A. F. : Phone numbers and the next 3 Saturdays

[Pamela Santiago]

Leena Joshi - 503 916 9423
Minh Nguyen- 425 829 6287
Sara Grimes- 206 841 3388
Jasmine Zhang- 425 647 4136
Mario Lemafa - (no) phone
Chris Schulz- 509 240 5518
Travis Goss- 253 921 1489
Rebecca Ramshaw- 509 993 4811
Pamela Santiago- 210 857 9232

Here are the phone numbers of everyone who came to our last meeting.  I would recommend entering them into your phones, in case we need to contact, find out if people are late/arriving/upstairs/etc.

Adjunct to that, I wanted to clarify what it looks like we're doing for the next 3 weeks.
Saturday, February 12: Reading a piece about Paris is Burning, by bell hooks.  I didn't get the title, but I'm guessing it is "Is Paris Burning?"  Should be uploaded in the next few days.  Also, for anyone interested, going as a group to the 7:30 showing of the Vagina Monologues in Kane Hall Room 130.
Saturday, February 19: No meeting due to President's Day Weekend.
Saturday, February 26: Screening of "Paris is Burning" in place of reading.  Location TBA.  (Netflix synopsis once again: Penetrating the tight-knit community of minority drag queens living in New York City, Jennie Livingston's acclaimed documentary offers an early glimpse at the art of "voguing," the underground dance style later popularized by Madonna in her hit song. The film also explores issues such as racism, homophobia and AIDS, while offering a detailed examination of the intricate Ball culture, in which queens are judged for their style and expression.)

If anyone has any concerns, or things they would like to add/recommend for the agenda please reply (all) to this email!  I know the end of the meeting was a little confusing in terms of plans for the future.

[Sara Grimes]

is the reading on feb 12 @ allegro?

[Christopher Schulz]

yes, the reading is at allegro!

also, a proposal--I found a copy of "is paris burning?" to scan, and as I started reading through it, it seems like a critique that would make more sense for us to read much closer to the date we watch the film. it seems like in the span of two weeks, we might have forgotten some of what hooks is bringing up.

in a seminar I'm co-facilitating--"re-imagining justice: alternatives to police"--I sent out Beyond Restorative Justice: Radical Organizing Against Violence [andrea smith]. we could fill the gap this week with that, or finish stage 3 with US Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World [chela sandoval]. any preferences between these two?? write back with ideas! we can even start introducing another stage.

the revision looks like this:
feb. 12: "is paris burning?", bell hooks    ----changed to----->    ? (to be decided between the ones above)
feb. 19: no meeting, presidents day (many people gone)
feb. 26: watch "paris is burning"    ----changed to----->    watch the film, also discuss "is paris burning?"

do others agree? and which reading should it be? the sooner we settle this, the sooner we can be prepared for sat. and someone should bring a poem, artwork, video, or other intro piece; we didn't decide that either before leaving!
CS

[Minh Nguyen]

Hey, can I bring a piece?  I have a few good poems/book excerpts in mind.  

As for the readings, I have no preference between the two.  

[Bang N Sab!!]

Beyond Paris males in drag vs "Born In Flames" Real Anticolonial Feminists in their voice   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_Flames Might I suggest an additional element of women speaking for themselves in their own film. "Born In Flames" is inspired by real revolutionary anticolonial feminists from movements involving Assata Shakur & Marilyn Buck.   http://www.ifccenter.com/films/born-in-flames/ "revolutionary movie with mostly female characters living in a self-constructed world surrounded by a hostile environment. Posing as a sci-fi narrative Born In Flames released the pent up frustrations from the seventies that saw not enough change. Women were still second class citizens and glass ceilings were not rising but lowering. Two radical women’s groups do not see eye to eye. One group is led by a white lesbian leader who is loud and contentious. The other group’s leader is soft spoken and African-American. They both operate separate and competing... "   http://www.freedomarchives.org/wildpoppies/wild_poppies_poem.html then I was captured, locked into a cell of sewer water spirit deflated. I survived, carried on, glad to be like a weed, a wild red poppy, rooted in life   Wild Poppies Marilyn Buck Bang! +/-/= ********************************************************************* Our Struggle is for Life & Death Resistance & Solidarity If it ain't broke... break it down. Flash...Bang! --- On Tue, 2/8/11, Christopher Schulz <cpsc...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Christopher Schulz]

first, why don't we read andrea smith for this next meeting? minh has the poem covered!

and these are good suggestions, but I don't think the other film should be taken lightly or "shot down." I think the point should be to talk about identities at the intersections of class, race, gender, sexuality, instead of trying to school ourselves in a linear way to be "real" "revolutionary" "anticolonial feminists." bell hooks has a good critique of "paris is burning," and I'm interested in seeing these other films as well. but I honestly don't think, like I said, poor black males in drag in 1980s new york are to be dismissed or laughed at--especially as not being women, since the way they disrupted the gender binary is really interesting.

what do others think? we can talk about it saturday.

CS

[Bang N Sab!!]

I am sorry for overreacting and may have offended some, my words were too strong though my alternative film is more appropriate. But, you don't understand the serious controversy this film has in the queer and radical community, in short it has historically been very devisive. I don't have a copy of Bell Hooks, but we were very excited when the film was released until I read Bell Hooks' response to the film. I refuse to watch the manifest of manipulation and exploitation of one sexual minority by another whom is using race, class and access in obviously traditional colonial exploitations to manifest her own satisfaction to exploit and subjegate the black/brown male bodied into her phallic power fantasies. I don't need to watch a thing to be exposed to it's well intended thoughtful evil, such as torture of "enemy combatants", America's Most Wanted, or what this is; a dualistic heteronormative promoting, reverse-sexist, classist, colonialist, fetish pornography.   "Paris is Burning" director (Jennie Livingstone) is 'a white Jewish lesbian from Yale' (-Bell Hooks) while "Born In Flames" is made from the rest of queer society in a collaboration of New York's finest.   Here is a critique that articulates what I'm saying:   http://www.arasite.org/butler1.htm     "Hooks suggests that the filmmaker --  -- is able to disguise her standpoint in the usual way, by claiming to offer an ethnographic film: this is not progressive or counter hegemonic for hooks, but partakes of voyeurism and colonialism."

Bang! +/-/= ********************************************************************* Our Struggle is for Life & Death Resistance & Solidarity If it ain't broke... break it down. Flash...Bang!

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[Christopher Schulz]

(sorry this has been a back-and-forth thing on the listserve, I hope it's relevant)

I do know it's been divisive, I think that's one of the main reasons we could get a lot out of it. I just disagree that we don't need to watch the film to be aware of this dynamic (censorship often makes the same argument)--I think actually that watching it might make bell hooks criticism more meaningful. it can be hard to understand what she's saying unless you know the scenes she's addressing. watching it would also most likely get people to parse out whether (or in what way) it does promote heteronormativity and the other forms of domination you mention. butler's writing is also really good, we could also read that if we do opt on saturday to watch the film.

on the other hand, "born in flames" definitely looks more appropriate if we want to find something that we would feel less of a need to critique; the question is then what we're looking for: something to follow or something to think about; and the film we choose will most likely reflect the way we want to approach a film night.

CS

essentializing "white jewish lesbians" and condemning them to ignorance is probably not useful, even though it's tempting or could be true in this case.