CLASS: April 2011

Apr 29, 2011

SONJI!!!

IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

having some sort of electric blue thing now..

READING READING READING

"lavender ain't white" john c hawley

the original single ladies silhouette

Apr 28, 2011

SONJI KIMMONS HONOR

SONJI KIMMONS IS A LIVING LEGEND
THE SCORCHING VOCALIST OF MANY SEASONS AT THE OTHER SIDE PIANO BAR
SHE HAS FALLEN ON HARD TIMES

like too many of us - because our world is not built for the unrich
a health problem led to medical bills to financial hardship to housing situation :(
extreme snowball of hard time

IT'S TIME FOR THE CHILDREN TO GIVE BACK
GET A QUEEN BACK ON THE PIANO BENCH WHERE SHE BELONGS
INTO OUR EARS AGAIN

Whether you know Sonji personally or have been blessed by the presence of her warmth and talent - please give to this cause because all queer elders need their children to support them! Do it because you believe in queer family and growing up and growing older together - do it because nightlife is a place of fantasy but when the lights come up we all gotta to live!

basically this is a party & simultaneous internet fundraiser
so if you can't make it, or don't live in LA - you can still help out!

SONJI KIMMONS HONOR EVENT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 8:30 - Midnight

GROWN (Total Freedom / SFV Acid) @ Dinner House M

LIVE BIDDING ON INDIEGOGO

LIVE SHOW - FATHER-SON-DUO

CHARLES AND MALIK GAINES (PIANO & DRUMS)
GUEST DJS NGUZUNGUZU

CURRY DINNER BY ANNA MARGARITA ALBELO

HOSTED BY REN-YO HWANG, RON ATHEY, WU TSANG, ZACKARY DRUCKER
& MIKI SAITO AND THE DINNER HOUSE CREW

$$LOGISTICS$$
The way this works is if you come to the event, you have the option of paying a door cover or bidding online (we will have a computer and internet access)... A donation gets you free admission and curry dinner! Hopefully we will reach our 2K goal at Midnight! After Midnight, the regular GROWN continues free as usual... IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT OR DON'T LIVE IN LA JUST RETWEET AND STUFF THANKS!!!

Apr 27, 2011

getting ready (again!!!)

Apr 19, 2011

coalition is dangerous

recently roya rastegar shared with me a speech by bernice johnson reagon called "COALITION POLITICS turning the century." in it, reagon offers a definition of coalition that changed my understanding of everything. the basic idea is that coalitions are the OPPOSITE of safe spaces. coalitions are dangerous and painful but we need them to survive.

i will paraphrase the basic idea analogy, but read it here for yourself. it goes like this

in this society if you are poor and brown, life is DIFFICULT to say the least. sometimes you need to create spaces to get away from all the struggle where you can be with your own kind. all it takes is a ROOM with a DOOR where you can check people by saying this is a space for US and if you're not down then you don't belong. safe spaces can be both nurturing and destructive.

But that space while it lasts should be a nurturing space where you sift out what people are saying about you and decide who you really are. And you take the time to try to construct within yourself and within your community who you would be if you were running society. In fact, in that little barred room where you check everybody at the door, you act out community. You pretend that your room is a world. It’s almost like a play, and in some cases you actually grow food, you learn to have clean water, and all of that stuff, you just try to do it all. It’s like, “If I was really running it, this is the way it would be. Of course the problem with the experiment is that there ain’t nobody in there but folk like you, which by implication means you wouldn’t know what to do if you were running it with all of the other people who are out there in the world. Now that’s nationalism. I mean it’s nurturing, but it is also nationalism. At a certain stage nationalism is crucial to a people if you are going to ever impact as a group in your own interest. Nationalism at another point becomes reactionary because it is totally inadequate for surviving in the world with many peoples.

reagon's idea of coalition means so much to me in thinking about all the fallout post-wildness - the general exhaustion i feel that i know is something bigger than just cause i'm working on the movie. the silver platter was and IS an amazing safe space for the Latina transgender community in Los Angeles. wildness was a weird anomaly that for a brief moment created a space for true coalition-building. we ALL had to put ourselves out there, to WORK through discomfort of trying to all occupy the same space. it was hard and painful, but it was vital and real. now that moment has passed we all retreat back to where "we came from" / where we "belong." even for me and my DJ friends. back to our different words of nightlife and fine art. for LGL, many have retreated too. back to our activist circles, back to law offices and classrooms.

i miss that moment where we were truly coalescing but i recognize that these movements come in cycles and waves, and sometimes we DO REALLY need to retreat and be with our own kind - whatever that my be. in my case i'm still trying to figure it out ;)

Apr 18, 2011

time going on

since koky got his job back at silver platter, things seem to have gotten way back to normal... almost as if nothing (including wildness ;) ever happened... silver platter is as it ever was... AHMAZING !

last night was koky's 47 birthday the platter was poppin with a-list ladies, including mexican pop/cumbia singer AMANDITITITA (3rd left)- a recent hollywood hills resident -escorted by our dearest dani carrera- who came to see the geishas do her impersonation !!! so graceful. beyonce did the metrosexual hit

(vid still by dani c)

Apr 11, 2011

new channel

i want to take a minute to call out the fact that this CLASS blog doesn't seem to be as much about partying anymore. not cause i'm not going out, but because those experiences aren't affecting me in the same way. sometimes going out is just going out, you know? it's also because so much of club culture is about hotness & newness, and the THING i'm working on is now officially a past moment. that energy keeps migrating to other clubs and other kids doing stuff in other places... and always will... = a good thing!

while it was always personal, it used to feel more political to be reporting on my friends and nightlife, in a way that just doesn't feel genuine now. so basically gears are shifting. gotta stay true to what i'm actually excited about, which right now happens to be a lot more nerdy stuff like this worksheet (above) that LGL uses to train white allys. (or this book i'm reading called POPULAR CULTURE IN THE AGE OF WHITE FLIGHT - FEAR AND FANTASY IN SUBURBAN LOS ANGELES) the legal clinic is perhaps less glamorous- or differently glamorous? but all these activities have really pushed me towards wanting to deal with race & class stuff more head on. and the closer i get the more real and hard it is to talk about = exciting again yay! so stay tuned to the new channel........ ;)

there is this book about gentrification in wicker park, chicago and some of my friends are on the cover (rhys and/or ashland i think?). i'm not, but i may as well be- because i participated in that scene in the early 2000s. so you see that THING i care about- it keeps going. it's ain't going away...

i realize i might lose some of you in this process but hopefully you'll find your way back when the wildness movie drops and things get a little more entertaining again ;)

Apr 6, 2011

wildness movie update

can't stop caring about the kirkwood for rodarte spring/summer '11 foot...

so here's what's up w WILDNESS: we've been editing now for 15 month- and we got about 6 more to go. I KNOW crazy. hard to explain WHY editing takes so long, but basically TIME is the only way to make a story better... it gives you more perspective on how the thing plays for people who don't know anything. and THAT feels important because a "movie" can become widely available- like on netflix or whatever- where ANYONE can find it and watch it. so that's why it's so important to get the story as "right" as possible.

it's kinda the same as throwing a party- the hotter the thing, the more popular it might get- and if the party is also an important safe space for you and your friends then you have to be careful how word gets out... cause it is a public event in a way that ANYONE could should up. so every little decision you make affects the kind of people who will be attracted to it and feel like it's their space.

there's a 2-tier structure in the film world: the "mainstream/straight" circuit and the "gay" one. most queer films end up on the gay circuit (festivals, distribution, audiences etc). it's sad but obviously true that gay is seen as "lesser" cause these circuits are driven by straight-up commercialism. whatever sells = value. so programmers, producers, reps, agents, everyone is dealing with the fact that the most dollar$ spent are by straight whites - and for the most part those people want to see movies about themselves, like stories they can identify with. OR if the movie has queer/poc content, then it has to be made in a way that straight whites are comfortable viewing.

so basically if you are anyone other than straight & white - and making a movie about anything different, you have 2 choices. you either say FUCK IT, and make the movie you wanna make, for the people around you, who you know are going to get it. or you say YES i wanna reach those outter circles- and then you have to translate your message into a language that straight white people understand. that is basically the language of standard documentary.

there's a movie that just got released to netflix instant play - so it's really easy you can watch it NOW - called WHICH WAY HOME. it's about immigrant children who migrate to the u.s. by cargo trains in search of their families. it's fucking heartbreaking. but the story is also told in that HBO-style that is super comfortable for white audiences. cause it distances you, puts you in this total space of pity, thinking you've done something positive by just watching the movie and becoming more aware of the problems of migration, and then turn off your tv and go back to living your life in the exact same fucking way. i say fuck that. but do watch the movie! it's amazing, and it definitely makes me feel more and more like WILDNESS doesn't need to get on a cargo train, cause clearly that story is out there. let's move on to something more complicated!