Speak! CD

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:*
*March 7, 2009*
*SPEAK! WOMEN OF COLOR MEDIA COLLECTIVE** RELEASING SELF-TITLED DEBUT CD*
*UNITED STATES *

SPEAK! Women of Color Media Collective, a netroots coalition of women of color bloggers and media-makers, is debuting March 7, 2009 with a performance art CD, accompanied by a collaborative zine and classroom curriculum for educators.

Compiled and arranged by Liquid Words Productions, the spoken word CD weaves together the stories, poetry, music, and writings of women of color
from across the United States. The 20 tracks, ranging from the explosive
“Why Do You Speak?” to the reverent “For Those of Us,” grant a unique
perspective into the minds of single mothers, arrested queer and trans activists, excited children, borderland dwellers, and exploring dreamers, among
many others.

“We want other women of color to know they are not alone in their
experiences,” said writer and educator Alexis Pauline Gumbs, one of
the contributors to the CD. “We want them to know that this CD will
give sound, voice and space to the often silenced struggles and dreams of
womenof color.”

The Speak! collective received grant assistance from the Allied Media
Conference coordinators to release a zine complementing the works featured
on the CD, as well as a teaching curriculum for educators to incorporate its
tracks into the classroom environment.

“*Speak!* is a testament of struggle, hope, and love,” said blogger
Lisa Factora-Borchers of A Woman’s Ecdysis. “Many of the contributors are
in the Radical Women of Color blogosphere and will be familiar names… I
can guarantee you will have the same reaction as to when I heard them
speak, I was mesmerized.”

To promote the initiative, the Speak! collective is coordinating
listening parties in communities across America, creating short YouTube
promotions illustrating the CD creation process, and collaborating with organizers and activists online and offline.

The CD is available for online ordering at the SPEAK! Media Collective site on a sliding scale, beginning at $12.

All inquiries for review copies should be directed to us at speakcd@gmail.com. Proceeds of this album will go toward funding for mothers
and/or financially restricted activists attending the 11th Annual
*Allied Media Conference* in Detroit, MI from July 16-19.

[Tip o' the Fedora: Elle]

Rick Warren? Say It Ain’t So!

Ok, President-Elect Obama. I sometimes just don’t get you. While I think it’s cool and all that Time named you the Person of the Year, and you certainly deserve it, I am absolutely baffled at your choice of Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation speech at your innauguration. What gives? I understand that you’re all about reaching across the aisle, and I respect that. I’d be flipping folks off, so you’re probably a better person than I; and I’ve long ago come to terms with the fact that you are not as progressive as I’d like you to be (and if you were, you wouldn’t be the President-Elect right now); but really, why are you giving a platform to a staunchly anti-gay, anti-choice minister, a man who refers to pro-choice folks as “holocaust deniers“?

I am so sick of people trying to make a point by disrespecting people’s lives and histories–both on the left and the right. That shit is so tired and needs to be called out more often.

There are many, many ministers out there that use their faith as an avenue of justice. I know. I’ve worked with them. The Rev. Rick Warren is not one of them. Here’s someone you could look up. Why? Why did you have to chose this man?

I also gotta say, that Aretha Franklin, who sang “Respect” and “Someday We’ll All Be Free” at a concert for Bill Clinton, will be following Warren…well, the irony of that is about to make my head explode.

I want to believe that my vote for you was the right thing to do. Please don’t prove me wrong. I hate being wrong.

It Doesn’t Work That Way

The first hint that I was about to come crashing down from my lofty and quite comfortable celebratory clouds was a comment left on a post where I expressed bafflement at the passage of Prop 8. The comment was nothing but a link to the exit polls. I followed the link, and after reading them, even though their was no actual commentary to go along with the link, I suspected that I was supposed to take note that 70% of Black Folks in California voted yes.

[update: I just noticed the email addy of the person who left the comment (something I rarely do, truth be told), and I realized that I know the person who left the comment, and can say that I now don't think there was any ill will in the leaving of said link]

Then, I saw a Tweet from Renee, directed to someone else, talking about people blaming Black Folks and Latin@s for the passage of Prop 8. I hadn’t read any of these accusation myself, but now, I can feel the clouds starting to dissipate right underneath me. Here comes trouble.

Then, I happen to head over to Vivirlatino, and what do I see but a post entitled, More Prop 8 Black and Latin@ Blaming. Then Joan posts this question: “And how do people get from ‘I’m gay and white and I voted for Obama’ to ‘black people owe me because of what I did for them?’”

Now it’s become clear to me that hanging up here in these clouds has made me a little blissfully unaware, and I’m not one to enjoy being blissfully unaware much. These clouds are getting thinner by the minute, but I know that when I land, as much as it will hurt, it will be for the better.

Does it matter to me that 70% of Black Folks in California voted “yes” on Prop 8? Yes, it most certainly does. It pains my heart. I agree with La Macha that Black and Latin@ communities have much work to do with regards queer issues. And I now realize that I should really be doing more myself to help heal these wounds and eradicate these prejudices. I am, nonetheless, equally pained at the notion that anyone is out there voting, or doing any other civic or activist or social justice act with the idea that they will be “owed” by other people. I am equally pained at the ease with which People of Color are so easily scapegoated, as if Prop 8 didn’t also pass with the help of a hella lot of White people as well.

You see, it doesn’t work that way. You vote for, you give aid to, you advocate for other people and causes because it is the right thing to do. If you’re doing it because you expect something in return, your doing it for the wrong reasons. No one wins in this situation because nothing has changed. No fundamental shifting of paradigms has occured. It’s simply, “I’ll throw you a bone if you throw me one back.” And the falling on the convenient (always marginalized, conveniently enough) scapegoat is just plain tired. You see it with Sarah Palin. Everyone is jumping in line to blame her for the Republican loss, and little is being paid attention to the horrific screw ups that McCain made as well. Palin throws “tantrums.” McCain has “anger management issues.” Palin doesn’t know the NAFTA countries, so she’s “ignorant.” McCain doesn’t have a friggin’ clue about economics and admits it, and he just needs a bit of education, is all. McCain doesn’t even know how many houses he owns, and yet it is Palin that is the “shopaholic.”

Now you may be wondering. Am I calling all of you so-called liberal folks out there who are so quick to blame the Blacks and the Latin@s for the passage of Prop 8 just as transparent and disingenuous and full of shit as those slimy republicans. Yes, in fact I am. Here’s a little advice from La Macha:

What this suggests to me is that communities of color have their problems–but largely white organizations seem to not value those communities until the time comes when they need them for their own agendas, and even then not so much.

Yes, it is a two-way street, so let’s leave all this blame-game/you-owe-us stuff behind and get to the actual work of reaching out, coming together, listening to each other, and maybe actually working for all this change that we claim to believe in.

In Which Props Are Given

To blogmiga Brownfemipower, for being named one of the 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing The World. I can’t think of a better adjective than “inimitable” to describe the work she does.

(Yeah, I’m ten days late. I may be late, but I never refrain from giving the props that need to be given.)

Be Bold! Be Red!

Via Document the Silence:

In October 2007 people all over the United States gathered physically and in spirit to speak out against violence against women of color. Some of us wore red all day and explained that we were reclaiming and reframing our bodies as a challenge to the widespread acceptance of violence against women of color. Some of us wrote powerful essays about why we were wearing red and posted them on the internet. Some of us gathered with bold and like-minded folks and took pictures, shared poetry and expressed solidarity.

This year, on the first anniversary of the Be Bold Be Red Campaign, we invite you to make your bold stance against the violence enacted on women and girls of color in our society visible. In D.C., Chicago, Durham, Atlanta and Detroit women of color will be gathering to renew our commitment to creating a world free from racialized and gendered violence, and this time, we’ll be using a new technology called CyberQuilting to connect all of these gatherings in real time. To learn more about CyberQuilting, which is a women of color led project to stitch movements together using new web technologies and old traditions of love and nurturing, visit www.cyberquilt.wordpress.com.

This letter is an invitation for you and yours to participate in a gathering in your city on Thursday, October 30th that will be webcast to similar gatherings in other cities. We are calling on you because we recognize and appreciate the work that you and the organizations you work with are doing everyday to make this a more loving and less violent world for women and girls in oppressed communities. Please join us on October 30th so that other warriors in this struggle can be strengthened and affirmed by the energy of our collective ferocity! Also we will upload the video of the video conference on this website on October 31, 2008 so that everyone can see what happened during video conference.

Please join me, and my blogmigos, in wearing red on 30 October (that’s tomorrow!) in solidarity and support.

Your Revolution

I was reminded of this song on this thread over at Jack and Jill Politics. So good. It’s a remix, as it were, of Gill Scot-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” and takes on misogynistic lyrics in Hip Hop. I’m kinda pissed now, though. I just spent half an hour digging through my records looking for this 12-inch and I can’t find it. There’s some really frigging good mixes of this song with DJ Vadim that I wanted to listen too. I can’t imagine for the life of me that I would sell this 12-inch, so were’d it go? Regardless, I had to share. Enjoy.

[Warning: NSFW for sexually explicit language]

“Your Revolution”

I Am a Community Organizer

And I will be blogging on Monday, 8 September, along with blogs such as the The Young Black Profession Guide, The Electronic Village, The Jose Vilson, From My Brown Eyed View, The African American Political Pundit, Springer’s Journal, and Inkognero in honor of the great work that Community Organizers do.

Please join me, and ask your blogging buddies to do so as well. I’m not interested in stories meant to score political points (although I’m pissed at the political cynicism that would attack community organizing). I’m interested in stories about the grassroots, the community organizers out there that are doing their thing via blogs, social networking, real life organizing that doesn’t have a (D) or (R) following it. That’s what I’d love to hear about. Since Community Organizing has been brought into the limelight, I would love to hear how those involved are working for progress and transformation. Progress and transformation from the ground up. So, while a lot of this action day will be political in nature, I’d like to see some posts, comments, whatever springing from my own post that are more focused on grassroots, non-denominational progress.

If that sounds like you, please participate and please leave a link in comments so that others can find you.