Staceyann Chin: Truth, Spirit & Activism on Fire

WOW!  Fucking awesome or what??!!
I’ve been watching this over and over and each time it gives me tingles, goes straight to my heart, and brings tears to my eyes.  So powerful.  So healing.  So empowering & inspiring!
(Tiny sidenote, as per my wife Shea: “The only thing I would change is “men” to “colonists” but yeah the patriarchal colonist men are definitely at the top of the WTF heap.”)

I’m a writer, I’m a performer, I’m an activist.  I’m mostly known as a poet.  I’m a memoirist.  I’m a mother.  I really started to speak out for my own rights personally, the ones that I missed, the ones that I felt were away from me; the ones I felt I was caught up in the middle of this unfair set up.  I just wanted my voice to be visible.  I wanted to be part of the tradition of Audre Lorde, June Jordan.  I am often, I think, misunderstood.   Certainly who I am, what I stand for, is misunderstood in the world.  Not only personally am I misunderstood at times, but the lesbian identity, the single mom identity, the Black identity, the feminist identity, the immigrant identity, is constantly being misunderstood.  So much of what we say is taken out of context. [from this interview]

Fierce poetress-activist Staceyann Chin is a raw, real, firecracker of a woman; she’s a force to be reckoned with and a Spirit to fall in love with and be inspired by.

Hearing this woman “perform” (in quotes because her peforming feels like raw realness, a real unchained Spirit) speaks to my heart and ignites my own Spirit to stay passionate & creative in speaking my own Truth.  Staceyann, you light a fire beneath my feminist wings and I so appreciate ya for it!  Rage on sister, rage on – here’s to changing our mother fucking world!

The Big Business of Anti-Sex Trafficking

The Big Business of Anti-Sex Trafficking.

via The Big Business of Anti-Sex Trafficking.

Some excerpts:

Combating the scourge of human trafficking has become the sexy, trendy newest cause for privileged opportunists in need of their newest feel-good activism fix as they seek to profit by wrapping themselves in the cloak of social justice. Of course, those whom are the very core of this cause—the sex trafficking victims (or exited/exited women) themselves—are without real, adequate and appropriate help in terms of income support, medical [and mental health/trauma] care, education, job training and job placement to regain control of their destiny to rebuild their lives and live with dignity while trying to do so.

Decolonizing the Sex & Gender Wars: Part 1

Hierarchical Privilege: Is it Inherently Abusive?

In a recent conversation about privilege-clinging, power-overing, and busting down – or working within – the colonist patri-hierarchical system of oppression and exploitation we’re all embedded in, a friend and I agreed that it is the ABUSE of privilege that is the problem.  But on further thought, I’m now wondering if privilege in itself is abuse, exactly because OF the nature of the colonist hierarchy: to “profit” is to exploit; there is just no getting around this.  So to move up the colonist patri-hierarchy one must abuse/exploit/oppress those ‘beneath’ them.

Enter integrity and not “selling out”.  There are people in positions of privilege who genuinely want and try to do some good.  Like lawyers who devote their professional work to trying to legally right some deep wrongs, even though this work is limited due to the oppressive, repressive and rigid colonist nature of the idea and practice of what it calls “the law.”

Poll: What Do You Think of Feminism?

Internalizing Our Oppression: Exhibit A

NOTE:  This post is meant to Educate, not Shame-u-cate.  Most girls and women carry some degree of internalized misogyny; how can we not when as young, impressionable children we’re thrown into the predatory colonist (sexist/racist/ableist/transphobic/ageist/homophobic) culture and have no choice but to absorb it like a sponge?

A Challenge to the Privileged

We hear and engage in a lot of talk about privilege.  Analyzing and educating ourselves and others about privilege is very important, and half of the activist equation.  ACTION is the other critical half, and right now we have an opportunity to put our privilege where our mouse clicker is and donate some of it to help revolutionary feminist activist Jacqueline S. Homan save her failing eyesight so she can continue fighting for social justice for everyone.

From the donation site:

A well known and active feminist writer needs help to pay for her treatment of glaucoma.  If it goes untreated, irreversible loss of her sight and eventually total blindness will occur. She has zero income except for food stamps and $20 or so a month in book sale royalties. She is badly in need of new glasses and contacts both to properly see as well. Without her sight she has no chance of coming out of deep poverty that she has been struggling in without reprieve for many years since escaping the sex trade. At the moment she is taking a online computer course in the hope of being able to reenter the job market, after years of abuse in the sex industry. Which she has been incorporating in to her feminist writing in her  just released self-published book, Without Apology, to uncover the truth about the sex industry. Help out a sister to make it out of the poverty trap and continue to tell the truth nobody wants to hear. Together we can change her life for the better. And give her a chance to live instead of merely survive with the odds stacked against her…

PLEASE HELP A SISTER OUT BY CLICKING HERE AND GIVING WHAT YOU CAN.  Even if you are unable to give, please circulate this widely.  Thank you very much.

Peace & Power to ALL of us!

Jacqueline S. Homan Blows My Socks Off with Her Truth Storms

The magical world of lyrical wizardry is made richer with the voice of word warrior Mz Jacqueline S. Homan who writes for her life over at Feminism – The Other “F” Word.

The Fierce & Incomparable Mz Jacqueline, Queen Bullshit Detector Extraordinaire

Lydia Lunch: A Word Ninja Serving Truth Machine-Gun Style

“Men are so fucking afraid to die that they have to kill everything in sight”:

Choices: Do You Have a Learner Mindset or a Judger Mindset?

click to enlarge

Imagine it’s you standing at the crossroads on the left side of the Choice Map. Something has just happened and now you have to solve a problem or make a decision. Perhaps it’s with your business, team, colleagues, or customers. Maybe it’s with family or friends. Or maybe it’s about your health, finances, or plans for the future.