Sunday, March 22, 2009

Suga Mama

Wishing I was your suga mama but in this economy I will settle for some discount sweetness.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I hate myself for loving you




Joan Jett has to be the hotest ever.

Friday, March 6, 2009

The Realness

So I'm trying to sort out my feelings right now. My friend had top surgery a few days ago and I wish I could be there with him. But instead I wait for smoke signals. All is well so far but I guess I had visions of being of more support and comfort. So that hasn't happened. I want to send a care package but I haven't. I think I am trying to sort out how flirtatious or vulnerable I want to be. I know he wants me and is thinking of me but like I said he's got a situation and besides it's all about his healing right now. So where does that leave me.

This past week I've thought about just moving on and figuring out how to transition past all this and just move back to friendship. I have another someone I have my eye on that I could direct my energy on. Of course that starts a whole other level of uncertainty. Which I am finally okay with. That's what I signed up for this year with opening up my heart and coming out to play. I think the hardest part is that there is such a strong powerful beautiful connection that so far has been based on creativity, trust, honesty, openness and freedom. If I'm being real, I'm stuck between that lovely open place and just wanting to be number one.

So instead of going out tonight hanging with the homos y las jotas I decided to watch some documentaries. I watched this one called Gender Redesigner which had some beautiful moments and let me feel a little more connected.
and then I watched this U People and that one just really gave it to me. They're full length documentaries so if you want to watch them give yourself some time and you won't regret it.
And me well. I'm in no rush I guess. I'm gonna work it out. I'm feeling some pain but mostly that is from the uncertainty and the way I like to torment myself and pretend everything is cool. And there is no lack of love. Just not sure it's the kind I want.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Encuentro Xican@ II: Call for papers

Encuentro Xican@ II: Call for papers
please send far and wide. the new due date is friday March 20. Javier.


encuentro xican@ 2,

or, xican@ love and the new familia: gender, sexuality, and alliance

University of California, Berkeley

April 24, 2009



"Tenderness, a sign of vulnerability, is so feared that it is showered on
women with verbal abuse and blows. Men, even more than women, are fettered
to gender roles. Women at least have had the guts to break out of bondage.
Only gay men have had the courage to expose themselves to the woman
inside them and to challenge the current masculinity. I've encountered a
few scattered and isolated gentle straight men, the beginnings of a new
breed, but they are confused, and entangled with sexist behaviors that
they have not been able to eradicate. We need a new masculinity and the
new man needs a movement." Gloria Anzaldúa


The California electorate recently voted to uphold traditional gender
roles by passing Proposition 8. The controversy over the role played by
voters of color in passing this anti-gay measure has raised some questions
full with the possibility for both tension and alliance. At the heart of
this inquiry is love as responsibility, the ability to respond to one
another. Does the Chican@ community have love for its gays, lesbians,
queers and transgenders, and do gay, lesbian, queer, and transgender
Chican@s have love for their community? Familia has always been an
important value for Chicana/os, and familia seems to be the central value
for the advocates of gay marriage. How can familia be redefined without
the fetters of gender roles?

For our second encuentro xican@, we wish to explore tensions and alliances
among queer, straight, male, female, transgender, ChicanO, and ChicanA.
What does it mean to be a ChicanO/A feminist? What does it mean to be a
Chican@ feminist? In this 21st century, do we see Anzaldúa's new breed of
“gentle straight men”? What is at stake with this critical dialogue is the
possibility of re-articulating thoughts and practices, decolonizing the
present as well as articulating a future where gender and sexuality are
re-inscribed into the dynamics of power, society at large, and the Chican@
community in particular.We are fully aware that alliances are subject to
betrayal, even self-betrayal. An alliance must be both mutual learning and
referenced positionality, which means recognizing one's own privilege.
True meaningful alliances between Chicanas and Chicanos--across genders,
sexual orientations, generations, classes, and political ideologies--is an
ethical demand we must forge together and must not be taken lightly. How
can alliance be redefined as familia, with all its tensions and all its
loves?


We invite presentations (in English, Spanish) that explore and interrogate
various conflicts/alliances among gay, queer, straight, male, female,
transgender, ChicanO, and ChicanA, and their relations to labor history,
youth culture, indigeneity, migration, spirituality, performance studies,
visual and popular culture, policy, and violence against people of color.
Cultural arts centers, community workers, students and faculty from all
levels are all invited to participate in our encuentro. We are open to
receive individual or panel proposals that might work differently than a
‘traditional’ conference paper and encourage academic-artist-activists to
integrate different aspects of your work and talents that may take the
form of exhibit, performance, workshop, roundtable discussion, academic
criticism, or any rasquache combination of these.

Submit 300 word abstracts via email as word documents or PDF files by
March 20, 2009. Accepted presenters will be notified by March 25.
Submissions and inquiries should be sent to encuentroXWG@gmail.com

Sinister Wisdom 74: Latina Lesbians

March 14, 2009 Bird & Beckett Books, San Francisco, CA

Sinister Wisdom 74: Latina Lesbians (2008)
Reading and Celebration

“This issue of Sinister Wisdom is dedicated to: the memory of all the Latina lesbians who have come before us; incarcerated women, who comprise a third of Sinister Wisdom’s readership; and those who, inside or outside the closet, continue to struggle around the world for our voices to be heard and our rights respected. It brings together the worlds of 76 women born in 12 Latin American countries and the U.S.”

“Este ejemplar de Sinister Wisdom está dedicado a la memoria de todas las lesbianas latinas que nos han precedido, las mujeres encarceladas que componen una tercera parte de las lectoras de Sinister Wisdom, y a aquellas que, desde dentro y fuera del armario (closet), continúan luchando en el mundo para que nuestras voces sean escuchadas y nuestros derechos, respetados. Este ejemplar de Sinister Wisdom reune las voces de 76 mujeres nacidas en 12 países latinoamericanos y Estados Unidos.”

Guest Editor/Editora Invitada: Juanita Ramos

***

JUANITA RAMOS: Editor, award winning Boricua educator y feminista

LEA ARELLANO-La Chola Priest: Creative Arts performer sin igual

PATRICIA CONTRERAS FLORES: Youth worker, poet, Latina dancer

LUCY MARRERO: Technical writer, student, mother & luchadora

AVOTCJA: ¡Doing the Afro/Indígena/Spanglsh thing hasta el hueso!

RENÉE DEL LA ARAÑA: Counselor, lecturer Raza Studies SFSU

JANETTE ÁLVAREZ: Xicana lesbian feminist & grad student

MAYA CHINCHILLA: Poet, educator, scholar, director, & filmmaker

ZEMAYA MARTÍNEZ: Curandera, poet, storyteller, filmmaker, educator

CATHY ARELLANO: San Francisco Mission District poet & educator

SOAD GRAYEB: Poeta, orgullosa madre y luchadora por sus ideales

GRISELDA SUAREZ: Xicana lesbian writer, artist & teacher

MATÚ & SISTA DRUM-Matú Feliciano: Conguera, composer, poet, the Bay Area’s Borincana/Garífuna reincarnation of Olatunji. Sista Drum is made up of her students & members of the legendary Sista Drum

Y Hubo Alguien

Sunday, March 1, 2009