Damelo Todo partners with Silvia Rivera Law Project

Damelo Todo is super honored to announce its first official partnership - with NYC-based Silvia Rivera Law Project!!! that means future love-sessioning, resource-sharing, and more! stay tuned...

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. SRLP is a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. Therefore, we seek to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming. SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for our communities. We believe that in order to create meaningful political participation and leadership, we must have access to basic means of survival and safety from violence.

(photo: Sylvia speaking in front of the Stonewall Bar, 2002)

cobra thursdays

getting ready for an interview with SAUL SARABIA tomorrow morning for damelo todo... thrill!!! and then going out to the COBRA with mah girlfriends mariana and zackary. THURSDAYS AT THE COBRA you hear me. revisiting a really important touchstone article, "death on terminal island" published by LA Mag in 2008 - brilliant analysis of the transgender/immigrant rights debate... 

in my preparations i was struck by this basic question - "can you identify some of the major legal issues for the transgender community in LA?" and it made me kind of trip out wondering if anyone can. or realize that we all can. i mean no one is the singular authority voice. for so long i've had this belief that somewhere in LA there is this group of like other people who are the authorites on trans/legal/organizing. but lately it's all becoming demystified. like there are amazing people doing this work. but it's like all of us. and there is no central database or anything. but it is actually quantifiable - in a really cool way - cause that means it's expandable...

just to spout off a few in no particular order... there's Gender Justice LA... Bienestar... Bamby Salcedo at Children's Hospital... Jake Finney and Drian Juarez & Trans Economic Empowerment at LA Gay and Lesbian... Victoria Ortego and West Hollywood Royal Court... QTEAM... Alexis Rivera at TLC-LA... Incite LA... Sex Workers Outreach Program... Community Friends... B.A.A.R.T. Clinic... Transgender Service Provider Network... Transgender Taskforce... and that's just like some of LA - then we got all of OC etc. see? we are all so plugged in already! see no mystery. love it.

living

i had a small but super meaningful breakthrough while editing damelo todo today. back in feb when i was working with matt wolf (who is now co-writer on the doc), we figured out that the moment when gonzalo ramirez died is a very significant turning point in the story. that might seem obvious to some people but i mean you have no idea how it's crazy hard it is to see the forest through the trees when yr dealing with all this material. i've been shooting and living inside this world for over two years straight.

when gonzalo actually DID die last februrary, i was so beside myself with grief it never once occurred to me to pick up a camera. i was waiting sleeplessly in the hospital waiting room with koky and javier and nicol. i remember sitting with gonzalo hours before he was taken off the breathing machine, holding his hand and watching his frail body move up and down. it was so alien and upsetting to see my friend like that. it was such a painful confusing time. there was already drama with the ramirez family. we were worried that koky wasn't going to be able to straighten out the will and inherit his half of the bar. i guess that would've be CLASSIC foreshadowing if i had even known i was making a movie at the time. so anywayz nothing is on tape.

flash forward to nowish- matt and i were trying to figure out how to represent this moment, and we were brainstorming a few creative solutions... when TODAY, i was logging old wildness performance footage- keep in mind in a totally braindead state, as i've been wading through hours and hours and HOURS of this stuff (most of it extremely crappily shot as i was trying operate a still camera, video camera, spotlight, and bartend all the same time) when suddenly i tuned into ashlands voice on the loud speaker and realized that HERE was the moment of gonzalo's death, and ashland is asking the crowd for a moment of silence. it's a PACKED house and then there is an EPIC moment of silence. and i think it actually communicates. i kind of lost my mind crying today, traumatized by having to relive that moment. but also felt awefully inspired by this whole process of documentation. i mean i had NO IDEA anyone was even filming- but i guess whoever i handed the camera to had the sense to turn it on... so now it lives forever. it's just real strange, because all these little moments when you're living them have no meaning, no accumulation. the process of making meaning through making art or film or whatever is a real trip. it's so OBJECTIFYING. but cool. anyways, who knows if that scene will even make it into the movie but it's definitely been a transformative experience to be able to go back in time so thoroughly and so deeply.

NOW OUT TO DA CLUB...

wildness does it FUSION

at the premier of Damelo Todo 13-min extended teaser in FUSION lgbt people of color film festival... 

i hate to say it but CLASSY huh? flacid trumpets sounding

funny i didn't notice until i posted how much we wildness can't (or CAN???) handle our shit in professional press situations - see post before (image taken for AnP Quarterly mag ahem i wonder why the editors decided not to include)

LGL N GROWN TONIGHT

today in a long sesh of sound-mixing damelo todo teaser with suzanne mejean and logan kibens then i'm picking up dean spade (!!!) from the airport and headed straight to LGL core collective meeting. we'll b processing the outcome of our second monthly legal clinic. dying to get back into it after 2 months of being spread all over the east coast... N THEN GROAAAAAN TONIGHT!

1263 WEST TEMPLE

DINNER HOUSE M

FOR WOMENS DAY I'LL BE

RAQUEL GUTIERREZ IS READING AN EXCERPT FROM HER SHORT STORY "DAMELO TODO" UPON WHICH MAH NARRATIVE FILM IS BASED...


Brochas y voces de la mujer centroamericana en Los Angeles
THURSDAY 7PM AT 257 SPRING ST. LOS ANGELES

“Brushes and Voices: Celebrating Central American Women in Los Angeles” will be the first of its kind to celebrate Central American women and their achievements in Los Angeles. Open and free to the public, the night will be filled with an art exhibit by Cecilia Mármol and Alicia Siu, a documentary clip of panamanian film-maker Anayanci Itzel Prado’s most recent work, a theatre piece by Raquel Gutiérrez, poetry and short story readings by author Rosanna Pérez, professor Alicia Estrada, professor Leisy Abrego and PhD student Oriel María Siu, music, words by Garifuna activist and cultural promoter Cheryl Noralez, and by Rosamaría Segura, author of the recently published book, “Central Americans in Los Angeles”. The purpose of the event is to honor these community voices and “brushes” as we also commemorate all Central American women’s daily struggles and lives in the city of Los Angeles. The MC of the night will be poet and novelist Oscar René Benitez. A night of community and sharing, the event will be hosted by Lot 44 Coffee Bar and the Lola Mora Gallery.

Damelo Todo premier of new 10-min extended teaser at Fusion 2010

FUSION LGBT PEOPLE OF COLOR FILM FESTIVAL

6PM THIS SATURDAY AT THE EGYPTIAN THEATER, LOS ANGELES

first theatrical screening of Damelo Todo material!!! 

brand new cut by suzanne mejean!!

DAMELO TODO awarded frameline completion grant

super psyched to announce we were one of FIVE AMAZING FILMS to be granted frameline completion funding! it's such an honor and financial blessing to be supported along side these amazing projects...

IN PARTICULAR

The Fire This Time directed by Blair Doroswalther

doc about the "new jersey 7" young black lesbians who were unjustly incarcerated for self defense

The Owls directed by Cheryl Dunye

new narrative feature!! from the creators of the epic iconic Watermelon Woman

LGL CLINIC EVERY LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH

g

LGL WELCOMES A NEW PARTICIPANT!

ALEXIS RIVERA!!!

(Transgender Law Center, TLC-LA)

<3 HEARTS <3

HOTNESS

WORK

next tues is LGL clinic #2!!! LAMELY i am still on the road (nyc for a week of editing Damelo Todo with Matt Wolf and Whitney Biennial opening) but also I must admit it feels a tiny bit strange and difficult to be working at Imprenta right now in light of the recent Silver Platter shakedown... especially martes. it super bums me out to feel this way because the conflict of a few individuals ought not to affect the community so much... and i know i know likely it doesn't for most people- things probably won't change much in terms of the actual scene at the bar, and therefore LGL will continue to have meaningful constituency. but i can't deny i feel suddenly (temporarily?) ungrounded from the place. when i interviewed Koky last week and he kept using the word inseguro, which translates to "insecure" but in context means more dramatically the feeling of having the floor drop out from underneath you. in my small way i feel the same.

for example it was surreal - to be at the estates/entrust lawyers office and see a copy of the Silver Platter's property lease. there it was, just a piece of paper with VANOWEN REALTY at the top. i mean, i have to same fucking lease for IMPRENTA... duh we are part of the same building. but it was kind of upsetting, like being a kid and finding out santa claus doesn't exist. i keep coming back to these parent/child metaphors. seeing the structure revealed in all its fragility. basically it's traumatic. it keeps returning me to the question of - what is the BAR??? a building? a business? the people? the block? the day of the week? the decade? are we ever really there? do we exist when we leave?? TRIP OUT.

more inspiration.

(EDITING DAMELO TODO AGAIN)

back in ohio = deep in da brain

 

 

 

 

(young soul rebels, sin nombre, ysr, party girl, born in flames, tongues untied, FMLN, the exiles, al otro lado, cabaret, nightcleaners)

weird little cloud

sorry for the silence friends.

for anyone who has been following along here, you can image what NO MORE WILDNESS means to me. i find myself in a weird position with this blog world - because i started CLASS to try to develop transparency about my experiences with Wildness and Silver Platter - and now i find myself suddenly surrounded by complicated legal drama which is not directly mine and therefore confidential.

so out of respect for those who's lives are most deeply affected - i really can't get into it. but in a nutshell: there has been an ownership dispute between our dear friend Koky Corral and the Ramirez family. i'm not sure exactly the why it suddenly flared up, but it has, and now Koky and Javier have been ousted from the bar - at least temporarily until they are able to sort out the legal stuff. as their friend and LGL advocate i'm trying to help with legal sitch, but more importantly i wouldn't dream of continuing Wildness without them, because they are founding members and collaborators. (i say "I" instead of "WE" wildness cause our collective statement is posted on our website, and my personal disclosures/opinions do not necessarily reflect the group.) i definitely don't take sides against the bar or any of the controling parties, and pray for everything can be resolved as soon as possible. i also want to shout out respect for Nora Ramirez, for reaching out to express her investment in the Wildness community. IT'S REALLY COMPLICATED OK. however having ventured out a little on my own to investigate, i can say for sure that this may take a LONG TIME - and that wildness may very well be OVER for good.

NOT LOOKING GOOD.

left to right: javier, the late gonzalo ramirez & koky

LOVE MY GAY UNCLES

SADDNESS ALL AROUND

OBVZ THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING ABOUT DAMELO TODO... TBC FOLKS

from a Wildness interview in AnP Quarterly, December 2008:

W: My goal is to do Wildness as long as humanly possible—in terms of it being party that anyone is talking about, I feel like I would even go beyond that. I’d do it regardless. To me there is something about the persistence of being an event that people can count on, especially in a city like LA where it can be harder to gather.  That's my level of commitment. Is to want to do it for at least two more years—I don't know if that's crazy, but I feel like that's totally a reasonable goal.

A: I feel like it would be cool if it were happening for as long as I'm living here, and longer—for sure—but im also excited by the idea of it being an ephemeral passing cloud—weird little wild cloud.

DAMELO TODO NARRATIVE SHOOT PRODUCTION STILLS - PHOTOS BY LOVE

THANK YOU QUREW!!!!!! SHOUT TO ERNESTO FORONDA, ARCHIE HERNANDEZ, ASHLEY HUNT, MICHELLE LAWLER, BRITT RINGER, ELSA VALDEZ, DESSIE COALE, RHYS ERNST, CHIARA GIOVANDO, DARELLE VARY, CANDI GUTTERES, MIGUEL BARRAGAN, LOVE ABLAN, SUZANNE MEJEAN, JEN SMITH, YU KARITANI, SHAKINA NAYVAK, DANI CARRERA, ASHLEY CORDOVA, ALYSSA MORGAN, GEORGE HUANG, AND TAISHA PAGGET!!!!!! 

AND OF COURSE DEEP TEARS OF LOVE AND RESPECT FOR TALENT WORKERS GABY, YASENYA, RAQUEL, SILVER PLATTER AND WILDNESS WORLDS

DAMELO TODO NARRATIVE SHOOT PRODUCTION STILLS - PHOTOS BY LOVE

DAMELO TODO NARRATIVE SHOOT PRODUCTION STILLS - PHOTOS BY LOVE