Some thoughts on The Southern Harms Reduction and Drug Policy Conference 2012 in Atlanta

                                                                                          photo by Stella Zine

                                                                                  photo by Hadley Gastafson

       On Thursday Sept 6th I along with a group of fifty+ people took to the streets of Atlanta for the cause of Harms Reduction! We were chanting things like "what do we want …Safe Access, …Clean needles, …Condoms, and when do we want it? NOW!! …Reproductive Justice in the South!! When do we want it? NOW!!  …Drug Users, Sexworkers, nothing about us with out us!!” The video right below is a vid I took as we were marching.

                                                                                     video by Stella Zine

       I am back home now, basking in the afterglow after attending The Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference 2012 and getting out in the street in Atlanta. ( I started this post months ago right when the conference happened:)) ....It was a fabulous conference and I met so many wonderful activists. The Conference was organized by Atlanta Harms reduction Coalition, North Carolina Harms Reduction Coalition, Women with a Vision (New Orleans), and Streetwise (Tennessee).

     I was there Sept 6th thru the 9th . I spoken on a panel “Sexwork and the South’. I also wrote a Harms Reduction Warriors’ organizing song and led a group music event that resulted in lots of gorgeous voices accompanying me in a harm reduction fight song for drug users and sexworkers! Which I feel, and was told by many at the conference, helped infuse energy for our group right before we went out and marched on the Georgia Capital! It felt so good to get into the streets of Atlanta and march and chant too!

      I attended many fabulous panels; I loved all the ones I attended. I met Lots of wonderful southern activist, it was so inspiring…here are some of the titles of panels I attended… ‘Working with People of Transgender Experience’(in the pic right below), ‘Sex Worker Criminalization’ and ‘Street Nursing and Out Reach Skills’ and the one I spoke on myself “Sexwork and the South’.

                                                                                           photo by Stella Zine

I got great feed back from people that heard our panel. Many people told me they learned a lot and felt it would help them to be more compassionate and knowledgeable when providing services for Sexworkers in the south. That makes what we did a success, that’s the goal. This is so needed especially in the south. I feel our whole panel was well balanced and each of us brought out different points that complimented the whole. Reverend Lia School (the rouge reverend) shared her evolution of learning to go beyond stereo types of sexworkers that need to be rescued to seeing them/us as human beings that need safe access to health services, condoms, and to the law. She also spoke about how she worked for HIPSDC harms reduction model sexworkers rights org. Maggie McNeill spoke in depth about her fascinating sexworker activism and also shared about her sexwork history in New Orleans. Maggie was also my room mate at the conference and we had many great discussions. Jessica Land also on our panel, 'sexwork in the south' did a brilliant job speaking about the urgent, often neglected and dire topic of violence against sexworkers in the south. She informed the audience to the fact that there is a serial killer in the southeast currently killing sexworkers that has not been caught. This is a big deal that is very under reported. My co-panalists all gave excellent and informative presentations. Art Jackson was the moderator for our panal who gave an impassioned powerful talk the day before on the importance of having someone HIV positive on the staff of HIV/AIDS organizations. When I spoke I concurred and added that in any organization serving sexworkers absolutely must have sexworkers or former sexworkers as consultants, staff members or board members for an organization to be ethically representative.

     Also  I presented and spoke about how as a white person and sexworkers activist I felt that undoing racism and colonialism is a front burning issue and needs to be central in any human rights movement including the sexworkers rights movement. Wheather the GLBTI, Women, Disability or any movement the inequality/race card comes up time after time. I said it should be dealt with first, especially in the US south. I talked about ways to do that, one of which being creating relationships with sexworkers and organization of color and developing, honoring, nurturing those relationships, and in those connections being transparent and listening. Which actually was happening a great deal at the conference. Becoming a good ally involves checking white privilege, tho in the south there are many poor and rural white that along with black, indigenous and migrant people are all not basking from the privilege of colonial patriarchy and are dealing with Southern poverty, incarceration and other forms of warehousing of human beings.

     I also talked about how both the strip clubs and interestingly the churches are both very segregated in Atlanta. I stripped at a mostly white club in Atlanta for ten years called the 24k on Cheshire bridge road. It wasn’t a big fancy white club it was more working class/punk/biker-esque. I did work at most of the big fancy ones like the Gold Club or the Cheetah, (both the biggest fanciest clubs in Atlanta) but I never stayed at those.

       I also talked about the 24k, the club I had stayed at for 10 years, and about how the strip club was viciously raided a few years ago by the ‘Red Dog’ police unit in Atlanta and barely a word about it in the media or in the activist community. A month before a gay bar on ponce de leon boulevard, 'the Eagle' was raided, also by the Red Dog unit, and there was a HUGE rally with politicians and hundreds of community people coming out to make noise. There was even national out cries and it was written about by people all over the country and even international out cry, But nothing for the strip club when women were brutally harassed and arrested by the red dog unit? This happened after I had stopped working there, I didn’t even know it had been raided that badly until I looked the club up on line to see if it was still there. My point is how much more support the queer/lgbt community gets when it is attacked compared to how much support those in the sex industry receive.

I spoke about the power in sexworker peer-lead initiatives and support systems. I shared ideas about how that could look and about organizations that were implementing peer-lead support programs such as st james infirmary in San Francisco.

         Clearly No one felt we needed more criminalization. All presenters on the topic of sexwork unanimously felt that sexwork should be decriminalized! It’s just that there was lots of discussions going beyond and digging deeper into the intersections with the movement to end mass incarcerations, demanding reproductive justice and access to HIV services in the south. The massive criminization, systematic opression and lack of justice for people living on street based economies is extensive and complex. Because POC and those rural and on street based economies are being criminalized for so many things. Of course we should still fight for the decimalization of sexwork, it just more complex for people of color, migrants, and indigenous people. Simple put I learned how important it is that the US Sexworker rights movement deeply intersects with and needs to form partnerships with the movements to end mass incarcerations!

   Kelli Dorsey, director of 'Different Avenues' in Wash DC, during her enlightening presentation said that decriminalizing sexwork may not even make that much of an impact for people of color and people w/ street based economies because they will always be criminalized for something...  Hence police tactics such as racial profiling, stop and frisk, systematic state oppressions like criminalizing homelessness, lack of voting access and poverty etc.                                                                                        
(pictured in the photo directly above from left to right, Mona Bennett, Kimberly Thrush, Alan Clear, Kelli Dorsey, and Deon Hayward during the panel 'the importance of including drug users and sexworkers in decision making' photo by Stella Zine)

     Also There was lots of talk and agreement that focusing on the decriminalization of sexwork is extremely important not just decriminalizing condoms. Although Margaret Wurth of Human Rights Watch did a brilliant power point talking about a new study done thru her organization HRW that was done about the problems with the police using condoms as evidence to criminalize sexworkers.

     The definition of the word ‘sexwork’ itself was brought up as an issue. Deon Hayward director of 'Women with a Vision' in New Orleans, (the organization that successfully advocated to turn around bad laws such as the 205 year old 'crimes against nature' law in Louisiana), and Kellie Dorsey both felt there were major problem with using the term 'sexworker' for helping those on street based economies. Deon brilliantly spoke about how many women on street based economies that she worked with didn’t identify with the word 'sexworker'. As an example she said if a woman seeking services at WWAV is asked if she is doing sexwork she most likely will not know what your talking about. But she may say “I traded 50.00 when someone wanted to see my pussy.” But in general the word sexwork is not in common usage. In another awesome keynote talk she did at Desiree Alliance Conference 2010 she spoke about how many of the women living on street based economies that she works with in WWAV do not want to be in the sex trade and want access to opportunity to help them out of situations they feel trapped in. Due to things like systemic/structural state violence and the complexities of racial oppression don't even want to talk about trading erotic services for money and express a lot of shame because of the life-style. This is a big deal when doing actual out reach to those on street based economies in the south.

    After a panel while chatting with Kelli Dorsey she spoke about a national think tank w/ US sexworkers activist to help develop training education and workshops around the language and rhetoric of the sexworkers movement for people in the south. I love the idea. So Sexworker activist can learn more about sexworkers with street based economies in the south. Plus southern sexworkers and activists can find out more about the rhetoric (aka language) of the current internationals movement and more will be revealed as to whether it can be helpful or weather the current US sexworker rights movement rhetoric needs to change. Kelli said she felt it does not benifit women of color to be out as 'sexworkers'. This is very significant because number one - rhetoric is vitally important for creating policy and fighting unjust legislation, and number two - because the voices of women of color needs to be central in the ‘sexworker’ right movement. The voices of indigenous, migrant and other women of color both cis and transgendered also must be central to our movement for us to gain ground, ie to stop mass incarceration... ( how can the voices of southern women of color in the sextrade be central if they must remain invisible for there safety? also how do we create safe spaces in the sexworkers rights movement where women of color cis and trans voices are central with out 'outing' people of color in the south?) So understanding what Deon Hayward director of WWAV and Kelli Dorsey director of Different Avenues have to say about the words we choose is extremely important, even if our rhetoric needs to change or at least be fluid. Dr Mirelle Black Feminist Professor at UC Santa Barbra who writes about Black women in the sex Industry and feminist porn tweeted from the the Catylyst con 2013 east... 
"In [the] black community, [we're] not suppose to talk abt sex or sex economy; we've been hypersexualized; defense mechanism." 
    Dr. Mirelle brings up an excellent point that I feel is important to consider in the context of sexwork in the US south. Black women have been so hyper-sexualized in culture so it makes sense that it would be a survival tactic and a defense mechanism to not be out about being a sexworker, or comfortable embracing 'sexworker pride'. Tho I think it's important to note Dr Mirelle sees 'not talking about sex or sex economy' as a defense mechanism. Being an out sexual being and monetizing erotic services for consenting adults is a civil right for any person.  For any of us to have to hide leaves us more vulnerable to bad policy, bad police and or harmful clients. 
     Much of the visible national US sexworkers’ rights movement in the last 15 or twenty years has been pretty dern white. Though at the international Conference on Prostitution in 1997 that I attended, was very multi-cultural and fabulous. But it has seemed like the American sexworkers rights movement has been visibly white. That must change for the movement to really be effective and reach goals of ending violence against sexworkers, end stigma and decriminalizing all aspects of the industry in the US. And from learning more from my sisters of color in the struggle I am realizing how decriminalization of sexwork is not enough, ending all genocidal mass incarcerations is dire.

    When I spoke on the ‘sexwork and the south’ panel the topic of sexworkers rhetoric came up again. I said I felt (the word ‘sexwork’) is simply a descriptive word for exchanging a sensual service/labor for money. It was a word first used by seminal sexworker rights activist Carol Leigh and used as a title of a groundbreaking anthology by the name ‘Sexwork’ edited by Pricilla Alexander in the late eighties. Using words like sex trade, sex industry, and sex work are important in my view because it accentuates the concept of labor. So if sexwork is acknowledged as a service, and if it is seen a labor, working conditions can be negotiated and raised.

      

                                                                                                     video by Stella Zine

 "Mona Bennett (in the video directly above) Was given a lifetime achievement award because of her amazing work at the Atalanta harm reduction coalition. she has been there for 15 years and help make AHRC one of the best harm reduction organizations in the country. Mona Bennett is one of the most amazing outreach workers and human beings I've ever met and you always welcomed me with open arms and the smiling face. thank you for all your hard work.” a fellowed out reach worker said and I concur!

      I myself have know Mona over 15 years, I worked doing out reach and was on the board of AHRC in the 90's. I really think Mona has been doing AHRC longer than 15 years. Mona Bennett aka Mona Love, as many of us know her, so deeply deserves an award, and it's long over due! She is the virtual backbone of the Atlanta Harms Reduction. She has been in the Atlanta trenches doing so much activism and a literal harms reduction outreach strolls on the streets in Atlanta for so many years continuously. If she wrote a true CV it would probably be huge, from Atlanta Act Up in the early/mid nineties and her involvement in protesting to move the Olympics out of Cobb Co. in 1996. (A Ga county outside of Atlanta had an anti-gay resolution and she was one of the activist instrumental in getting the Olympics successfully moved out of the county.) She also campaigned tirelessly to get the GA sodomy law over turned in the late 90’s to continually standing up for pro harms reduction legislation and preventing overdoses. What a hero, I am so glad she is being recognized. 

    It was a fabulous conference and I know there's so much more that could be included, for instance, I must mention the amazing organizing work that Robert Childs the director of North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, did to make the conference such a success. Robert is from New York but is a total gift to the south, he was named one of five people who made a difference in HIV in the USA in 2011 by Thebody.com. 
     I may even do a part two post on the conference.  Tho it is now time to let this post see the light of day! I also know there is a huge amount of new pressing situations occurring in the southern sexworkers rights movement in early 2013. In Atlanta currently, we are fighting a proposal by the Atlanta Police Department for increased criminalization and actual 'banishment' of sexworkers from the city limits on a second charge of solicitation (prostitution/sexwork). Which could of course have a devastating impact for those on street based economies if the legislation passes. That is for the next post! I am so grateful for the inspiring conferences and activism going on here in the south and I look forward to next years southern harms reduction conference in New Orleans! 

all of the photos and videos are taken by me with the exception of one by Hadley Gastafson credited on a photo above.

TOOLS to STAY ALIVE, CREATE SAFTEY by ANY MEANS NECESSARY ♥

(i began writing this post three years ago on MLK Day, wrote more on it Jan 16th 2011, then the JAN 25 EGYPTIAN Revolution happened and it inspired MORE of course!! and i have decided to go on a POST IT NOW on INTERNATIONAL WIMIN'S DAY 2012!!! i may come back and add some photos later :)) for now here is some 'Stay Alive' info with love from me to you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥)


These are just a few of the things that make me feel safe.
I have also posted here many alternatives to mainstream psychiatry....

the past few weeks i have been engaged in the egyptian revolution and
what is happening to the pro-democracy demonstrators. now enthrwalled by the political awakenings of bahrain, yemen, libia, iran & iraq!

It is so exciting!!!
the thought of a real live DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION like wahat happened feb 11th in egypt! ThaT makes me feel SAFE!!!!!



one thing to consider while exploring the concept of safety is, that it is relative & personal.
what makes one person feel safe may not feel safe to someone else.

in the middle of a protest going on for two week, things like food, water, toilet paper, and avoiding gun fire from crupt police thugs & avoiding maltov cocktails would seriously help crete safe space.

for instance some one dealing with post traumatic stress PTS from gunshot sounds or other violence might not feel safe being in a situation that is triggering, such as at a movie with lots of violence. where as someone else may feel safe watching the same movie.

another instance of differing ideas of safety with the same situation is how one person may feel safe talking to a therapist & another person who has experienced psychiatric abuse is absolutely terrified at the thought of talking to therapists.

also what made me feel safe fifteen years ago isn't necessarily what is making me feel safe today.
Some of the things that make me feel safe are the same but some are different.
Tho much of this list are things I used to feel safe though-out my life.

also privilege is a very important thing to consider when thinking about what makes people feel safe.
and remaining unjudgemental of others and of our own choices/differences.
Once again safety is relative. and in many ways privilege is relative. (but that's a huge blog for the future)
twenty years ago i lived on the street. not all the time but alot.
i actually felt safe in many ways on the street, in some ways i still do, and will probably always feel that way.
i didn't have an address then. today i have an address, i have a warm bed and i really like my bed,
it's a cool thick futon mattress. I LOVE it!
(that is a privilege, that don't take for grated and i remain grateful for.)


In a way what I am talking about is harms reduction also.
At one time having beers with my friends made me feel safe.
but i also was a black out drinking party girl for many years
and so drinking where i wouldn't have to drive,
or be around people that would hurt me,
or end up in jail made me feel safe.



so keeping in mind things that make us feel safe, comfortable and feel a sense of peace are relative,
here's some current tools stay alive tools i use....


---------

happy MLK day

knowing that there is a day to celebrate MLK
makes me feel safer.


these are tangible objects i carry

in my backpack i will tend to have a couple light weight & easy to
carry validating zines like.....

'Friends Make the Best Medicine' zine/guide for creating a support group
from the Icarus project (radical mental health collective)

and at many times in my life
zine's like, April Fools by Kathleen Hanna.

ROIT GRRRL zine from leeds UK (writtin in the early 90's)

an issue or two of danzine (from the 90's a zine for sexworkers)
maybe a magazine like bust, spread, princess, accent, yes,tikkun,
utne,mother jones, a yoga magazine. or bitch

this is all recovery literature 4 me***


sometimes i carry a small meditation book
i definitely carry books around with me either in my car or on
me...(in a back pack or bag)

i really love my books ,,,they help me feel safe

i tend to have one or two on me,,,and maybe more in my car....


off the top of my head (they wiil change & come back around), but
these are just some of my favorites...

one or more of these fabulous books will probably be near me at all times!!!!
books:
below are mostle personal creates books not particulary political.
although the person is politixcal, nother topic.



-the Artists Way
by Julia Cameron

-live through this
ed. by sabrina chapadjiev

-Life is a Verb
by Patti Digh

-radical forgiveness
colin tipping

feelings burreid alive never die
by Karol Truman

survival into the 21st century
by Viktoras Kulvinskas

the woman who spilled words all over herself
by rosemary daniels

living foods life style
by Brenda Cobb

whores & other feminists
ed. by jill nagel

the survivors guide to sex
by Staci Haines

both REsearch angry women books
interviews by A. Juno

you can heal your life
by louis hay

[ new additions ♥♥♥♥♥ 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens,
Freaks and other Outlaws
by Kate Bornstein!!!!

I am really loving any writings by Michelle Tea, her early stuff and
recent writings with her awesome punk rock journey in sobriety)

( i know that the positive thinking type books such as
Louis' book can be materialist.
but i also know that she came from severe poverty,
and childhood of sexual abuse that lasted for years.
and she healed her self of cancer w/ out expensive medical procedures.
i think we can learn alot from someone willing to think positive after all that!
so i recommend take what you like in the book or can use and leave the rest)

more of my picks for stay alive books...

feminist perspectives in music therapy
ed by susan hadley

creative visualization
shakti gawain

things to make & do (journal)
by nikki mcClure (great to write in!)

practicing peace in times of war
by pema chodron


i also carry around
my own songs & writings
in progress

a journal to write in with an actual pen or pencil (sometimes colored)

i now carry my lap top with which to write words & software ability to
do electronic music with (i've made it so it's mobile and all able to
fit in my back pack)

a hematite necklace (i've heard it's good for depression).


helicrysum oil from Croatia (an antimicrobial very much like an tee
tree but feels stronger 4 me...a friend told me it can stop a heart
attack, i never had to test that......but used it on a mole for 3
months & it drop off with out surgery leaving no scar!!!!!.....it can
be expensive depending on where you get it but i use it when i need
massive calming abilities.....good 4 dealing with even terror!)
i also like to carry lavender oil 4 calming


GREEN SMOOTHIES!!!!!
i get empty jars i clean out & fill with
bended; 60-80&% dark leafy greens 40-20% low glycemic
fruits....apples, blueberries, cucumbers
these definitely help me feel secure and strong
~ the last 4 years or so i've carried them with me everywhere!!!!
i went through some difficult mental & physical health challenges and
these help soooooooooooooooo much


in my purse i have:
i carry supplements such as food grade enzymes
i carry the herb white willow bark in capsules 4 head aches (it's what
aspirin is made out of)
a battery operated tuner
a guitar tool with allen wrenches for changing strings on the floyd
rose bridge on my electric guitar
guitar picks
lip stick& eye liner from a health food store (with out too much toxic
crap in it)


IPOD...with lots of awesome music, audiobooks & radio podcasts
(madness radio and books on the ipod from above list etc.)

i carry a guitar alot (sometimes elec. sometimes acoustic)

drivers lic.& car insurance (this is a must cause going to jail sux!!!)
of course if flying into a different country a passport!

cash/dosh (having some cash on me makes me feel secure ~i'd like to say i
wasn't at all effected by this capitalist monoculture, but i still am
in it to a degree~~~i'm working on living in & creating community more
heart based less cash based...)

i've learned to walk like i'm packing
something~ it works


these r intangeable objects i carry with me.........

taking responsibilities 4 my self & life (mentally & physically)
as painful & difficult as it is sometimes the
self esteem/respect especially gained through
sex-positive 3d wave feminism is worth it!

a yoga teacher told me the strongest defense is an open
heart.....after being a survivor of many manifestations of VAW & Harmful Toxic Situations from the 20th & 21st century... i do my best
to keep an open heart as the thing that is the most powerful tool to
feel secure......
i keep opening my heart by using the above mentioned.....

the words, and stories of activists like
♥ Malcom X, ♥ Charles Upchurch, ♥ MLK, ♥ Angela Davis, ♥ Bell Hooks, ♥ Norm Finkelstein,
♥ Thich Nhat Hanh, ♥ Code Pink, ♥ Alice Walker, ♥ David Oaks,
(also now the pro-democracy egyptian demonstrators too!)

also i would like to also point out an important stay alive tool i have utilized though the years is revolution itself to help me heal. like in 1997 where a deeply unconscious soul kept setting off pipe bombs in atlanta aimed at wimin and queers. i choose to organize a march, demonstrate and we marched to the kings center in atlanta after a bombing at a gay bar that i played music in. i had the alternative to stay in my bad put the covers over my head and get realy depressed about the string of hate hitting Atlanta, internalize it and become violent myself or get into action and stand up non-violently to the unconscious forces. It felt sooooo good to demonstrate!!!! That made me feel safe and strong. I demonstrated with some of my friends we were all in a group called the lesbian avengers, we were toppless with lotsa colored hair and punk rock rock hair.and we literally ate fire during the demonstration and chanted.

we chanted 'the fire will not consume us we'll take it and make it our own!!!'

that chant is a perfect transition to stay alive songs!

there r songs i carry in my head

the words to songs that give will always give me strength and help
me feel secure....
& to have the guts to reach for my goals......
some powerful ones 4 me still r


we shall overcome - timeless civil rights freedom song

the song....'double dare ya' by Bikin Kill also a timeless freedom song!

'crazy' by Narles Barkly especially when the zorros band from scotland do it!

in the past few years i have found the words
the words to 'lucy stoners' by Amy Ray really helpful

'harrowing breakdown' &
'make your own kinda music'
by ste McCabe are fabulous riot grrl/boi mental health songs!

billy bragg songs

modern lovers song - hospital



and sooooooo many more too.......

and of course i write my own songs & because i know i will be playing them over & over so i work to find words that will help myself and others feel stronger. kinda like punk rock positive affirmations!


i carry the riot grrrl movement in my heart 4 security & strength.....

Dates, blog, Deets & links about My Trans Atlantic DIY FEMiNIst QuEEr RevoLUtion 2010 tour in the UK with the BrILLiaNT Ste McCabe

i will be touring with the brilliant Ste McCabe and other amazing feminist performers, playing shows & doing radio appearencex in the UK from Oct. 28th thru Nov. 6th

Ste McCabe is a political queercore punk rocker of the highest caliber!!!! he challenges patriarchy with his wonderfully cathchy electro punk songs & lefty working class politics!!! how great is THAT!!!! ste is most definitely what a feminist looks & sounds like!!!! he is a fabulous comrade in diy feminist queer revolution!!!!
I am super excited to be joining forces with him in this UK tour!!! xxxx to find out more about ste mccabe and his wonderful music & queer politics... http://www.myspace.com/stemccabe

we will be playing in some of the most fabulous feminist & queer space in the UK!!!
i am supppper excited also about playing in the UK. i really think that places like leeds and other spots in the UK were sooooo important to the riot grrl queercore movement, and need to be mentioned & honored mooorrre!!! there are many places that were as significant as olympia, like places in the UK!!!! ( also in the american south i might add)
i could write soooo much about how excited i am to be doing this tour & why i fell its important to do,,, and i will write more soon!!!! xxxxx


the amazing poster above was made by Ste's Mccabe's super talanted BF Lukas!!!


10/28/2010 Under The Pavement Radio Show with Ste McCAbe,
Under The Pavement Radio Show, Manchester
Myself and the Brilliant Ste McCabe will talk about tran national revolution, feminism, etc. etc... our forthcoming tour of the UK and maybe play a few songs live on Manchester's radical, anarchist, underground radio show.
Tune in on 96.9 in Manchester or listen online anywhere at www.allfm.org - 11pm start. (UK time)
Manchester,


10/29/2010 Pussy Whipped @ Taurus w/ Ste McCabe,
Cost : 4 quid (ahhh wahtever that is??)
I am performing at the wonderful queer-feminist-punk-electro band night Pussy Whipped with the brilliant Ste McCabe!!!! ste is also
this is our first live show kicking off our trans atlantic tour and we will be joined by the lovely electro feminist band Tingle in the Netherlands

here are some sweet wordz by ste mccabe...
- "first generation Riot Grrrl and true revolutionary - who I will be touring the UK with around this time. Stella will be flying over from USA for a full UK tour which we will both be embarking on. Veeeery exciting!" ....

yes it is suppper exciting, i agreed!!!
Manchester, Northwest
8:00 PM


i will write more about the dates below soooooon....and i will b adding two other appearances, one more UK show & another radio appearance woooot!!!

10/31/2010 The Return of Hebden Undead w/ Ste McCabe
@ Hole in The Wall, Hebden, Hebden
7:00 PM

11/2/2010 Gambretta with Ste McCabe, Glasgow, Scotland
8:00 PM

11/4/2010 Barhouse with Ste McCabe and Death of The Elephant, Chelmsford, Exxex
8:00 PM

11/5/2010 Club Milk @ Birds Nest with Ste McCabe, London London SE8 4RZ


11/6/2010 Riot Grill @ Chemic with Ste McCabe & Aminty, Leeds, Yorkshire
7:00 PM

.... below are some vids.---> auto-ethongraphic on pre-paring for a DIY trans national womynist, feminist, queer queer queer UK 'the bitches have nothing to loss but chains' tour.

‘Jesus is HIV +’

‘Jesus is HIV +’ a song about the intersections & parallels in the life paths of an SM leatherman who is living with HIV in a sex-negative world to that of jesus.



a write up in the LA WEEKLY by falling james about my song jesus is HIV+ inspired me to write a blog post… here is the part of his write up that I’m addressing …..

music pick L.A. Weekly Sunday, July 4, 2010
RIOT GRRL CARNIVAL AT THE SMELL
“Apart from the patriotic fireworks and feel-good pomp and circumstance of typical Fourth of July concerts, the Smell presents a contrarian riot-grrl celebration to benefit the Downtown Women’s Center…..
…. billed with the fierce Georgian riot-grrl tribe Stella Pace, whose “vocal harmonic revolution” and stirring melodies evoke X-Ray Spex. “Jesus drives a pickup truck/Jesus likes country music, likes to two-step/Jesus likes to have sex in cars,” Ms. Pace sneers on the lo-fi anthem “Jesus Is HIV Positive.”
…..Happy birthday, America, but get ready for another revolution.” (Falling James)


i really liked that he mentioned my song 'jesus is HIV+' out of all my songs on my myspace page for an article for the a main alternative music weekly in a city like LA. and that he called it a lo-fie anthem. bravo on falling james.
at some point it would be really nice to go into even more detail about the song. Briefly, what it is about, is the intersections & parallels in the life path of an SM leatherman who is living with HIV in a sex-negative world to that of jesus. their are alot of parallels. Both dealt with being condemned & stigmatized by unconscious masses. Both stood up (&/or stand up everyday) for personal freedoms with their lives, and both stand for the freedom & courage it takes to love.

the song was directly inspired by about three friends of mine and indirectly by countless others. one of theses brave friends died in 1998. He was an amazing sm leatherman who inspired me sooo much to stay strong in my sex-positive convictions & to stay shame-free. I witnessed him being brought out of a house in a body bag in front of me. It was so hard & painful saying good-bye. This wonderful soul here one minute then just gone. this happened in the late 90's. and during the early 90's late 80's funerals were so fucking common. another friend of mine that inspired this song also an amazing SM leather man, was a counselor at AID atlanta and became an Episcopal priest and stayed a sober out leatherman too!!!!!

i just find soooo much strength & courage in these sex-positive friends of mine who kept & keep the faith to stay alive, love unconventionally & consensually, embrace their sexuality -- > all in the face of a condemning sex-negative society & many times with lack of family/community supports. (see the parallels to jesus).....


this song is also about my own inner boy, cause that's the kind of boy he is. with the exception that i am not HIV+ (although in a sense we all are). i worked as a sex worker for over fifteen years and i feel a kinship to the kind of stigma people with HIV or really any people who are sex-positive live with. cause sex-workers live with one hell of a stigma from being sexual beings. it really takes a fuck of alot to stand up as sexual being in our society. it's like people get so stigmatized & vilified for an being out & proud sexual being. i feel that people that are HIV+ positive in a way are standing up to & resisting the shame with their lives on the line more than any of us. brave muther fuckers or rather father fuckers!

so i feel that spiritually we can learn alot from those souls who are HIV+ and how they resist or rather how they continue to embrace life in the face of a condemning sex-negative society. and honestly i like to use humor too & there’s something super fun about singing about a queer jesus in the bible belt. ;)

Find more artists like STeLLa PaCe at MySpace Music

here's the lyrics to 'jesus is HIV+'

jesus is cumming, cumming, cumming,
cumming, cumming, cumming,
jesus is a butch bottom
jesus isn't pissed.
He liked to get pissed on.
jesus drives a pick up truck
jesus likes country music, likes to two-step
jesus likes to have sex in cars.
jesus looks like one of those beautiful beautiful beautiful
Tom of Finland guys.
beautiful Tom of Finland guys.

jesus is HIV+
that would be our savior has AIDS
jesus likes to go to glory holes
and jesus likes to go to leather bars.
jesus likes to go to those back rooms
and jesus likes to have sex with men.
jesus sometimes likes to wear leather
and i believe he's into SM.
i believe.
i believe
i believe
i believe NOW
and i believe he's into SM.

Jesus sometimes wonders if his fathers forsaken him.
but there's more faith in that mans' doubt than all the kudzu in the deep south.
there's more faith in that mans' doubt than all the kudzu in the deep south.





--------------------------------------------------------------



Falling james is spot on too with his suggestion to America to get ready for a new revolution….. I may add that America can get ready for a sex-positive revolution lead by queers, whores, indigenous people, poor people, differently-abled & diversly-thinking people…….







Here’s the article from the LA WEEKLY by falling james in it’s entirety…..

RIOT GRRL CARNIVAL AT THE SMELL

Apart from the patriotic fireworks and feel-good pomp and circumstance of typical Fourth of July concerts, the Smell presents a contrarian riot-grrl celebration to benefit the Downtown Women’s Center. Las Sangronas y El Cabrón crank out a crudely effective, caustically feral brand of 1977-style punk, as Susy rants unsentimentally about such grim subjects as “Pipe Dream,” “Bitter Youth” and the ominously sludgy eeriness of “Cold Dead Valley Girl.” They’re billed with the fierce Georgian riot-grrl tribe Stella Pace, whose “vocal harmonic revolution” and stirring melodies evoke X-Ray Spex. “Jesus drives a pickup truck/Jesus likes country music, likes to two-step/Jesus likes to have sex in cars,” Ms. Pace sneers on the lo-fi anthem “Jesus Is HIV Positive.” San Gabriel Valley’s Sin Remedio create “border-hoppin’ hardcore” that contrasts the sonic silliness of “Chipmunk Grind” with melodic experiments like “Aun Despierto” and the trio’s namesake song, “Sin Remedio.” Desmadre en Krisis hail from “San Joakland,” spitting out guttural Spanish-language hardcore, while Sacramento/Chico femmes Social Concern’s heavy punk anthems are fueled by Sarah’s soulful howling. Locals Angustia are far less interested in hooks, slamming out metallic riffs at hardcore tempos with shredded cookie-monster vocals. Happy birthday, America, but get ready for another revolution. (Falling James)

Color in the Gaps: Madness Pride & Brilliance

I have been co-curating an art show at Georgia College in Milledgeville Ga. with Bill Fisher chair of the art dept. at GCSU. it has been an amazing experience. Below (half way down this page) is a beautifully written press release that Bill Fisher has sent out to the students at GCSU & probably to some press around georgia.

I have been working with the artists that are exhibiting for the past two years as a peer consilor utilizing 'art interventions'.
and art & music are my 'methods' .... interventions & methods are the words commonly accepted by mainstream psychiatry.


what i am really doing is working to empower an invisible population to become visible and to stand for themselves. And revolution in the spirit of people like martin luther king jr., gandhi, malcom x, emma goldman, & SNCC of the 60's is my method.

During the late 80’s I was institutionalized & experience forced medication with first generation psych med. Called ‘stellazine’ that put me into sesures (it’s sister drug to thorazine--- the drug stellazine is now illegal because of cort cases in georgia), I was held in what I have found out is called a 5 point take down. This happened in my early twenties

At that point i walked away from mainstream psychiatry & big pharma. & stopped self emedicating….I undiagnosed myself of bi-scitzo-adha-scitofeniaboiopolainhdad-depression- what ever……ya kno the label dajour from the DSM of that year with the pill that goes with it…..some label I never identified as ….I started reclaiming languge…..& not identifying as “mentally ill”...& took the darkest thing that ever happened to me & re-claimed it ….even with my identity by renaming my self 'stella-zine'. then empowering & healing myself by utilizing creativity~~performance*art*music (I started an all grrrl punk rock band)/ utilizing peer support systems!!! /self advocacy/ political & cultural activism / becoming a community educator & peer councilor~~~~~

these are the things that healed me & that is my ‘interventions’ that is my mad gift to help others and what my work is with these artists that r exhibiting…..i Became & am an artist, activist & catalyst for social change and I show other my process esp. the disenfranchised to empower them to do that too. I am a personal activist coach


So not only am i coaching people to paint pictures & render an image but i am working to empower an invisible population of human beings to become activists & cultural workers themselves. to use art to express there questions and distresses about de-humanizing system with in mainstream psychiatry, big phrma, gender, race and being in the rural south. what I do is coach people To use there art to educate and create change. what is the purpose of art if not to help elevate culture. I believe that artists in the truest sense are cultural workers.

That is why we came to the art dept to put on this show instead of any other deptment. i knew artists would get it.

Psychiatry needs to get behind the peer movement and not upstage it any longer.

my cultural work includes coaching theses artists To come out of industrial complexes as a powerful alliances rather than as a lone individuals at the mercy of an unconscious systems of oppression.

this is the power of peer driven recovery. we help each other and we become a team. and we use our mad gifts to help ourselves & our comunities heal.

the group of artists that are being exhibited here are the red road alliance. the red road is an indigenous north american recovery concept. and they are are on the red road coloring the gaps produced by racism, sexism, homophobia & southern rural poverty.

the art work that people who have been in industrial complexes has been called folk art (which is cute but unfortunately can seem low brow- like people view rural people) & outsider art- but that in the name states someone is out side of society--- which is de-humanizing in a way....... but a more enlightened and insightful term that I saw used recently is contemporary americana. Because these invisible voices & hidden stories also part of America.

My goal is to be empowering an invisable popualtion to question these systems, challenge these systems & to become visible by any means necessary (in this case thru their art & thru sharing in a documentary work-in-process we are making about the artists, creating a arts based peer group in rural georgia & an art show).



Color in the Gaps: Madness, Pride and Brilliance
An art exhibition by members of the Red Road Alliance
July 19-September 10, 2010
ArtFix Gallery, Wooten-Garner House
131 Clarke Street
9:00 AM-5:00 PM, Monday-Friday

Panel Discussion: August 30, 2010, 12:00-1:00 PM
Reception: August 30, 2010, 5:00-7:00 PM

Red Road's mission includes the education of the dominant social structure and the medical community, re-humanizing those in danger of existing only as malfunctions, clients, embarrassments and unspoken fears in the minds of "normals." Viva Mad Pride!

Dear Friends,

All are invited to the Wooten-Garner House ArtFix Gallery next Monday for a panel discussion and exhibition reception for one of our many diverse communities, artists of the Red Road Alliance. Red Road is an advocacy organization dedicated to supporting and raising awareness of those who have been clients of institutionalized mental health care in central Georgia. Often facing a lifetime of misunderstanding, invisibility, lack of diagnosis or misdiagnosis, fear, poverty and hostility, these individuals have joined together with the help of many including the Milledgeville Central Care Community Homes to form this artists collective.

Co-curator Stella-Zine, exhibitor Greg Cabe and myself have collaborated on the hand-pulled silk screen print used on the attached poster (from Greg's painting "Mad Hatter"), and we'll have a signed and limited numbered edition of 19 prints available to raise funds in support of the Red Road Alliance artists, $30 each (that's cheap!). All collections will go towards art supplies for members of the alliance, and public sales begin at Monday’s panel discussion, 12:00-1:00 PM. Several of these fine art prints are already spoken for, so please let me know if you’d like one reserved. Greg’s fitting choice of the Mad Hatter reclaims and deflates the words and imagery of stigma and oppression.

The Department of Art is proud and honored to be able to provide a venue for the important work of these artists. Many thanks go to our panelists, and the insights they will share.

Color in the Gaps panelists:

Taryn Giles, GCSU student

Stella-Zine (Pace), peer counselor, cultural worker, psych survivor advocate

Jack B. Taylor III, Service Director, Central Care Community Homes

Darcy Shores, Forensic Psychologist

Scott Dillard, Assoc. Professor of Rhetoric

Amy Pinney, Asst. Professor of Theatre

Moderator, Bill Fisher, Assoc. Professor and Chair, Dept. of Art


Bill Fisher
Associate Professor, Chair
Department of Art
Georgia College & State University
CBX 094
Milledgeville, GA 31061
Phone: (478) 445-4572
Fax: (478) 445-6088
email: william.fisher@gcsu.edu

Tweeting for #Gaza ,#Haiti & for #Sexworker Human Rights, Reclaiming Peace & some train of thought.

I started writing this on the 28th of Dec. now it's 14th of Jan.....now it looks as tho i'm finishing on Feb 4th



Dec. 28th
This past year Two significant life changing experiences have happened for me. One of which is that i was in a major automobile accident last earth day. Another is that the cause of the Palestinian people became near & dear to my heart. I think the accident happened first before my awakening to palestine but it all kinda blended for me. But now here it is Dec. 28th 2009 a year anniversary of the 22 day israeli assalt on the Palestinian people on the gaza strip. Over 1300 people have assembled in cairo egypt hoping to be able to continue a freedom march to be joined by 50,000 palestinians and i find it difficult to leave my computer because quite frankly i care about what going on. (okay maybe there's some isolation/computer addiction issues but at least i can put it to good use to help somehow).

I am on the other side of the world...a world and half away from cairo & the gaza strip....my physical body is in rural ga. in the southern US, but my heart is with those freedom marchers & the palestinians in gaza. Today multiple people took to the street to give a voice to a voiceless people & give hope to a hopeless cause. My heart is with them.

I hope the people trapped in gaza see as evident by the all of the peace activists world wide & palestinian activists , that there is hope, they do in fact have a voice and are being heard!

i started this blog 'femme*a*gandhi fire' a couple of weeks after my accident this year and right before I found out about the gaza freedom march. I even became the first Georgia contact during the early stages of organizing the march. I also found out about Norm Finkelstein. I saw his brilliant youtube vid about the march using/applying the non-violence tools of civil disobedience that both King & Gandhi used.

this blog was started specifically as a 'peace' blog. & what i mean by that is for peace activism. Also for exploring the concept of peace. like what is it anyway? What is this emblem mean that has been co-opted as a baby boomers/hippies and found it's self on cheap t-shirts at walmart made in sweatshop in india or china? What the fuck is peace any way? So that is why I have started this blog. In a way to reclaim Peace. To make it mine. To make it Punk. To make it for all of us. Not just some abstract sudo-sentimental idea on a shirt that someone in some sweatshop made. I am a queer musician, artist & sex-positive 3d wave feminist and that has been the main focus of most of my life work. i am a sexworker advocate, and i am still all these things, but recently i have been haunted by a huge desire to some how integrate my feelings about peace activism into my life. This has been challenging because i have previously identified as well...ummm a militant...yep!....

And also i have always & still do strongly feel that the causes (sex-positive feminism & queer politics) that i have advocated for ARE totally interrelated with peace activism. This is a form to make space for that kinda thing to happen.

there are a few cause that are near & dear to my heart and anyone who has know me through the years would say sex-positive politics specifically that of the cause of human right for sex industry workers. i myself spent 15 years as a full time sex-worker mostly a stripper, but i have a well rounded resume in other aspects of the sex industry. I've experienced being a public eye out sexworker/advocate had articles sent to my mom outing me. I have done many actions & interviews for either talking about my experiences as a sex-worker or advocating for sexworker human rights. I am well acquainted with 3-wave sex-positive feminist theory that shakes up many 2'd wave feminist, & fuax liberals and put's them in a tailspin.. Sex-positive feminist theory & progressive queer theory is gospel to me it is true. At first I didn't even even mean to shake up the status quo, thought that's what it has done and now i'm very glad i have always just spoken my mind because it was the right thing to do not because it was the trend. Now I know that shaking up the status quo IS important and that is what much of what I do is about.


i am no stranger to embracing & giving my heart to 'unpopular' causes. I have found many time it takes embracing what is 'not popular' to find what is true & ethical.[ also what appears to be 'unpopular' is only that way because it needs the right audience] We must see through the lies that tell us standing up for disenfranchised people is not 'popular'. as an american southerner and child of the civil rights movements. (my mother was a SNCC member in the 60's) i saw the fruits of standing up for disenfranchised people you just fucking feel better when u you do!!!! it just the right thing to do. Also we are all connected and we must stick up for each other. (i could write a book about that!....well it's actually a topic in lots of my music, esp my newer music) also see or google Gandhi, Carter, Mandela,King, Tutu, the band 'Crass' & the South African Umbuntu philosophy for more about how we are all connected & why it's sooo freaking important to stand for each other.

Oh yeah of course the riot grrrl/ queercore movement during the 90's!!!!!!! i mean jeeeeze there a nother 'unpopular' (as in the mainstream rock world at-the-time-in the SOUTH!!!) we met sooooooo much hostility. skin heads attacking us verbally & physically...i mean wow!!! it was an intense time too!.....we also had ppl that fiercely supported us which sustained us, that and the inner knowing that ALL WIMMIN REALLY DO MATTER & that our underground network was sharing this knowledge & hope thru our bands, shows, zines & diy festivals etc. At the time i was sporting more of a malcom x philosophy & it was a movement in which i was a native of as oppose to a movement where i am an outsider just trying to help the best that i can.


......15 days later i am writing again on a whole new human rights issue, but with many parallels.



Jan. 14th
The Earthquake in Haiti. WoW (Vid's for Haiti- The Welfare Poets: Sak Pasé ...'Sak Pasé From its monumental revolution and establishment as the first free Black nation in the Western Hemisphere, to its current crisis, Sak Pasé is a cry for liberty and freedom'


here's a vid of wyclef from haiti with his org. yele


an earthquake hit haiti this week and created a more hardship for a group of people that have already been dealing with extreme, coue, dictatorships & Bush. it's is horrible. an unfathomable amout of people have been killed, are still trapped in crumbling destroyed buildings. Millions have been displaced and further pushed deeper into extreme poverty.
it makes me want to screeeeeeaaaaaaammmm!!!!!! i HATE the US goverment for how it is making it difficult for doctors to land....i hate them...the military....i know this ins't really so peace ful of me.....i'm crying know....i just don't fucking get it....where is peoples humanity....i' mean WTFFFFFFFFUCK!!!!!!!
how can we sit by and let theses things happen.......HOW???? This is GOT to be what the people in germany felt like when Hitler was in power. NO i'm not trying to be a tea bagger ( i mean tea partier lol)... calling Obama Hitler. It's the same bullshit as with Bush, Clinton all of them ...It's the USA.....a horrible flawed country.........I will say this it is a human country because being flawed is a human quality. This is where a super duper ULTRA RADICAL forgiveness comes in.

there is a concept called RADICAL FORGIVENESS. that is the only thing that i know can help me, i can' t speak for everyone ...but it a spiritual tool designed to heal hatread & hatred is what I feel for the US gov. & it's poicies. I think, I now, in my heart only identify as a peopson from Turtle Island. (Turtle island is what the native americans called this land where i live) I feel the US is not my home or my country. I guess it seems like maybe i want to bail from thmy country i don't like the leadership....yep!

.....this earth quake has been like getting the air knock out of us....i know that is such a huge understatement. I feel like I did when I heard about Katrina in New Orleans. My family is from Mississippi in the middle of the state, they were effected a little by the Hurrican but not as bad as the coast of coarse. But time & time again I've watch the fucking South come in last, ignored, suffing human rights violations over & over & over....i whatched southern blacks deal with the most horrible forms violence of all, PoVerty!!!! Also i might add i've seen poor white southerners go thu the same shit....i've watch us all deal with this shit!!!!!!!....i currently do an art & music group with folks just coming out of an indigent mental hospital in the rurall south.....a radical peer advocy group using art & music.....a job i got because i've had expiernebnce on the inside of an indigent industirial health complex as an ex-pateint.......a job i managed to keep after my accident......they let me have a whole month off with out fireing me.........not w/ pay but i still kept the job......... & i seen soooooooooooooooo much of what life the contemporary amrerican rural south is like and how poverty/rsism/sexism/homophobia and all the thing that make up the south, how it has manidfested in these lives!!!!!!!!! (just for the record there are LOTS of wimin who have been sexworker also with experiences in indigent industruaila mental health complexes..... Also i want to acknowledge a HUMAN SPIRIT in the people in the south that is MORE THAN A BY PROUDUCT OF POVERTY . that is more than the illness's of racism , sexism & homophobia.


i guess the truth is i can relate to have felt invisable for various reasons........well, because i have been at different points in my life. For whatever the reasons wheather it is because of being queer, a southerner, sex worker vetran, an ex-patient for some reason i guess the truth is i can relate to having felt invisible

My life has really been an awakening to the fact that i am NOT invisiable, simply because i exist...this is what i was finding through riot grrrl ,,,,also to a degree throught the sex indiustry.....i think in the sex industrial i felt a sense of visability & freedom that i had never felt before. i felt seen & heard....all though there was still abit of a price......your seen & heard more if you bleach your hair blond & are white....can we say racism exists there too just like any other field.....i had pink hair, blue hair & mohwks & sometimes i bleached my hair & did the the bleach blond bombshell thing...for the money moneyyyyy for the hustle of it all....i finally got to a ppoint & said fuck it i'm going to keep my hair blue or just do what i want.........Some times it about creativity for me not politics.....just about expression......politics all the time will make anyone unbalenced and deeply unhappy....( but as a white person i must always be aware of the unfair 'privilege' that comes with it. & that treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity. (tho in the south even white ppl deal with sever poverty)


I am FOR #GAZA, but I’m really over the word Zionist. I feel that labeling people is too easy---- we can creat these term to aim our hurt and frustration at. but i think we need to seek other answers rather than labeling people.

When I hear the word Zionist used I think of the word’s nazi & redneck…it’s just way to easy, and ‘old school’. It’s not really effective in the long term. i realize that there is this distinction between zionism & the religion of Judaism. I also understand that the US is funding This military 'state of' whatever the fuck this ‘Israel’ is ( to me it is a puppet for the US to get it's foot in the door to the middle east for oil.) I AM FOR #GAZA but in NO WAY have I ever been against, nor am I now or will I ever be against the jewish people!!!!

I think of the john lennon song "imagine there are no countries it's easy if you try. no hell below us above us only sky" I feel both groups of ppl. have roots & ties there for sure. Maybe our whole world needs to be a one state solution.

YeS I feel quite frustrated (to put it mildy) at times with US apathy & at the US ‘s compliance through silence. I mean I heard 80% of Americans think the Gaza strip is a dance!!! Yes It’s is hailarious, but it show the actual ignorance….not really avarice or evil, just plain in the dark! Mmmmm could this be strikingly similar to what the German people must of been going through during WW2…...an apathetic & silent majority.......i think so….

incinerating 400 children with white phosphorus & PURPOSEFULLY bombing hospitals, mosques & ambulances ....is not part of a strip tease I know cause i was a stripper!!!!! (never part of my dance!!!)

Musical explanation by Lowkey of what happened in Gaza...



But what I think is essential to point out is that it appears that whenever there is lots of apathy & ignorance combined with an oppressive imperial military state wrecking havoc what has come first was POVERTY. A beaten down & ignored people that gravitate to the only game in town,,,,ya know the one actually feeding them . … I kno this be cause I’m from the American south & have spent time living in the rural south….we kno about poverty……we also know about controlling military police states and oppressive government, we kno about sexist racist & homophobic organization (i.e. the churches) that are the only game in town that help people. WE KnOw about this! I am only two generations away from being a southern dirt farmer from Mississippi. My great grandparents parents that I visited a lot as a child WERE rural farmers in Mississippi. By a few degress of separation I have not dealt with this kind of southern rural poverty myself being mostly a southern urban grrrl but it has always loomed very near.

So I guess what I’m saying is when I start hearing words thrown around like Zionist, Nazi, Redneck….we all kno what that means had how to player hate….but I think it would be far more effective to find out what's really causeing humans to get to a point of treating other humans so cruelly. In other words I think we need to look at the real problems behind the 'isms…PoVerty just about 100% of the time is the real culprit or plays a big part….


Feb.4

Dear readers you can help & here's how!!!!!

ok here I am again feeling passionate about hash tagging on twitter for #GAZA!!!! we have a campain this week and it is to keep @avinunu aka Ali Abunimah an irish-palestinian author & the co-founder of the electronic intifada in first place for the #PolItics catagory at the shorty awards. At an award ceremony all the winners will get to talk about there activism and i feel his voice needs to come out. here's some more links with info about the twitter campain & how it started.

justicentric's blog
http://ow.ly/12Nwu @justicentric

Nadine Moawad's Blog
http://bit.ly/b84lnX @nmoawad

here's where you can vote tonight the blogs describe how to do it if yr new to twitter
http://shortyawards.com/avinunu

votes close at noon 02/05/10.

here are some video's intended to inspire strength and that either directly relate to what I'm writing about or tangentially relates xxx

here's a ViD of a fabulous billy bragg song about the amazing & couragous rachael corrie 'Music Video of current condition in Palestine. A song about Racel Corrie, an American peace activist who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003'



Holocaust Survivor protests Israel's response to Hamas rocket attacks. She says it's not fair since Israel is so much stronger


Invincible- people not places feat. Abeer
words from the chorus...
my Ima misses people not places
has she seen the towns with names in Arabic the Hebrew replaces?
The policies are evil and racist, deceitful and heinous
You’ll never be a peaceful state with legal displacement
(Abeer- Arabic translation)
Remember the names of our cities before you came and replaced it
Remember and tell me how am i supposed not
to miss a nation living within us?

grrlz & boiz in ATL->PeAcE DEMO2morrow 'NO more blood4oil' !!!

This is my response on Dec. 1 2009, knowing that Obama is making a lame speech about how a surge in military (34,000 troops to afghanistan) is needed....

Also here's information for peace activism in GA. Cause that's what i kno about, but i'm sure you can find something near were U are. I encourage you to stand for PeAcE.....


here's some emails, links & info i got to pass along to local ATL. grrlz & boiz (or label of yr choosing or none) just come if U can!!!! esp. if yr already in little five or downtown. it's being called a 'protest' but that is not what i will do. i, myself will be standing for peace not against anyone, any goverment or any organization.

simply standing 4peace in afghanistan
standing4PeAcE in the US
standing4Peace in Iraq
standing forPeace in Palestine
standing for Peace in Isreal
this is how we can support the troops,,,,,,stop making them be fucking troops!

PeAcE is for everyone......absolutely everyone
i feel this is a Reeeaaally an important distiction. because 'protesting' is what 'they' want us to do. 'They' being war profiteers, corporation & the folks that want a war.
some feel that peace is boring & weak .....well PeAcE is probably the most gutzy fucking thing anyone will ever do in their life....WORD!


also why just blame obama, bush, the US senate & US congress......any one who pays taxes of ANY kind, well....the hands are bloody... ( i will extend this responsibility to other countries doing the same thing)......unless yr will in to move to canada (which i have also heard is funding the war aganhistan) or somewhere else where U kno yr tax dollars aren't funding a war, we need to share in this responsibility. cause one mo beer just wont kill the pain....... Express or Depress? come stay alive!!!!

yoko ono in a song says "bless you for your anger, it's a sign of rising energy"....well my energy is rising, i'm sure others are feeling this too. it's what we do with it that matters. There are"many bombs in our souls that need to be diffused...& we need to defuse the bombs in our souls first." this a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh,,, this one helps to give courage to stand 4 PeAcE...instead of just turning into to the same violent bullshit.

i live 2 hrs out of ATL but there is a good chance i will be able to come for the last half of the demo.....i hope so....this shit reeeeaaally not only helps tell the communities/goverment what we want, it makes you feel better. like mayb i don't have to put my head under the covers, listen to obamas lame speech trying to convince me how more ppl need to die, & drink myself to death cause i just can't fucking except reality of whats going on.....There R other choices.....YaY!!!! thank effin GaWWWd(dess).....Express or Depress.........we can choose 2 make a stand 4 peace....with art/music/activism/love/speech/performance/demonstration or whatever feel best to U,.... just stand.

XXXXX
STeLLa



Meia Georgia

Friends:


On December 1st President Obama will travel to West Point Military Academy to announce plans to expand the war against and occupation of Afghanistan through a 34,00 troop surge. The only solution to this conflict that is in the interests of the people of Afghanistan and the world is for the US to get end of military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and to disinvest from Israel and it's 42-year occupation of Palestine.


In Atlanta, Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition is initiating a "No Escalation! There Is No Military Solution! Bring the Troops Home NOW! protest from 4:30-6:30pm on Wednesday, Dec. 2.



Please assemble at Freedom Park, the intersection of Moreland Ave and Freedom Parkway. Bring banners, signs, drums, etc.



Similar protests are encouraged at other busy intersections. For more information, go to or call 404.522.4500.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


hear are some songs/videos that seem appropriate for the day......


universal soldier....buffy sainte-marie..... song about individual responsibility.....




the dead kennedy's ...as jello sings '.....jane fonda on the screen today convinced the liberals it's okay....kill kill kill the poor....... prophecy hummmm?




Bitch playing "afganhistan" she wrote this to create peace & make the world a better place...FuCk YEAh!



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also check out these links in yr a ga peace activist
http://www.gpjc.org/
http://www.meiag.org/
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Memorial_day_events.vp.html

PuNk MoNk -> Dharma PuNx

An Interview with Noah Levine author of 'Dharma Punx' & 'Against the Stream'
Noah Levine has a GREAT and accessible approach to spiritual transformation! XO



'Meditate and Destroy' trailer for the film about the PuNk MoNk Noah Levine ..AwEsOmE!!

Thich Nhat Hanh - Peace is every Step

beautiful film (51:54 min.)

it is super important to study peace activist to end the current war in afghanistan and to create peace now! i have watch this film at least twice all the way through. to create peace on a national level we need to create peace with in our selves. watching Thich Nhat Hanh is a great way to start.

"Thich Nhat Hanh has had a profound impact on contemporary thinking and, importantly, social action. His efforts to achieve an early peaceful end to the American war in Vietnam earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a forty-year exile from his homeland.
Peace Is Every Step is an intimate and direct portrait of of a monk who has lived through war and fought back with meditation, love and grace under fire, testimony to the faith that simple practices and insights drawn from (but not by any means limited to) the Buddhist meditative tradition can help change conditions for the better: on a personal level, in the family, in the community, in a nation and in the world."

Nonviolence: The Metta Center; & The PeAcE and Conflict Studies program at UC Berkeley

http://ow.ly/tqBx Through this link you can find "...inspiring lectures of Prof. Michael Nagler, Introduction to Nonviolence and Nonviolence, they were recorded and transmitted via webcast in 2006/2007 at the University of California at Berkeley, within the Peace and Conflict Studies program (PACS)."
GREAT nonviolence PeAcE information & links to an amazing FREE course on peace & conflict resolution! via MettaCenter
when U click on the metta center U will see a link for nonviolence courses, that's the UC Berkelely classes!

Obamas' Speech the night before the GLBTQ National Equality March

http://ff.im/-9DW4uA Video of Barack Obama's FaBuLoUs speech and a link to... RemindObama.org http://act.ly/o2 2keep momentum 4 GaZa & afganistan


It's a GREAT speech, now come on Obama, stand up for Gay rights with your actions & pen. Also keep the momentum for Gaza & Afganistan!!! EaRn that PeAcE prize! YeS U CaN! (i hope he will anyway!)

Video; I AM A SeX WoRkEr & link to a blog post by Audacia Ray

7 Key American Sex Worker Activist Projects
http://ping.fm/cyrJH
SexWorkerActivistProjects
sexworker Human rights

New York-based advocacy organization Sex Work Awareness recently implemented its first day-long Speak Up media training workshop for sex workers, which took place at the Harm Reduction Coalition in mid-April. At the end of the day, the workshop participants made a public service announcement video.

Ben & Jerry's "Hubby Hubby" celebrates gay marriage http://ping.fm/09guu // NiCe even tho i'm VeGaN

http://ping.fm/6N82t this vid. shows reeeaallly troubling internalized racism in children. HeartbrEaKing :-(

http://ping.fm/PRCf5 Go Ga Ga Go!!!-lady gaga speaking @ the NEM 2DAY

Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland http://ping.fm/qUb6N (non-violent direct action & musical guerilla theatre...mmm YeAh!)

Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland from Jamie LeJeune on Vimeo.

StAnD up for GaZa...do the right thang!!! xox

Here is a GREAT animated video about the situation in Gaza.




i am putting lots of energy into supporting this the gaza freedom march jan. 2010. i am researching funding/fundraising possibilities, because i would like to go. come join me or sponsor me! xoxoxo it's a worthy cause & a front burner world issue that we all need to get behind. we are all connected.....lets create peace.....

GLOBAL GaZa PeAcE March Meetings!! ❤❤❤

GLOBAL GaZa PeAcE March Meetings!! ❤❤❤
PeAcE NoW!!!!
a march is a PoWeRfUL response to unconscious hate & fear!!!
xo
S

2d organizational meeting 8/4/09 7:00pm
@brecht forum 451 west street, New York, NY 10014
contact NormFinelstien@​gmail.​com
Everyone Welcome!

washington-​area strategy meeting:
contact: peacenut57@​yahoo.​com


Activists plan March to break Gaza siege

info from OP's bullitin
www.​myspace.​com/​takbiir

Activists plan March to break Gaza siege
..
07.01.2009 | The Daily Star
By Richard Hall
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, July 01, 2009

BEIRUT: A coalition of activists belonging to various Palestinian solidarity organizations are planning an international march in Gaza aimed at ending the blockade of the territory. The event will aim to bring thousands of demonstrators from around the world to march alongside Gazans as they breach the blockade imposed upon the population since the election of Hamas in 2006.

“This march draws inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi,” said a draft statement of purposes and principles written by the “Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza,” obtained by The Daily Star. “Those of us residing in the United States also draw inspiration from the civil rights movement,” it added.

The statement also outlines plans for the march, which will take place on January 1, 2010. “We will march the Long Mile across Erez checkpoint alongside the people of Gaza in a nonviolent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade,” it said, adding that “We conceive this march as the first step in a protracted nonviolent campaign … If we bring thousands to Gaza and millions more around the world watch the march on the internet, we can end the siege without a drop of blood being shed.”

Professor Norman Finkelstein, a political analyst and author of several books on the Israel-​​Palestine conflict, is one of the organizers of the march. “We want to send over several thousand people from around the world to march alongside several hundred thousand Gazans,” he told The Daily Star.

Finkelstein hopes that large numbers of international activists and world leaders will attend the march, and as a result, prohibit a violent response from Israeli authorities. “If the likes of Jimmy Carter, Noam Chomsky, Bishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela are at the head of the march; if behind them are students holding high signs of the schools from which they hail - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge; if behind them are the ill and the lame, the young and the innocent of Gaza; if behind them are hundreds of thousands of others, unarmed and unafraid, wanting only to enforce the law; if around the world hundreds of thousands are watching the internet to see what happens - Israel can’t shoot,” he said.

“The first formal organizational meeting of the coalition is set for July 13,” said Finkelstein. “We hope then to create an umbrella steering committee. Right now the working group consists of individuals who belong to organizations that have been active on the Israel-​​Palestine conflict such as CodePink.”

..Members of the coalition are now contacting Palestinian solidarity groups around the world in preparation for the march.....
Contact: Forgaza10@​​gmail.​​com



the video above is of Norman Finkelstein is FaBuLoUs!!!
He is 'effin BriLLiAnt & not because he has a phd & written tons of books (though he has),
but because he courageously combines his smarts with his HeArT! <3

xoxo,
STeLLa

Thoughts on the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Comittee SNCC & KWAME TURE (Stokely Carmichael)

This peace post is about SNCC & KWAME TURE(Stokely Carmichael)

I wanted to research more into the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and it's philosophies, which i still plan to do. But I was so draw to learning about one of SNCC's leaders, Kwame Ture. so this post is a great deal about him. Also, i have written some thoughts and feeling that came up for me when learning about him.

Kwame Ture in the US is probably more well know as Stokely Carmichael.
Kwame was also a former Black Panther leader and he was, a former leader in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

I can bet Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) today would not be defining himself as a peace activist, though i maybe wrong about that. But, I think all of his life , his motivations, his words, actions & the organizations he was apart of are sooooo important to study, Especially to create lasting peace in our world today.

i am very aware of SNCC because my mom (white womyn born in alabama) was a member of the SNCC branch in tenn. when she was in college there. i was born in 1964 and the first song my mom taught me was 'we shall overcome'. so if you know me or getting to know me that should make alot of sense to why i'm like i am. i really thank my mom for instilling this strong sense of caring about human rights issues in general. And also at 3, 4 & 5 years of age she was teaching me in depth about Gandhi, King & the student non-violent coordinating committee. We still talk about stuff like that. Yes, on one hand alot of my life i've been a slutty punk rock party grrrL from the urban south but, guess what, i can still fuckin care about the world too!!...and do the right thang!! xo a whole fuckin lot of us need to care to create some change!!!

Kwane Ture worked on the freedom summer project in 1966 and became chairman of the SNCC. he was a 'freedom rider', and was arrested at least 27 times and was beaten by white mobs during marches through the south during the sixties practicing non-violence. so it makes sense that he felt non-violence was pretty fuckin futile.

but the truth is he IS a peace activist (that's how i feel anyway), and it was the courage & blood of men & wimin's like his own at that time that over turned soooooo much racism, and started turning the tides in america.

of course he doesn't want anything to do with America, who can blame him. he lives in new Guinea, Africa.

in the movie Gandhi. gandhi he talks about how in fighting warS blood gets shead anywaY, and he talks about hoW WHEN THE WORLD LOoks on and see's the people standing up to fear peacefully, it's more effective. I would have to say it is time tested and does appear to be more effective. * (although there was much less bloodshed using Gandhian techniques in later 'wars', such as with the exchange of political power in south africa during the 80's.)

i think in the big picture when the rest of the world looked on and saw what was happening and how the white power structure looked like bullies, during the civil rights in American for black people that was when it was emotionally won atleast.​.​.​.​Proof being that horrible segregation laws were over turned at that time & legally black people got the right to vote (although, we here in the south we know that lame laws that still make it hard for black people living in poverty to actually get to the polls)......i don't think segregation laws would of been over turned or that pan africans would have gotten the vote in america with out all the civil disobedience, the Marches, the freedom riders, the Gandhian techniques used by the leaders.

Kwame was trained in non-violent techniques, during the civil rights movement & he was chairman of SNCC in 1966, but decided he agreed more with Malcom X and the 'by any means necessary' philosophies & use of violence for revolution in the fight for freedom. He became very active in the Back to Africa Pan-African movement. What is also interesting is that later, Malcom X did a total switch, & became a peace activist (and promoted using non-violence) toward the end of his life after he went to Mecca. I feel Malcolm X is one of the most misunderstood peace activists. He is also one of the most influential to me, personally. i can relate to having believed that 'by any means necessary' philosophy is obviously the way, then changing your mind to embrace non-violence & love as the most powerful tool to create freedom. Malcom X was a street hustler too & had an education from the streets. i can relate with that, too.

on a side note, it's my feeling (hypothesis) that by being beaten down emotionally or physically there is a post traumatic aftermath that must be address to make non-violence & civil disobedience possible really. When an animal has been traumatized and lives through it, it goes through a natural response and it is able to literally shake it off somatic-ly and continue on with out being traumatized the way we humans are. The animal must literally shake and release the energy somatic-ly then it can get back up stand tall again and move on. Human on the other hand get very trapped in the response for some reason. Get very beaten down & Trapped in 'victim mentality'. I have been working through this myself. I myself am a survivor of having walked away from an unconscious violence alcoholic life on the street, non-consensual treatments at various times during my 15 years as sex worker, horribly traumatic treatment in an industrial indigent mental health complex (being restrained, drugged against my will, & resulting seizures), mutually abusive relationships, & most recently walking through the somatic healing process from an auto crash. I feel this auto crash has been a huge awakening & is giving me a chance to radically forgive everything traumatic that's happened previously. And i don't mean the old school kind of forgiving ......,,,,i mean RADICAL FORGIVENESS!​!​!​!​.​.​.​.​.​.​.​.​there'​s a great book and philosophy on forgiveness by Colin Tipping, named 'radical forgiveness'

I think we activists in the DIY anarcha peace movement, eco/animal right activists, GLBT movement, sex-worker rights movement, Indigenous rights movt. activists & the many other activists practicing Gandhian & Umbuntu techniques really could benefit from Peter Levine's book 'healing trauma'. these books by peter Levine & Colin tipping have really helpful suggestions, that can be applied for peace activists who have been on the front lines especially. Because it is reeeeaaaallly hard pill to swallow alot of Gandhian philosophies & radicle forgiveness by yrself, when one has survived much painful treatment, by governments, communities, sexist & racist organizations or from ones own internalized racism, sexism, classism, homophobia on a more personal level. I have found these books have helped me broaden my perspective & bring to transcend my own victim consciousness.​.​.​.​.​.​ The ultimate goal of the direct non-violent actions are to create peace. the goal is to avoid bloodshed for all and to stop the victim cycle totally. The goal is To totally transcend victim consciousness, so our souls need never (re)create abusive treatment of ourselves or each other.

here's a link to an article about him
http:​/​/​www.​spartacus.​schoolnet.​co.​uk/​USAcarmichael.​htm

here' a like to a vid
fabulous historical vid.


FaBuLoUs current vid. & he clarifies many things.
discusses difference between the religion of Judaism (apology i know i misspelled) & Zionism