might think.

2011-07-06T23:50:00.002-04:00

Sweet Release by WUGAZI

my fake band

2011-07-06T11:58:00.002-04:00

This fake poster is a prop in a movie currently being filmed in Philadelphia. More details about the movie will be posted sometime, but I'm not sure how much I can write about it right now.
Yep- that is Bull and Kane in the background. Karen did an excellent job on the photo, poster and the quick turn-around.
This is the kind of poster that makes bands break-up...
Ah, ridiculousness.

Pencil these in your planner:

2011-07-06T11:54:00.005-04:00

Sept. 10th 7pm Wooden Shoe Books, Philadelphia
Thread Makes Blanket 2nd publication reading event featuring Andrea Walls, Emily Abendroth and Ben Goldstein.

Sept. 19th MONDAY 6-8pm Leeway Foundation
Social Change Writers Networking Event #2
I'll be co-facilitating with Aliyah West

support this zine of the month project!

2011-07-03T20:33:00.001-04:00

gotta rep this too

2011-06-21T21:14:00.000-04:00

STOCKPILE

Stockpile - Erosion by STOCKPILE

and

for my 100th post, finally

2011-06-21T21:00:00.000-04:00

Halfbreed demo mix circa 2005

download free at soundcloud

Halfbreed demo mix circa 2005 by marissajv

still love music

2011-06-21T12:43:00.001-04:00

Maximum spotlight and some tour dates

Feeling lucky to have gone to the Mothercountry Motherfuckers and Crisco Thunder show last night. Video links above-- wish the quality was better on both, because the videos do not capture the power of the performances. Good example of how punk can still push.
Later in the evening I found myself defending Lil Wayne's intelligence and skill, explaining how Kelly Rowland's "Motivation"was the new great instructional baby-making-music track of the season, and comparing Kanye's and Eminem's ability to get at human complexity and failures (that is, when either decides to have content).
And then, all I can listen to is the band Dark Dark Dark and Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville" album (links to videos for these below).

From Danielle Evans' website:

2011-06-14T12:48:00.002-04:00

Link to more from "Smart Conversations About MFA Programs" and Danielle Evans' website

"We should be able to talk about both privilege within MFA programs and privilege that MFA programs grant attendants in the world at large. In workshop, I have seen women get talked over by men with louder voices, people of color pegged as militant for fairly pointing out a racist element in a story, even if they are echoing a critique made by white students, men praised for their empathy and ability to channel women’s voices in stories that would be dismissed as chick lit if they were turned in by female writers. More often though, I’ve seen a sort of benign neglect of work that gets pegged as “exotic,” – because of the author or characters’ class or ethnic background. I’ve seen people be very hands off on stories that needed a lot of work, because they weren’t quite sure what to do with them. It can be hard to get critical feedback from people who lack familiarity with the world you’re writing about. On the one hand, one wants to believe that if the work is good enough, it carries its own authority and explanation, and people who lack familiarity with its context will gain some sense of it through reading. The problem is at the workshop level often the work isn’t quite good enough yet, and for writers from marginalized groups, the question of audience can become consuming quite early in the process. Novelist Tayari Jones wrote an interesting piece about the way her interpretation of the word freak differed from her editor’s. I’ve had to define the word pressed to most of the people who’ve reviewd my story Virgins, from workshop to publication. I’ve also seen people argue with native speakers about words and phrases in other languages. Someone who had taken a few years of Spanish once insisted the word mija did not exist. For problems that are literally issues of the writer and the critic not speaking the same language, there might not be much we can do beyond acknowledge it. However, at the level of character motivation, we can be more insistent that workshop readers not assume the character’s race/class/sexuality explains why they make decisions the reader would never make, and not let demographic details stand in for actual characterization. MFA programs didn’t invent hegemony, but that doesn’t mean they’re not an important place to look for ways to stop reproducing it."

--Danielle Evans (www.http://daniellevaloreevans.com)

I am posting this quickly. But will probably add my own two cents to this issue. I haven't wanted to talk much about the MFA... but Danielle's writing resonates.

2011-06-08T16:32:00.000-04:00

Check out "The Doris Encyclopedia", a Kickstarter project by cindy crabb

Doris is a great, long-running feminist zine

http://kck.st/mFveMe

check out the project here

2011-05-26T12:42:00.001-04:00

little a inexplicably found a binkie in the backyard... before taking it away I had to take this photo

2011-05-09T17:51:00.000-04:00

check it out: review of Manuel Munoz's new novel

Social Change Writers Networking Group

2011-05-05T18:07:00.001-04:00

JUNE 9th @ The Leeway Foundation:

Leeway Foundation presents this networking opportunity facilitated by Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela (LTA'05) on Thursday June 9, 2011 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm in our office (1315 Walnut Street, Suite 832. Wheelchair accessible).

This workshop is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is requested but not required.

Workshop Description CLICK HERE TO GO TO LEEWAY TO REGISTER: leeway website details

Leeway Foundation presents this networking opportunity facilitated by Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela (LTA'05) on Thursday June 9, 2011 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm in our office (1315 Walnut Street, Suite 832. Wheelchair accessible).

Novel, short story, flash fiction, poetry, play and screen writers--come meet other Philadelphia area writers to share questions, challenges, inspiration, resources and current projects. While this session will primarily be a social event, the hope is that it will provide attendees with a larger sense of community, some validation for art that addresses change and perhaps even new friends to be in a writing or reading group with. Ideally, this will be a space where writers can feed off each other in a positive way and be inspired. Whether you are just beginning or you have multiple publications, all are welcome.

Information about residencies, publications, grants, area MFA programs and writing workshops will be distributed.

The Leeway Foundation will provide drinks and some snacks, but feel free to bring something to share.

Short presentation and introductions will begin at 5:30pm. You can also drop in whenever between 5:30pm-7:00pm.

May 14th!

2011-05-05T18:04:00.004-04:00

1st edition

2011-04-09T19:39:00.004-04:00

Ultraviolet Catastrophe by Andrea Walls
a poetry chapbook

$4 in person
$7 postage paid (with $2 going to Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation)
Out now on Thread Makes Blanket.

This is the small press I started with friends. Layout and design was done by the excellent Thomasin Parnes and looks amazing. The covers were silkscreened at Reclaim Print Shop here in Philadelphia.

There is a paypal link up at threadmakesblanket.com

I will post a list of distributors and bookstores that will be carrying this chapbook soon. It should be available at Quimbys in Chicago, Needles and Pens in SF and through Just Seeds (www.justseeds.org).
Please email for bulk rates and to help distribute this wonder.

Much thanks to everyone who has helped out. This has been a great collaborative effort.

2011-03-05T19:13:00.001-05:00

Some good friends and I saw Mat Johnson read last night at Moonstone here in Philadelphia. He was excellent. The packed room really enjoyed the excerpt. I got the book and look forward to reading the rest. From what I heard, he is onto some next level shit.
Check out more, including all the good reviews, here: mat's website

2011-02-11T12:32:00.000-05:00

Steve and Roberto came to visit. 9th row at the Sixers and the Sixers won. Great to see them both. These are from the photo both at El Vez. Plus tequila.

our new pup pup

2011-01-27T21:45:00.001-05:00

Help name this dream girl!

Seriously, we can't figure out what her name should be. A front runner is "little a" but Kane isn't sure about it and is starting to become anti (which is not what the a stands for).

She is a bullmastiff rescue dog. Someone cruelly and crudely chopped her ears. Poor thing.

She's a dear.

UPDATE: Her name is, officially, "little a"
a bull-headed sweet bullie

2011-01-27T21:25:00.002-05:00

TRABAJO Y SUENOS EN TODO LOS GENERACIONES DE MESTIZAJE EN WYOMING
2006
Oil on Canvas
3-1/2' x 11-1/2'
University of Wyoming MeChA Collection

Calle 13

2010-12-21T17:32:00.002-05:00

Reciprocal

2010-12-08T21:47:00.001-05:00

Tonight my developmental English class at Community College of Philadelphia got me a thank you cake. I am proud--of the class, of my abilities, of the way we worked together to meet the goals of the course. I don't think I could ask for anything more from a class.
I mean that.
I don't want to make too much of it, but I think this sweet sweet cake made my year.

threadmakesblanket.com

2010-12-05T16:33:00.002-05:00

Update: The first publication-- Andrea Walls' Ultraviolet Catastrophe is almost done, and screen printing for the next publication is set for the first weekend in April.

new estimate:
1. will be out in mid April
2. will be out in mid May

2010-12-05T12:06:00.000-05:00

Coming soon. I'm guessing amazing. Look for it in March 2011. I'll post a review when I get a hold of a copy.

Here is the summary: For Teresa, a Mexican-American girl who lives alone and works in a shoe store, suddenly being courted by Dan Watson, easily the most handsome young man in town, is a heady experience. What she does not anticipate is how the attention they attract as a couple will lead to her death. Running parallel to this story of ill-fated love is that of a famous film director, visiting Bakersfield with a famous actress to scout location shots for his new movie which will be set in a similar, though fictional, town, and will feature a remote motel similar to the one owned by Dan Watson's mother Arlene.

2010-11-23T16:52:00.002-05:00

New York Poem

In New York from a rooftop in Chinatown
one can see the sci-fi bridges and aisles
of buildings where there are more miles
of shortcuts and alternative takes than
there are Miles Davis alternative takes.
There is a white girl who looks hi-
jacked with feeling in her glittering jacket
and her boots that look made of dinosaur
skin and R is saying to her I love you
again and again. On a Chinatown rooftop
in New York anything can happen.
Someone says "abattoir" is such a pretty word
for "slaughterhouse." Someone says
mermaids are just fish ladies. I am so
fucking vain I cannot believe anyone
is threatened by me. In New York
not everyone is forgiven. Dear New York,
dear girl with a bar code tattooed
on the side of your face, and everyone
writing poems about and inside and outside
the subways, dear people underground
in New York, on the sci-fi bridges and aisles
of New York, on the rooftops of Chinatown
where Miles Davis is pumping in,
and someone is telling me about the contranyms,
how "cleave" and "cleave" are the same word
looking in opposite directions. I now know
"bolt" is to lock and "bolt" is to run away.
That's how I think of New York. Someone
jonesing for Grace Jones at the party,
and someone jonesing for grace.

--Terrance Hayes

November 29, 2010 issue of The New Yorker

official rock star status = couture clothes with a photo shoot
and
they give you your own video
check out the video here

2010-11-21T13:01:00.000-05:00

Marissa,

Thank you for your application to adopt a great dane.

I am sorry, but we are uncomfortable with the neighborhood

where Catharine Street is located. I cannot get a volunteer

to do a home visit there. Good luck with your search

Cindy Kerr
Co-Coordinator for Pennsylvania and Delaware
Mid Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The italics above are full text from an email I just received.

Backstory: My partner and I have decided to adopt a rescue dog. I'm semi-obsessed with really big dogs and had been fairly sure I wanted a great dane. They are big, beautiful and are known for their gentle demeanor. I'd recently mailed the paperwork to start the Mid Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League adoption process because they seem to do most of the great dane rescues in the area.

So-- Cindy and whoever else thought it was a good idea to send "F you, you live in a shitty neighborhood" email to me. So many levels of shock on my part: 1. That they would choose to discredit me because of their misperceptions of the neighborhood. 2. But so what if they were even "right" about their perceptions, they would still be in the wrong because of racist and classist prejudices 3. that they wouldn't have the skill or consciousness to edit a little and avoid so blatantly saying "your neighborhood sucks and we are scared" 4. And to top it off (like with fancy sugary white icing) the email has an attached MLK quote! The irony! The incomprehension!

I'll continue to follow in the line of MLK's advice and refuse to be silent about things that matter. Despite the fact that being turned down by an uppity dog adoption group, in the grand scheme of things, does not matter, the blatant dismissal and ignorance the group demonstrated is wrong. I love my house. I love my neighborhood. I love Philadelphia.

save date: Monday, Dec. 13th Books Through Bars 20th anniversary celebration

2010-11-15T11:55:00.002-05:00

Monday, Dec. 13th at Dock Street Brewery (50th and Baltimore ave)
7pm

$20 ticket with proceeds going to Books Through Bars (ticket will include a slice of pizza and a beer)

I'll be DJing.

Andrea "Philly" Walls will be performing as well. Andrea is one of the rad poets I will be publishing (more about this soon).

Books Through Bars will be collecting book donations. Black/Latino focused books are always in high demand. Also, educational books and dictionaries.

Sonia Sanchez's laughter

2010-11-15T11:43:00.002-05:00

Went to a lovely Sonia Sanchez tribute last night. I decided to post this internet photo of her because it begins to capture the beautiful way she laughs. I appreciate people who balance fierce, unapologetic anger at injustice with full unbridled love and laughter. Actually, they are the same thing right? And, as Sonia reminded the audience, one is likely to be punished for both.
The highlight of the evening was, of course, Sonia herself. Her ramble never felt like ramble. So easily she moved from how Philadelphia needs to learn to love itself to telling a story of how she first learned of the atrocity of the MOVE bombing, from how tough it is to walk into a Philadelphia classroom and try and communicate with today's youth, to city officials turning their back on her, at an event they had invited her to, after she was arrested at a peace protest. She powerfully reminded the audience that the true way that we can thank her (or Ruby Dee or Bernice Reagan, or any person who inspires us) is to do the work.

Crosscurrent by m.l. smoker

2010-11-15T11:14:00.003-05:00

Crosscurrent
for James Welch

The first harvest of wheat in flatlands
along the Milk startled me into thoughts of you
and this place we both remember and also forget as home
Maybe it was the familiarity or maybe it was my own
need to ask if you have ever regretted leaving.
What bends, what gives?
And have you ever missed this wind?--it has now
grown warm with late summer, but soon
it will be as dangerous as the bobcat stalking calves
and pets just south of the river.
Men take out their dogs, a case of beer and wait
in their pickups for dawn, for a chance with their rifles.
They don't understand that she isn't going to make
any mistakes. With winter my need for an answer
grows more desperate and there are only four roads out.
One is the same cat hunters drive with mannish glory
and return along, gun still oil-shined and unshot.
Another goes deeper into Assiniboine territory:
This is the one I should talk myself into taking next.
I haven't traveled much the third except to visit
a hospital where, after the first time,
my mother had refused chemotherapy.
And the last road you know as well as I do--
past the coral-painted Catholic church, its doors
long ago sealed shut to the mouth of Mission Canyon,
then south just a ways, to where the Rockies cut open
and forgive. There you and I are on the ascent.
After that, the arrival is what matters most.

--m.l. smoker

I just submitted a book order that included m.l. smoker's poetry collection: Another Attempt at Rescue. Good stuff.
It's exciting to prepare to instruct Intro to Creative Writing for Spring 2011. Already I have two meetings set up with friend poets to start thinking about how I want to teach poetry. The fiction instruction will no doubt be a hybrid of Mat Johnson's, ZZ Packer's and Chris Abani's VONA courses. All invaluable. I also plan to offer a short fiction reading course for friends in the summer. I'll either have it at the A-space or here at the house. I think it will be themed along the lines of: short stories that can be considered punk. Maybe that needs to be an anthology too. If you have any suggestions, and/or would like to have the reading lists for any of the classes I'm working on-- email me. Also, I am starting to design a World Society in Literature and Film course that will have a Latin American Studies focus. Any/all suggestions are most welcome. I am thinking maybe Calle 13's film Sin Mapa, Bordertown with Jennifer Lopez (swear, it is good, swear) and a couple of other gems.

mexican american school kids confront racism

2010-10-14T23:58:00.000-04:00

rest in peace Tibor

2010-08-25T17:58:00.001-04:00

As Asia said from Kampala: "Viva the twin kittens Viva"