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Tomorrow night at 7:30pm I’ll be reading with Lee Ann Brown at Spoonbill! Lee Ann just published a collection of poems “In The Laurel’s, Caught” and we’re going to be celebrating it’s new-found existence!!! I’ll be reading from Parasite. Hope to see you!!!
Spoonbill is here: 218 Bedford Ave Brooklyn, NY 11211
As I’ve mentioned, I spent the past couple days in Pittsburg, gave a reading at the very lovely The Big Idea Bookstore, gave a lecture at the University of Pittsburg and then lost my shit at Blue Moon bar, those bitches werk it out.
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Bill Scott, professor at The University of Pittsburg brought me out to guest lecture on the topic of the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology and my involvement with the Peoples Free Library. We discussed free speech, poetry, activism and wandered amongst the various intersections. I even managed to bring porn into the conversation thanks to the hard work of” Occupy My Throat.” Link here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B24RGAm86s1VWFg5S2o0anNfd2c/edit?usp=sharing
I meant to talk more about why I thought that porn was interesting from my personal angle as a poet… while living in Zuccotti Park I had written a poem called “Gangbang for Democracy“. I read it while living there but didn’t know about the video until after the park was closed down and I met David Sokolowski (one of its stars). I didn’t spend much, if any, time online while I lived in Zuccotti Park because wikipedia, for a moment, went into real time. Anyway, I thought it was a really beautiful gesture what they had done. I myself consensually fooled around a bit in Zuccotti Park and it was an extremely magical atmosphere bursting with human creativity. But I’m pretty sure it’s the most honest depiction of the hierarchy of the movement, a few walked away with royalties to a film and the rest got thrown some pocket cash.
The lecture went really well, surprisingly so, by the time I checked to see how long I had been talking already an hour had passed. And the students questions really broadened my understanding of what we had done. I walked away with a pretty positive outlook on what our time in Zuccotti Park had done, Occupy acted as the social justice cheerleader for a generation to get off of its ass for a moment and think about what is going on around the world. As long as were alive we’re part of what happens on this earth, and we have to admit to ourselves that our actions affect our surroundings and we must strive for harmonies, we must dream of new realities as we heal ourselves and everything we touch. It’s going to be very hard because we’re all totally insane but I think we can do it. Life in New York is rough and often much more mundane than the fantasies we believe we deserve, but the magic is stronger. The nights and lights never end here so everyone can have their 15 minutes to stretch into the infinite because there are so many people and everyone has an extremely busy schedule because we’re wizards. True change will only come through direct actions that can only happen by very focused and secretive groups which are committed to disrupting the status quo exclusively by peaceful means; like planting an edible plant or native species in a roadside garden full of invasive species and don’t forget to talk to the worms while you’re there with your secret group so we can figure out a way to solve our biggest problem… the 99%
*insert sarcastic just-after-sex grin* Continue reading
Occupy Language:
The Story of the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology
A Multimedia Presentation and Workshop on Poetry, Political Activism, Queerness, and the Avant-Garde
Free and Open to All!
Monday, April 15, 2:00-5:00
602 Cathedral of Learning (Humanities Center)
Stephen Boyer is the author of the novel “Parasite” (Publication Studios), the chapbook “GHOSTS” (Bent Boy Books), and an Edition for the San Francisco art gallery 2nd Floor Projects titled “The Form of Things” (2nd Floor Projects). He curates the blog minorprogression.com, and with the help of countless others he spearheaded the compiling of the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology. Recently he exhibited an installation at The Center for Book Arts in New York City (Jan-March 2013) showcasing both the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology and the Peoples Free Library, of which he was a member. Stephen is currently working on a play.
Thanks to the University of Pittsburgh’s Humanities Center, The Charles Crow Fund, and the Literature Program of the English Department for generously sponsoring this event
Also, had a moment today at St. Marks Bookstore!!! Seeing almost all the copies of Parasite have sold + my book surrounded by Paul Bowles in the literature section of one of my fave bookstore: priceless.
recently Amos Mac and I spent an evening together
taking photos and playing dress up
and now i’m seeing how my subconscious inspired all my looks
a bunny
a viking floating out to see (vs. sea)
really just a sorcerer
on a road to {k}no{w} where
-can’t go there
it takes a genius photographer to pull out someones insides
and turn them into an image
suddenly we feel really naked
in a “bed of roses” sort of spirit….
You can see the rest of the images here. I suggest getting out your best speakers and listening to The Knife “Shaking The Habitual” as you do it.
from Al Jazeera
Two years ago the election of Barack Obama, the US president, was hailed as a turning point in US race relations. The country was said to be entering a new era of post-racial politics, on the path to a future of greater diversity and tolerance.
But while crowds flocked to Washington to witness their new leader’s inauguration, others were refusing to join the party. Racially motivated threats against Obama rose to new heights in the first months of his presidency, with the US seeing nine high-profile race killings in 2009.
Meanwhile white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups claim their membership is growing and that visits to their websites are increasing.
With important Congressional elections in a few weeks time, People & Power looks back at this earlier report which set out to investigate whether the racial undercurrent that has long structured US politics was reasserting itself.
Filmmakers Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen went inside the white nationalist movement to investigate.
In the process we uncovered links between white nationalists and a conservative movement that has since become a force within more mainstream politics.
I just bought my signed copy!!! You should get one too!!! The indiegogo campaign link is here. I especially love when Rhiannon explains for a moment the importance of supporting queer literature and queer businesses, since we’re not even on “the pie” when it comes to statistics covering the entire literature world. But if you asked me, “Queer people are not on the pie cuz we’re the cream filling!!!”
(the artist as a young mulleted author)
I learned today that Glenn O’Brien’s legendary TV PARTY is again on air! For those that don’t know what TV PARTY is, ya need to prolly spend a little less time in school, honey:::
TV PARTY MANIFESTO : 2013 ADDENDA
Can a nation have more than one culture?
NO! EVERY CULTURE SHOULD BE ITS OWN POLITICAL ENTITY!
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION BEGAN IN NIGHTCLUBS! (Well, Taverns and Inns
anyway! The Sons of Liberty, Sam Adams the brewer. George Washington, whiskey
distiller!
PARTYING IS POLITICAL. ELEVATE THE MASS MOOD!
THE POLITICAL PARTY SHOULD REPRESENT THE SOCIAL PARTY.
SOCIALISM MEANS SOCIALIZING!
SHARE THE FUN AND SHARE THE WEALTH!
All parties occur in the present time.
ALL FUN IS NOW.
All parties occur in physical space.
Use party theory to propagate party mode in real time and space.
YOU DO NOT HAVE DIGITAL FRIENDS. ONLY PEOPLE YOU CAN TOUCH ARE
FRIENDS!
Use your digital devices to organize physical life
.
Not for an Arab spring, For A HUMAN SPRING.
USE DIGITAL NETWORKS TO INITIATE REAL TIME AND SPACE PHYSICAL
INTERACTION!
DANCE in REVOLT!
Not for London Riots, Laugh Riots.
Be Youtube paratroopers
Transmit party vibes across hostile territory. Transform NO MAN’S LAND into
AMUSEMENT PARKS!
Is it possible that intoxication is simply one group attempting to achieve the
consciousness that occurs in another group naturally and inherently.
LET YOUR BACKBONE SLIP!
LOOSEN YOUR HIPS AND YOUR LIPS AND TIGHTEN UP YOUR WIG.
TV PARTY is a party in actual physical space. It is transmitted in order to be
CONTAGIOUS.
You can do this at home. Use handheld devices to track affinity groups and assemble
spontaneously.
Send co-ordinates.
Use Grindr tactics to rendezvous at party points.
FLASH MOB DRUG FREAKOUTS WILL TRANSFORM THE SOCIAL ORDER.
Encounter friendlies.
Transition from digital mode to physical mode.
Please authenticate.
Youtube paratroopers Geronimo.
Cell towers open fire.
In late 20th century we used local cable nets to block triangulated newwork feeds
ABC, CBS, NBC. Restore local broadcast.
Depixillate now.
OWN YOUR OWN NETWORK!
Use pop up party techniques. KEEP IT MOVING.
By the time the PARTY POOPERS receive this, we are not here.
WE ARE REAL GONE.
Click here for Glenn O’Brien’s original manifesto from 1981
Seriously though, I really think Glenn O’Brien is right about all of this.
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HONEY I’M AN OVERLORD.
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In other news…. I dropped my first track yesterday. I made it for a performance I’m doing next month for B.J. Dini’s birthday… doesn’t it sound like birthday music?!?! You should come out… You should dance. And we should probably get high or something.
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“Peter Tatchell said: “There were no calls for equality; our demand was liberation. We wanted to change society, not conform to it.” So in essence, the gay marriage campaign of today, with its drab demand that homosexuals be granted equal access to the social institution of “rotten, oppressive” marriage, represents not the fulfilment of early gay radicals’ demands but the warping of them, the stomping of them into the dirt of history. It is a well-known fact that most radicals end up going straight, eventually donning a suit and tie and accepting a fat wage packet in return for tempering their ideals. But the gay movement, in switching from loathing marriage to longing to enter into it, and from demanding that the state get our of their lives to pleading with the state to officiate their relationships, has performed an about-face that is unprecedented even in modern radical politics….
“Today’s gay rights spokespeople are obsessed with identity, and as we know, cultural identities are insatiable beasts, constantly needing the recognition and flattery of officialdom and society in order to survive. Thus, their key demand is for the state to come into their lives and give its blessing to their lifestyles and relationships, to effectively say: “Your way of life is valid. We accept it.” It is the very opposite of the moral independence and autonomy demanded by yesteryear’s gay radicals – it is a needy and cloying demand for state approval rather than a radical insistence that the state has no business determining which relationships are acceptable and which are not.”
from The Telegraph.
I really cannot attempt to fathom how Mahnefah Gray, Kimani Gray’s sister, handled this arrest, nor do I want to suggest my limited experiences with the police could be anywhere near as traumatic as this nor should I be able to speak for her in anyway… I couldn’t fathom all the feelings rushing inside her and how she shielded her psychic-self from this heavily armed military which is controlling our streets and killing innocent people, remember, in America everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, well, they should teach her method to every young person in the world. I’m so proud to see so many informed people out in the streets defending her brother and neighbors and the future generations of people that wish to call New York City home.
And isn’t that all it really is? NYC is just a giant concrete home and everyone inside this giant concrete home is engaging in a giant experiment called collective-communal-living. Whether you want to admit it or not, your neighbors are breathing the same air as you and getting their groceries from the same corner as you…. The only way we’re ever going to make this giant concrete home of ours safe for everyone, is if we shift the paradigm. We need to get these stories out. No one should be arrested for grieving for their murdered brother. We all have a right to be here. And we all have a right to be here with our needs met so we can dream and create and enjoy the greatest concrete experiment ever. And we should build a dream park where we honor all the innocent lives that were lost as we shifted the consciousness, and in the dream park we can erect a miniature version of each of these peoples dreams, so people can spend leisurely afternoons drifting through them.
The few times I’ve been arrested I’ve always felt most overwhelmed by the psychic invasion, the moment you realize this deeply coded and heavily armed outside force has captured your body, which is the temple holding your spirit, almost immediately sends my spirit darting for an escape hatch. When they take you, it’s not at all like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers…. the NYPD takes over people quickly and with force and you know it’s happening, it’s more like when I was thrown to the floor after shoplifting and the officer smashed my head against the tile. When I was living at Occupy Wall Street I made it a point to stay away from the police as much as possible, just walking within a few feet of an officer sent a cold chill running through my body. Whenever they have tried to touch me, I’ve always felt like I was suddenly under attack by a machine. You know when you go home with someone and they seem so fun at the club but then you get their clothes off and it feels like no one is actually inside, instead of the fun loving freak you expected, you’re just with a shell of a person??? Well the police aren’t even like that, they aren’t hollow, there’s something in there and it’s evil!
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And some great advice…
