Mentors on the Mend: raulrsalinas and Trinidad Sanchez, Jr.

Two veterano poets, both based in Texas, have been facing some serious health setbacks this month. At this point in time, their recovery is at a critical state and therefore, collective intentionality is needed to help them fight their illnesses. Pray, chant, kneel, plant a tree, burn incense--do what you do when you care enough about someone to wish better things for them.

I met Trinidad (Trino) in Austin, i believe, at the Austin International Poetry Festival in '94 or '95. These festivals can be lovefests for writers who experience mutual admiration for each other's work. I guess it was so with Trino and me, so we became friends. He and i crossed paths many times, over the years, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. We performed on the same bill at the Albuquerque Poetry Festival, back in '97. We ran into each other at the Mercury in Denver, when my friends Lourdes Perez and Annette D'Armato dropped me off there after a cool-ass road trip with them from Santa Fe to Crested Butte. Trino was sitting in a booth, holding forth with some other poets, at the Mercury. I had no idea that he even lived in Denver at that time. Ended up, I needed a place to crash and so Trino set me up with an overnight at his mother-in-law's place in the 5 Points barrio. Last summer (June 2005), I ran into Trinidad and his wonderful wife, Regina, in San Antonio, where they had moved after selling their house in Denver. We were at a bbq party hosted by Lisa Suarez of the Jump-Start Theater, and Trino was in fine form. He and Regina let me stay at their place and Trino delivered me to the Amtrak station early the next morning for my return to FW. Ellos son buena gente, good people, and it hurts to hear that these good people are suffering and struggling now.

raul r. salinas is the person who first set me on the Austin map of spoken word and poetry. Without even knowing my work, he invited me to perform at a grand re-opening show at his cultural haven of Chicano/a lit and actvism, RESISTENCIA BOOKSTORE. That was a momentous event, and I met people who took me on to the next gigs and level of literary production. raul formed a posse of poets who performed as an ensemble and eventually i was invited to become a member of the Red Salmon Poets. raul's activism experience with the AIM (American Indian Movement) and the prisoner rights movement was very inspiring. Hanging out at Resistencia for literary readings, platicas, or just plain ole casual conversation always took me to a righteous place in my own thinking. When a family member got caught up in the Texas prison system revolving door, I looked to raul and his own prison writings for solace and reassurance. We also worked together, one springtime in Austin, teaching poetry-writing to boys at the Juvenile Detention Center. After i left Austin, raul and i became subjects in Ray Santisteban's documentary film VOICES FROM TEXAS. In 2003, I applied for and received a grant to host a "Fort Worth Premiere" screening of VOICES FROM TEXAS and to bring raul (and another poet in the film) to Fort Worth. It excited me to have the opportunity and resources ($$) to introduce Fort Worth to the poet-elder who had done so much for the community on many levels, as raul certainly has done. I was able to provide hotel lodging, a performance honorarium, and other perks that made raul's visit pleasant and memorable. My mom, ever-the-generous soul that she is, insisted on hiring a limo for the poets (raul and Tonzi) to ride to the Rose Marine Theater, where the premiere screening took place. raul had never been in a limo ever before, and he seemed tickled by the whole experience. I was so happy to introduce him to a Fort Worth audience--which loved him and welcomed him heartily. It was the best gift to offer to a special mentor in my life.

raul and Trino are both going through a hard time now, and i hope you'll read the next two posts with positive wishes, for their quick recovery, in mind.

Thank you.

raul r salinas - poeta of Austin

Here's the latest communique . . . on raulrsalinas' health (11 Jul 2006). [Thanks to Rene Valdez, raul's assistant at the bookstore, and fellow activista, for sending us this update.]


Saludos desde South Austin,
 
Greetings to all our comrades, friends, family, and supporters,
 
I am not sure if you have heard, but raulrsalinas, our elder, teacher, & brother, was in a Houston hospital this past weekend.  
 
He is suffering from an ulcerated esophagus.  While visiting Houston last week, he started to cough up/vomit blood.  An ambulance picked him up and took him to a nearby hospital.  Unfortunately, the doctors had problems stopping the bleeding and they told us it was very serious.  So they immediately put him in a helicopter and flew him to St. Luke's Hospital in downtown Houston.
 
Thanks to Great Spirit, the doctors & nurses managed to stabilize him by stopping the bleeding.  He remained there until Tuesday July 4.  We had quite a scare!
 
raul is doing better now.  He is now at home resting and slowly recovering.  However, raul is not entirely out of the red.  He visited the doctor today, and he was told that besides the ulcerated esophagus he also suffers from cirrhosis of the liver.  And because of the cirrhosis, the liver is not working like it should, which is causing a back up of blood flow in the esophagus area.  
 
We would like to thank all our comrades, family, friends, & supporters for the good strong healing energy & prayers sent to our elder raul.  We also want to thank everyone for their messages, cards, and gifts.
 
raul is on the slow road to recovery & is resting at home.  As each day goes by, he is gaining strength & clarity, but he is still limited in mobility & energy.    
 
He went to see his doctor today for a check up on his condition.  His doctor gave him a "thumbs up"/approval to go ahead & conduct class tomorrow at St. Edward's University.  But he warned raul not to overdo it.   He also give him permission to slowly & to cautiously (at turtle speed) start going back to work at the bookstore with limited travel around the surrounding area.  
 
So despite the good news about getting back into the swing of things, raul will not return to the office until sometime next week.  He is being very cautious & conscious of getting energy and strength before getting back to work.  After this coming Wednesday, he will gradually begin to return everyone's phone calls, e-mails, and messages.
 
Also, raul will be going in for his first "banding" of the esophagus veins procedure on August 3.  For the time being, family & close friends will closely moniter raul's health; i.e. make sure he eats well, drinks lots of water, & gets some excercise to keep the blood circulating.
 
Once again, if you would like to leave a message for raul, you can e-mail them to this address &/or call me (Rene Valdez) at 512-416-8885.  I will relay any messages to him.  Or if you want to send him a card/letter, please send them to:
 
raulrsalinas
1801-A South First St.
Austin, Tex.  78704

We thank everyone for their support, energy, & prayers in this time of struggle!
 
Con Respeto y En Lucha,
 
Rene Valdez
Resistencia Bookstore
Red Salmon Arts

______________________________________________

And now, here is raul's poetic tribute to Keith Ferguson, former bassplayer for the Fabulous Thunderbirds. A fine example of raul's Xicanindio Beat style, which has often the feel and rhythm of the music of the moment--be it bebop, blues, or drumbeats from the rez.


Bass in Yo' Face

by Raul R. Salinas

pa' las scattered ashes de
mi camarada, Keith Ferguson

We Remember You, Ese!
in some South Town saloon
beyond soap creek
where Lobos howled
at the moon
while gonzo goons
fakirs in turbans
thunderbird wine/os
drinking native blood
racism floods the stage
rage at joo harpies
harping like so many
culture vultures
pillaging ancestral
music grounds

We Remember You, Ese!
in pink cadillac
cruisin' 6th. St.
East of the Freeway
on the "wrong side" of the wall
calling forth that morpheus
muse in hues of blues
up
'n'
down
alleyways
beyond Chief Bar
sweatin' ol' 14
(or whatever connection man)
to bring de mud/
puddles of poison
black tar
scars and abscesses
mar the bodyscape.

We Remember You, Ese!
exchanging fifties fotos
of pachuco poets
& seventies snapshots
of boss bassist
tocando al revez.
2 cats con tattoos
comparison en calo.

Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. - poeta of San Antonio

Friends and fellow poets:

Come celebrate the life and words of Trinidad Sánchez Jr.--poet, activist, teacher and author of the bestselling "Why Am I So Brown?"--at Ruta Maya Riverwalk Coffee House on Sunday August 6, 2006 from 2-8 pm. Donations will be accepted for Trino’s healing and convalescence.

On July 18th, Trino suffered a major stroke and although his condition has improved, his condition remains serious. Trino is also uninsured, adding to the worry his family already feels, so please attend this celebration/fundraiser and help support one of the great voices in Chicano literature.

There will be an opportunity to sign up and share our words, read from his poems, tell stories and make music that celebrates Trino and the spirit he has imparted to us and so many others.

What: Trinidad Sánchez Jr. Celebration and Fundraiser
When: Sunday, August 6, 2006, 2-8pm
Where: Ruta Maya Riverwalk Coffee House
107 East Martin
San Antonio, TX 78205
210-223-6292

[Thanks to Santiago Garcia, fellow poet and friend, for coordinating this fundraiser and for spreading the word to the rest of us. Happily, I'll be able to attend this event, cuz I'll already be in San Anto for the Macondo Institute.]
_________________________________________________________________

A diary of Trino's ongoing health situation - provided by his wife, Regina:

Tuesday, July 18th Trino had a massive stroke on the left side & a minor stroke on the left side. He is unconscious. Strong on the left side, diminished not paralyzed on the right side. he looks as if he is just sleeping..... The doctors offer no hope. We have Do Not Resusictate orders, we have both decided we do not want life by artificial means, especially if it means there is little or no hope for recovery or rehabilitation. We have requested comfort care and nutrition ONLY. As most of you know, I have been very ill and we planned for this to me. I was totally unprepared for this to happen to my beloved. The danger is for the next 7-14 days, during which he can go one way or the other. We are people of faith and trust in God's will. Trino always said he is ready to go at anytime. He is at the Methodist Hospital, Medical Center in Intensive Care, room 405. I leave status reports every day on our home phone number because I cannot possibly call everyone.

Wednesday, July 19th Uneventful; he continues to sleep. The MRI shows the two strokes in detail. There are two affected arteries. I agreed to blood thinners to reduce the risk of further damage by lack of blood flow, howver the possibility of hemorragheic stroke is increased.

Thursday, July 20th Uneventful; he continues to sleep. Lots of visitors are coming & going. Reading him poems, talking to him and praying with us. The S.A. Express News ran an article about his medical emergency, so many of his friends and students are coming and calling.

Friday, July 21st He woke up! It was a miracle and he is fighting. He SAID his name, age, the year, wife and responded to commands by moving limbs on his left side. He can communicate by shaking his head, yes & no!!!!!!!!!! I told him if he needed to go home to the Lord, not to stay for me. He shook his head, NO. Then I asked if he wanted to fight, he shook his head, YES!

Saturday, July 22nd He has slept most of the time since waking up. The doctors say it is like he ran a marathon and is recovering from Friday. We have to get through one day at a time. Moments of hopeful and faith alternate with moments of hopelessness and terror....

Sunday, July 23rd He was moved out of IntensiveCare to the Neurology 9th floor at the Methodist Hospital, Medical Center, Room 914. He has showed progress, but is not out of the danger zone yet. Another quiet day. After Friday it is frightening. He can still go either direction. I have been sleeping at the hospital with him, but now they will not let me sleep with him anymore, so I have to go home, alone. Only male relatives or friends authorized by me can stay the night. Any men with a free night available?

Monday, July 24th Trino is not insured. The doctors say he will need in-patient rehab begininning as soon as this week, and rehab hospitals have no legal obligation to take him. The hospital can literally say he is medically stable, take him home, no rehab....several people have offered to organize benefits, please coordinate with each other, I'm afraid I will not be much help, I feel my place is at his side. Waking up without him was horrible...... Tiday was another quiet day, he continues to respond and say his name, etc.. But the periods of alertness without being awoken, vary. Our friend, Ernest Bevans is spending the night at the hospital with him since I cannot. I showed him how to massage and stretch his limbs when he's awake, to prepare him for physical therapy by keeping his muscle as toned as possible.

Tuesday, July 25th Today he had minor surgery. Instead of the NG (feeding tube) from his nose to his stomach for nutrition and meds, I authorized a PEG. It goes directly into his stomach and the dangers of drowning are eliminated. I consider this a temporary procedure. Today is Day 7 of this crisis. My Type A personality wants to see something, anything since today is the marker. But, it's one day at a time....... Ernest spent the night with him.

Wednesday, July 26th Trino is sleeping very heavily, I believe recovering from the minor surgery yesterday. I spent the day chasing doctor's for a status letter and waged the battle with Social Security. They took extensive labs to monitor his blood & GI systems, results tomorrow. Ernest spent the night with him.

I love you and am grateful for all the prayers, love and poems, it is why he's going to be OK.
Call for updates at OUR home.....


Regina Chávez y Sánchez
2803 Fredericksburg Rd. #1215
San Antonio, TX 78201
210.733.5167

______________________________________________

And, finally, an excerpt from Trino's signature poem, which is his most well-known and popular with young readers.


WHY AM I SO BROWN?

A question Chicanitas sometimes ask
while others wonder: Why is the sky blue
or the grass so green?
Why am I so brown?
God made you brown, mi'ja
color bronce--color of your raza, your people
connecting you to your raices, your roots
your story/historia
as you begin moving towards your future.
God made you brown, mija
color bronce, beautiful/strong,
reminding you of the goodness
de tu mama, de tus abuelas, your grandmothers
y tus antepasados, your ancestors.

Kerblog - in your bag / with bombs in Beirut

Imagine having to make that decision, under extreme pressure of war as it surrounds you with explosions and screaming voices of people in pain. Having to create that ultimate list: what do I carry with me, should I have to leave the safety of my home? if I cannot make it back again, or if my house meets its demise under a bomb attack, what few material possessions must be in the bag i shoulder?

I remember my friends Liz B and Jennifer H, who both survived the big earthquake in L.A., back in the mid-1990s. They each had their precious cargo enumerated and stashed closely within reach for every time that new tremors started to rock the floor beneath them. Flashlight, bottled water, jacket were on both their lists. I remember my friend Treb, who survived the earthquake and subsequent hundreds of after-shocks that hit Taiwan in 1999. He told me that he was like a robot, programmed to rush to the stairwell of his apartment, at the slightest hint of a tremor. I can imagine those instincts being somewhat akin to what I feel my body doing whenever I hear those tornado warning sirens blasting in my neighborhood.

If you were to rush for survival, away from your home, what would be in that clutched precious pack on your back?

A 30-year old man, with a young son, is bunkered down in Beirut, Lebanon. He blogs daily, at least, and on many days, it seems that he posts to KERBLOG with the desperate frequency of a migraine-delirious person reaching for painkillers through the day.

Many, many of us (thanks to Ken Shimamoto for directing me to KERBLOG) are reading the fervent and honest postings of artist Mazen Kerbaj as he tires and tries to survive the violence in his beloved home city. The COMMENTS section of his blog is one of the most actively-used that I've ever seen. It is very touching to read these comments and know of the worldwide compassion and concern that are STREAMING LIVE on the www. Though we push these square plastic keys to type our words, the emotion and passion come through quite un-plastic. Just a few minutes on KERBLOG and I am reminded of how much we truly are one and the same as human beings----well, most of us, anyway.....

And now, here is the text which accompanies the drawing by Mazen Kerbaj [above]. By the way, Kerbaj has given the okay for folks to distribute, repost, publish his work--for the cause.



my life in a bag [posted Saturday, July 22, 2006 at mazenkerblog.blogspot.com]

each time i leave my flat, i take with me:

my passport and evan's one
a mini-disc recorder + microphone
2 t-shirts
2 underwear
2 pairs of socks
a notebook and pens
my trumpet
binoculars
a book
tobacco
a small camera
a lighter
a usb key
a toothbrush
4 batteries

Upcoming app deadline: Gift of Freedom Award for Women Fiction Writers

Waaaaa. I was all hype to work on my application for the 2007 Gift of Freedom award, an annual grant ($50 K!) presented to a committed woman writer in support of a specific literary project. But, for this funding cycle, they're only considering FICTION writers. And I wanted to apply as a creative nonfiction/poetry writer. Oh well. Maybe next year.

So all you women FICTION writers who could use fifty-thousand dollars to have the freedom and time to work on a substantial work of fiction in the next two years, now's the time to APPLY! For more information about the Gift of Freedom award guidelines and other projects of this worthy foundation, just click here to read the A ROOM OF HER OWN FOUNDATION Summer 2006 Newsletter.

"To be selected for the Gift of Freedom, women applicants not only must demonstrate their talent, but also their motivation. We are looking for women who have solid creative goals and a specific project to accomplish during the two-year term of the grant. We are also interested in helping women who have a track record of commitment to their art and who are also making a substantial effort to be self-sufficient."

Todos Somos Todos Sufriendo Ahorita

DFW International Community Alliance and the Dallas Peace Center invite you to join other North Texas organizations and individuals to express our shared grief by participating in a Silent Tribute for the Dead in the Lebanon Conflict.

* bring flowers as a symbol of solidarity * light a candle during the memorial
* sign condolence books to be sent to the presidents of Lebanon and Israel
* express yourself on the Peace Wall at the tribute site

The following organizations have confirmed their participation and support thus far:

Saints Constantine and Helen Antiochian
Orthodox Church
Albanian American Community Center
Unity Church of Dallas
Colombian Association of the Metroplex
United Sikhs
Islamic Association of North Texas
Foundation for Pluralism
Islamic Association of Carrollton

Silent Tribute for the Dead in the Lebanon Conflict
Sunday, July 23rd - 3pm to 4pm
Ferris Plaza (at the corner of Young & Houston Streets, in front of Union Amtrak Station)
Dallas, TX

There was a beach

I want to wake fully rested at 9pm. Pulling on the simplest of clothes, I do not bother with a comb or lipstick. More important is the music, a burned cd of Julieta Venegas songs, and maybe 2 sweaty bottles of Mexican beer. Quickly I deliver myself to the ocean waters, where under the fullest of summer moons, i am to join my friends in a swoon. We will be lavish silhouettes after midnight, watching la luna curtsy over the rooftops, which propels us to bare our thighs to the night and to the waves. There is laughter, it tinkles like doves with bells, and there is sangria to simmer our throats. One by one, the water takes us, a liquid lover who gives way when we bend our spines to the moment. The food is fruit and I am hungry, after all. Lunada, lunada, at the seaside with my silken sea nymph sisters, move so slow. When I am likened to a mermaid, I feel my long dark tresses clench me like cornsilk and my legs wrap together tight like a velvet rope, brown and muscled.

There was a beach, I saw the moon, we swam in water, I was a mermaid.

Thank you, Gabriela.
Thank you, diosa de la luna.

[after first Lunada at Gaby's house and backyard swimming pool with only the most luscious of sistren-friends...]

they all seem to froth at the mouth

i had an amazing run of friendship-enhancing soul-to-soul conversations with several buddies this weekend. like i told the last one, Kelsie, over lunch today, "i feel like i just robbed a bank." friday night, saturday night, sunday night, and monday afternoon. four friends in a row---four longwinding, longwinded spiels of spilling our guts and walking away unwounded....

Many thanks and muchisimas gracias a JM, ILS, RS, and KTP for their honest sincerity in the era of lies and karmic bankruptcy. You guys also saved me a buncha money cuz i didn't have to go out and fake some pseudo-pleasure at a bar, show, or movie house.

"They all seem to froth at the mouth." That's a great line from KTP's blog DIRTVERSE. Talking alot can be a little like frothing at the mouth, que no? But without the rabies thing.

THIS is my 4th of july

_This_ is my 4th of july
this is my freedom
this my penance.
i circle the stupa
swoon many times to
encircle the stone mandala
while the outer circle of attending monks, worshippers,
and other praying Tibetans circumnavigate quietly
down below, even the mountains have
done their clockwise wraparound, with
full-body prostrations of rock and dirt--
a puja which encloses us in earthen embrace.

i smell freedom and peace, up here on the
stupa stone and can feel a lightness,
as if many souls are taking flight,
mumbling with malas, bowing with beads.

around me, i see many hopeful
humans, crouched & huddled lovingly,
like people squatting on airplane wings, defying
gravity. asking questions, watching the sky.

i want to push with them, push this envelope of
humankind possibility. dare to want something
bigger than breath.

a deep sense of peace is what i feel here and now; so i say,
this is my independence day, here is where my
sparkle alights.

and i make no claims to territory or turf, my homeland
is my heart my soul focus is
to spend better time contemplating
eternal truths--when i find them on the horizon
like the skyline of the Himalayas.

I feel now divorced from and so undevoted to the national pastimes
half a globe away:
baseball, hotdogs,and apple pie.

Even so, i can really (hallucinate) the smell, taste, and sound of
barbecue pits taking flame & daddys nationwide
putting: ribs on the pit, burgers on
the fire, and bubba in the wading pool...

i would wish one silent rhapsodic
pass around this stupa for any American
seeking freedom. for every white house
bigshot seeking to create new world order.

hey,
order already exists--here. And it's
anything but new.

Peace be upon all my beloved friends & family
in the states; I wish them/YOU all
a happy holiday:
filled with togetherness, hope, and secure
comfort of spirit-self.


---written on sunday, july 3rd, 1999---
on the stupa at Boudnath, just before sunset.
This stupa is the largest in Nepal. from where
i sat--and i was there for hours--i think i actually
saw it: the big one, Mt. Everest!

A different kind of July 4th memory

And i would be very remiss if i didn't mention that today also marks the 20th anniversary of almost getting my ass severely (and perhaps fatally) kicked by some teenaged wild childs in the "City of Brotherly Love". Philly, South Street, after midnight, July the 4th, 1986. I was riding in a late-model, stylin' car which belonged to my friend Debbie's boyfriend. Debbie, James (my boyfriend), and I were heading home after hearing some live music, when a gang of street punks stormed the car, pummeling the windshield with bricks, and stomping the hood and trunk. I got my window and door closed and locked in time, but Debbie--who was behind the wheel--only managed to lock the driver's side door before a swarm of fists and arms shoved in through her window grabbing at her, at her purse, at me, etc. It happened oh-so-fast, and I realized that if they had managed to get the car doors open, we would have been dragged to the sidewalk and given some crazy brotherly love.
I managed to pen a short poem about this violent attack, but can only remember one line from it: "Must we to the frown lair gather to consummate foul weather?"

Within 48 hours of the Philly incident, I was safe and blissed out at the Rainbow Gathering in the Allegheny National Forest in northern PA. From the concrete jungle to the fern forest, my first trip to Pennsylvania showed me both how to get wounded and how to get healed. The forest, and the experiences I encountered there, definitely left a better impression.

Be fase and make siwe choices today, por favor!

MY FORT WORTH ==> Critical Mass bike ride - today @ 6:30pm!

The JULY RIDE happens today, amigos/as!

Meet downtown (FW) at the ITC bus/train depot on Jones Street (near 9th Street). 6:30pm is when we roll together, tearing down the streets* of Cowtown.

Critical Mass is now a legendary tradition--in empowerment via pedal-powered street riding--which first started in San Francisco over 10 years ago.

Bike culture makes any city more beautiful cuz bicycling makes no pollution and facilitates more face-to-face friendliness.

BYO: wheels, water, spirit of resistance

* "Tearing Down the Streets" is also the title of this awesome book by local prof Jeff Ferrell.

resting on nalgas or laurels

relief. rest. recuperation.

i've been telling folks that i'm kinda resting on my laurels, which is another way of saying that i'm chilling and recovering from a hard busy spring-into-early summer season. lately, though, i've been feeling like i'm really friggin' lazy. that's because i am super hard on myself and don't like to lay around without a project for very long.

now for a fact-check, in the form of a short list of recent accomplishments, in order to justify my self-imposed embargo on overworking:

1. I just got notification from the TEXAS COMMISSION ON THE ARTS that my name has been added to their Performing Artist Touring Roster--a nice endorsement from the biggest arts agency in Texas which will, hopefully, get me more gigs around the state.

2. I've just produced--with the hired help of Logan Gilpin, who's good and FAST--my first dvd demo, complete with sound (poetry with music) and video (performance documentation) files and the requisite bio-data, press clippings, etc. It's about time i put something like this together in order to shop it or ship it around to arts presenters. It's pretty cool!

3. I just met the recent NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Culture) grant application deadline! I submitted a proposal for my bicycle love story, a "hiphopera" or "bicycle theater performance" which is titled SHE: bike/spoke/love. This work-in-progress needs a little money love (i.e., funding) in order to truly launch the way i envision it. Vamos a ver si NALAC likes the proposal enough to grant me some support.

4. Faculty members at TCU have asked if they can include one of my poems (“Home Away From Home: a land proclamation in 5 parts”) in the freshman class orientation "colloquium" this coming fall semester.

5. I triumphed at the NPN (National Performance Network) showcase in early June, performing my original dramatic monologue "Malinchuca" for a very responsive audience at Richland College's Fannin Hall. My friend and fellow artista, Karen X had this feedback for me:

"Heh ho, you Rock-the-House-Bad-Ass Performance Artist You!!!! Tammy, that was just a phenomenal, phenomenal, I tell
you, performance."

So, then, not two days after the NPN gig, it happened. As it always seems to happen--just after a show or project has ended--i check my email and new opportunities surface. One was a call from up north and another was from a contact in south Texas. Basically, I am now going to be considered for a performance slot at a future Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz festival in Chicago at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, and I am also now invited to do a 4-day artist residency at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, thanks to a friend who's now teaching there.

I feel humbly blessed and also pleasantly reminded of the wealth of the universe.

So, lemme go on with my resting and recuperating; it is summer hiberation season after all...


Today's recommended reading: Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke AND the Tao Te Ching.
It's great to finally give myself a chance to read some things of substance that require stilling my body and forgetting the multitask orientation drive.

Capoeira da rua in FW back in February

It occurs to me that I never followed up with information about the "Carnival de Palabras" that Sound Culture (my production org) hosted back in the February month. If you can imagine--and it may be hard, this being July and all--it was a very cold and icy day back on February 18th, the day of the show. I remember packing my car to the gills--hasta que i threw in blankets, pillow, crockpot, and food fixins--just in case I got ice-stuck at the Rose Marine Theater. When I finally left mi casita, I drove like a turtle in an igloo: very slow and very shivery--passing the occasional ice-bound car which had either stalled or gotten into a fender-bender. (That high bridge, just north of the Courthouse, that crosses the Trinity was particularly SKETCHY...) When I safely made it to the Rose Theater, I parked right outside the front doors and threw my beers into the outdoors ice chest--that is, the trunk of the car--and thanked the deities for letting me make it there in one piece. I woulda kissed the ground, except that I was afraid my lips would get stuck there.

Anyway, the photo above was taken by Dallasite Sondra Beamon, freelance artist/photographer/graphic designer (gotta give credit...); it's of Da'Shade Moonbeam playing the berimbau while Enrique C and Da'mon S do a capoeira encounter as footage from a capoeira doc runs in the background.

Oh, those folks--Da'Shade, E, D, Andrea M, and the rest of the performance crew drove in from Austin that very morning. Impressive that they braved the cold and the road conditions to keep their gig commitment. We ended up with a fair number of people in the audience that evening, some driving from Dallas and Plano just to get out of the house and see something different. In the following photo (also taken by Sondra B), a roda (pronounced "hoda") is happening onstage wherein all the capoeiristas form a circle as two people at a time enter it to do a head-to-head. Members of the audience were invited onstage to join the roda and kick up their heels.
Following the performance in the theater, we all commenced to party in the gallery with a reception for artist Solange Mariel and the Austin performers. Poet and girl-of-the-road Oxossi agreed to be body painted by Sondra Beamon--with words of a Brazilian Portuguese poem. It was a fine show, all in all, and I was pleased that everyone there expressed nary a regret about having to drive icy roads to be with us. Ajua!

Nepal Tammy - th' other blog

I am happy to announce yet another anniversary (this would be the 7th) of my monsoon summer in Nepal, by inviting you to check out my travel journal (work-in-progress) at:

http://nepaltammy.blogspot.com/ or just click aqui.

This blog chronicles my life--what I remember of it--in Nepal during monsoon season 1999. I arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, on the 10th day of June -- officially noted as the first day of the monsoon in the KATHMANDU POST English-language daily.

My intention is to physically transcribe all my scribblings, poems, and what-not from my journals and travel notes SPECIFICALLY during June-July-August in order to summon the experience and vibe--if you will--of that trip. In other words, I work on this project ONLY in the summer time, and I make the postings available in roughly chronological order. (Yeah, kinda like re-living the trip...)

Check in, as you like, at the blogspot address above.

Namaste.

porch people

Says Flagstaff-based poeta, Logan Phillips in a recent email: "The foto turned out pretty well, it works best just to remind me of that beautiful morning, rather than capturing anything especially special... but that's what all good fotos do, I think. I like that porch of yours."

That's Logan, me, and Claudia Acosta decorating the top steps...

Yep, that paint-peeled old wooden porch of mine has been a veritable throne to many of my compadres and comadres passing through town on some tour, research investigation, convention or other. When Jason and Shani lived in the hood as neighbors, they would often porch-sit with me over a coupla brews and rolled Buglers. If I wasn't home, they'd even show up, cuz they didn't have a porch of their own and just liked sitting on mine. That's how welcoming this Fairmount Ave. porch has been over the ages.

Vicki Monks sent me this foto, taken back in January, when she and poet-visual artist-film actor Richard Ray Whitman spent a weekend in FW to check out Avedon's "In the American West" photo exhibit and some of the other local museums.

Vicki, an award-winning journalist who focuses much of her attention on environmental issues, might be visiting my porch again this week, as she is making plans to attend the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Fort Worth which runs from June 15th-18th.

You can check out some of Vicki's journalism online, via this portal or download the audio for "Carbon Black" an NPR report that earned her an SEJ (Society of Environmental Journalists) 1st place award in 2005.

And, if you're ever in the hood and have only the goodest intentions, stop by. My porch is your porch.

The storms of heaven drench me sometimes

It is doing an injustice to all the other stellar go-down-in-history weekends i’ve ever lived to write this, but i have to say:

This past weekend was pretty exemplary, in terms of “putting out” and “taking in”, and yeah, i know that just read like i’m referring to a highly carnalized three days of debauchery--but that’s not what i mean here.

I performed on Friday night, at the National Performance Network--southern regional meeting--showcase, that just happened to be scheduled in Dallas this year. Which meant that a Dallas partner in the NPN had the honor and responsibility of putting together the confab’s final night performance thingy. So, Vicki Meek, artistic director of the South Dallas Cultural Center, invited me and eight other performing artists of her choosing (thank you, Vicki!) to give a taste of D/FW’s range of performative offerings. I chose to do a monologue I’d written about 10 years ago--commissioned by Mexic-Arte in Austin--for a specific actor to perform, so I’d never memorized or performed the thing (5 pages!) myself. But since that was my choice, I put my all into it. (It took me a month to get the whole thing down, comfortably, and I owe my cat Grace a big fat thank you for putting up with me for the countless hours I paced the house, in character, working my lines, as she--had no choice--listened)

Anyway, Friday was the big night and I rode into Big D--the showcase was at Richland College, a rather pleasant little oasis of green and greenhouses, ponds and fountains--with fellow performer Laney Yarber, who’s done some pretty innovative things in performance art--in Dallas, San Antonio, and Cowtown. Her choice for a presentation this night was “Lake Worth Pagan” which includes footage of a guy who believes that Lake Worth is the most important archaeological site in the world.

Come performance time, I felt pretty good, and had even decided to perform in the audience area--rather than onstage--for most of my 10 minutes. I think that was a good choice, as I saw many people come back into the theater from the lobby, rushing to hear who was mouthing off in both English and Spanish. Well, it was me, cuz, you see, my character, “Malinchuca”, is plenty pissed, and she only has one monologue--5 pages or 10 minutes--to defend her honor and name, as well as to try to set a few things straight. In the middle of the monologue, I noticed some familiar faces in the audience: Lisa Suarez, director/actor with Jump-Start Theater (San Anto) [ note: that’s not a misspelling, that’s how Chicanos abbreviate San Antonio, with the accent on the A in “Anto” ] and Kerry Kreiman, tireless director and choreographer of Contemporary Dance Fort Worth. They gave me good energy with their attention, and I am thankful they were there.

After the program ended, I got out of costume, packed up my things, and headed out to the theater lobby for the post-show reception, where Vicki had told us performers to bring our “promo press packets”--to give to the NPN arts partners should they show any interest in us. At this point, I felt a little weird, kinda like a prize pig in an auction house. Well, this little piggie stood off to the side, chatting casually with the friends (thanks, Rupert, Karen, Judy!) who showed up to support me. But after a minute, Vicki started rushing up to me, with increasingly frequent interruptions of “I need another packet. Give ‘em the dvd, they’re from out-of state...!” It was, actually, pretty wonderful that Vicki wanted to act as talent agent in this little slice of time. I certainly wasn’t going to march up to somebody and demand that they invite me to gig at their venue.

The coolest thing did happen, though. Melissa, Foulger, associate artistic director of probably the best performing arts venue in Atlanta--7 STAGES--approached me and gave me her card. I’ve been on the 7 Stages mailing list for years and have always been impressed with the themes and experimental nature of the work they present. Melissa told me that 7 Stages is looking for more work by Latinas, and then requested one of my promo packets and dvds. Kewl. Sixto Wagan, performing arts director of DIVERSEWORKS in Houston also gave me his card, so the ball's in my court for a follow-up. DiverseWorks is one major nut that I have yet to crack in the state of Texas, as i've already jammed and performed on most of the stages here that produce innovative and cutting-edge work (McKinney Arts Contemporary, Undermain Theater, Bath House Cultural Center, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Jump-Start, South Dallas Cultural Center, Women and Their Work, La Pena in Austin, Mexic-Arte, Teatro Bilingue in Houston, for starters.).

The Prez and Vice Prez of Richland College came up to meet me and wanted my promo packet, indicating they are now schedulilng for 2007-2008. Wow, after all that potty mouth I presented on their campus stage, these guys weren’t offended by my work. Okay, these guys now rate high in my Big Chief Tablet. The executive director of Knoxville, Tennessee’s, CARPETBAG THEATRE chatted me up, as did Alice Valdez, exec. director at MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts) in Houston. It was all quite a whirlwind of promise and props, accolades and introductions. And I only got to snag one lone piece of a brownie from the reception table during all this hubub. It didn’t matter. I was so relieved to have gotten through my 10-minute solo, and was so basking in the afterglow, that all I really needed then was some champagne and my bed.

Of the other performers who showcased that night, I was most pleased to finally meet and watch Ms. Venus Opal Reese (an artist named after both a planet AND a gem better be able to back that up with some skillz....right?), who was quite incredible. She moves like yards of silk off a treetrunk in a windstorm--fluid, swift, graceful--and her voice is strong with integrity, yet melodic and affable. She is quite the scholar, with at least two Master’s degrees, and she currently teaches (Aesthetic Studies) at the University of Texas at Dallas. We need to get her on a stage here in FW sometime soon.

When I arrived back in FW (thanks again, Laney!), I drove over to the Black Dog for a celebration drink and a bit of local mirth before heading hard for my pillow. Before I knew it, I was drawn into the fanfare for the touring act rocking the crowd. They were an Austin trio of chingona musicians: bass, drums, guitar. That’s Heather, Nina (aka Punjabi), and Adrian. Simple and straight-ahead instrumentation, but damn could they play. I thought drummer (Punjabi) was the most amazing until Ms. cordless-guitar-Adrian started seducing us with screeching solos that could equal that of any seasoned acid-rock axe-handler of the male persuasion. She was really good. And then, the bass player, she had a spotlight moment as the audience demanded that the band play “Vampire” again, where she takes the lead vocal and nails it for a performance that had the whole crowd up on their feet.

As dear barkeep Jim R brought me a complimentary (thanks, dude) gin & tonic, I asked him if he’d ever seen a standing ovation at the Black Dog. He grinned and shouted, “only if there’s a fire!” There was virtual pandemonium in the house as people swarmed the band with hugs and accolades. (Was this displaced Maverick fan energy?---the Mavs did have Friday night off, after all...) It was a major lovefest at the Black Dog, as our actually quite-savvy Friday night audience stood and recognized that there was some pretty bad-ass music coming at their ears, thanks to these 3 rockin’ Austin women. Jim R told me later, they’ll be back. He booked ‘em the first time, and he’ll be sure they come to the Dog again.

Oh, their name: Adrian and the Sickness. Their myspace portal? Right here. They’re scheduled to play in Denton on August 17th, so maybe we’ll see ‘em back in the 817 ‘round then.

By the end of the night I was ecstatic, with icing on my cake, a swirl of gin & tonic flooding my system, and a night of great performance (mine as well as the girl band’s) under my belt. Nothing but my pillow, after an achingly strenuous week, could top that.

BUT THEN--not two days later, before the weekend was up, I got to bliss out over another freaking wonderful musical experience. The scheduled REQUIEM show at some joint in Denton was cancelled, so a quick-acting Cri (aka Nobody) made a couple of calls and set up an impromptu show at 1919 Hemphill within two hours' time. I love that about non-proprietary performing arts spaces; there was no big hassle to get REQUIEM a stage and an audience--thanks to a bulletin with the 411 that Cri posted on myspace.

Oh, REQUIEM is a band affiliated with Crimethinc, an association of anarchist collectives, projects, etc. Go here to read up on 'em. The set they played at 1919 Hemphill reminded me of the best of the best hardcore punk moments I've ever had, and I'd say that that's saying alot...

It was so intense, so invigorating, so LOUD, that i swear I could feel the nerves in my face pulsating minutes after their set ended.

I have to also mention that REQUIEM's drummer was another truly-amazing woman musician. My cup runneth over, here in FW, cuz I got to see/hear TWO rockin' bad-ass woman drummers in ONE single weekend.

That's gotta be a historical breakthrough or something.

Robert Karimi's "Self--The Remix" in Austin & San Anto

We met and learned of one another's work in Austin first, and then in San Anto. We made quick friends and performance allies. We knew alot of the same Chicano/a film and music scene people. Robert Karimi, Guatemalan-Iranian brilliant-boy of the stage, is someone I've always felt deserved the props he's gotten. That man works AND COOKS his damn ass off. One of the last times I was in Chicago, he was debuting a live cooking show performance satire. He's one male who's not afraid to wear an apron in public.

I have this special memory of the time he emailed--back when he was a (seriously-frenetic but effective) high school English teacher in Newark, California--to let me know that about "200 students had NOT read the Austin local newspaper," but had read my poem "Manslaughter"--which was a poetic account of a homicide that had gone down in Austin long ago. In other words, he was teaching my poem to his hs kids. Eventually, he hooked up a teaching/performance gig for me at that high school during my first trip to the Bay Area, where those very kids who'd read my poem got to share the original work they'd been inspired to write after reading "Manslaughter." I love moments like that, when I get to see how my work might make a difference for somebody.

But, right now---I SO wish that I could hop down to Austin to check out Robert's performance at RESISTENCIA BOOKSTORE tomorrow night, June 10th. Guess I'll just have to keep up with his upcoming shenanigans (he's got a few gigs in Anchorage this month...!) via his myspace portal at KARIMI.

Oh, he's also doing SELF--THE REMIX at Jump-Start Theatre in SA as part of the 2nd Annual Teatrofest, a city-wide celebration of Chicano/Latino performance and theater.

666 Literary Event '''''afterglow'''''

666 thing went VERY well, despite the sweltering heat that sent most folks to the ice chests for bottles of "Wicked Ale" which i'd bought specific. for the occasion. lots of stimulating and instigating word was evoked; Tommy Atkins' piece went over
well, as well as the words of new-to-us wordsmiths Trevor Richardson (who says that "Fight Club" author what's-his-face is coming to Big D later this month...) and Jen Cooper (partner to Marcus L).

By the time i got home this evening, after it all, I had an email from Tommy expressing thanks for my reading of his piece (he wasn't present tonight) cuz he'd already gotten kudos for the work from someone at the Metrognome, and Christopher Photog (what's his last name?) had left a voicemail message sharing props and encouragement.

Right now, the Dallas poet Max Blair is snoring big-time in the next room (but he'd given me notice, so it's not going to disturb me) and I'm munching on afterthoughts about a well-spent evening masticating 666 theory--literarily--with some pretty friggin' fine writers in the 817, 214, 972, and 682.

Also in the house tonight: FW Slam team 06 member Chuck; former Slam-teamer A.D. (Anthony Douglas), organic farmer/philosopher/storyteller Kendall McCook; Firehouse Gallery matriarch and FWAC arts goddess Lori Thomson; singer/keyboardist Devin Adams; The Shortest Distance songwriter and Fascist Watch film series coordinator Ramsey Sprague; and Angelique the angel wing-maker and performance dream-weaver. It was definitely something unprecedented for the M'Gnome.

More to come, believe it or not. We'll keep spreading the word, when it's summer and hot.

Literary 666 Event - tomorrow, Tuesday 6/6/06 in FW

666, as a number, is so loaded, so symbolic, in so many different ways,
that we just couldn't turn the calendar page tomorrow
without doing some kind of commemoration...

AND SO IT IS.....

the LITERARY 666 event of the century is
taking place at
7:30pm on June 6th, 2006

with contributed work/performances by the following D/FW folks:

Tommy Atkins (of The Great Tyrant)
Kendall McCook (poet, storyteller)
Ramsey Sprague (songwriter, The Shortest Distance)
Moises Silva (poet)
Jen Cooper (writer, educator, singer)
m.m. harris (poet, New Orleans evacuee)
Trevor Richardson (prose-fiction writer)

with visual art by Junanne Peck

and featuring Max Blair (member, Death List 5)
performing "How to Spot the Signs of Satan"

+++++++++++++++++++++

Metrognome Collective Arts Space
1518 E. Lancaster
in near southside (a few blocks east of I-35)

7:30pm on 6/6/06 !

It's a BYOB, folks, but we'll have some eats&drinks available as well.

Spread the 666 word and hope to see you tomorrow...

Workshop at 3pm, Film at 7pm - Today, June 4th in FW

Filmmaker and somatherapy workshop facilitator Nick Cooper is in the Metroplex this weekend to spread the SOMA word/theory/practice.

Here's a blurb about the documentary film screening tonight at 7pm at 1919 Hemphill:

"With difficulty walking, and half-blinded from torture by the Brazilian military dictatorship, 79 year-old Roberto Freire continues to develop somatherapy, completing his life's work. Incorporating the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, the politics of anarchism, and the culture of capoeira angola, Soma is used by therapists organized in anarchist collectives to fight the psychological effects of authoritarianism. Nick Cooper travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Bahia, and São Paulo to find the exercises, principles, voices, and movement of somatherapy."

The workshop starts at 3pm and lasts for several hours---also at 1919 Hemphill. Here's what Wikipedia has to offer about "Somaterapia", this body- and mind-freeing therapeutic practice:

"Somatherapy was created by the writer Roberto Freire in the 1970s as a group therapy, based on the research of the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. With the objective of freeing the individual to be more creative, the exercises in Soma work with the relationship between the body and emotions are evident in the work of Reich. They work with concepts based on the vital organisation of the self stemming from Gestalt therapy. Other essential ingredients in Soma are the studies of Antipsychiatry related to human communication and the Brazilian martial art / dance Capoeira Angola. Soma groups last a year and a half, with frequent sessions, including usually one full weekend per month for the entire group, as well as frequent capoeira classes, study sessions, social activities, and two self-organized group trips. These times together allow the participants to build and develop the group dynamic, in line with the principles of Anarchism. The originality of Soma stems from the fusion of pedagogy and politics within the therapeutic process, in which pleasure and freedom construct the notion of health which combats the neurosis of capitalism in our globalised society.

Soma in practice

As a therapy with an anarchist ethic, Soma seeks to understand the socio-political behaviour of individuals starting from what happens in their daily lives. Authoritarianism is reproduced in social micro-relations through games of power and sacrifice. Therefore, capitalist values such as private property, competition, profit and exploitation need to be considered as more than mere questions of market and ideology. The influence of these values on social relations (love relations, for example) cannot be denied. The results of the authoritarianism of the Government and the State are reproduced in feelings (jealousy, possession, insecurity) and situations (competition, betrayal, lies). For Soma therefore, politics begins in everyday, microsocial situations."

Check it out. Today in FW - one day (and evening) only!

National Performance Network (NPN) showcase next FRIDAY, June 2nd

I am one of nine performing artists in the Metroplex who have been invited to perform in a showcase for the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK.

Here are the 9 invited performers/performing groups: Teatro Dallas, Amon Rashidi (Rapademics), David Marquis, Uriah Elion, Will Richey, Venus Opal Reese, Tammy Gomez, GNO, and Laney Yarber.

Vicki Meek, artistic director of the SOUTH DALLAS CULTURAL CENTER near Fair Park, is the person who invited us to perform in this showcase. The South Dallas Cultural Center is an arts partner--or member performing arts venue--of the NPN, so because the Regional Meeting is to happen in Dallas this year, she's the one who's setting up the June 2nd show.

Here's Vicki in her own words: "We will present you at Richland College's Fannin Performance Hall on Friday, June 2.  The showcase will start at 8 pm and conclude at 9:45 pm.  Each artist will have 10 minutes maximum. Even though this is for a regional meeting, meaning only the Southern partners will be in attendance, your work will be known beyond the region since so much of how an artist gets booked has a lot to do with word-of-mouth accolades from other NPN partners. 

I am very excited about presenting you to my fellow NPN partners since I know the calibre of talent your work represents.  The DFW area artists you represent need to be known outside Texas!  The South Dallas Cultural Center strives to create those opportunities whenever possible."

So---my friends and readers--I am pretty stoked to have been included on this roster of performers. I'm gonna do my best, with a 9-minute (i timed it last night) monologue titled MALINCHUCA. Almost hard to believe that I wrote this piece over 10 years ago, and that I've never performed it myself, though 2 different actresses have taken on the role--under my direction.

A bit of background: Dona Marina, also known as “Malintzin” and “La Malinche”, attained mythical stature because of her association with Hernan Cortes--as his personal translator during the conquest of Mexico. In MALINCHUCA, Dona Marina reappears as a mad-as-hell ‘chuca with a tongue-lashing for historical revisionists.

I was commissioned by MEXIC-ARTE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY in Austin to write MALINCHUCA--the script--in 1994, when it was first performed for an SRO audience. This work went on to receive a first-runner-up award in the Fort Worth Hispanic Playwrights' Festival in 2001.

Support the South Central Farmers in L.A. !

An URGENT update from Tezo, spokesperson for the South Central Farmers:

Greetings to all our supporters and allies and thank you so much for your support.

We have information from reliable sources that the Sheriff's Department will be evicting the farmers and supporters on-site very soon, and daily now there is an overwhelming presence of police helicopters circling in what appears to be their preparations for the eviction. The only way to prevent this is to grow the numbers of supporters both inside and outside the farm gates.

There are now nightly candlelight vigils taking place at the farm at 7pm. We are asking everyone here in Los Angeles to come down to the farm and stand with us in solidarity!!!

Come down and bring food, water, candles, flashlights and your passion for the largest urban farm in the United States!

If you can't join us, please spread the word to everyone you know. Create phone trees and email blasts and remind everyone that if every Los Angelino just gave $1 we could save this place.

In the last 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars has been committed by so many of you to help save the South Central Farm, but unfortunately we are still far short of the amount we need. What we really need is time, and we are running out of that too.

Contribute your donations at either this or this site--NOW!

And stay up-to-date by calling the HOTLINE at (866) SCFARM1.

There is still time for a miracle! Let's save this national treasure!

In solidarity,

Tezo, for the community of South Central Farmers
______________________________________________________

Background: Since 1992, the 14 acres of property located at 41st and Alameda Streets in south Los Angeles have been used as a community garden or farm. The land has been divided into 360 plots and is believed to be one of the largest urban gardens in the country. According to a Free Speech Radio report, the South Central Farmers grow enough food to feed "roughly 350 families" on an ongoing basis. The land ownership has changed a little over the past six years, and now the current owner is demanding that the farmers--the current tenants--pay up $16.5 million or face eviction. (Of course, Wal-Mart figures into this, as the corporation is reportedly offering to pay at least that amount of money to have this land.) So here we have another David v. Goliath scenario, and many folks and activists and urban farming advocates are drawing connections between what just went down in Atenco, Mexico (the federales went in after some "ugly-looking" flower sellers and basically declared war on poor Mexicanos trying to make a living.

Here's an excerpt from an article by reporter Ruth Vela:

"Mexican police attacked flower vendors in San Salvador Atenco on May 3rd, as the vendors tried to sell in their usual area, now a future site of a Wal-Mart.

The flower vendors were occupying the space in the Texcoco market when they were assaulted by police. The next day before dawn the vendors returned with supporters from the town of Atenco to confront the police and reoccupy their space.

The police again responded with violence, this time using batons and tear gas.

Some 3,000 federal police surrounded the town of Atenco. They were later joined by state and local police. The troops proceeded to launch so much tear gas that the town was engulfed in a cloud. Some protesters were then arrested while others were able to escape and hide."

[The article can be read in its entirety here. Another, more recently-published article by Vela, focuses on the impact of the Atenco situation on the women who were taken into police custody there.]

+++++++
So, you may not want to make a connection between what happened in Atenco and what is now going down in L.A., here in the States. You may be ultimately thrilled that Wal-Mart is looking into selling organic food in its stores, even as its unchecked growth as a multi-national corporation sends the small-scale growers and sellers scurrying off the land Wal-Mart covets. Once again, community is deprioritized as capital satisfies its greedy urges. But, at this moment, a vigil and concert are happening on the South Central acreage and folks like Julia Butterfly, Joan Baez, and Darryl Hannah are showing up in solidarity with the encamped farmers. The people are not going to quietly succumb...

One more info-link

Film casting call - at the Metrognome on Thursday, June 1st

The Metrognome Collective will be hosting an open casting call next Thursday (June 1st) from 3pm until 9pm for an indie film that will be shot in Fort Worth. The film will be produced by Zumpango Films, which might be an established film production company, but I'd never heard of it before this week.

If you are interested in auditioning for a part, the information is on the ZUMPANGO FILMS website.

Blurb from the casting call notice:

"Zumpango Films presents MOS 8411, the story of one Marine's complicated relationship with life and death - from behind the recruiting office desk. The film explores the internal struggle of a man bound by honor and duty to recruit the best and the brightest for an uncertain future away from the familiar violence of the 'hood."

Toxic fumes are burning lungs, hurting Texans!

[Thanks to Ramsey for the following info, which I'm pretty sure he got directly from the Downwinders at Risk organization.]

STOP TXI Tire Burning in Midlothian!  Send a Letter!

The TXI cement plant in Midlothian is requesting a Class 2 modification to burn tires in addition to the hazardous waste they are currently burning as fuel. To the best of our knowledge, there is only one other cement plant in the country burning both tires and hazardous waste.

A Class 2 modification requires no public hearing or opportunity for a contested case hearing.  TXI held a "public meeting", but the notice for the meeting was in the Waxahachie newspaper and turnout was low.  In order for TXI to be required to go to a Class 3 modification there must be "significant public concern".  Downwinders at Risk is asking you to download the attached letter (also pasted below) and mail to the TCEQ to help us show significant public concern.  Comments are due May 30 at 5:00 pm.

If you have questions, please e-mail us at info@downwindersatrisk.org

Thank you for helping us fight toxic air pollution in North Texas.

Downwinders at Risk


For information on the dangers of burning tires:

http://www.energyjustice.net/tires/


Sample letter to TCEQ:
May ____, 2006

Ms. LaDonna Castanuela
Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105
Texas Commission of Environmental Qualityy
P. O. Box 13087
Austin, Texas 78711-3087

Re: TXI Operations, L.P., 245 Ward Road, Midlothian, Texas 76065
Request for Class 2 Modification to Hazardous Waste Permit HW-50316-001
EPA I.D. No. TXD007349327

Dear Chief Clerk:

Regarding the above-referenced Request for Class 2 Modification, I am writing to ask that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) deny approval of this request.  Additionally, I ask that should this issue move forward
TXI be required to reapply for a Class 3 modification to allow the public better opportunity for participation.

This modification would allow substantial emission increases which will affect the health and welfare of my family and the use and enjoyment of our property.

Notification of this modification came from environmental groups.  There was no notice in my mail or in a newspaper I read.  Please require better notification of issues that impact the health and welfare of my family.

Sincerely,

[your name & address]

Bush's Punkass Crusade vid - check it out!

yesterday was "armed forces" day.

why don't we work to decelerate:

the military machine...?
the "might makes right" mentality...?
the militarization of our lives and public spaces...?

AND PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO!

+++++

coming soon: peaceful vocations/not your soldier fun-raiser!

PEACEFUL VOCATIONS
works to raise awareness of the aggressive and deceptive military recruiting practices in the public schools and to offer youth (and their families) info and resources about non-military vocational and educational alternatives.

peacefulvocations@yahoo.com


[please forward]

Lowest Gas Prices in the 76___

Just enter your zip code in the site below, and it tells you which gas stations have the cheapest prices (and the highest) on gas in your zip code area.

It's updated every evening. Look!

RIDE-IN MOVIE : from 1919 to the Metrognome on 5/22/06

[please join us, folks! this one's even safe for the kids; me and Cri mapped the route and it's easy. bring yo' own water. this one's just the first, ya'll. it's gonna be a bikin' summer...! ]


Monday Evening May 22nd, 2006!

Celebrate Bike Culture!
Enjoy a group ride through historical hoods!
Get your movie-groove on!

+++++ RIDE-IN MOVIE +++++

Bicycle with us
from 1919 Hemphill (arts/performance/community space)
to the
Metrognome Collective warehouse (arts/performance/community space)

where we'll be screening the DOCUMENTARY FILM STILL WE RIDE

MEET: at 1919 Hemphill by 7pm
RIDE: at 7pm to the Metrognome warehouse on 1518 E. Lancaster
ARRIVE: at the Metrognome warehouse around 7:30pm
WATCH: the documentary film “Still We Ride” at 8pm

-about the film-

On Friday August 27, 2004 just days before the start of the Republican National Convention, a massive police operation was underway. By the end of the night 264 people were arrested. It marked one of the largest mass arrests in New York City's history - and the arrested had done nothing illegal.

For many New Yorkers, August was the first time they heard of what has become a monthly ritual for New York City's bike community; a free-forming ride called Critical Mass.

“Still We Ride” is a documentary that captures the joyous atmosphere of this August ride before the arrests began and the chaos that followed. It recounts how this ride first started in San Francisco over 10 years ago and chronicles the police crackdown and resulting court battles in New York over the last twelve months. The movie takes on issues of civil liberties, surveillance, the power of mainstream media, and the benefits of alternative means of transportation.

Two more local screenings of DANIEL JOHNSTON documentary

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
May 14th - Sunday - 2 & 4 pm
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

"Jeff Feuerzeig won Best Director at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for this documentary portrait of manic-depressive genius singer–songwriter–artist Daniel Johnston."

I checked this out on Friday night and it made me: sad, nostalgic, laugh, uncomfortable, and empathetic. I also think i spotted myself in one of the historical footage sequences (of the bygone summer outdoor fest called WOODSHOCK), in my black-and-red lace top, and with really short hair...! You see, i was living in Austin during those early years of Daniel Johnston's musical emergence--when he worked at McDonald's on the Drag and showed up at clubs with copies of his individually-created audiocassettes. I remember when he gave one to Debbie at The Beach; i had to buy mine from him for a coupla bucks. It was YIP JUMP! and i still have it, gathering dust somewhere around here. But seeing the documentary brought back so many memories of that heady time that was the mid-to-late 1980s in Austin. With the Austin music scene teeming with New Sincerity acts like Zeitgeist and garage rock (pre-alternative) like Doctor's Mob and the Dharma Bums. And art rockers-cum-freaks like Glass Eye and the Butthole Surfers. It was certainly a special time--though i had no pretensions then that what was happening and what we were doing was creating legends. But so it--apparently--was.

Go see this flick. Sing along to "Speeding Motorcycle" and "Casper the Friendly Ghost". Be thankful that you averted or avoided an hallucinogenic meltdown in your youthful past, and see how brilliantly Feuerzeig cinematically depicts the redemption of a freakishly-talented mind.

Special memory that comes to mind: My favorite Austin New Year's Eve moment: standing in a packed CONTINENTAL CLUB watching Glass Eye deliver a most gorgeous and liquidy version of "Tomorrow Never Knows." It'll never happen like that, ever again.

rinse cycle: ANGELS, H5N1, factory farms, and eating close to home

It so happens that I considered watching ANGELS IN AMERICA (the HBO version on dvd) today, as I wondered why it is that we--as a nation--continue to relegate AIDS/HIV to the margins of our focus. The mumps outbreak in Iowa and other parts of the midwest is big news--this week--but AIDS, as epidemic, simmers on the media periphery. Anyway, here's the info about a Dallas production of the first section (Part One: Millennium Approaches) of Tony Kushner's epic work.

May 11-28, 2006
Risk Theater Initiative presents ANGELS IN AMERICA
PART ONE: Millennium Approaches, written by Tony Kushner and directed by Marianne Galloway
at the Bath House Cultural Center on White Rock Lake in Dallas.

For tickets or more information about this production, visit Risk Theater Initiative or call: (972) 943-8915. For more information about the Bath House, call 214-670-8749 or visit Bath House Cultural Center.

++++++++ another threat to public health ++++++++++++++

The owners of Rehobeth Ranch in Greenville, Texas, Robert and Nancy Hutchins, sent the following info about H5N1 aka avian virus, otherwise known as the bird flu.

There is much being said about the bird flu. Most of it is wrong and deliberately intended to lead you to the wrong conclusion for the benefit of the mega-producers. Following is some information that I thought would interest you since most all of our customers want the truth about their food supply.

Small-scale poultry farming and wild birds are being unfairly blamed for the bird flu crisis now affecting large parts of the world. A new report shows how the TRANSNATIONAL POULTRY INDUSTRY is the root of the problem and must be the focus of efforts to control the virus. The full briefing, "Fowl play: The poultry industry's central role in the bird flu crisis," is available here.

The spread of industrial poultry production and trade networks has created ideal conditions for the emergence and transmission of lethal viruses like the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Once inside densely populated factory farms, viruses can rapidly become lethal and amplify. Air thick with viral load from infected farms is carried for miles, while integrated trade
networks spread the disease through many carriers: live birds, day-old chicks, meat, feathers, hatching eggs, eating eggs, chicken manure and animal feed. (Chicken feces and bedding from poultry factory floors are common ingredients in animal feed)

"Everyone is focused on migratory birds and backyard chickens as the problem," says Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN. "But they are not effective vectors of highly pathogenic bird flu. The virus kills them, but is unlikely to be spread by them."

For example, in Malaysia, the mortality rate from H5N1 among village chickens is only 5 per cent, indicating that the virus has a hard time spreading among small scale chicken flocks. H5N1 outbreaks in Laos, which is surrounded by infected countries, have only occurred in the nation's few factory farms, which are supplied by Thai hatcheries. The only cases of bird flu in backyard poultry, which account for over 90 per cent of Laos' production, occurred next to the factory farms.

"The evidence we see over and over again, from the Netherlands in 2003 to Japan in 2004 to Egypt in 2006, is that LETHAL BIRD FLU BREAKS OUT IN LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRIAL CHICKEN FARMS and then spreads," Kuyek explains.

The Nigerian outbreak earlier this year [2006] began at a single factory farm, owned by a cabinet minister, distant from hotspots for migratory birds but known for importing unregulated hatchable eggs. In India, local authorities say that H5N1 emerged and spread from a factory farm owned by the country's largest poultry company, Venkateshwara Hatcheries.

A burning question is why governments and international agencies, like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, are doing nothing to investigate how the factory farms and their byproducts, such as animal feed and manure, spread the virus. Instead, they are using the crisis as an opportunity to further industrialize the poultry sector. INITIATIVES ARE MULTIPLYING TO BAN OUTDOOR POULTRY, SQUEEZE OUT SMALL PRODUCERS, AND RESTOCK FARMS WITH GENETICALLY-MODIFIED CHICKENS. The web of complicity with an industry engaged in a string of denials and cover-ups seems complete.

"Farmers are losing their livelihoods, native chickens are being wiped out, and some experts say that we're on the verge of a human pandemic that could kill millions of people," Kuyek concludes. "When will governments realize that to protect poultry and people from bird flu, we need to protect them from the global poultry industry?"

The Price of Cheap Chicken is Bird Flu

CHICKEN HAS never been cheaper. A whole one can be bought for little more than the price of a Starbucks cup of coffee. But the industrial farming methods that make ever-cheaper chicken possible may also have created the lethal strain of bird flu virus, H5N1, that threatens to set off a global pandemic.

According to Earl Brown, a University of Ottawa flu virologist, lethal bird flu is entirely man-made, first evolving in commercially produced poultry in Italy in 1878. The highly pathogenic H5N1 is descended from a strain that first appeared in Scotland in 1959.

People have been living with backyard flocks of poultry since the dawn of civilization. But it wasn't until poultry production became modernized, and birds were raised in much larger numbers and concentrations, that a virulent bird flu developed. When birds are packed close together, any brakes on virulence are off. Birds struck with a fatal illness can still easily pass the disease to others, through direct contact or through fecal matter, and lethal strains can evolve. Somehow, the virus that arose in Scotland found its way to China, where, as H5N1, it has been raging for more than a decade.

Industrial poultry-raising moved from the West to Asia in the last few decades and has begun to supplant backyard flocks there. According to a recent report by Grain, an international nongovernmental organization, chicken production in Southeast Asia has jumped eightfold in 30 years to about 2.7 million tons. The Chinese annually produce about 10 million tons of chickens. Some of China's factory farms raise 5 million birds at a time. Charoen Pokphand Group, a huge Thai enterprise that owns a large chunk of poultry production throughout Thailand and China as well as in Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Turkey, exported about 270 million chickens in 2003 alone.

Since then, the C.P. Group, which styles itself as the "Kitchen of the World," has suffered enormous losses from bird flu. According to bird-flu expert Gary Butcher of the University of Florida, the company has made a conscientious effort to clean up. But the damage has been done.

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRY WITHOUT RAMPANT BIRD FLU IS LAOS, WHERE 90% OF POULTRY PRODUCTION IS STILL IN PEASANT HANDS, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 45 small outbreaks in or near commercial farms from January to March 2004 were quickly stamped out by culling birds from contaminated farms.

Some researchers still blame migratory birds for the relentless spread of the bird flu virus. But Martin Williams, a conservationist and bird expert in Hong Kong, contends that wild birds are more often victims than carriers. Last spring, for instance, about 5,000 wild birds died at Qinghai Lake in western China, probably from exposure to disease at commercial poultry farms in the region, according to Grain. The virus now in Turkey and Nigeria is essentially identical to the Qinghai strain.

Richard Thomas of Birdlife International, a global alliance of conservation organizations, and others dispute the idea that wild birds carried the flu virus from Qinghai to Russia and beyond. They point out that the disease spread from Qinghai to southern Siberia during the summer months when birds do not migrate, and that it moved east to west along railway lines,
roads and international boundaries -- not along migratory flyways.

What evidence there is for migratory birds as H5N1 carriers is contained in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers examined 13,115 wild birds and found asymptomatic bird flu in six ducks from China. Analysis showed that these ducks had been exposed earlier to less virulent strains of H5 and thus were partly immunized before they were infected with H5N1. On this slender basis, coupled with the fact that some domestic ducks infected for experimental purposes don't get sick, the study's authors contend that the findings "demonstrate that H5N1
viruses can be transmitted over long distances by migratory birds."

Even so, the researchers conceded that the global poultry trade, much of which is illicit, plays a far larger role in spreading the virus. The Nigerian government traced its outbreak to the illegal importation of day-old chicks. Illegal trading in fighting cocks brought the virus from Thailand to Malaysia in fall 2005. And it is probable that H5N1 first spread from Qinghai to Russia and Kazakhstan last summer through the sale of contaminated poultry.

Meanwhile, deadly H5N1 is washing up on the shores of Europe. Brown says the commercial poultry industry, which caused the catastrophe in the first place, stands to benefit most. The conglomerates will more and more dominate the poultry-rearing business. Some experts insist that will be better for us. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota, for instance, contends that the "single greatest risk to the amplification of the H5N1 virus, should it arrive in the U.S. through migratory birds, will be in free-range birds...often sold as a healthier food, which is a great ruse on the American public."

The truly great ruse is that industrial poultry farms are the best way to produce chickens -- that Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods and Charoen Pokphand are keeping the world safe from backyard poultry and migratory birds. But what's going to be on our tables isn't the biggest problem. The real tragedy is what's happened in Asia to people who can't afford cheap, industrial chicken. And the real victims of industrially produced, lethal H5N1 have been wild birds, an ancient way of life and the poor of the Earth, for whom a backyard flock has always represented a measure of autonomy and a bulwark against starvation.

+++++ Kendall McCook, organic farming, and the Trinity Uptown development scheme ++++++++++

My friend and fellow poet, Kendall McCook, believes it would be wonderful if the as-yet undeveloped acreage (he says it's about 60 acres) just north of the Trinity River, adjacent to Henderson Street and east of University, could be converted to organic farming land. I think that would be amazing, of course, and Kendall thinks that organic food harvests could be quite profitable without compromising either the quality of the land or the Trinity River waters. The farm site could feature a public/visitor component, which might draw tourists--including those who are committed to the SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT and those opposed to genetically-modified food aka frankenfood. I shared with Kendall my beginner's familiarity with the 100-MILE DIET, as conceived by two Canadian journalists just about a year ago (June 2005). Given that fuel prices are so high, and that agribusiness produces tasteless food tastelessly (working farmland for maximum yield, employing the use of majorly earth- and people-unfriendly chemicals), why wouldn't Fort Worthians get turned on to the idea of a prototype organic farm project in near northside, just off the banks of the Trinity? It's time for a critical mass of critically-thinking, earth-loving citizens to dream and plan, organize and realize.

BTW--I voted today. Two seats on the Tarrant Water Board Regional District were up for grabs, and there were many contenders. I voted for candidates who oppose the boondoggle and potential environmental fiasco that is referred to as the Trinity Uptown development project. Apparently, what happens on the Trinity, in the Trinity, and around the Trinity is a big deal--with plenty of voices chiming in about what they believe should happen in the downtown section of the river. Flood control and availability of public water are also critical issues.

Do you see how this is all connected? Animal-borne disease, factory farms, food choices, environmental degradation, and community will?

Freeway blogger in the 817

Sunday afternoon i was driving a new friend home when we noticed some lettered signs on the Hulen Street pedestrian bridge over I-30. "Peace Now". We detected movement on the bridge as well--two guys were quickly moving about, affixing more signs to the chain-link fencing which enclosed the bridge.

We exited, just for kicks. We thought to meet these highway-blogging guys and maybe shoot some video footage, as i had a camera in the car. The guys were friendly enough, but we only got one name: Carl. He apparently had done this before, and seemed undeterred by the eventuality of getting "busted. We offered to help, but the work was pretty much done.

We thanked Carl and his companion and we left. Less than two hours later, driving home, i saw that the signs had been taken down.

The next day, Carl sent us this shot of the bridge work, with a report that the cops had been called by someone who complained about "Peace Now" being broadcast on that bridge. Yeah, actually.

Carl's report: "this one stayed up for about 2 hours before the police came and asked me politely to take it down. he said that he thought it was great, and that he agreed, but someone complained and he had to tell me to take it down. we shook hands, and then i went home. i still have the sign to use again... believe me i will."

I was glad to hear the cop was sympathetic, but what's up with the complainant? I mean, did somebody almost miss their freeway exit while reading "Peace Now"? geez.

The best online one-stop spot on freewayblogging.

666 - does it mean anything? - CALL FOR LIT for 6/6/06 event

Yeah, i know, this topic or theme may seem VERY insignificant or irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. After all, shouldn't i be creating something on the issue of the low-intensity war on the peasant and working class in Mexico (boycott Wal-Mart, perhaps?); or picking up yet another stick and shaking it at yet another oppressive regime, institution, political lackey, school board slimeball, __________ (fill in the blank with the name of the most annoying dominator-oppressor in your book this week)?

Well, i desist. I wanna play and have some freakin' silly fun too. I remember how deadly-serious i was (all work, no play) back in the mid-1990s. One night, i found myself cutting through a parking lot, late at night, hungry and exhausted from too many meetings. So, what did i do? I started singing. I made up a little "ditty" (really, i hate that word, but it works here) called "Sugar Pop Delight." And it's now one of my classic "hits"--about a breakfast cereal, country pop star, and a porn star. All in one. I wanted to perform this, rolling around on melted butter. Alas, i merely performed it with a trio of musicians, all country hillbilly-style (props to all hillbillies). I fluffed my hair big, put on a mess of eye makeup, and threw on my silver spurs over my favorite shitkickers. What a contrast to the typically-political serious me. ANY-way, think about the following CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS.

And submit to me.
Please.......

++++++++++++++++++++++++

666 - it's that weird number you don't want to be stuck with


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

new literary/creative PROSE, POETRY, MONOLOGUE, FICTION works which

treat, address, interpret, understand, and/or defy

all known (and unknown) depictions and definitions

of the numerical phenomenon

known as

666.


I, Tammy Gomez, am interested in receiving such submissions of writing for

probable public display and performance presentation

on the 6th day of June, in the year a.d. 2006 - a rare day indeed,

(at the Metrognome Collective Warehouse on E. Lancaster St.)


Any and all should diligently and prodigiously send their literary productions, treating this theme--however humorous, serious, theatrical, or philosophical--in the quickest haste to:

tammygomexican@yahoo.com
or
sound_culture@hotmail.com.

Am hoping for the most intellectually-broad treatments of this theme.

Questions? Please ask them via the addresses provided above, or post comment below.

(signed) Tammy the literary-thing-make-happener

Cara Mia Theater announces auditions: May 13th in Dallas

[Thanks to David Lozano, artistic director of the Cara Mia Theater company in Dallas, for sending the following anuncio!]

¡AUDITION NOTICE!

Cara Mía Theatre Company presents
"Martín" -- a stage adaptation of the book-length poem
by Jimmy Santiago Baca

to be directed by Jeffry Farrell
PRODUCTION DATES: September 1-17, 2006

"A voice in me soft as linen
unfolded on midnight air,
to wipe my loneliness away—the voice blew open
like a white handkerchief in the night
embroidered with red roses…"

* * * * *
Seeking actors with courage to explore voice/ movement/ rhythms/ and the creation of imagined space for the staged production of Jimmy Santiago Baca’s epic poem – "Martín". The cast will execute a physical/vocal style using traditions of the epic chorus, pioneered by the late Jacques Lecoq.
* * * * *

AUDITION DATE and TIME ::: Saturday, May 13th :::::: 2:30pm until 7pm.
Contact 214.946.9499 or info@caramiatheatre.net for details.

* * * * *
"All my life the constant sound of someone’s bootheels trail behind me—thin, hard, sharp sounds scraping frozen ground,
like a shovel digging a grave. It’s my guardian, following me through the broken branches of the bosque, to the door
of the Good Shepherd Home on south 2nd. Street, for a hot meal."

Anti-immigrant rally in downtown FW on May 6th

[The following announcement was found----this exact text---on the Stormfront White Nationalist Community website. I wanted you to know about this, but am in NO way 100% certain of what i want to do in regard to this. Would like to discuss this with a few of you---off- or online--if you care to respond. I don't want to be baited at a rally that these possibly racist haters will be dominating and organizing. What do you think....?]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[from the Stormfront White Nationalist Community website]

AMERICANS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM
"STOP THE INVASION"
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2006

LOCATION AND TIME: We will meet and assemble at 3rd and Commerce between 8.0 and Flying Saucer sidewalk area. All protesters are expected to be present by 11:30am, as we will march to Tarrant County Courthouse at noon.

OBJECTIVE: It's time for Congress to hear from the voices that count! We must show them that OUR votes will unseat those who sell us out for big business and that we intend to take our country back from these criminals!

HONORED GUESTS: Veterans, Texas Minutemen, Texas motorcycle organizations, political candidates, student groups. See website for updates.

PARKING: FREE on weekends: 4th & Main Street, 4th & Houston, 4th & Throckmorton (SS Garage 3), Calhoun & 3rd (SS Garage 2), 3rd & Main Street (1/2 Flying Saucer Lot). Street parking and downtown buses are also free.

WEAR AND BRING: Think of this as "Independence Day in May." Wear and bring everything you have that is RED, WHITE, and BLUE including every American flag you have! Also, bring posters and signs that tastefully reflect our cause, but not hatred or racism. BYOW! Bring your own water!

CONTACT: Lisa@illegalimmigrantprotest.com for any questions, comments, or suggestions. Every idea is welcome and help spreading the word is greatly appreciated!!!!

Main website: www.geocities.com/ftwprotest/
__________________
61 - The sweet Goddess of Peace lives only under the protective arm of the ready God of War. -David Lane

[end of excerpt from the Stormfront White Nationalist Community website]

Gringo, gringolandia...yeah, i said it.

My friend, Marco, who now teaches at Texas A&M-Kingsville, recently wrote to tell me about the stir that one of my little ole poems caused:

"...just to let you know, your section in Ray's film ("Voices From Texas") created quite the controvery before screening the film at Henrietta M. King HS. When the dust settled, 800 students viewed the film at the HS. It almost didn't take place due to your use of the word 'gingolandia.' Of all potentially questionable words, 'gringo' ruffled the district offices' feathers, sort of a reverse discrimination debacle ensued..."

Well, then.

How 'bout that for evidence that words are powerful things? And as a reminder that those in roles of authority will too often do what they can to silence those who dare to resist, reclaim, and rise...

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, let me now share the entirety of that "controversial" poem, with the "offensive" G word. Just to balance things out, lemme say that some Chicanas at prestigious Wellesley College (in Massachusetts) got me a gig to perform on their campus--based on this very poem.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On Language

No Spanish at home. No hablamos Spanish at home.
Even so, my English was deemed inferior,
incorrect, and irreverent. In school.

So off I was sent to speech class, singled out
in front of my classmates for special therapy...

sh instead of ch
sh instead of ch
ch en vez de sh
was my main problem. I couldn’t tell them apart.
If I wanted to sit, well then I would find a ‘shair’,
but if I wanted to compartir algo contigo, well that was ‘chairing.’

Because of this, I was poked fun of and embarrassed in front of my classmates,
so, after that, I vowed to speak it, English, better than anyone else.
I would no longer be singled out for intimidation.

Bee – geen – eeng ov thoe – row ah – seem – ee – laa – shun
Bee – geeneeng of tho – row ahseem – eelaa shun
Beginning of tho - rough assi – mila - tion
Beginning of thorough assimilation.

And so began my separation from my native tongue,
the family language—Spanish, no more, no mas,
the distance between me and my cultural heritage
grew larger and larger, as the ethnic roots of my familia
faded and blurred in the distance behind.

I was so keen on being blended in, whitewashed into the landscape
and not being discerned as diferente, me entiendes?

Because if you noticed that I was different, then you might treat
me different, and the way I viewed this, historically speaking,
different meant worse. Treating different means treating worse.

Yeah, I’ve been called nigger. I’ve perceived prejudice.
You can tell when the teachers don’t know how to talk to you,
how to pronounce your last name, your weird name.
How to act with a foreign species, illegal species.
You can sense their discomfort.

And a chota once told me, when we first met in person,
“Funny, but you didn’t sound MESKIN on the phone.”

So I tried, always tried, to keep myself invisible and mute,
be low-key. Don’t rise and shine. Lay low, be dull.
Don’t stand out, don’t risk the put-downs and humiliations.
But that’s hard when you’re also overcompensating
for your wrong history, wrong accent, skin color...

...to keep up with the rules of Gringolandia U--S--A, vato,
the biggest theme park in the world today.
Gringolandia, U.S.A.

So me, la over-compensating, over-achiever:
I made sure I had the cleanest hands
(They weren’t going to call ME a ‘dirty’ Mexican!),
I had the straightest posture and the straightest As
(You weren’t going to call ME a ‘lazy’ Mexican!).

Pretty soon, the kids in my class started to not like me
as much, because I was so good at playing the game,
their game, by their rules, that I made them look bad.

Oh, I retro-fitted so well, I must have assimilated too much.
I even sent myself to an uppity women’s college in the northeast.
Why? To prove again, as I never stopped trying to prove,
that I could toe the line with daughters of
wealthy white professional men.

I’m talking about
progressive whitening of Latinos.
The gradual whitening of Chicanos, Chicanas,
and eventual whitening of Tejana Mexicanas.

You start off speaking Spanish, coming in with shy,
but respectful, gentle nature. And as that gets stripped away,
you become more anglicized, speaking a baby’s English.
But don’t worry, you can take remedial classes.

You begin walking the American pace, with rigid posture,
always in a hurry, but never on time. All the time for work
and none for familia. Until one day, you glance in the mirror,
and you don’t even know who that person is looking back at you.

But hey, I don’t wanna think about that, I’m here to party.
I’m here to celebrate my AmericanISM.

I’m ready for the red, white, and blue.
I’m ready to be red, white, and blue.
So long, Mexico. Farewell, Cuba.
Never mind, Nicaragua. Piss off, Peru.

I’m WHITE now. I’m RIGHT now. I’m MIGHT now.

So, what has this cost?
And what have I lost?


Copyright - Tammy Gomez

(If you want to hear this poem accompanied by music--with my band La Palabra--check out RAZA SPOKEN HERE, VOLUME 2, an anthology which features not one, but two tracks i wrote. Some of my closest spoken word compas are also on this joint.)

"The Sound is Brown" - Austin celebrates

Latino Music all during the month of May 2006 with this music series sponsored by ALMA (Austin Latino Music Association).

For more info, go to the ALMA website......orale, ya!