The Larry Lyons Experience

and he never will be

2011-05-15T06:16:00.002-04:00

Unreleased Jazmine Sullivan

2011-04-12T13:02:00.002-04:00

Get in the Mix -- Become a RBMF Mentor!

2009-08-25T10:41:00.000-04:00

The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund would like to invite you to join us at our first Mentor Mixer. For those who are just being introduced to our work, we’ll be providing a brief overview of our history and initiatives. For those who have supported our work over the past four years, we’ll be unveiling our fall fundraisers and announcing the winners of the 2009 scholarship award. Most importantly, we’ll use the evening to begin transforming talented folks like you from young professionals and agents of change into mentors for the next generation of scholars and activists.

At the event, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the amazing young men and women who have received the seven scholarships we’ve granted since 2006. 2007 scholarship recipient Dashana Payne and her mentor Kemi Ilesanmi will be discussing their experience with our mentoring program, and 2009 recipient Nafissatou Traore (who has not yet been paired with a mentor) will speak briefly about how she’s been inspired by Rashawn’s legacy of selfless service and academic excellence.

We do hope that you’ll join us for this exciting event. Have a drink, bring a friend and learn a little about the role YOU can play in helping us build the New York City that Rashawn wanted to see; a diverse and affirming city free of violent crime.

To RSVP, email us today by clicking here.

Dinners by Desire

2009-03-16T13:15:00.001-04:00

From noon-5pm this Saturday, Rashawn Brazell's mother Desire will be selling home-cooked dinners to raise money for the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship. Meals include southern fried chicken, collard greens, baked macaroni and cheese, potato salad, curried chicken, peas and rice, oxtails and red velvet cake for desert. Chicken meals are a mere $8 and oxtail meals a mere $9. The quest for justice has never been so delicious!

1091-1103 Gates Avenue
Apartment 4D
(Between Broadway & Bushwick)
Brooklyn, NY

call 917.971.5321 for details

On the Dissertation Tip

2009-02-04T17:21:00.013-05:00

Well folks, it's a watershed moment in the life of your boy LarryLy. After 4+ years of coursework, qualifying exams and teaching, I've finally arrived at the place I've been dreaming about since I decided on a career in the academy: DISSERTATION STAGE!

Because the debates and discussions on this blog have been instrumental in preparing me to think critically about the intersection of text and image as it relates to issues of race, class and gender in 20th Century America, I am excited to share with you the first portion of my dissertation research -- an ambitious engagement of the work of African-American photographer Gordon Parks alongside that of folklorist/author Zora Neale Hurston.

Gordon Parks’ rise as a documentary photographer allowed him to intervene in the revision of America’s national identity during a crucial moment in the country’s history: the advent of mass culture in the 1930s. Pursuing the Farm Services Administration’s goal of “introducing America to Americans,” Parks’ early work exposed the infringement of mass culture upon local cultures, particularly the ways in which farm mechanization signaled major changes in the profile of working-class labor.

My research explores the conversation between Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men (1935) Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) and Parks’ work with the FSA. I am particularly interested in the possible relationships between black laborers’ experiences of the Farm Services Administration and the Federal Security Administration, which scholars have discussed in terms of its interventions in the town of Belle Glade, Florida (the town upon which Hurston bases her fictional accounts of “the muck”). How might these identically acronymed government programs have come to represent the heavy-handed surveillance of white capitalism for black rural laborers during the 1930s and 1940s? And how might this connection revise popular beliefs about the laborers’ relation to the white capitalist authority structure?

I argue that Hurston’s texts and Parks’ images help us discern how the economic shifts of the early 20th century impacted visual and literary interrogations of (and challenges to) white male hegemony and how that process impacted the emergence of the black middle class.

my president is

2009-01-30T16:50:00.001-05:00

Kid Sister

2009-01-14T02:40:00.000-05:00

Beyonce’s “I Am…Sasha Fierce” debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 482,000 copies in its first week, giving Knowles her third consecutive number one album. If you’re anything like me, and I suspect that you are, you’re bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the fact that Bey’s project pales in comparison to that of little sister Solange Knowles.

Though it’s sold just over 100,000 copies since its August 2008 release, Solange’s sophomore project is fast becoming the guilty indulgence of discriminating music lovers everywhere. It’s the album that you can’t believe you love and won’t admit you own. Whether they’ve downloaded the tracks or are simply settling to stream through imeem.com, audiences are secretly pumping Sol-Angel and dumping Sasha Fierce. Who would have thought?

Who could have predicted that second-fiddle Solange would be the mastermind behind one of this year’s most exciting albums? “Not I”, says LarryLy. Now, let’s be clear: no one anywhere is arguing that Solange actually sounds good. Indeed, her voice is often so painfully shrill or downright unrefined that the listener is ashamed to have given the album any serious consideration whatsoever. “Where Beyoncé wants her vocals perfect, Solange wants them raw,” Daddy Knowles defends. The only problem is that the singer too often transgresses the line between raw and reckless, and Matthew’s We-meant-to-do-that does nothing to make the inferior vocals any more sufferable.

But then there’s the vibe. The irresistible vibe. You see, this generation has proven time and time again that we want nothing more than to return to an idealized time in history (that we never actually knew). We’re a generation in search of a vibe. The commercial successes of the film Dreamgirls and of the train wreck Amy Winehouse have whet our appetite for repackaged Motown jams and damned if Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams isn’t eagerly filling the order.

But seriously folks, if you can get past Solange’s inferiority complex (see God Given Name) and her unnecessarily abrasive persona (see This Bird), Sol-Angel is quite a treat. The 60s/70s throwback theme provides the perfect backdrop for Solange to show off her knack for innovative vocal arrangements than even her megastar sister could stand to learn from.

In my estimation, the standout tracks are as follows:

Cosmic Journey, an extended psychedelic romp through time and space with neo-soul crooner Bilal on supporting vocals.

T.O.N.Y, a deliciously coded lament about a one-night stand.

Dancing In the Dark, a lively angst-ridden tune flaunting horn arrangements borrowed from your favorite sitcom theme songs of the 60s and 70s.

Would've Been the One, half confession, half admonition, this 50s-style love song is a toe-tapper not to be missed.

But don't take my word for it. Check it out and lemme know wha chu think.

On Michelle Obama and Stereotypes

2008-12-01T11:41:00.007-05:00

In response to CNN's report "Michelle Obama breaks stereotypes"

CNN's Randi Kaye examines how Michelle Obama may help break down stereotypes of black women.

I’ve seen this segment aired on CNN at least three times and each time it’s made me more and more uncomfortable. Why? Because it’s just plain silly to suggest that Michelle Obama can single-handedly eradicate stereotypes about African-American women. By definition, stereotypes are images or ideas about a group of people that have become fixed by repetition or acceptance, to the point of cliché. If there are stereotypes about Black women being overweight, ignorant or angry, they exist because we have been inundated with those unflattering images over the course of decades and generations.

While I am genuinely excited about what Michelle will bring to the White House, I think we’re doing a disservice not only to the first family, but to our already derelict discourse on race and racism to suggest that one woman’s weight, skin-tone and parenting abilities could possibly reverse a stereotype that was built over several successive decades of white supremacist attitudes about black women being transmitted through every possible mouthpiece from music videos to US public policy.

To avoid yoking our next First Lady with unrealistic expectations, we’re going to have to give serious consideration to her context. What Michelle Obama’s visibility can offer is a counterpoint to the hundreds of negative images of Black women that are circulated daily amongst Americans. So, for the hundreds of mammies, hoes, bitches, Jezebels, welfare mothers, ghetto queens, baby’s mamas and chickenheads that exist in the songs, movies, news reports and anecdotes that comprise our national imagination, there is now one Michelle Obama. She’s powerful, she’s accomplished, she’s fortunate and she’s ambitious, but she’s just one woman, folks. And, to be clear, it’s going to take a lot more than one First Lady to transform or dismantle the caricatured image of black women that’s been crafted by the racist and misogynist attitudes of our white supremacist society.

change.

2008-11-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

A Market for Niggaz

2008-09-23T14:48:00.006-04:00

This week's gathering of Princeton's Center for African American Studies' faculty/graduate student seminar on Black Popular Culture reviewed Mark Anthony Neal's most recent musings on rapper Jay Z and the unique brand of cosmopolitanism that he embodies. Integrating black feminist thought and queer theory, the piece was a critical intervention aimed at complicating our understanding of Jay Z's negotiations of black masculinity over the past 12 years of his commercial success.

I found the following lines particularly compelling and resonant with LarryLy's own musings on the relationships between hip-hop, blackness and American capitalism:

"It is important to remember that “niggas” largely circulate within transnational commercial culture as flattened images — images that are a projection of historic fears of black masculinity in the United States, the desires of young white men (and others) to consume the supposed visceral pleasures and dangers associated with black masculinity and the willingness of young black men (and others) to make that image available for consumption."
-Mark Anthony Neal

To that end, I invite you to take a listen to the gem below from our brutha Taalam Acey. It's one of my favorite youtube clips of all time, and soon you'll know why.

on brandy.

2008-09-05T16:02:00.008-04:00

What follows is the blurb I penned about Brandy for my imeem.com "Best of Brandy" playlist. It's very much a work-in-progress. If you're anything like me (meaning that you take pride in thinking critically about your favorite music), I invite you to toss in your suggestions, revisions, qualms, laurels, admonitions and accolades. If you're nothing like me, just hush and take a listen.

No female singer this century has had so profound an impact on the sound of contemporary R&B than the iconic Brandy Norwood. This playlist profiles the lushly layered harmonies and the ethereal, otherworldly vocal arrangements that she and producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins tailored to accommodate the young starlet’s airy voice, smooth alto range and moody temperment.

Inspired by the stirring ballads of Whitney Houston and the intricate vocal stylings of gospel’s Kim Burrell, Brandy’s songs allow listeners to explore the unique blend of anomie and automation that shapes the postmodern soundscape as well as the human vulnerability that lies at its root.

[note: for some reason, the blog insert is only playing 30-second snippets. to hear the songs in their entirety, click on the "brandy's best" hyperlink beneath the player]

brandys best

I'd love to have a conversation about my favorites, but it seems pointless, considering I've already cited each of the tracks as one of her best. *shrug* could someone please take an interest in my claim about the postmodernity of Brandy's sound? I'd really like an opportunity to discuss it further without wondering whether anyone gives a damn. Ha!

Mainstream Media Coverage of RBMF March

2008-08-31T11:06:00.003-04:00

News 4 NEW YORK -- Three years after her son was murdered, the mother of a gay Bushwick teenager is hoping for a break in the case and that her son's killer will be brought to justice.

Rashawn Brazell's dismembered body parts were found in garbage bags strewn throughout Brooklyn, including the Nostrand Avenue subway station.

On Saturday, dozens of people marched in memory of the 19-year-old whose life was brutally cut short.

Brazell's mother said she hopes the march will lead to a tip that will help detectives solve the murder.

Gay activists and members of the Bushwick community have established a memorial fund for Rashawn Brazell to fight against racism and homophobia.

Watch video report.

Race, Class and Gender at the DNC, part 1.

2008-08-26T12:35:00.014-04:00

On Michelle, the South Side girl.

I’m not sure whether this is what I happen to be thinking, or if this is my recognizing some very insistent messaging packaged by the DNC machine(s), but I walk away from Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention thinking that her remarks were intended to herald the novel possibility of a “girl” raised in a blue-collar family on the South Side of Chicago becoming the First Lady of the United States, a notion that stands to gain the Obama campign the allegiance and admiration of women of all races. I mean, don't Americans love those rags-to-riches, triumph-over-adversity, underdog wins tales?

Further, Michelle's willingness to speak publicly and passionately about her upbringing, her own credentials and (less directly) her love/hate relationship with the American political system signifies that Barack doesn’t need Hillary as a running mate in order to be accountable to women’s issues (or, for that matter, to the working-class). We might say that Michelle is [being] positioned to represent a sizeable portion of her husband's political conscience and to assure all of us who happen to share her identity categories that our priorities will not only be taken seriously, but will be housed in the safest place possible -- close to the future President's heart.

As such, Barack's [staged] public doting on his wife also serves to assure the voting public that his responsibility to her in and of itself constitutes an intimate committment to the rights of women and the working-class. This is of no small significance given recent discussions about Obama
1. being elitist and disconnected from the daily lives of the working class
2. losing hoardes of women voters as a result of the Clinton defeat

Is it true? Are Michelle's "South Side" origins and her committment to giving back to working-class communities weighty enough to counterbalance the Obama family's undeniable indebtedness to networks of power and privilege? Only time will tell. What can safely assume, however, is that the message we received last night was an intentional one -- shrink-wrapped and pre-packaged by those ever-clever, invisible campaign brains.

I, for one, am not mad at 'em.

Bringing Justice Home: A March for Rashawn

2008-08-21T15:38:00.003-04:00

Three years after the brutal murder of her son, Desire Brazell literally sees him everywhere. Much of the city is covered in posters offering a $12,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Rashawn’s killer; the Nostrand Avenue subway station where his dismembered remains were discovered in February 2005, the streets of Greenwich Village where he enjoyed nights out with friends and even on several Jersey-bound PATH trains. Everywhere but in the bustling Bushwick neighborhood that he called home.

With each day that witnesses and would-be informants remain silent about the crime, the callous murderer that killed her 19-year old son gains a little more time to elude justice. So, after three years without a single suspect in custody, Desire believes that the time has come for the Bushwick community that embraced and nurtured Rashawn to aid in tracking down his killer. On Saturday, August 30th, Desire will be directing an hour-long flyering session geared toward soliciting tips from neighbors and commuters who might have information about what happened on Valentine’s day of 2005 when her son left their Gates Avenue apartment, never to be seen again. Her message is a simple one: if you want justice, you have to start at home.

And Desire will not be alone. After posting reward flyers throughout the area where Rashawn was raised, Desire will lead NYPD officers, elected officials, activists and concerned community members in a march to the subway stop where her son’s severed body parts were found to proclaim that no parent should ever lose their child to homophobic violence or intolerance of any kind. Also joining her will be the parents and families of gay and lesbian people of color from New York and New Jersey who have been jailed, assaulted, killed or treated unjustly because of their identities.

Desire is supported by the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund, which honors the teen’s legacy by granting $1500 scholarships annually to college-bound NYC students committed to the fight against racism, sexism and homophobia. Invited guests include NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilwoman Letitia James, Kimma Dandridge (mother of the New Jersey Four’s Terrain Dandridge), Denise and Ezekiel Sandy (parents of the late Michael Sandy) and LaTona Gunn (mother of the late Sakia Gunn).

Enough is Enough

2008-06-26T11:52:00.005-04:00

What follows is a petition penned by my fellow Rutgers alum William Jelani Cobb on behalf of the mass of black men who understand why R.. Kelly's recent aquittal is no cause for celebration. If your share our sentiments, add your name. It's that simple.

To: Concerned African Americans

Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women

Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl. During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black community.

Over these years, justice has been delayed and it has been denied. Perhaps a jury can accept R. Kelly's absurd defense and find "reasonable doubt" despite the fact that the film was shot in his home and featured a man who was identical to him. Perhaps they doubted that the young woman in the courtroom was, in fact, the same person featured in the ten year old video. But there is no doubt about this: some young Black woman was filmed being degraded and exploited by a much older Black man, some daughter of our community was left unprotected, and somewhere another Black woman is being molested, abused or raped and our callous handling of this case will make it that much more difficult for her to come forward and be believed. And each of us is responsible for it.

We have proudly seen the community take to the streets in defense of Black men who have been the victims of police violence or racist attacks, but that righteous outrage only highlights the silence surrounding this verdict.

We believe that our judgment has been clouded by celebrity-worship; we believe that we are a community in crisis and that our addiction to sexism has reached such an extreme that many of us cannot even recognize child molestation when we see it.

We recognize the absolute necessity for Black men to speak in a single, unified voice and state something that should be absolutely obvious: that the women of our community are full human beings, that we cannot and will not tolerate the poisonous hatred of women that has already damaged our families, relationships and culture.

We believe that our daughters are precious and they deserve our protection. We believe that Black men must take responsibility for our contributions to this terrible state of affairs and make an effort to change our lives and our communities.

This is about more than R. Kelly's claims to innocence. It is about our survival as a community. Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this tragic dead-end.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

LarryLy Sightings: Newark-Essex Pride Week

2008-06-04T12:18:00.004-04:00

Next week is Newark-Essex Pride. Needless to say, LarryLy will be out in full support of his new hometown's annual celebration of it's own diverse and wildly dynamic queer community. If you're in the 973-area (or willing to commute), the week will feature a series of events that'll give other [more generously funded] Prides a run for their money.

Perhaps most importantly, there are two opportunities to catch your boy LarryLy in his element: facilitating, moderating and doing that activist/scholar thing he does so well.

Now, yall know I have a precarious relationship with gay marriage. As I've devoted myself primarily to anti-violence work, building coalitions across identity categories and re-framing the conversation about the value of black queer life, marriage equality is not one of my key organizing areas. In fact, if there is a consistent thread connecting my thinking and speaking about marriage, you'll find it to be more akin to that of BeyondMarriage.org (which insists upon legal recognition for a wide range of relationships, households and families – regardless of kinship or conjugal status) than FreedomToMarry.com (which advocates for same-sex couples receiving the full range of rights and responsibilities afforded by civil marriage).

Mais, c'est la vie. The panel is really quite amazing and methinks the ACLU will benefit from having a moderator who can see beyond the short-sighted clamber for equality and actually identify the need to critique the problematic underpinnings of the institution of marriage itself.

At the "Theologies that Heal, Theologies that Kill" conference, Pride attendees will explore that vexed terrain where religion and spirituality enter into conversation with non-normative sexualities. LarryLy will be presenting at Breakout Session C: Alienated in an Alien Nation: Interesectionality and LGBTQ-TS Experience of Black Churches. Here's the blurb:

Often, LGBTQ-TS people feel estranged from family, friends, and their own religious communities. When LGBT-TS people go to non-affirming communities for religious practice, there is often a feeling that the community is an “alien nation.” Hear LGBTQ-TS people speak from their context in what will be a safe space to question, to challenge and to work together to hear each other.

I'll be expanding upon several things I've touched upon on this very blog (see: Passage to Heterodoxy, parts 1-3) as well as in my undergraduate thesis. Good times. Good times.

If you can make it, make it. And give a brutha a hug while you're in beautiful Brick City.

A Good, Ole Fashioned Cuss Out (and one caveat)

2008-05-25T11:02:00.003-04:00

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary... With your most recent gaff, you have successfully obliterated any prospect for a graceful exit. Your parting gift? A good ole fashioned cuss out, courtesy of Keith Olbermann.

Yes, the dramatic turns from camera to camera give me entirely too much. But, let's be clear -- this is public theatre. And theatre not to be missed.

My only qualm is this: "this nation's deepest shame, its most enduring horror, its morst terrifying legacy is political assassination".

Really, Keith? REALLY? The thousands upon thousands of enslaved Africans that lost their lives to slavery and the Middle Passage take second place to the 14 or so men that you name in your rant? Really?

Call it niggling, but methinks one really should take greater care when dolling out superlatives for the nation's "deepest shame," 'cause it strikes me that the idiom of "enduring horror" and "terrifying legacy" invokes for many Americans a system much more sinister than political assassination.

What Hope Can Do

2008-05-19T10:57:00.002-04:00

75,000 Obama Supporters at a record-breaking presidential campaign rally.

Hope.

facebook fun.

2008-05-13T15:02:00.010-04:00

How do time-strapped academics have fun?
They perform self-parodic close readings, that's how.

My latest foray into the growing genre of jestful metacriticism comes by way of the facebook page of my beloved colleague and love slave Lyra Plumer. You see, Lyra posted a picture of her adorable guinea pigs to her page. It was too adorable to allow it to pass without comment, but being immersed in dissertation madness, the only language I could muster up was the heavy-handedly theoretical and jargon-laden idiom that I love so well. See for yourself and join in the jest!

" The boundless cuteness of this duo is undoubtedly owed to the image's underlying narrative of racial harmony. Though the "rare comraderie" of beings of different hues is evident throughout 20th century visual culture (see Coolidge's anthropomorphized Dogs Playing Poker series, 1903), this image is unique in that its igloo transports the subjects outside of the contiguous United States (and therefore well beyond the self-indulgent gaze of American art history) and into the otherworldly domain of Canada's Central Arctic and Greenlands Thule areas, where most igloos were erected.

In selecting an emphatically plastic replica of indigenous workmanship as the domestic retreat for this unlikely pair, this image fuzes Jameson's and Baudrillard's notion of the simulacrum. The igloo is rendered both ahistorical AND hyperreal by its capacity to serve as a site where the ever-elusive goal of racial harmony might be actualized. "

More fun after I finish grading papers and final exams, I promise. Until then, will you meet me for dinner next Thursday?

Brighter Days 4: The Awards Banquet and Afterparty

2008-05-09T17:46:00.013-04:00

Dear friends,

It's hard to believe that we've been fighting for justice in the case of Rashawn Brazell for three years now. But the facts cannot lie: It's been three full years since 19 year-old Rashawn's dismembered body parts were found strewn though Brooklyn's subways. And three years later, the murder that America's Most Wanted has called one of the most gruesome in New York's history remains unsolved.

Luckily, there's good news. Since the inception of the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship in 2005, we've been blessed to have people like you in our corner pledging time, resources, sympathy and support for our ongoing fight against racism, homophobia and hate violence. This year, we are elated to have the opportunity to thank each of your for the myriad ways in which you've made it possible to offer a sustainable tribute to Rashawn's memory. To this end, we hope that you'll join us at our awards dinner on May 22nd. Because the evening's purpose is to show our gratitude for the unwavering support of community members like you, it simply wouldn't be complete without... you!

Hosted at the LGBT Center in Manhattan, this year’s Brighter Days celebration will honor New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Council Member Letitia James and the Audre Lorde Project's SOS Collective for their respective efforts to end violence against LGBT people of color in our community. Additionally, we'll be recognizing the network of bloggers, activists, artists and scholars who have made invaluable contributions to our work throughout the years.

So, click here to RSVP today and let us show you our appreciation!

Will I have the pleasure of seeing you there?

5ive things.

2008-04-16T14:50:00.017-04:00

Oh, reader! There are a million things that I've been dying to tell you.

Here are 5.

5. This blog has changed. If you haven't noticed, several entries have been removed. "Why?" you ask? Well, because this January, the aspiring Dr. Lyons began precepting at Princeton. And while I simply adore my students, I thought it would be prudent to excise those entries that delved too deeply into my personal relationships and erotic politics. [Quiet as it's kept, that's actually my favorite 1/3 of the blog.[*sigh*]

It's one of those measures that I knew I'd have to confront one day and, like clockwork, it came the moment I stepped into the classroom and realized how hopelessly google-able I am. Thing is -- if you've read this blog at all, you know that I'm happiest when I'm free to explore and expand my sex positivity. As it turns out, this self-censoring constitutes yet another grudging kowtow to the doctoral program's mandate for conservatism and delayed gratification. Another one bites the dust.

4. The new Gnarls Barkley album is sick. If you haven't heard, the dynamic duo's much-anticipated sophomore project "The Odd Couple" dropped last month and, for this music lover, it rivals erykah's "New Amerykah" for the superlative of "most exciting release of 2008" [thus far]. In fact, in a time of such ubiquitous mediocrity, an album as audacious and dynamic as this one suggests that there may be hope for the music industry afterall.

To this end, Ceelo is quickly becoming my favorite male artist of all time. Like Nina Simone, my favorite female artist of all time, Ceelo consistently pushes the envelope with his music. The dizzying arrangements, evocative lyrics and haunting vocal performances that have become his trademark are kicked into high gear by Danger Mouse's blend of lush instrumentation and avant garde hip-hop. What results is a blend of moody, high energy tracks that are wholly unafraid to be macabre, non-sensical, spiritual, raucus, introspective or self-deprecating. And I, for one, can dig that.

3. I want to think and write about urban fashion. A couple of weeks ago, a fairly preppy friend of mine asked what I thought about the skull-and-cross bones trend that's taken hold of urban fashion of late. My response: I totally understand why, in this particular sociopolitical climate, young black and latino men in urban areas would adorn themselves in images and icons evocative of piracy, corporeal decay and poisioning.

This response is the latest in an ongoing conversation that I've been having with myself about the relationships between black mens' encounters/engagements with various symptoms of our current economic collapse [i.e. the corporate co-optation of hip-hop, gentrification, unemployment, unaffordable health care] and the fashion trends that take hold in urban areas.

To that end, I want to think about the political implications of

sagging jeans [I'm interested in how jeans served as the sartorial touchstone of working class identity around the 1950s and how black men in urban areas might be thought to be reanimating its non-conformist politics... with a titillatingly homoerotic twist.]
oversized tee shirts [White tees look so much like nightgowns that I cannot resist the urge to read them as a Peter Pan-esque means of longing for a lost youth... a willful infantilization of sorts.]

bling culture [Not only am I interested in the gender-bending that occurs when men decorate every orafice and appendage with gaudy jewelry, but I'd also like to explore Gilles Deleuze's notions of the simulacrum's ability to serve as the avenue by which accepted ideals or “privileged position” could be challenged and overturned.]

the intersections of punk and thug [I live in Newark, NJ, where the thugs have taken to wearing skinny jeans and biker chains. It's a wonderful time and place to think about how these two subcultures draw upon the same modes of resistance and how that's made manifest in the current trends in urban fashion.

2. I am dissertating at last!

If all goes well, my dissertation project will examine the ways in which visual and literary narratives of White normativity manifest and function during two critical moments in the 20th century. In it, I aim to create a dialogue between select works of art and literary texts that help to reveal the operation and permutations of the White normative gaze during the 1920s-30s and the 1960s-70s, when certain sociopolitical phenomena worked to challenge and undermine the centrality of White identity in the United States.

Said slightly differently, the project will examine instances of methodological or conceptual congruence in how writers and artists managed (and created) narratives of white normativity and what all that had to do with what was going on in the American marketplace during the aforementioned decades.

If you have suggestions about what I should be reading,
DO NOT HESITATE: HOLLA AT YA SCHOLAR TODAY!

1. April 9th marked by 27th birthday. I am officially grown and sexy. I plan to celebrate all month long, so feel free to send your birthday wishes and naughty little trinkets my way. The Aries man lives for the opportunity to celebrate himself, and dag nabit April is my opportunity.

If there are any other Aries folks out there with plans to take the NYC/NJ area by storm and paint the town crimson and scarlet, let a brutha know.

Birthday Wishes for Rashawn.

2008-04-15T11:45:00.004-04:00

Today, April 15, 2008, would have been Rashawn Brazell’s 23rd birthday. Although he is no longer physically present to receive birthday wishes, the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund invites you to join us in sending prayers and positive energy to the Brazell family, who must face this occasion knowing that Rashawn’s killer has not yet been brought to justice.

The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund works all year long to provide a sustainable tribute to Rashawn’s memory. If you’d like to know more about how we’re inspiring new generations of scholars and activists to combat racism, sexism and homophobia in their communities, visit rashawnbrazell.com today. On our donate page, you can make a tax-deductible contribution that will help us further our work of fostering diversity and creating change for New York City's LGBT people of color and their allies.

To receive the latest news about the ongoing murder investigation, the $1500 scholarship in Rashawn’s honor and other RBMF projects, you can subscribe to our mailing list by clicking here or by entering your email address in the “get connected today” box on our MySpace page.

ObamaNews

2008-03-07T12:03:00.005-05:00

10 Reasons Why Obama Tumbled on Tuesday
Context is important, folks. Check out this link for an explaination of why Super Tuesday provided the Clinton camp with an opportunity to gain momentum.

Obamagate '08: The Blackening of Barack
If you haven't heard, Obama supporters are agitated over the apparent darkening of Obama's image in a Clinton attack ad that some argue was key in securing her Texas victory. The precedent: Time Magazine's infamous OJ cover (1994). The problem: dirty politics of the racist variety. The probe: A report on the scandal from factcheck.org.

It's Your Call Hillary
"The phone is ringing and the crisis is you." LA Times columnist Rosa Brooks stages a 3am call to the Democratic candidate hopeful to illustrate how bowing out gracefully might be in the party's best interest.

Barack Made Funky: Raising the CRO Bar
Inspired by Barack Obama's fresh take and non-traditional bi-partisan approach, Ray Nolan (alias: CRO) decided to initiate an independent political propaganda campaign in support of Senator Obama. And so was born a series of posters and videos that harness the power of the internet and technology bringing meaningful, thought-provoking imagery to the stale and stiff political scene. Gotellmama.org is the awe-inspiring result.

RBMS Update: Meet Our Scholars

2008-02-27T11:58:00.011-05:00

As you know, the centerpiece of the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund is the $1500 memorial scholarship that we grant to a college-bound NYC highschooler who is committed to the fight against racism, sexism and homophobia. What you may not know is that this year, the Fund's selection committee made an unprecedented decision to bestow the award upon not one but two applicants.

After careful deliberation, we were unable to decide between two exceptionally strong applicants. One had an amazing story of triumph over adversity, detailing how she maintained her drive and her grades even as she and her family while navigated NYC’s homeless shelters. One spoke eloquently about how he coordinated a series of social outings to help ease racial tensions in his school. Check out their bios below!

Kenneth Jeffers
A native of Westchester County, Kenneth is a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he plans to major in Business Administration-Finance and Mathematics.

An honors’ student for all four years at Mount Saint Michael Academy in the Bronx, Kenneth graduated with honors and received numerous academic awards. While a high school student, Kenneth was active in varsity track as co-captain, feeding the homeless, organizing clothes and coat drives, and cleaning the neighborhood parks.

Giving back to his community is very important to Kenneth, which is why he has served as a peer tutor to at-risk students. He was also active in the Sunday school at his church, where he sang in the choir for seven years, often serving as a youth speaker.

“I have been truly inspired by Rashawn Brazell’s legacy because we shared similar values and morals of valuing family and academic excellence and giving back to the community. Mr. Brazell was a young man who was dedicated to high ideals and principles of compassion for others. I hope to use my gifts to help others as Rashawn Brazell did.”

Dashana Payne
Born in Colon, Panama and raised in New York City, Dashana is a freshman residing on the Brooklyn campus of St. Joseph College, where she plans to major in Biology.

A natural leader, Dashana served as a Student Council representative and as Captain of both track and cross country teams at Erasmus High School. Outside of school, she volunteered countless hours at Brookdale Hospital, where she was able to pursue her lifelong passion for helping others.

While maintaining an impressive academic record, Dashana currently manages to participate on her college’s Hispanic Awareness Club, Students Joined Through Christ, the Science Club and the Off-Campus Housing Council.

“I lived in a shelter for most of my life and if I had a person like Rashawn there to help me I would have been extremely grateful. From that experience, I know how many people out there are looking for a person like Rashawn. I want to be that person.”

These young folks are the reason we at the RBMF do what we do. If you want to join us in creating opportunities for growth and mentorship for the next generation of scholars and activists, contact us today!

Where I Be

2008-02-26T14:59:00.003-05:00

Obama '08: Winning the black battle against media?
Black History Month Panel on the Media and Black America

America's unprecedented obsession with Barack Obama has taken over
television, radio, and printed media in a way never seen or heard before in America's history. How does the American media's creation of the black
experience affect Barack Obama's candidacy? What does Barack Obama have at stake in American media's representation of the black experience? How is the media's portrayal of Obama's "blackness" a departure from the usual? Why do Black people refer to Barack Obama as "Barack", while others refer to him differently? Please join us as we try to answer these questions and address the issues that appear when Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Black America, and the media collide.

Panelists:

Darnell M. Hunt, Ph.D.
Director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA
Professor of Sociology

Dennis Rome
Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside

Larry D. Lyons II
Ph.D. Candidate in English, Princeton University Graduate School

Paula W. Matabane Ph.D.
Professor of Communications at Howard University

"Mack Daddy" Obama and the Dangers of Terroristic Theology

2008-02-20T14:28:00.005-05:00

What an interesting use of the pulpit!
Join me in witnessing this feat of sheer ignorance, won't you?

Rev. Manning's message to the black Obama supporters in his congregation:
"You hyppocrites, you. You spineless you-know-what. You don't got enough sense to pour piss out of a boot, and you're talking about Obama for your President. You are despicable. No honor. No integrity."

A masterful exegesis from the "Honorable" James Manning Ph.D.

What would Jesus say?

The Black Ram: Barack Obama and the Othello Complex

2008-01-24T12:27:00.002-05:00

Back to the image at hand.

In my last entry, I noted the ways in which this image works to secure and activate the sociopolitical capital afforded to nuclear family in presidential campaigns. Essentially, I thought it might be important to identify the ways in which the democratic candidate running a campaign based on “change” was actually endorses one of the most traditional, most problematic American values: the operation of patriarchy within the nuclear family.

What I want to suggest in this entry is that there’s more at stake in this emphatic focus on the family than merely helping the Obamas fit into the mold of what the picture-perfect first family should look like. There’s more to this than making Obama appear to be just like every other presidential candidate we’ve seen. This focus on the family also works to manage stereotypes about the threat that black men (and their sexual appetites) pose to American society.

I call this anxiety the Othello complex.

If you’re not familiar, Othello was a Moorish army general in the service of the Duke of Venice. Though he boasts noble lineage and countless battlefield feats, neither accomplishment prepared Othello to navigate the social mores of Venetian society. So, when Othello falls in love with and secretly weds the Duke’s daughter Desdemona, it’s no surprise that Venice loses its mind.

The story ends in a murder/suicide, providing us with a cautionary tale about the dangers that arise when a religious and/or racial Other misjudges and transgresses the established social order. Of particular interest is the way in which Venice formulates/characterizes the particular threat that Othello poses to Venetian society. Iago yells “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe”. Here, we see that in alerting Venice to the repercussions of the Other's intrusion/integration, Iago enlists the animalistic sexual metaphor of a black ram fucking a white sheep.

The white sheep is actually a metaphor for the virginal white maiden Desdemona, who herself symbolizes the vulnerability of Venice's geographic and conceptual borders. Allowing Othello to cross their national boundaries, Iago indicts, enabled him to penetrate her anatomical boundaries in turn. By wooing her into dishonoring her filial obligations and sullying her with his animalistic "tupping", Othello introduces a significant threat to Venice's nuclear family structure and the purity of its bloodlines. In other words, the sexual prowess of the "black ram" carries with it the potential to destabilize entire social orders, particularly when a white maiden is the object of its desire.

As such, I use the phrase the Othello complex to reference the fear of the empowered black male entering white society with a certain amount of celebrity and deploying that celebrity to trample upon its mores and pillage its women.

Enter Barack Obama.

If we consider the Othello story alongside the stereotypes of black men as well-endowed, hyper-sexual bucks with violent tempers and no capacity for reason, we can glimpse the caricature that the Obama camp must operate against. To establish Barack as a viable black male candidate, it was imperative that the Obama camp generate a public image of him that countered each of these stereotypes. And where better than the campaign website to take up the work of visualizing Barack as a respectable, smiley, family man capable of exhibiting the tenderness required to love his black wife and to raise two young daughters than his campaign website?

This is the context in which I read the image in question. By flanking Barack with his wife and kids, this photograph domesticates Barack as to suspend our fears of the sexual threat he poses to our society. The image insists that there’s no easily-angered Moor here, folks. No belligerent battlefield buck to be found. What we have here is a man who shares one of our most important core values: patriarchy.

This packaging of Barack provides us with many gifts… many assurances of the degree to which the threats he might posed have been neutralized, domesticated and made safe for America. Many of the elements that position him as non-threatening are foregrounded and heralded in the image:

1. He is happily married. So, (presuming no more oval office indiscretions) the precious national resource that is the purity of white femaleness is safe from his untamable libido.

2. He only has daughters. So, we can presume that he will produce no male heir to extend his legacy. (A very real fear given what we’ve endured at the hands of the Bush dynasty.)

3. The blackness of his wife and daughters mark the end of racial mixing within the Obama family. Whereas Obama’s Kenyan father and Kansan mother realized one of our worst fears when they transgressed national and racial boundaries, this image assures us that Barack will spare America a repeat of that disgrace.

So, yes. This image does a significant amount of work to address and minister to anxieties about preserving the purity of white bloodlines and the operation of white supremacy itself. To be sure, this anxiety has not been a nebulous theory circulating on the periphery on the campaign. No ma’am. In a true sign of the times, it came to a head in the form of a viral video. As if the latent, age-old stereotypes weren’t enough, Obama’s candidacy was publicly and irrevocably racialized and sexualized when the world watched a very sexy, very white woman confess her love for him.

The image responds to Obama girl’s now infamous videos:
"I Got a Crush...On Obama"

Wrought with sexual innuendoes (“I like it when you get hard…on Hillary in debates”), “I Got a Crush…On Obama” was an instant internet hit, garnering over one thousand views within the first five hours of its June 2007 posting. In it, the troupe of the white woman incited to sexual frenzy by the virile black buck is deployed ad nauseum. And although the clip invites us to read it as parody, the impact it had on the Obama campaign and the Obama family were no laughing matter for the presidential hopeful.

When asked about the video by the Des Moines Register on June 18, 2007, Obama said, "It's just one more example of the fertile imagination of the internet. More stuff like this will be popping up all the time”. All things considered, this was a pretty flippiant response to the wildly popular YouTube video. Two months later, however, Obama changed his tune and offered a response that would reveal just how significant an impact the lusts of scantily clad white girls can have on a presidential campaign.

On August 23, Obama told the Associated Press that the video had upset his daughters, lamenting that "You do wish people would think about what impact their actions have on kids and families." In the two months since the initial interview, it appears, the Obama camp re-framed/re-directed the candidate’s response from dismissing the hogwash that clutters the internet to heralding a platform of family values.

The latter response positions Obama not as a blameless victim of an internet prank, but as a protective father concerned about the degree to which his incorrigible daughters can believe in the strength of their nuclear family. Obama longs for the day when neither mainstream media nor the internet can stop little girls from believing that the only woman that loves daddy is mommy. And we, as a nation of failed monogamists and broken homes, presumably share in his longing.

Of course, this strategy is a necessary and timely one for Barack Obama. As a black senator and presidential candidate, he operates in orbit with two very important icons in American political history. The first is Harold Ford Jr., whose 2006 senate run was marred by an ad wherein a blonde white woman recalls meeting Ford at a Playboy party. Speaking in a squeeky voice and suggestively asking Ford to call her, the white woman brought the Othello complex into full relief within the senate race.

The ad was denounced by many people, including former Republican Senator and Secretary of William Cohen, who called it “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.” Even Ford’s opponent Bob Corker asked the Republican leadership to pull the ad, which it refused to do. Corker subsequently pulled ahead in the polls and went on to defeat Ford in the November election by a narrow 3% margin.

The second figure with whom Obama must is former President Bill Clinton, the charming womanizer whose indiscretions and subsequent impeachment brought shame to our nation. Though white, the specter of Bill Clinton requires Obama to be even more emphatic in presenting himself as a stable family man, rather than reminding America’s of the libido that is the birthright of the young and charismatic. Afterall, if a white man can do what Bill did, imagine what havoc Barack’s black libido will wreak.

All that to say this:
In a time when Hillary Clinton is garnering support for her presidency based on her graceful endurance of one of America’s worst political scandals… A time when 38 year-old Harold Ford is poised to marry his 26 year-old white girlfriend (who is very much of the Obama Girl variety)… A black presidential candidate has to navigate the Othello complex as carefully as he can.

Having selected the image of his smiling, loving, middle-class family to open BarackObama.com, methinks the Obama camp is attempting to do just that. As such, it may be fruitful for us to be more attentive to the nuanced ways in which stereotypes based on race, gender, sexuality are intersecting in the 2008 presidential campaign to create vectors of privilege and penalty for the candidates..

Presidential Elections: Family Business

2008-01-10T21:01:00.002-05:00

In past entries, I’ve attempted to interrogate the ways in which the Western world polices, represses and engages the racial and sexual identities of its elected officials. Barack Obama’s win at the Iowa primaries and his subsequent spike in the polls has led me to do some more thinking on the topic. To that end, there was an image that I encountered while surfing the BarackObama.com website that is helping me do just that. This entry is the first in a two-part examination of the social functions of this very striking image:

Before accessing the actual BarackObama.com homepage, one is presented with the image above. Interestingly, the first thing you see when navigating to the page is not a solo photo of our beloved presidential candidate. No, ma’am. Instead, web-savvy Americans are presented with the Obama family – all hugs, smiles and pearls.

It shouldn’t be lost on us that the Obama team made a conscious decision to set the tone of his website by packaging him as a family man. Although the words “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN” hovers above his smiling family, this image draws some clear the parameters about the terms and stakes of Obama’s brand of change.

Seated, rather than standing, he isn’t to be understood as an aggressor. Unlike the blundering, go-it-alone, Texas-spun tyrant currently in office, Barack is no maverick. Buttoned-down and cross-legged, he’s a casual, smiley family man capable of exhibiting the tenderness required to raise two young daughters.

But let’s be clear: He is the man. His wife is positioned slightly (but purposefully) behind him. Visually, his daughters are defined by their affection for him. What we have, then, is the picture-perfect operation of patriarchy within the nuclear family.

So, even if literally situated beneath a banner of change, the Obama family procures and exhibits significant sociopolitical capital by keeping one very important pillar of American society in tact: the nuclear ideal. Whatever change Obama intends to undertake, we must understand that his ability to act as an agent of change on a national level is, on some level, afforded him by certain privileged identities – not the least of these being a “family man”.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that Obama is the first person in American history to use their family life as the backdrop for their presidential candidacy. Surely, one could dedicate an entire book to the function of family in campaign photography. What I am noting is how the old is made new by Obama’s race.

Take a look at these images, all captured from the opening pages of the websites of our leading democratic presidential hopefuls. Notice how John Edwards and Barack Obama have chosen strikingly similar family portraits. Each has selected black and white photo in which their wives are situated on left, eldest daughter hugging neck, youngest child in lap.

Hillary’s full color campaign trail photo offers a stark contrast to the portrait studio format of her male counterparts. Rather than fronting an already-familiar Bill and Chelsea, Hillary has opted to stand alone. The stage on which she stands is covered in a banner bearing her name and campaign logo. Interestingly, the 4-foot tall letters spell her first name rather than her last. She is literally standing on her own name, rather than the Clinton surname made presidential by her husband. Despite the strategic and occasionally messy ways in which our boy Bill is being deployed in the actual campaign, this image encourages us to view Hillary as her own woman.

Comparing hers with the images of her opponents helps us to realize that Hillary is not alone in her photograph. Whereas Obama and Edwards share their images with their biological families, Clinton opts to share hers with the Great Family: the American public. Rather than harnessing the sociopolitical capital that comes with invoking the nuclear family in a presidential election, the first female candidate to get this close to garnering a party nomination opts to position herself as a freestanding authority figure, unfettered by the bonds of motherhood and wifehood.

She wears the pants: a somber black pantsuit… but she pairs it with a pink blouse. Nearly everything in this image conspires to position Hillary as a relatively unfettered figure of female authority. Not overly feminine, not beholden to patriarchy or motherly duties, she is more stately than feminine: more democratic than domestic.

Of course, context is everything. What this image doesn’t tell us is that amongst the Democratic presidential nominees, Hillary’s mate holds the unique superlative of being as much a liability as an asset. In conservative states, superstar Bill is less likely to draw the crowds or the support that Hillary needs. Amongst many feminist voters, Hillary is stronger as a stand-alone entity -- not as a female pawn activated to extend the Clinton regime. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, as Oprah brought in tens of thousands of voters to Obama events in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire last month, Clinton turned to the matrilineal appeal of having her mother and daughter by her side rather than husband Bill. In this instance, the Clinton campaign invoked female empowerment as a strategy for challenging the time-honored patriarch-centered nuclear to chasing the presidency… albeit with limited success.

But I digress. My point here has been to unpack the peculiar politics of campaign photography and website design. I hope to use this discussion as a springboard into a closer analysis of that initial image of the Obama family. Stay tuned.

on hip-hop, hoes and bitch-ass-niggas

2007-05-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

My opening remarks from the panel discussion I organized in February -- Hip-Hop and Homophobia: Exploring Masculinity, Bisexuality and the DL.
Panelists:
Professor Cornel West
Lynne D. Johnson, hip-hop journalist
Shante Paradigm, hip-hop artist and scholar
Dr. David Malebranche, physician and HIV/AIDS researcher

When grappling with the question of how to frame a discussion about the curious construction of masculinity within hip-hop culture, two phrases echoed in my mind. Two epithets, really, existing in two different moments in hip-hop history that managed (if only in my mind) to resonate and dialogue with one another.

The first, I owe to the lyrical genius of Snoop Doggy Dog. I’d pin it down to the mid 90s when Snoop was to Dr Dre what Eminem is now to Dr Dre. The phrase is: “Bitches aint shit but hoes and tricks”. I couldn’t have been older than 13 years old when that lyrical masterpiece hit the airwaves, but I can still remember the rhythm of the words played in a constant loop in the tape deck of the historical moment. Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks.

The second is a more recent utterance. It wasn’t as singularly articulated in a stand-out radio single, but nonetheless emblematic of a pervasive sentiment in hip-hop culture. I’d attribute it to Cam’ron circa 2004. The phrase is “no homo”.

By a show of hands – who here knows what “no homo” means?
It’s a disclaimer meaning nothing homosexual or homoerotic is intended by the following or aforementioned phrase.

Examples:
-- biggie’s flow is so hot, I could listen to him spit all night – no homo.
-- my crew is ride or die. I would do anything for them – no homo.

The phrase has this uncanny duality. On one hand, it serves as a prohibition. Through sheer repetition, it emphasizes that not only are homos emphatically “not allowed” in the physical or discursive space, but even the mere notion that one might interpret an happenchance word pairing as some queer pun or gay double-entendre must be acknowledged and cancelled. On the other hand, it forces all present to return to what’s been said and to draw upon their lexicon of homoeroticism and gay sex acts just so they can understand why the speaker has invoked the phrase in the first place. On one hand, the term protests the existence and the trace of homosexuality. On the other, it makes homoerotics a mainstay in the playful banter of otherwise straight men and women.

No homo made me think. What is it about the way in which masculinity is being constructed and replicated within hip-hop culture that makes homosexuality and homoeroticsm so repulsive, yet alluring? Why have the sissy, the fag, bitch-ass-nigga and the homo been such indispensable icons in hip-hop culture? And, more importantly, where do these images appear most frequently?

Is it the case that rappers consistently speak out about homosexuality, itself, or is there more going on? Is there a broader campaign against bitch-ness and bitch-like qualities? Why is it that in a rap battle, the most potent jabs at one’s opponent are lines that feminize him or call his masculinity into question? What is so dangerous or repulsive or frightening about the effeminate male, and why is it problematic to use femininity as a proxy for sexuality?

Does hip-hop have a problem with women? The popularity of the line “Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks” suggests that the answer might be yes. But what do we make of the fact that another of the highest insults in a rap battle or a game of the dozens is an insult to one’s mother? How can the culture condition hip-hoppers to protect and promote the character of their mother in one breath, but normalize the utter degradation of all females in the next?

I thought a discussion about the curious construction of masculinity would aid us in addressing these questions. More specifically, I thought that an interrogation of the value of masculinity within a patriarchal society might help us identify the ways in which misogyny and homophobia are connected to one another, or how they might be thought to be two sides of the same coin.

I am hopeful that the cultural space of Hip-Hop might serve as a fruitful place to perform an intersectional analysis of race, gender and sexuality that moves us toward more holistic, inclusive ways to mobilize against misogyny and homophobia, and the institutions that support it.

on white liberals

2007-05-08T11:31:00.000-04:00

In a lovely little book I came across while preparing for my general exams, Kerry Michaels, a writer and television producer tells this story:

It was 1985, and I was going to travel around Kenya by myself before visiting my brother, who was working for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Malawi. I had only a vague idea of what I was going to do in Kenya. Having traveled all night, I arrived, exhausted and a little nervous, at the Nairobi airport at about five in the morning.

The terminal was a big, square hall--very austere, very official-looking. I glanced up. There was a balcony that ran all around the room. Standing on this balcony at perfect intervals were the blackest men I had ever seen in my life. They wore olive-drab uniforms and crimson berets. They all held rifles across their chests. They made an incredibly powerful, aesthetically stunning image: regal posture, beautiful, chiseled black faces, caps all cocked at the same angle.

I know this might sound stupid, but as I, a white American woman in my late twenties, looked around the airport, I realized that the power structure was black. The customs officials were black. The security officials examining my passport were black. Everyone who controlled my fate was black. It occurred to me what it was truly like to be a minority (albeit, when you are white in Africa, an empowered minority). In New York, if you're the only white person on the subway, you're still not a minority, because the power structure around you is white. In the Nairobi airport, I realized how different it was to have the power reside in a different race. It was the black men who were holding the guns. The government they served was black. The idea that the whole country was being run by black people was absolutely alien to me. To be white and find myself situated at the bottom of this massive hall, with these black men standing with guns over my head, really gave me a sense of what this inversion of power feels like. Why had I never realized this before? You think that as a white liberal you get it. But you don't.

National Exposure for the Memorial Scholarship

2007-04-03T16:01:00.000-04:00

This week, the Associated Press profiled Rashawn and the RBMF alongside two other projects that honor black, SGL victims of violent crime. Garnering widespread attention for the case, the story ran in news outlets all over the US and the UK in such publications as the New York Blade, Newsday, Gay.com, WCBS-TV New York and Southern Voice Online.

Projects bring attention to 3 gruesome killings of gay victims
By MARCUS FRANKLINAssociated Press Writer
April 1, 2007, 11:21 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- On Valentine's Day two years ago, the dismembered body parts of Rashawn Brazell, a 19-year-old bisexual man, were found scattered in bags across Brooklyn.
Two years earlier, Sakia Gunn, 15, was stabbed to death at a Newark bus stop after she rejected her killer's advances by telling him she was a lesbian.

J.R. Warren died in similarly grisly fashion. Two teenagers beat, kicked and stomped the 26-year-old gay man from West Virginia before running him over with a Camaro.

Rashawn Brazell. Sakia Gunn. J.R. Warren: Victims of three of the country's most brutal killings of gays and lesbians in recent years. Yet their deaths received little attention and their names somehow don't evoke the intense resonance that followed the 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay man from Wyoming.

But a documentary maker, an artist and an Ivy League doctoral candidate hope to change that. Separately, the three _ all strangers to the victims _ have created a scholarship fund for college-bound students, an independent documentary, and an art exhibit to not only highlight the killings but also re-ignite larger discussions about homophobia and bias crimes.

"They've done so much to make people aware of what happened and they won't let it drift to the side," Desire Brazell, Rashawn's mother, said of the men behind the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund and Web site. "They've been fantastic."

The memorial projects come as a new federal hate crime bill has entered Congress and other recent anti-gay attacks have also brought new attention to the issue.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., interdicted a bill that seeks to add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing hate-crime law and give resources to state and local authorities to investigate and prosecute suspected bias crimes.

Nationally, the number of reported bias crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people remained virtually unchanged in 2006, according to the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. Still, recent assaults and killings across the country disturbed some people.

Three men are facing trial on hate-crime murder charges in the 2006 death of Michael Sandy, a 28-year-old interior designer from New York who met the defendants in a gay chat room. Last week, four men pleaded guilty to assault as a hate crime for attacking gay singer Kevin Aviance last year in New York. In Florida this month, Ryan Keith Skipper, 25, was robbed and fatally stabbed, and police arrested two men on hate crime-related charges.

The Conyers legislation seemed to gain momentum from the case of Andrew Anthos, a 72-year-old gay man from Detroit. Family members say a pipe-wielding man killed Anthos during a bus ride home from the library because he was gay. Investigators now say he died of natural causes, but advocates are suspicious of the surprise turn of events; they do not believe it was an accident.

Advocates want to see the hate-crime bill signed into law, in part, because more than a dozen states, including Michigan and many in the South, have either no hate crime laws or ones that don't protect sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Human Rights Campaign has called Brazell's killing a hate crime, although investigators haven't officially classified it as one and Desire Brazell doesn't believe her son's killing stemmed from his sexuality.

But police have yet to make an arrest. And an official cause of death, like the motive, is unknown _ blanks that deny Desire Brazell closure. The case will re-air this year on "America's Most Wanted," show officials said.

Larry Lyons, 25, had never met Rashawn Brazell. But when he heard about the case, he was so "repulsed" that he began blogging about it. From blogs, vigils and meetings came the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund, which will award its second $1,500 scholarship in June to a New York City student committed to fighting homophobia, racism, sexism or other forms of injustice, Lyons said.

"It's crazy there's someone out there who can kill and dismember a young man and spread his body parts and not be found and walk the streets among all of us," said Lyons, an English doctoral candidate at Princeton University. "It boggles my mind.
"It's disappointing it's not a more high-profile case."

The 2000 murder of J.R. Warren made TV and newspaper headlines but attention abated after two men were convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. The killing didn't qualify as a hate crime under West Virginia or federal laws.

Still, artist Rory Golden decided to create an exhibit to stir debate over the definition of a hate crime and bigotry.

In "See Related Story: The Murder of J.R. Warren," the Ohio native used wax and mulberry paper to create 52 two-sided images evoking the feeling of a disturbing dream or memory. The exhibit was recently on view at Fairmont State University in West Virginia.

Curator Marian Hollinger said she "had expected someone to get upset or unnerved, but no." The overall response, Hollinger said, was "amazingly positive. People asked sensible questions, enjoyed it and were moved by it."

Golden, 40, hopes to take the exhibit to other college campuses and other venues across the country.

Like Golden and Lyons, Chas B. Brack never met the subject of his project. But despite funding challenges, Brack hopes to finish a documentary this year about Sakia Gunn.

In 2005, Gunn's killer acknowledged calling the teenager a "dyke" and pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter with bias intimidation. He was sentenced to 20 years.
Brack believes his film will help reverse the "continuing invisibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people of color," an invisibility Lyons and Golden believe shrouded the Brazell and Warren killings. Gunn, Brazell and Warren were black.

"I don't think any of them have received the attention that they need," Brack said.
___
On the Net:
http://www.sakiagunnfilmproject.com
http://www.rashawnbrazell.com
http://www.seerelatedstory.com

The White Doll

2007-01-29T10:24:00.000-05:00

Watch this.

During the 1940s psychologists Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Phipps Clark tried to demonstrate the negative effects of segregation on black children. They developed a test using four dolls, identical except for the skin color. When asked which doll they liked best, most of the black children chose the white doll. After the testing was completed, Clark concluded that "prejudice, discrimination, and segregation" caused African American children to develop a senses of inferiority and self-hatred. The results of the tests were used during court cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, to show that segregation damaged the personality development of black children.

17-year old aspiring filmmaker Kiri Davis conducted her own "doll test" as part of her 2005 documentary "A Girl Like Me" in which she explores the problematic standards of beauty that many black women encounter and internalize. Interstingly, her experiement yeilds results similar to those of the Clarks. 15 of the 21 black children interviewed still prefer the white doll, associating it with greater value and beauty than its black counterpart.

60 years of civil right victories and a steady influx of powerful black icons and idols in the public eye have seemingly done little to alter the psychology of our children. Where does that leave us?

How the Black Bourgeoisie Ruined [My] MLK Day: Part 2

2007-01-17T02:39:00.000-05:00

My initial response to "Please Don't Tell Martin" was passionate and curt:

i found [the poem] to be very cosby in its short-sighted finger-pointing. very pound cake speech.

i wish our community could be more self-affirming and less divisive when issuing critique and calls for action.

"please don't tell martin" that we're still sponsoring the artless vilification of the black working class and creating paper-thin assessments of the black middle class. and don't tell larry, either.

but after a friend pointed out how some of the newer bruthas on the listserv might experience my email as unnecessarily abrasive, i offered the following explaination:

Poems, speeches and other tirades decrying black folks’ supposed obsession with “diamond clad teeth, 24 inch rims, and designer clothes” are not hard to come by. The “what’s wrong with niggers?” speech is an unfortunate mainstay in American culture.

See also: Bill Cosby’s “pound-cake speech”
Chris Rock’s “black people vs. niggers” routine
The widely circulated “KKK Letter to Young Black Men”
The infamous letter from “A Disgusted White Woman”
And everyone's favorite "They Are Still Our Slaves"

As such, I don't find the "Please Don't Tell Martin" piece to be exceptional, unique or insightful.

Pieces like “Please Don’t Tell Martin” are circulated frequently and widely because they serve an important function in our society: they allow us to lambast the immorality of the black working class. They offer an unsympathetic vilification of the “ghetto people” on the basis of their shiftlessness, inviduous consumption and lascivious nature. They routinely ignore or understate the impact of forces like institutional and systemic racism and classism, and uncritically indict “ghetto people” for their failure to magically, instanteously and single-handedly “rise above” the monoliths of stratification upon which this nation was built.

But why? What is to be gained by black folks creating such divisive constructions? What common thread unites these attempts to classify and penalize large portions of the black community?

To answer this question, I point to the concept of “typing” as outlined in the introduction of Elizabeth Johns’s book “Amercian Genre Painting: The Politics of Everyday Life”.

“As anthropologists and students of popular culture have long known, "typing" is part of the larger process by which human beings assert, parcel out, and deny power to members of their communities.

Typing is often initiated by those who would be at the apex of the society, but it also undertaken by beings in middling situations and at the bottom of societies. People variously distinguish those around them by class, gender, age, intelligence, and manners and set up targets for satire or condescension that satisfy their need for superiority...

In virtually every instance, it seems, is carried out as a harmless, natural activity. That is, persons doing the typing usually do not recognize the interests behind their constructions and at other times pointedly deny them and see the typing as perfectly natural."

I read “Please Don’t Tell Martin” as a clear example of typing. It invites us to shake a disapproving finger at “thugs”, “hoochies” unwed mothers, strippers and other “ghetto” inhabitants without any context whatsoever. And, in so doing, the piece allows those of us who read and circulate it to demonstrate our adherence to and celebration of the moral standards of the “civilized” (read: white upper class) world. To be clear, this is a boat I'm not willing to board.

And none of this is undermined by the piece’s paper-thin treatment of the black middle class. Isn’t it conspicuous that the only qualm that the author can find with the middle class is that they don’t give back to the black community?

In no uncertain terms, I find that the piece’s popularity lies in the fact that it sets up the black working class as targets for satire and condescension in ways that satisfy the need for superiority held by those invested in rising from those ranks as well as those who have no genuine understanding of “ghetto” life.

Further, the piece paints a portrait of black morality that is ahistorical, culturally ignorant and occasionally contradictory. As per the mandate of the poem, one must be a respectably dressed, civically engaged, gainfully employed, church-going, Negro spiritual singing, hood dwelling democrat with a nuclear family, natural hair and no criminal record.

Of course, there’s no mention of the fact that gainful employment isn’t always easily attainable for black and brown folks; that the homophobia and misogyny of the church has failed many of us; that the democratic party has failed even more of us; that the nuclear family structure has never been a reality for Africans in America; that the legal and judicial systems don’t always work in our favor.

And this, my bruthas, is why I found the piece to be very Cosby in its short-sighted finger-pointing. And this is why I wished that our community could be more self-affirming and less divisive when issuing critique and calls for action.

My critique of the artless (and downright trite) vilification of the black working class and the paper-thin assessments of the black middle class stand.

I was compelled to comment on “Please Don’t Tell Martin” because I felt two things.

1. Given Coretta’s life work of bettering the conditions for blacks in general and the working class in particular, that the “poem” (and I use that word loosely) was a irresponsible use of Mrs. King’s name.

2. Remaining silent about the piece’s function as a form of typing would amount to my tacit acceptance of its claims. To see this piece to hit BMAG without someone saying, “Hey, the analysis here is problematic and short-sighted” would cause me to question our collective consciousness.

I offer my voice as a voice of dissent fully believing that I’m not the only brutha on here who saw the nefarious work that emails, poems, speeches and letters of this sort do.

I hope you guys can appreciate that.

Best,
Larry

How the Black Bourgeoisie Ruined [My] MLK Day: Part 1

2007-01-16T19:01:00.000-05:00

It all began with an unassuming email sent out through the Black Men's Awareness Group listserv here at Princeton. One of the bruthas had received the following "poem" and thought he'd share it with the group on MLK day. What harm could it do?

Please Don't Tell Martin

by Bitter B

Thank you Ms. Coretta for the grace, strength, and dignity that you displayed.

Since your wonderful husband was assassinated by the bullets of fear and hate.

You know they killed him because of their ignorance.

Thank you for not allowing bitterness and anger to engulf your very existence.

Now that you are reunited with Martin tell him that they are stripping our rights away, day by day, but his fight was not in vain.

Tell him that although my generation glorifies drugs, debases black women in song, and calls us vulgar names – that his dream still remains.

Our men no longer celebrate our natural black beauty – we have to have long weaves, small waists, and big ole booties.

The videos are so degrading, they mirror soft porn.

Us Blacks own television stations now, but that’s all that’s shown.

Tell Martin that my generation apologizes for its lack of respect for his legacy and the dormancy of our elders, we might as well call this the Civil Rights of Unmovement Era.

Tell him that although we as black people make more than we’ve ever seen, that we squander it on diamond clad teeth, 24 inch rims, and designer clothes due to our sagging self-esteem.

Tell Martin that our babies are growing up without fathers, while the mothers are catching buses just like he remembers.

Our children take to the streets in droves, not to march or proclaim the injustice of this nation, but to pledge their gang affiliation.

I can’t rhyme to this next line. On any night thugs hang out while bullets ring out - not freedom.

And yes we continue to be judged by the color of our skin by America but I wonder most about the lack of the content of our character.

Advise him that the grand-daughters of the Civil Rights era are making their money as strippers.

The Grand-sons of the marchers are ignoring their sons and daughters and hanging and slangin’ on corners.

They’re going to jail in mass numbers, not for protesting, marching, or defying racism, but because they commit illegal acts to gain materialism.

Our children are making babies, ignoring education, committing felonious capers, I’d wish they’d read his Birmingham Jail Papers.

Tell Martin that those in the ghetto are not the only ones forgetting his dream.

There are those who’ve forgotten where they came from because of a little cream.

Who refuse to give back to the community, because their motto is ‘More for me’.

They’ve forgotten how to lend a helping hand, to help their fellow man – all the while thinking, ‘If I can make it, they can’.

Looking down without offering a leg up, getting on elevators with their noses up.

Some of us are even republicans now, but that’s a very exclusive black crowd.

Striving to get to the top of the ladder, to make their pockets fatter – instead of doing something that truly matters.

Leaving the ‘hood’ in droves and only moving back when Whites buy up all of the homes.

Tell Martin that we still like to dance and sing, but not Negro spirituals cuz we’ve got Beyonce grinding and shaking her thing.

Ms. Coretta, this may hurt poor Martin the most – it just may seal the deal, we as a people don’t attend church anymore.

Cuz we’ve gotten a little education and found out that God wasn’t real.

For those of us who still believe, it makes us want to holla, we’ve got a pimp named Bishop and a Bishop named Dollar.

I don’t know Ms. Corretta, maybe you’d better not tell Martin that for all that he’s done to make us free, equal, and just – that we still migrate to the back of the bus. I’ll bet looking down – he doesn’t recognize us.

We’ve forgotten how to march, protest, and vote - but be at the club, standing in line for hours – in the freezing cold.

Sporting the latest gear; stilettos, hoochie clothes, teeth that’s froze, and Tims – driving cars with less tire more rim. Dying to get in so that we can ‘shake it fast’, drop it like it’s hot’ – forgetting the respect and dignity that we were taught.

I neva' thought I’d think this thought, but please don’t eva' give Martin your report.

Ms. Coretta, maybe you should just avoid mentioning my generation all togetha'.

Bitter B

Released: January 31st, 2006

My Critical Lexicon: Entry #247

2006-12-28T12:37:00.000-05:00

Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services that are acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth rather than to satisfy a real need of the consumer. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status.

Invidious consumption, a necessary corollary, is the term applied to consumption of goods and services for the deliberate purpose of inspiring envy in others.

The challenge for LarryLy: Engage the concepts of conspicuous and invidious consumption without unduly vilifying the consumer. Without being all Bill Cosby about it, discuss the ways in which these forms of consumption shaped your experiences in urban New Jersey and in the black baptist church.

You will, of course, want to foreground the ways in which your analysis is informed by your current socioeconomic position, however tenuous it may be.

lil kim: colonized and consumed

2006-12-28T12:04:00.001-05:00

so, i can't look at that picture without seeing Saartjie_Baartman aka "Hottentot Venus". i can't shake it. with each glance, i see the disarming contortions of kim's diminutive form as a (failed) approximation of the curves and the boldness of her similarly exploited ancestor.

but there is a marked difference between the two images: kim is emphatically marked by the colonial project. her body is literally branded by/for french designer louis vuitton, a name that (given my urban, working-class orientation) has long been synonymous with the concept of invidious consumption. branding has a history that mustn't be ignored as we attempt to make sense of this photograph.

[The origin of branding may lie in the] literally dehumanizing treatment of a slave as mere livestock: just a biological entity owned and sold for arbitrary use and abuse (as agricultural work unit, house slave or toy). [Branding] was practiced by the European slavers as well as by African slave catchers. To a slaveowner it would be logical to mark his property on two legs just like cattle, or even more since humans are more adroit at escaping.

due to the function of branding as means of a punishment or imposing masterly rights over a legally subservient inferior, there is some question as to who owns the body that we see here.

the absenting of kim's clothes effectively blurs the lines between model and product in ways that beg the question: what (or who) does this advertisement ask us to consume? what objects (and/or bodies) are for sale and who is eligible to sell them? how do the elements of this photograph teach us to assign value to the (black female) body?

note how the blonde swoop threatens to obstruct her vision. it appears to be so tenuously situated that kim must remain perfectly still if it is to remain intact. an errant blonde lock hushes her pursed lips. they, too, must remain still as not to interrupt or soil our optical feast upon her nude body. for this moment, frozen in time by the snapshot, her vision -- her ability to see the world -- is decided and mitigated by where her blondeness happens to fall.

blondeness, then, catalyzes (or, at the very least, carries with it the possibility of) a temporary blindness of sorts. it goes beyond literally covering up black roots and actually obstructs the clarity of vision. this obstruction might be read as this black female subject's (willful?) subjugation to a vulnerable (disempowered?) position. this subjugation is an uncanny one though: it is enacted for pay and for a visibility that will result in more pay (in the form of album sales). the question: is there an element of volition present for kim that saartjie did not enjoy?

with her black nude airbrushed body, kim invites us to join her and to do away with the pretense of clothing... we too can forego such trifling formalities and mark our very flesh with the sovereignty of her french colonizer.

oh, i know... you want me (a self-avowed black feminist) to read some agency on kim's part. after all, her gaze meets the [white normative] gaze of the photographer/viewer, intense and unsmiling. uninviting, even. she decides how much of her body will be seen.

yeah, but homegirl is already marked... and that means homegirl laid down and allowed herself to be printed upon. once the inscription is made, i contend, agency is circumscribed in significant(perhaps irrevocable) ways.

and if i've learned anything in my time here at princeton, it's that the white supremacist project is quite willing to make some concessions if it means furthering its long-term interests. that is to say that sometimes white supremacy will allow you to act out (i.e. be black, bold, militant, agentic and even sexy) if you only agree to hand over your body to be marked by its primacy. if only you agree to occasional/temporary silencing.

and where are my girl's ears? tucked conveniently under that flesh-toned helmet, that's where. yet another sense forfeited.

visible, but nearly blinded.
inaudible and unhearing.
sexualized but circumscribed.
limbs forced to do the work of shielding her genitals from view when the colonial (LV) emblems fail to offer any protection.
this body is conquered terrain.

but that's just my reading...
i'm open to hearing yours.

Beyonce as Cultural Product/Producer

2006-12-19T10:39:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been engaged in a civil, yet empassioned, debate about an article published in the Nation by Daphne Brooks, a colleague of mine here at Princeton. In "Suga Mamma, Politicized" Brooks first chronicles Beyonce's career as performer, writer, producer and cultural icon, then provides a reading of the "B-Day" album vis-a-vis a number timely political themes.

What does it mean for Beyonce's sophomore solo project to evince such a dramatic shift from the subservient "Cater 2 U" sensibilities she offered on DC3's last album? And how does the class stratification evident in the mis-management of Hurricane Katrina provide us with richer ways to read the sassy, matriarchial (though materialistic) themes of tracks like "Suga Mamma" and Knowles' deployment of bayou imagery in her CD booklet?

I have my ideas... and I'm exited that Daphne is asking these questions. But some of my colleages believe the article to be much ado about nothing.

Read the article and we'll discuss.

---

Suga Mama, Politicized
Daphne A. Brooks

The video for Beyoncé Knowles's latest single, "Ring the Alarm," shows the stunning 25-year-old singer, dressed in a caramel-colored trench coat that matches her glistening skin, being dragged away by policemen in riot gear and locked in a padded cell. An "alarmed" Beyoncé struggles and writhes, is brought to her knees and pulled by her arms and legs, in a scene that should ring familiar not only to fans of early Sharon Stone spectacles (the clip pays clear homage to Basic Instinct) but to those who still remember Diana Ross and her image-shattering star turn as a drug-busted and jailed Billie Holiday in 1972's Lady Sings the Blues. (Comparisons between Ross and Beyoncé are in abundance now as the latter jettisons her Supremes-inspired vehicle Destiny's Child for a full-fledged solo career and takes on the Ross-inspired lead of Deena Jones in the upcoming film adaptation of Dreamgirls.) The gloss and glitz of this shock-value video may cause casual viewers to write off Beyoncé's newest album, B'Day, as just another collection of sexed-up club jams. But they'd miss out on listening to one of the oddest, most urgent, dissonant and disruptive R&B releases in recent memory.

Much has been made of how the Beyoncé's music of recent years has been a far cry from what pop culture critic David Swerdlick calls the "sistah grrl power" of early Destiny's Child recordings. On those records, and particularly on the multiplatinum The Writing's on the Wall, Knowles and her fellow "children" belted out densely arranged anthems with Waiting to Exhale themes of romantic distrust, material disillusionment and "ne'er do well" scrub boyfriends who were roundly criticized and kicked to the curb. The group's early hits--"Bills, Bills, Bills," "Bug a Boo" and "Independent Women, Part 1" among them--chart the young Texan's rise as a popular black female songwriter. The Beyoncé of old joyously rejected the stalker tendencies of needy men who persisted in "stressin'" her on her "beeper" and feckless freeloaders who "maxed out" her credit cards.

The Beyoncé on B'Day is anything but the "daddy's girl," "naughty but nice" icon who came bounding onto the scene with her first solo effort, 2003's remarkably successful Dangerously in Love. On B'Day, Knowles is unafraid of complicating and disturbing the image that won her fame. On these newer songs, the über-glam urban diva experiments with a startlingly abrasive persona that feels different from most contemporary pop divas (see, for instance, Christina Aguilera's "virgin-whore-virgin" dance, Britney's "virgin-whore-whore" dissolution or even Madonna's "whore"-to-mother moves). Instead of mistaking "edge" (the much-overused term) for raunch as her peers often do, Beyoncé finds different emotional notes to sound: spiritual discontent, romantic pessimism and self-control. Knowles especially stresses the pleasures of hard work as a means to overcoming despair. What's more, she packages her messages in a hard and frantic sonic register that sets this record apart from other MTV divas' pet projects. Quirky and unpredictable from beginning to end, this record hits a range of intriguingly sour notes that defy expectation. This alone seems reason for pop fans to take a second listen to B'Day--and to take note of the way the album shrewdly remixes R&B tales of "Resentment" (the title of the closing track), desperation and aspiration in contemporary black women's popular culture. It comes at a time when public and political voices of black female discontent remain muted and mediated in the public eye, from the scuffle between police and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to the ubiquitous images of Katrina survivors--overwhelmingly black and female, who are spoken for by the media, politicians and corporate interests far more often than they are heard speaking for themselves.

In a genre known for its legion of Svengalis hovering over the talent, Beyoncé repeatedly boasts about doing it all: She is B'Day's singer-songwriter, performer and one of the record's many co-producers. (All the tracks were co-written and co-produced by Beyoncé.) Her publicity team has stressed that she herself conducted and oversaw a compressed recording period and a studio dynamic that heightened its frantic sound. Recorded in two weeks in the wake of the Dreamgirls shoot--allegedly in secrecy from both her manager/father Matthew Knowles and from Columbia Records--B'Day has been repeatedly characterized by the artist herself as a Beyoncé-orchestrated endeavor: "Well, I made the movie and then I went to Miami to start that plan," Knowles told Essence magazine in September. "But when I got there, I had all these songs in my head. So I thought, Let me get into the studio. But it was all a big secret."

Whether you believe it or not, this is a rather unique and remarkable spin story for a female R&B artist's album: Everyone from Mariah Carey to Mary J. Blige to Christina Aguilera has aggressively centered the making of their recordings (and their success) around a producer. Knowles makes use of her own impressive array of production wizards (ranging from old stand-bys the Neptunes to Norwegian hitmakers StarGate), but she has also insisted on her own involvement in directing the multiple roles of her producers--arranging them to work in multiple studios simultaneously so as to reportedly capture the feel of "battling" MCs so prominent in the making of Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella records. In many ways, the "independent woman" of Destiny's past has morphed on this record into a production Svengali in her own right--and into a woman who, in this behind-the-control-panels role, defies being pigeonholed as mere arm candy.

The power grab begins early, on the first track, "Déjà Vu," in which Beyoncé, as conductor, calls for bass, hi hat and 808 drum machine, and, finally, for Jay. (Online message boards and pop music critics alike expressed shock and disappointment with this lead single--called "flat" by some--but the track wisely uses the pair's notoriety to drum up interest in the album.) But Knowles quickly shifts gears, speeding up the tempo of the record on "Get Me Bodied," a Swizz Beatz-produced dancehall track. Combining Rasta beats with double-dutch syncopations and gorgeous vocal harmonies (by Knowles herself, natch), "Get Me Bodied" celebrates the joys of girls' night out. It's both more percussive than "Déjà Vu" and more resonant with the sounds of black girls' play--ropes twirling, handclapping and improvised cheers--games that, as ethnomusicologist Kyra Gaunt writes, are the backbone of black popular music culture.

The rat-a-tat doesn't let up. B'Day is an album that sounds like a battlefield--or at the very least a race of sorts, in which Beyoncé emerges victorious as a co-producer and entrepreneur engaged in multiple forms of self-reinvention and personal reparations. It might seem strange to credit an artist whose contributions to the culture have so far included readying us for her "jelly" with making a statement on one of the worst American tragedies in recent memory, but B'Day defies the odds by delivering a collection of songs that refract the emotional and material stress of post-Katrina Southern life. The tour of Gulf Coast culture begins with the images in the CD booklet: photos of a hard yet luscious Jet magazine centerfold Knowles--whose family hails from Houston and New Orleans--lifting a leg in a thigh-high juke joint mini on the dock of the bay, navigating twin crocodiles by the leash through verdant wetlands in high heels and a cut-out swimsuit, and walking the path of dusty railroad tracks in a leather and frills bodice. It's not exactly clear what showcasing the singer as sexually titillating against a landscape that resonates with (Eve's?) bayou imagery means (one should be "bootylicious" even when the levee breaks?), but it's clear that the rural American South that the world confronted in new and unsettling ways over the past year is front and center here. That uncanny south, the gothic and chaotic one of our nation's nightmare, provides a fitting backdrop to the controversial video "Déjà Vu," which recycles an historical déjà vu of the creepiest sort--a tricked out plantation setting with Knowles alternately draped across ornate Victorian furniture and dashing haltingly through everglades and (cotton?) fields looking like a deer in headlights or, perhaps more accurately, like a fugitive house slave on the run.

How to get free of this oppressive universe? On the record, Knowles runs headlong into the material world as a site of refuge. And no track sums up the theme of materiality more startlingly than "Suga Mama," a song that returns Beyoncé to her relationship with the (dollar) "bill" and her search for a partner who fits the bill. Promising her baby that she "won't let no bills get behind," Beyoncé effectively assumes the role that her Destiny's Child-era lover of her "Bills, Bills, Bills" days cannot fulfill. If her man of that song from the past can't "pay the automo'bills," then "Suga Mama" suggests she's more than ready to take the reins. Producer Rich (Crazy in Love) Harrison folds a gut-bucket blues guitar lick from J Wade & the Soul Searchers into a back-road beat as Knowles celebrates a nubile lover whose services are worthy of the gift of a "short set." Her (postcoital?) praise celebrates the purchasing power of the singer herself, whose love is seemingly not for sale but who is capable of providing the bling, the "new whip," the "new heavy on the wrist" to satisfy her lover's needs.

Even a seemingly innocuous R&B song like "Suga Mama" has the power to force post-disaster questions related to protection and survival. What, for instance, does it mean to be a "Suga Mama" with an "accountant waiting on the phone"? What does it mean to be a woman who proudly claims to be the "type to take care of mine" in an age of gross federal (read: patriarchal) failure to serve and to protect? In many ways, particularly given the example of Knowles's own mother, clothing designer and salon owner Tina, who has been responsible for most of Destiny's Child as well as Beyoncé's onstage costumes, there is something remarkable, almost parodic, about a track with a sinuous chorus ("Sit on mama lap/Hey, hey/Come sit on mama lap") that insists on the power and the allure of maternal entrepreneurialism.

On the surface, " Upgrade U," a battling MCs track of sorts that again features Jay-Z, is an astoundingly retrograde song, one in which the Beyoncé of Destiny's Child's controversial track "Cater 2 U" re-emerges and offers to "take care" of the home and her man. There is, though, perhaps a bit more to it than its cowboys-on-the-range horns and synthesizer arrangements. Even in a line as ludicrously overblown as "I can do for you what Martin did for the people," Knowles's fixation on material forms of uplift ("Audemars Piguet you/Switch your necktie to purple labels!") steers the track toward the theme of literal and figurative redress that hangs over B'Day. Rather than assuming the role of the helpless dream-girl, Knowles boasts about turning Jay-Z into a good product: "Unless you're flawless/Then ya dynasty ain't complete without a chief like me."

It would be easy to interpret the hit single "Ring the Alarm" as a familiar story of the "woman scorned." There is, after all, the chorus, an abrasive, in-your-face mantra in which Beyoncé yells a how-dare-you-step-out-on-me refrain that's punctuated by red alarm sirens. And its cathartic outrage recalls the kind of carefully marketed breakup ire voiced by the likes of pop songstresses like Alanis Morissette and Kelly Clarkson. But Knowles uses it to more complicated, tough-minded ends. "Ring the Alarm" gives loud, burning-down-the-house voice to a woman who's more concerned with losing her stuff, her "chinchilla coats," the "house off coast," "everything I own," than she is with losing love itself. Relationships and desire, in Beyoncé's cold, class-act world, are, in fact, all about business transactions: "I don't want you but I want it/And I can't let it go/To know you give it to her like you gave it to me, come on..." The "it" that Beyoncé laments losing--sex, money, power--is cause for starting a fire.

Fittingly, B'Day closes on a dissonant note with the song "Resentment," which loops a sample of Curtis Mayfield's melancholic "Think" with gospel and doowop-tinged harmonies to convey the pure depths of romantic bile. With shrill vocals stretched to the very extreme, "Resentment" is a difficult, visceral way to end an album. In its dulcet melody and intricate harmonies, the song recalls the early '70s soul arrangements of En Vogue's 1992 smash cover "Giving Him Something He Can Feel," but Knowles's version of retro-soul re-outfits electric sexual healing and "feeling" as shards of pain. This resentment is rushed, pulsing with emotion that comes from the the crossroads of a choir solo and juke joint nightclub abandon. It's an extraordinarily uncomfortable crescendo, a jagged little pill for fans to swallow and one that reminds us, as Jody Rosen recently pointed out, that this is indeed a "tough record" produced by "a storm system disguised as a singer."

What may be "toughest" about it is the way that it gamely challenges century-old American myths about race, class and gender--ones that still portray black women as lazy, feckless, "degenerate" and unwilling to work, thus encouraging what scholar and critic Hazel Carby has described as the "policing" of black women's bodies. Knowles's album stands as a musical response to black women's social dislocation in the wake of yet another massive migration, and it envisions a language of ownership that is at once perhaps almost liberating and disturbingly materialistic: So many poor and working-class African-American households, especially those headed by women, lost everything in the storm. B'Day expresses the wants and needs of a heroine actively contemplating what it means to lose, and to have, and to possess. While there is no way to get around Knowles's ultra-privilege (her extreme wealth dates back to her childhood, and she has roots that run deep in New Orleans), there is nonetheless something profoundly interesting and unusual about the drama that she sells on B'Day. She is neither the "hard-knock" heroine that Mary J. Blige has steadily cultivated as a persona over the past decade, nor the reigning tragic diva whose crown has been passed between Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey for some years now. On her second solo album, Knowles appears to be fashioning a coarse, hard-nosed character who stands apart from the R&B pack in expressing clear-sighted anger and efficient, pick-up-the-pieces resolve.

An even tougher challenge for fans and critics alike may be to take seriously the political dimensions of a pop music album by a glamorous black female artist when the semi-plagiarized "modern times" of other musicians still entertain the most studied attention of rock scribes. B'Day may not match the poetic commentary of Tracy Chapman or Joan Armatrading, nor does it offer the hard spiritual and sexual candor of Meshell NdegeOcello's finest work or the sheer experimental exuberance of brash newcomer Alice Smith. But it delivers a unique version of black female dissent in pop and R&B music culture. Beyoncé is part of a tradition of black women's musical expressions of personal and political discontent ranging from singers like Nina Simone and Odetta to MCs Lauryn Hill and Jean Grae to the brilliant new artist Keyshia Cole, who has released one of the most brutally visceral, emotionally assertive and convincingly combative R&B records of the decade, The Way It Is. Knowles's album of hard, militarized beats marches in defiance of a long history of public black women, from Sojourner to Superbowl Janet, who have been stripped and stressed and displaced and denied.

about Daphne A. Brooks

Daphne A. Brooks, an associate professor of English and African-American studies at Princeton University, is the author of Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 (Duke) and Jeff Buckley's Grace (Continuum).
more...

Rashawn Brazell Case Resurfaces in the Media

2006-12-07T14:16:00.000-05:00

--- TODAY ---

Tune in as
Court TV's “Catherine Crier Live”
interviews Desire Brazell
about the unsolved murder of her son, Rashawn
and the status of the investigation.

The segment will air on on today's show (5pm EST)
in connection with America’s Most Wanted
to help find Rashawn Brazell’s killer.

--- THIS SATURDAY ---

Fox's "America's Most Wanted"

will also re-air their segment on Rashawn's murder.
AMW received a number of helpful tips
the first 2 times they aired the segment.
Our prayer is that this week's re-broadcast
will bring forth the final tip
that the NYPD needs to find Rashawn's killer.

Desire Brazell asks
"Please get the word out to everyone to watch the show.
Maybe somewhere someone will watch and finally come forward
with the lead we need to make justice happen."

The show airs on FOX on Saturday, December 9th at 9pm EST.

Want to be kept abreast of developments in the case?
Sign up for our mailing list on the RBMF myspace page.
Or add our blogspot blog to your blogroll.
Or visit RashawnBrazell.com today!

Casual

2006-12-03T12:45:00.001-05:00

Because I couldn't take him seriously, Casual wasn't a threat. He was a delight -- an indulgence that meant nut without strings and no promises to be broken. As such, this twice bitten monogamist was more than happy to accept the terms.

A golden boy. A pretty young thing. No rhythm to speak of, no bedroom savvy. Instead, he was rough 'round edges and smooth everywhere in between. Perhaps he didn't electrify my body, but he envied it. And sometimes that's plenty.

I initiated everything. Greeted him shirtless and in sweatpants, skipping the formality of underwear. Stood silent and let a thin stretch of tented cotton do the talking -- directing his eyes downward and his mouth to agape. Still, no words there in the dark, when the drawstring released and unveiled several inches of anticipation at full mast.

And so it began.

I initiated everything. Paused for a moment to marvel at the five feet and nine inches of pure gold devoid of blemish and availing itself for my consumption. Manifest destiny pulsed within me, first alerting, then dispatching every appendage to its prescribed ministry.

And so it began.

He was a man. Refused to squirm, but I knew better. These lips incite nirvana frequently enough to know the feel of a man at his peak. And this tongue enough to push him past. Twice.

I humored his thrusts and was tickled by his explosion. He'd given a bass tone warning seventeen strokes before I watched his tender architecture collapse atop my chest, flinching and spent. Palming the back of his head, I smiled over his shoulder at the gods who'd never stopped watching.

And then it was my turn.

Delicate thing. Afterwards, he asked how frequently I went to the gym. Nested in the comfort of my arms, lips grazing my nipple, he sputtered "I think I procrastinate because I fear failure." In his innocence, he reminded me of a time where afterglow epiphanies didn't strike me as trite and cuddling was an undeniable precursor to love. How precious he was.

A half-assed resolution to make this a regular thing. But this time he had to get mom's car back post haste. He hit me off with the nigga handshake. Perhaps it struck him as misplaced, so he kissed me awkwardly on the neck before finally giving in to a full hug. Feeling the scales in his mind struggling to balance cultural protocol against transgressive sex, I held him close.

In our two hours together, Casual had brightened my spirits. A golden blur, not yet ripe, he filled my space for long enough to remind me how delightful transience can be. This twice bitten monogamist was more than happy to accept the terms.

Ph.D . Mythology

2006-11-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

by Donald Asher

We all have heard the myth of the cabdriver with a Ph.D. in astrophysics, or the poor student who works for years to get a doctorate in English or history only to end up asking "Do you want fries with that?" It turns out that these stories are refuted by the employment data.

Here are commonly held beliefs about career outcomes for the Ph.D., only two of which are true:
Ph.D.s are unemployed and can't get jobs.
Ph.D.s are chronically underpaid.
There are far more Ph.D.s out there than faculty jobs for them.
The Ph.D. degree is so specialized that you can't get any other kind of job.
It costs a fortune to get a Ph.D .
It takes forever to get a Ph.D.

The origin of the Ph.D. myth
The Ph.D. degree is a research degree, designed to train a scholar to be able to do original research of publishable quality in his or her chosen field. The skill set of a Ph.D. includes the ability to design, conduct, and evaluate research, to write for scholarly and popular audiences, and to manage the most complex ideas at the highest levels. The people who train Ph.D.s are, primarily, graduate research faculty at large, research-focused universities, which is where the myth of the underpaid and underemployed Ph.D. came from.

These faculty traditionally view a successful Ph.D. graduate as someone who gets a tenure-track faculty position at another large, research-focused university, and view as a "failure" Ph.D.s who have any other career outcome. The cliché is that faculty want to clone themselves, and view nonclones as unsuccessful.

Some Ph.D.s succeed by "failing"
So what is the penalty for Ph.D.s who "fail" to get a tenure-track position? Answer: They must accept an increase in pay. According to the National Science Foundation's Survey of Doctorate Recipients, Ph.D.s who don't take a tenure-track position earn more than Ph.D.s who work in academe. This is true in almost all fields, from engineering to art history.

The fact is that "Ph.D.s will earn $1.3 million more than baccalaureate holders, over their working lifetimes," reports Kenneth Redd, Director of Research and Policy Analysis for the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C. When challenged that maybe only wealthy people choose to pursue a Ph.D. in the first place, Mr. Redd responded: "That's a misreading of the data. The fact is that the earnings return for someone who gets a degree from a lower-income family is actually much higher than someone from a higher income family, because they are starting from such a lower base in the first place."

What about chronic unemployment? You never hear the advice, "Don't become a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer, because they are always unemployed!", yet people do warn Ph.D. students about this. Ph.D.s have unemployment rates that are about the same as holders of professional degrees (M.D., J.D., D.D.S., D.V.M.), hovering between 1 and 2 percent in recent years. So the data are clear: Ph.D.s are employed, and earnings are strong. But what are they doing?

Too many Ph.D.s?
It is true that there are too many Ph.D.s for the faculty openings at this time. In fact, in some areas of the humanities (notably, English and history), there are about twice as many new Ph.D. degrees conferred annually as there are advertisements in the Chronicle of Higher Education for faculty positions in these fields.

So, where do these other Ph.D.s go? Many go into corporate R&D, policy jobs, think tanks, consulting practices, high-level administrative positions, academic publishing, entrepreneurial endeavors, and a myriad other directions that their advanced educations perhaps did not directly prepare them for.

Daniel Denecke, director of the Ph.D. Completion Project for the Council of Graduate Schools, says, "In general graduate schools and graduate deans are trying to be more supportive of the fact that up to 50 percent of the students in some fields go into nonacademic careers, but I think at the department level there is still a lot of resistance to recognizing that. A lot needs to be done to provide greater recognition that these degrees are so valued outside of academia."

One challenge that Ph.D. candidates face is finding nonacademic career development when there is little or no support for these directions on most university campuses. Thus, many Ph.D.s do have to adapt to career appointments that they were not specifically trained for. However, the skill set of a Ph.D. may contribute to success in these transitions. If a person is able to research any topic and teach herself new skills as needed, that would be particularly useful in such transitions.

Another advantage to the doctorate is that full-time doctoral students often don't pay any tuition at all, and are further supported by stipends and assistantships. It is difficult to get a free ride through medical or law school, but Ph.D. students can be paid to earn their degrees, particularly those who work part time as teaching or research assistants. And in any case, potential earnings increases would warrant even a large investment in doctoral education.

Obviously younger students would gain the maximum return on investment from a doctorate, but it is never too late to pursue the terminal degree. The options to pursue a doctoral degree have exploded in the last decade, with rigorous, accredited doctoral programs available for any type of student, even for busy, full-time employed professionals.

Finally, let us acknowledge that it does take a long time to complete the Ph.D. A fast Ph.D. is three or four years, and it is common for these degrees to take five to seven years, and in some cases, even longer, to complete. However, Dear Abby is famous for advising older people who are considering pursuing a degree: "How old will you be in four years if you don't complete that degree?"

Men Accused Of Brooklyn Bias Attack Charged With Murder, Manslaughter

2006-10-18T00:20:00.000-04:00

(original post)

Two of the men suspected in the deadly beating of a gay man in Brooklyn will be facing stiffer charges.

The Brooklyn District Attorney says 19-year-old John Fox and 20-year-old Ilya Shurov are now being charged with murder and manslaughter, on top of the original assault and robbery charges, all as hate crimes.

A third suspect, 16-year-old Gary Timmins could be indicted on similar charges today.
Michael Sandy's family removed him from life support on Friday.

Investigators believe Sandy was lured over the internet to an isolated parking lot near Sheepshead Bay with the promise of a sexual encounter.

He was attacked when he arrived and chased onto the Belt Parkway, where he was struck and killed by a car that left the scene. Meanwhile, community leaders and concerned residents express sorrow at the death of Michael Sandy and for all victims of hate crimes.

Activists gathered on the steps of City Hall Monday to call for a greater focus on preventing bias attacks.

"Our community mourns the brutal killing of another black, gay, New Yorker," said Tokes Osubu, Executive Director of Gay Men Of African Descent. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Michael Sandy's family and friends."

"Today we come out to say stop the violence throughout the state and throughout the city," added Brooklyn city councilwoman Letitia James.

Attendees also thanked the NYPD for the swift arrest of suspects linked to Sandy's death.

LIFEbeat Cancels Anti-Gay AIDS Concert

2006-07-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Jasmyne Cannick, jcannick@sbcglobal.net
Colin Robinson, 917-482-9014
Keith Boykin, keithboykin1@aol.com

Black Gay Bloggers Win Victory; LIFEbeat Cancels Anti-Gay AIDS Concert

Los Angeles/New York (July 12, 2006) –Black lesbian and gay bloggers are declaring a small victory in the fight against homophobia today.

After a 48 hour protest against LIFEbeat, the music industry’s AIDS organization, and its decision to use homophobic reggae artists Beenie Man and TOK, LIFEbeat today released a statement that it is canceling its concert. LIFEbeat cited “the possibility of violence” as the reason for canceling the concert and not the use of anti-gay reggae artists.

“While we are extremely pleased that our efforts paid off, we want to make it perfectly clear to LIFEbeat and others, that no threats of violence were ever made against LIFEbeat’s staff and board of directors, nor the concert,” commented Jasmyne Cannick, activist and blogger. “Our campaign was simply to educate LIFEbeat about the history of the performers that they choose and to make them aware of the recent murders of gay people in the Caribbean. We did this through emails, blogging, phone calls, and faxes from all over the world.”

Author Keith Boykin added, “LIFEbeat still fails to address the issue of homophobia and its connection to the spread of HIV/AIDS.” He continues, “While we support the mission of LIFEbeat to educate our youth about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, we cannot support the use of blatantly homophobic recording artists to achieve that mission.”

“LIFEbeat has basically chosen to cop-out and blame us for their ill-considered decision to use these artists in the first place,” commented D.C. blogger Terrence Heath.

The concert was scheduled to take place at New York’s Webster Hall on July 18. Activists are now calling on LIFEbeat to move on with a new concert using gay-friendly artists and to donate the proceeds to J-FLAG, The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays founded by the late Brian Williamson who was murdered for being gay in 2004.

"This would be the first time a protest of these artists raised money for us,” said Karlene, co-chair of J-FLAG. “The international protests have helped build awareness and accountability back here. Artists who perform homophobic or hate songs must be sent a strong message that their acts are inhumane and will not be tolerated. But it’s even better when this can result in support for our difficult and under-financed work to counter this hatred where these musicians live.”

A complete list of the Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender bloggers who participated in the campaign against LIFEbeat appears below.

Bejata link
Keith Boykin link
Republic of T link
Pandagon link
Clay Cane link
Jasmyne Cannick link
Journey Into Light link
Frank Leon Roberts link
A Burst of Light link
Blabbeando link
J's Theater link
FemmeNoir link
AnziDesign link
PlanetOut's Politics and News link
GreasyGuide link
Troy Notorious link
thebrotherlove.com link
Woubi-Yossi Collective link
Just My Thoughts link
Obsidianbear link
The 7 Magazine link
The Larry Lyons Experience link
Simply Fred Smith link
Every Shut Eye Ain't Sleep link
Novaslim link
Front Porch Storytellin link
Taylor Siluwé link
Bialogue link

Black LGBT Bloggers Launch Protest

2006-07-11T12:07:00.000-04:00

Target is Music Industry's Anti-Gay AIDS Concert
LIFEbeat AIDS Concert to Feature Performances by Homophobic Reggae Artists Beenie Man and TOK

A coalition of Black lesbian and gay bloggers have launched a worldwide online campaign against a music industry groups decision to ignore requests to cancel performances by homophobic reggae artists Beenie Man and TOK at their July 18 reggae concert.

The concert, scheduled to take place in New York, is being used as a benefit to reach American youth about the dangers of HIV and AIDS. The coalition of activists is calling on LIFEbeat, the music industrys non-profit organization AIDS organization, to either rescind the invitation to Beenie Man and TOK or demand that the two artists make a public statement prior to the concert disavowing their homophobic music and remarks.

In Beenie Man's song Han Up Deh, he sings, Hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope. The term chi chi is a Jamaican reference to homosexuality. The term is often used to refer to chi chi men but can also refer to lesbians (chi chi women or chi chi girls). Loosely translated, the lyrics mean, Hang lesbians with a long piece of rope. Similarly, in TOKs Chi Chi Man, they encourage the burning and killing of gay men.

Gays of Caribbean descent continue to be targets of hate crimes, including murder. It has only been a little over two years since Brian Williamson, a Jamaican gay activist and founder of Jamaicas gay civil rights group J-FLAG was found murdered, his body mutilated by multiple knife wounds, simply because he was gay. LIFEbeat needs to understand that Jamaicas growing HIV/AIDS epidemic has led to widespread violence and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and gay men, Cannick continues. Many Jamaicans still believe that HIV/AIDS is a disease of gays for moral impurity. Its commonplace to see violent acts against gays in Jamaica. Through these artists lyrics, they encourage this behavior and we here in the United States should not do the same by allowing them the platform.

Keith Boykin, author and host of the BET J series MY TWO CENTS spoke to LIFEbeat executive director John Canelli Monday morning. Canelli admitted that his organization knew that Beenie Man and TOK were homophobic artists but decided to do the concert anyway. We didn't make the decision blindly and we knew there would be controversy, Canelli told Boykin.

While we support the mission of LIFEbeat to educate our youth about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, we cannot support the use of blatantly homophobic recording artists to achieve that mission, Boykin said. In fact, to provide a forum for these musicians actually contradicts the mission of LIFEbeat in that the artists promote homophobia that contributes to AIDS.

Other performers during the concert include reggae artists Wayne Wonder, Sasha and Kulcha and a special performance by rapper Foxy Brown. The concert is being supported by BET, Vibe Magazine, Music Choice and New Yorks Power 105.1 FM.

A partial listing of the bloggers included in the online campaign include:
Donald Agarrat: www.anzidesign.com
Derrick L. Briggs: www.derricklbriggs.com
Keith Boykin: www.keithboykin.com
Clay Cane: www.claycane.blogspot.com
Jasmyne Cannick: www.jasmynecannick.com
Terrance Heath: www.republicoft.com
Larry D. Lyons II: www.larrylyons2.blogspot.com
Frank Roberts: www.brooklynboyblues.blogspot.com
Pam Spaulding: www.pamspaulding.com
Bernard Tarver: www.bejata.com

Activism = Elitist?

2006-06-12T19:45:00.000-04:00

In preparation for tomorrow's panel on the state of LGBT politics and activism, I was asked to think through a series of questions. I was so compelled, infuriated, perplexed, annoyed and tickled by the questions that I challenged myself to get my thoughts onto paper. I'll be sharing plenty of my responses with you here on this blog in the weeks to come, and I'd like to begin with the question that elicited the most lengthy and emotional response.

Is activism solely an elitist activity?

LarryLy addresses the crowd at the Rashawn Brazell Memorial March.
Photos by Andres Duque

Activism can often seem like an elitist enterprise, since we often use funding, corporate support and the audibility that they provide as the sole criteria by which determine the quality and impact of our work. Needless to say, this is a problematic practice, but not one essentially rooted in the enterprise of activism itself.

For me, the question of whether it is or is not fundamentally elitist lies in this question: How do we measure the success of activism? How do we quantify the impact of our work? More responsible conversations in our public forums or more government funding? (These two are not mutually exclusive, but they do represent two estranged value systems.)

An example from my work: When the press was hungry for quotes about the horror of hate crimes, the RBMF instead offered a broader commentary about the value of black gay life in general. In our public statements and in the building of our organization, we refused to use the narrow vectors of crime and disease to define our lives and instead pushed a platform that identified and prioritized the root issues to which the mainstream media felt they had no responsibility: namely, the social penalties for standing at the intersection of marginal identities.

Instead preoccupying ourselves with the race and sexuality of Rashawn’s killer (which will not be determined until the NYPD invest the same amount of resources in the investigation as they did with Nicole DuFresne and Emmet StGuillen), we consistently spoke about the role that Rashawn’s intersectional identity plays in the ongoing disparity in the coverage the cases receive and their attendant public outcry.

Why? Because the race, sexuality and even the motivation of the killer cease to be significant priorities when the police, the media and the public refuse to value the life of the victim.

So, in what some might identify as a key moment in the history of black LGBT organizing in New York, we used our audibility strategically to create more and louder conversations about the value of our lives. I like to think that our work is playing a role in shifting the community further away from the pigeon hole of single-issue organizing and toward a more holistic platform that honors the complexity of our lived experience as an intersectional people. To me, this is an important development in the landscape of black LGBT organizing.

However, the Memorial Fund boasts no corporate sponsors and no steady source of income, save our grassroots fundraisers. Whereas the RBMF staff has had to work doggedly for nearly a year just to touch the $5000 mark, Imette St. Guillen's folks were able to generate more than $250,000 in less than five months.

So, if one uses financial gain as the means to evaluate the efficiency of the RBMF, we may not appear to be as successful as our white, straight, upper and upper middle-class compatriots in the fight against violence. Indeed, this reality reeks of a synthesis of racism, classism and homophobia that adds insult to injury for a community morning the loss of a brother, son, lover and friend. And this is the reality that I’ve dealt with everyday since March 4, 2005, when I got news of Rashawn’s murder.

Luckily for us, however, we do not measure the fruits of our activism this way. We are encouraged by the fact that despite the death grip of the compounded injustices at play in the Brazell murder, we have managed to contribute to a significant change in the way we talk about our lives, our bodies, our sex and our deaths.

So, my answer is no. Activism is not an elitist enterprise. Not for those of us whose value system is rooted steadfast in the health and well-being of our communities. Not for those of us who commit ourselves to the unglamorous work that goes on in between and after the marches, the rallies and the vigils. Not for those of us who do not enjoy the audibility afforded to the white heterosexual upper class and the hundreds of thousands of sympathetic dollars that their identities have a knack for garnering. It's not an elitist enterprise for me.

Taking it to the Streets!

2006-06-12T18:45:00.000-04:00

March and Rally this Saturday
Raise Your Voice Against Anti-LGBT Hate in Our Neighborhoods

When: Saturday, June 17, 2006

Where: Gather at NE Corner of 14th Street and First Avenue at 2PM;
March at 3PM to Christopher Park (Christopher & West 4th Streets)

Why: In the last week a number of hate incidents have impacted our community

Saturday, June 10, 12:30 AM - East Village, Manhattan
On his way home, Kevin Aviance is brutally attacked by a group of men yelling anti-gay slurs

Saturday, June 10, 1:10 AM - Astoria, Queens
A group of three friends are attacked by a larger group yelling anti-gay and racist epithets and wielding a baseball bat

Sunday, June 11, 5:45 AM - Astoria, Queens
A man is followed off of an "N" train by another man who harassed him with anti-gay language, pushed him down elevated platform exit stairs to the street, and kicked and punched repeatedly.

Make your voice heard!!
We will not be targeted even as we celebrate our History, our Pride and our Survival...

Community Partners in this Effort include: the NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Daniel Dromm, Empire State Pride Agenda, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Gay Men of African Descent, Hedda Lettuce, Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, the Latino Commission on AIDS, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, mano a mano, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, New York State Black Gay Network, NYC Council Member Rosie Mendez, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NYS Assembly Member Deborah Glick, NYS Assembly Member Sylvia Friedman, NYS Senator Tom Duane, People of Color in Crisis, Unity Fellowship Church of Christ and the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund.

Click here for more information and safety tips.

News from the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund

2006-06-02T17:18:00.000-04:00

Exciting news!

In our efforts to increase the visibility of the Rashawn Brazell case in a variety of arenas, the RBMF has focussed its creative energies upon a number of web-based projects. Take a look at what we've done!

We have created an entry about Rashawn in the Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This popular reference tool will allow users all over the world to learn more about Rashawn and the RBMF.

We've started a Blogspot.com blog in Rashawn's name that will keep the public abreast of developments in the investigation as well as local and national stories and events that pertain to the intersection of racial and sexual identities. Check it out at RashawnBrazell.blogspot.com.

We've also launched a RBMF page on MySpace.com, a popular social networking hub. This page that will keep friends of the Fund abreast of all developments and allow for more informal interaction with the RBMF staff . Visit myspace.com/rbmf to add the Fund as a friend and to sign up to receive our email newsletter today!

How's that for creative web-savvy organizing?

Rashawn's Memorial March: The Impact

2006-06-02T17:14:00.000-04:00

(photo by Andres Duque)

The April 15th Rashawn Brazell Memorial March was a success in more ways than one. In addition to showing the NYPD our determination to find justice for Rashawn, we also showed the press and the public that we are not willing to allow the case to be denied the visibility afforded to the white heterosexual women whose unfortunate murders have dominated the press.

The Advocate, the award-winning national LGBT news source, covered the march in their April 25th issue. The article, features quotes from co-founder Mervyn Marcano and marks the RBMF's first spot in a national magazine.

To view a scanned image of "Staying True to Rashawn", click here.

The march was also covered on Fox 5 New York. After the story aired, a link to RashawnBrazell.com was added to the website's "Viewer Information" section. At long last, the scholarship established to honor Rashawn's legacy was added to the area that had formely housed similar programs for white, straight murder victims Immette St. Guillen and Nicole DuFresne.

To view the listing, visit the "Viewer Information" page of the Fox 5 News website and click on Rashawn Brazell Fund.

The march was also attended and reviewed by several New York area bloggers, activists and photographers. Check out the following sites for original photography and more!
Ocean Morisette (41 photo slideshow), Donald Agarrat (24 image photoset), Andres Duque (139 pictures), whose noteworthy blog entry can be read here, and Taylor Siluwe (28 pictures).

The RBMF would like to thank The Advocate, Fox 5 News, Andres, Donald, Ocean and Taylor for the crucial work they have played and continue to play in keeping the story alive in the hearts and minds of the community at large.

Coming Events

2006-06-02T17:01:00.000-04:00

ART & ACTIVISM: Contemporary LGBT Arts and Protest
State of Politics and Activism in the Black LGBT/SGL Community
Tuesday, June 13, 2006, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
The first of two programs co-sponsored by the Schomburg Center’s Black Gay and Lesbian Archive will focus on political activity within the black same gender loving community over the past 30 years. Currently, politically active LGBT/SGL activists of African descent are a mix of seasoned and new thinkers, engaging a range of issues including marriage equality, homophobia in the black church, and hate crimes, among other issues. Panelists include Samiya Bashir (The Right to Marry Campaign), Larry D. Lyons, II (Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund), Kevin McGruder (Gay Men of African Descent), and others. For more information on LGBT programs throughout the month of June see the Art & Activism website.

Lebron James and the Cult of Black Masculinity

2006-05-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

What follows is a recent email exchange that took place on the listserv for Princeton's Black Men's Awareness Group, of which I am a member.

From: "Brother Benjamin"
Sent: Saturday, May 6, 2006 12:13 pm
To: blackmen@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Reeeal Suspect pic of Lebron
http://espn-att.starwave.com/photo/2006/0505/nba_a_lebron_412.jpg

From: Larry D Lyons (ldlyons@Princeton.EDU)"
To: blackmen@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: Reeeal Suspect pic of Lebron

yay! a continuation of our community's homophobic witch hunts!
I'll alert Bishop Eddie Long. He loves these, too!

From: “Brother Jeremy”
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2006 8:33 pm
To: blackmen@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: Reeeal Suspect pic of Lebron

lol, great pic Ben, that shit is hella funny.......who's Bishop Eddie Long?

From: “Brother David”
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2006 11:14 pm
To: blackmen@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: Reeeal Suspect pic of Lebron

Eddie Long is a black minister from Atlanta who has been seen as a type of black poster child for Bush's faith-based initiatives...also one of the most vocal opponents of the gay rights struggle, whether it be adoption rights or the right to marry. When I first got the email, I felt the photo was just a continuation of our tongue and cheek banter about the playoffs (which was definitely Ben's thinking I'm sure), but after hearing the seniors speak about being true to yourself at departing words, it makes me feel wrong to ignore the fact that some may have been offended.

From: Larry D Lyons (ldlyons@Princeton.EDU)"
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12:57 pm
To: blackmen@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: Reeeal Suspect pic of Lebron

Thanks David. To be sure, Eddie Long's intolerance of gays doesn't end with the right to adopt or marry. He's a key player in the black church's ongoing mockery and demonization of its non-heterosexual congregants (see also: Bishop Alfred E. Owens recent tirade against "sissies"). I interject their names here to draw a comparison between the implications Brother Benjamin's (surely lighthearted) email and the grave and unsettling homophobia that propels the sermons of Long and Owens. Unfortunately, linking the two is not such a stretch.

We know what "suspect" means. Suspicious. This picture makes us "reeeal" suspicious of something. That something is Lebron's masculinity. Men don't embrace. Men don't exhibit affection for other men. Not reeeal men. Reeeal men conform to the accepted strictures of gender. Any departure from these strictures render them "suspect" -- of questionable masculinity and/or sexuality.

Although we know that Lebron's gaze is this picture is the furthest thing from lustful or romantic, we still circulate the photo under the label of "suspect". Why? To fulfill our important role in endorsing and perpetuating a certain [stereo]type of [Black] masculinity.

These kinds of emails are a valued weapon in the fight against effeminacy, which is invariably (and problematically) linked with homosexuality. We do not want our men to be women. We do not want our men to be gay. These things are deplorable. So, regularly (and often under the guise of lighthearted derision) we send out these little reminders with a subtext that reads: "There are important social penalties for transgressing the established standards of masculinity" --or, more simply -- "Don't be a fag".

So, Brother Benjamin's email does some important work for our community. It exalts a standard of masculinity that stigmatizes a wide range of expression including camaraderie, platonic affection and jubilation by coding each as feminine. Simultaneously, it reminds "feminine" and non-heterosexual males that they are not men, perhaps not even human and certainly not welcome. This message is enveloped in a defense that reads: "I didn't mean it that way" -or- "It was just a joke", and the work is done. The cult of black masculinity is reified and its minion is protected by the ostensible jest of his intentions.

Bishops Long and Owens do it on the pulpit and we replicate it in our emails. Wittingly or unwittingly, the game remains the same, and our silence is all that is required to ensure that the homophobic witch hunt continue, unchecked.

in love,
Larry

Sex and Politics: A Sex-Positive Inquiry

2006-05-08T12:29:00.000-04:00

Under the title of "XXX Political Campaign," rod 2.0 beta reports:
"London's sole gay, black councillor loses his seat in a bizaare political campaign that focused on an XXX M4M personal ad. Charles Anglin, the former Liberal Democratic councillor in Lambeth, south London (think: London Eye) says he was a victim of homophobia and hypocrisy.

In late March, the tabloid South London Press led with revelations about Councillor Anglin's profile on Gaydar. The article claimed that Anglin has "posed naked on a website, handling his private parts and revealing his sexual fantasies". The article also said that the councillor "has boasted of his sexual prowess on the website and revealed he gets an erotic kick wrestling other men."

Anglin never denied the Gaydar profile:"This is my private life and I don't see what the fuss is about." But his nude personal ad became the focus of the election. In the words of one opponent: "Posing naked on a website is surprising conduct for an elected representative." As much as we love a good wrestling match, alas, we'd have to agree."

"Patrick S" comments: This is a great story. True, its his personal business but if you're elected to office, you have to be discreet. Just because he's gay doesn't make it any diffrent. We wouldn't want a straight male or female politician posting an xxx personal ad.

Larry D. Lyons II responds:
I disagree. How many sex scandals need to hit the press before we realize that the problem is not that an ever-growing group of people in the public eye do nasty things, but that the public requires and vigilantly enforces the asexuality of its political figures? To be clear: LarryLy would sooner take issue with folks who aim to sweep the dirty dirty spectre of sexuality under the rug and out of the public eye than endorse the censure of those folks who bravely resist the sublimation and vilification of their sexual identity.

The question:
Why wouldn't we want a politician posting a "risque" personal ad?

Is it the ad?
What might it be about a politican's desire for affection or love or sex that renders them less capable or qualified to do their job? Why does this glimpse into the fullness of their humanity make "us" uncomfortable? Does the desire to be desired signify a vulnerability that we'd like to believe ceases to exist once one is elected to office? Does the visibility of a politician's quest for companionship remind us that elected officials can never be the superhuman eunuchs that "we" so need them to be? Are we resistant to these pseudo-icons being humanized to the point that we might actaully see in them those things which we [have been taught to] despise within ourselves (i.e. a desire for validation, a sexual apetite)? I don't want to psychologize irresponsibly here... but I am interested in the hypocrisy that refuses politicians access to the means of connecting to one another that the rest of us enjoy.

Is it the nudity?
Is there something particularly offensive or dangerous about the nudity of a politician? What aspect of our conditioning makes it harder to trust the prudence of someone we've seen naked? What narratives about sexuality and the body lead us to believe that it is inappropriate for someone in a position of power to exhibit some agency in the formation of their sexual identity? How has this stigmatization of the nude and/or sexualized body proven problematic in the past?

There are a million thoughts swirling about in my head:
Are we learning anything from the lessons we've been getting about the consequences of repressing sexuality from the Catholic church (and its altar boys)?

Arnold Schwarzenegger was nothing if not sexualized before he became Governor of California. But if i recall correctly, people had more of a problem with him being an actor than with him being a sexual being. Luckily for Arnie, he'd (ostensibly) tamed his infamous libido and gotten married before he made his bid for governor... because it seems that being young and openly single presents a particular type of danger.

But Anglin doesn't enjoy the luxury of being white, married, straight, conservative or ashamed. So, if Patrick is correct, the public does not permit even its straight politicos to decide for themselves what is appropriate and what is not. It would be outlandish, then, to expect that a black gay single man who's confortable in his skin might be evaluated solely on the basis of his qualifications and acumen rather than all-too salacious information about his prowess.

For me, it boils down to this: there are significant penalties designated for a black gay man who exhibits his body on the internet (particularly for the puposes of finding companionship or sex). For obvious reasons, this is an disqueting reality for your boy LarryLy.

Justice for Rashawn: SATURDAY

2006-04-11T18:47:00.000-04:00

Rashawn Brazell Memorial March - April 15, 2006
From Nostrand Avenue Station stop (at Fulton and Nostrand)
To the 79th Precinct (263 Tompkins Avenue Brooklyn)

When the NYPD investigated the murders of Immette St. Guillen and Nicole DuFresne, they left no stone unturned. Each case was afforded an appropriate amount of resources from the department. Desire Brazell has one simple question: Why should the investigation of her son's murder be treated any differently?

On Saturday, April 15, Desire will demand an answer from the NYPD's 79th precinct.

The Rashawn Brazell Memorial March will begin at the Nostrand Avenue station stop at 12pm. The procession to the 79th precinct station house will begin at 1pm. There, Mrs. Brazell, along with invited guests, will demand that the police devote the maximum amount of resources available to the year-old investigation her son's murder.

Scheduled Speakers:
Eric Adams, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care
Letitia James, Council Member – District 35
Hameed (Herukhuti) S. Williams, Ph.D., M.Ed.

and later that night...

A PARTY CELEBRATING RASHAWN'S LIFE!

April 15th marks what would have been Rashawn's 21st birthday. Join us as we gather to celebrate his life and his legacy. Restless Produxns will host one of their legendary "Sweet Sessions" fundraisers to benefit the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund.

We would love it if you came out.

Venue: Nightingales (2nd Avenue at 13th Street)

Time: 9pm-2am

While the cover is a mere $5, attendees are encouraged to give as generously as they can. All proceeds will support the college education of NYC high school student committed to the fight against racism, sexism and homophobia.

Note: This is a 21+ event. Please bring proper identification.

For more information about the party, follow this link.

on karma

2006-03-31T19:28:00.000-05:00

When overspread by extreme vice --like a tree by a vine-- you do to yourself what an enemy would wish. -Dhammapada, 12

Don't you understand (man) universal law? What you throw out comes back to you, star. -Lauryn Hill, "Lost Ones"

Flashback. Senior year of undergrad. For the first time in my tenure at Rutgers, I was sharing a classroom with a number of my closest friends. We were all enrolled in a discussion seminar whose the purpose was to provide support for us during every stage of the writing of our honors theses. Generally, the class took a conversational tone, allowing us to converse easily about the progress we'd made in our research and the challenges that we faced.

True to form, I imagined myself to be at the head of the class. I'd already completed a 10-week summer research program at a prestigious university and worked with a faculty member to generate the 20-paged critical essay that was to serve as the first chapter of my thesis. All that to say - I was further along in the process than most of my peers.

So, when presentation day rolled around, I was fairly confident that my research would be more developed and polished than that of my peers. This was a good thing, as presentation day -with its goal of preparing us for the crticisms that might be issued when we actually defended our theses to the public- carried with it fears of embarrasment and public humiliation. Presentation day provided the more sadistic amongst us with a guilty pleasure, allowing us to harp upon the shortcomings or short-sightedness of another's project under the innocuous guise of playing devil's advocate. In no uncertain terms, it was an opportunity to be mean.

I leaned back in my chair to see what my less-studious peers would come up with. Before long, it became clear to me that less-studious was an understatement. "Is she serious? How ridiculously broad is that topic?" "Lord, if another student of color proposes a project about perceptions of race..." Self-satisfied and judgmental, I was less than impressed with the work of my peers. I kept my thoughts to myself, though. They needed the help of professionals, and I had my own presentation to worry about.

As my turn neared, my emotional climate changed dramatically. Though I'd prepared extensively, I was wrought with doubt. "What if they ask me about a text I hadn't read? What if there was some gaping oversight that I couldn't explain? What if I stuttered? My heart raced. Palms sweated. Hands shook.

Though my presentation evinced a polished project, it also showed that I myself was a mess.

Years later, I'd come to realize that this was a lesson in karmic energy. You see, some believe that karma is a force that's "out to get you". "Karma's a bitch" or "karma will get you back tenfold", they say.

Not so.

I've learned that karma is the universe's way of bringing you face to face with the energy you've put out. Karma is not a bitch and karma is not punitive. In this situation, karma saw to it that I should have a fuller understanding of the ramifications of my self-satisfied and mean-spirited regard for the work of my peers.

Although I had every reason to be confident with my presentation, I was terrorized by the thought that someone might critique me in a spirit of cattiness or with an air of superiority. And how did this image of judgement enter into my sphere of possibility? How did it breach the boundaries of my imagination? Why, because I knew that there was at least one person in the room capable of generating that energy! Someone arrogant enough to silently belittle my work while I struggled to communicate my thoughts. That person was me.

Quite simply, my spirit was shaked when it was confronted by the ghost of my own negativity. I simply could not handle the energy that I myself had created.

I am quite confident that had I not created and released into the universe so much spite and dismissal, the preoccupation with being judged too harshly by my peers with would have never entered my mind. On that day, I got the first whiff of my own toxic energy and, reader, believe me when I say it tore me up.

A lesson learned. Since then, I've endeavored to generate only the kind of energy that I wouldn't mind returning to me. Present unto the universe that which I would have the universe present unto me.

RBMF: Help Wanted

2006-03-30T01:54:00.000-05:00

Though immeasurably edified by the work we do, we at the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund are nonetheless aware of our limitations. As we endeavor to strengthen our initiatives and fundraise for our annual scholarship, we realize that we simply can not do it alone.

To this end, we are currently searching for 2 volunteers to serve in the following capacities:
-Organizational Liaison
-Programs Associate

If any of the following job descriptions are of interest to you, and you can commit 8-10 hours of your week to this important work, we encourage you to e-mail the co-founders at info@rashawnbrazell.com today.

The Organizational Liaison will be responsible for furthering our coalition building efforts and liaising regularly with our community partners. Fulfilling this position requires plenty of e-mail correspondance and may occasionally necessitate attendance at meetings (1-2 per month, max). For this reason, it would be ideal for him/her to reside in NYC or NJ.

He/she should possess strong oral, written and interpersonal skills. Familiarity with the NYC and national non-profit scene is a plus.

The Programs Associate will assist in coordinating the execution of our scholarship program and initiatives. This may include (but is not limited to) working with our community partners to solicit applications for the memorial scholarship and assisting in planning events (annual awards banquet, Brighter Days parties, external fundraisers, etc).

Excellent oral, written and interpersonal skills are necessary. Though not essential, it would be helpful to reside in the NYC area, have some experience in event planning or fundraising and/or be familiar with the NYC non-profit scene.

On the New York Post Article: A Message from the RBMF

2006-03-23T10:28:00.000-05:00

As you folks already know, my involvement in the organizing around the murder and dismemberment of 19-year old Rashawn Brazell began right here on this very blog. Indeed, much has transpired since my initial entry about the case. Since Mervyn and I founded the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund last year, there have been plenty of successes and not a few disappointments. What follows is a glimpse into the most recent evidence of the dubious tactics of the NYPD and the insensitivity of the press to this murder. Check out the news blog on RashawnBrazell.com for more information.

This Monday, the New York Post ran a story on a "new lead" in the investigation into Rashawn Brazell's murder under the tasteless title "GAY BEAU SOUGHT IN BODY-CHOP SLAY". Because the RBMF shoulders the responsibilty of monitoring the case, as well as the coverage of his life and murder, we thought it was important to respond to what we see as poor journalism.

It comes as no surprise to those who follow Rashawn's story, and most New Yorkers for that matter, that the New York Post chose such a sensational title for its story. By now, our frustration with the way the Post treats subjects who stand at the intersection of marginal identities has become commonplace. Are men who are suspected of murdering their girlfriends identified as straight in the headlines accompanying their stories? Of course not, but the Post keeps its circulation numbers up by concocting salacious headlines that normalize racism and homophobia.

Because we are all too aware that many similar stories never get discussed in a newsroom, we remain encouraged that Rashawn's case still garners some coverage. But we must ask, why now? It is clear to us and to Desire Brazell, Rashawn's mother, that this information is not new. In fact, the police were told about the man in question within weeks of Rashawn's dissapearance last year. Surely, the police must have wanted to bring the man in for questioning at the time Rashawn's body was found. If not, that would highlight, at the very least, a serious lapse in judgment, if not responsibility, on the NYPD's end.

We also know that Ms. Brazell is planning a march on Rashawn's birthday (April 15) to the 79th precinct station house to demand answers about her son's murder. The police have asked her to cancel her march. To us, it seems all too convenient that the police would suddenly have a lead that necessitated communication with the New York Post, and not the mother of the victim. While that lead may be new to the reporter and the Post, it is all too old for Ms. Brazell and indeed the NYPD.

This leaves us with many questions and not too many answers. We at the RBMF, along with all of you who have taken an active interest in Rashawn's case, are committed to ensuring his story is told in the most straightforward and accurate manner. We also hope that the police are keeping their priorities in order and that they are not engaging in stealth PR tactics, which only serve to bolster the NYPD's cracking facade. As the cases of Immette St. Guillen and Nicole DuFresne received the appropriate amount of resources from the NYPD, we demand the same for the case of our brother, Rashawn.

Larry Lyons & Mervyn Marcano
Founders, RBMF

My first video

2006-02-25T18:25:00.000-05:00

goodbye.

2005-09-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

thursday, september 15 marks my blogiversary. that's right, folks: 365 days of the larry lyons experience have come and gone.

it's been quite a year, and this blog has seen me through hell and high water... first-year grad school angst, losing rashawn brazell, uniting to honor his memory, interrogating organized religion, my maiden voyage into photography and more soul-bearing self-exploration than you can shake a stick at.

through it all, this blog has provided me with the space to heal and to mourn and to rant and to pose and to laugh more than i could have ever imagined. if i have any semblance of sanity after these 12 months, it's because you folks were kind enough to tolerate my ego, my exhibitionism, my insecurities and my blasphemy long enough to leave a few comments and make a brutha feel like someone cared. and i appreciate that. i do.

so, in celebration of my 1 year blogiversary, i give myself the gift of indefinite hiatus.

i'm not sure if or when i'll be back, or in what form, but i am sure that i could use some time alone with my thoughts. in the meantime, i invite you to peruse the archives. there are plenty of treasures there, if i do say so myself.

catch you on the flipside.
~L

Eyewitness Report from New Orleans

2005-09-08T20:04:00.000-04:00

On Saturday September 3, award-winning filmmaker Gloria La Riva, internationally-acclaimed photographer Bill Hackwell and A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth & Student Coordinator Caneisha Mills, a senior at Howard University, arrived in New Orleans.
The following is an eyewitness report of the crisis in the area written on Sunday, September 4.

Algiers
While 80 percent of New Orleans was submerged in water, Algiers is one of the few districts that have been spared the worst of the flooding as it sits higher than most of the city. An historic district established in 1719, Algiers is on the west bank of the Mississippi river, across from the French Quarter. Probably 15% of the residents still remain behind, most of them determined to stay in their homes. The majority of homes are still intact, although many have suffered damage. While their houses survived, the peoples’ chance of survival seemed very bleak since there was no electricity or disbursement of food, water or other supplies.

We arrived in the Algiers district of New Orleans after getting through seven checkpoints. We quickly learned that the current media reports that relief and aid have finally arrived to New Orleans are as false as all earlier reports that also had as their origin government sources. The people in the Algiers area have received nothing or next to nothing since the Hurricane struck. Left without any way to escape, people are now struggling to survive in the aftermath. Now they are being told they have to abandon their homes, even though they want to stay. They are not being given what they need to stay and survive, and are being told they must leave.
“Imagine being in a city, poor, without any money and all of a sudden you are told to leave and you don’t even have a bicycle,” stated Malik Rahim, a community activist in the Algiers section of New Orleans. “90% of the people don’t even have cars.”

One woman told us it was not possible for her to evacuate. She said, “I can’t leave. I don’t have a car and I have nine children.” She and her husband are getting by with the help of several men in the community who are joining resources to provide for their neighbors.

The government claims that people can get water, but residents have to travel at least 17 miles to the nearest water and ice distribution center. Only one case of water is available per family. Countless people have no way to drive.

While the government is touting the deployment of personnel to the area, there is a huge military and police presence but none of it to provide services. All of them, north and south of the river, are stationed in front of private buildings and abandoned stores, protecting private property.

The goods that the government personnel are bringing in are for their own forces. They are not distributing provisions to people who desperately need them.

Not one of them has delivered water to Algiers or gone to the houses to see if sick or elderly people need help. There is no door-to-door survey to see who was injured.

The overwhelming majority of people who have stayed in Algiers are Black but some are white. One man in his late 50s in Algiers pointed across the street to a 10-acre grassy lot. It looks like a beautiful park. He said, “I had my daughter call FEMA. I told them I want to donate this land to the people in need. They could set up 100 tractor trailers with aid, they could set up tents. No one has ever called me back.” He is clearly angry.

Although some of the residents do express fear of burglaries into houses, acts of heroism, sacrifice and solidarity are evident everywhere.

Steve, a white man in his 40s, knocks on Malik’s front door. He tells us, “Malik has kept this neighborhood together. We don’t know what we’d do without his help.” He has come in because he needs to use the phone. Malik’s street is the only one with phones still working.
Malik and three of his friends have been delivering food, water and ice to those in need three times a day, searching everywhere for goods.

There is a strong suspicion among the residents that the government has another agenda in the deliberately forced removal of people from Algiers, even though this particular neighborhood is not under water and is intact.

Algiers is full of quaint, historic French-style houses, with a high real estate value, and the residents know that the government and real estate forces would like to lay their hands on their neighborhood to push forward gentrification which is already evident.

---

To read the full article, including reports on Downtown New Orleans, New Orleans International Airport and Baton Rouge, click here.

To read Malik Rahim's article "This is Criminal", click here.

To take action, click here to tell Bush and Congress to accept Cuba's offer to send medical personnel.

Brighter Days made for a Stellar Night

2005-08-31T11:01:00.000-04:00

10,000 thank yous to everyone who came out to support "Brighter Days", the official launch party for the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship Fund. In addition to generating over two thousand dollars through on-site and online donations, the event allowed us to celebrate life in the way Rashawn was known to: dancing the night away at Luke & Leroy!

A special thanks to L&L owner/operator Dino, who was kind enough to pay us a visit and wish us well in our fundraising.

The RBMS banner. Standing at 78" tall and designed by yours truly, this banner greeted everyone who attended Sunday's event. It heralds the RMBS motto "Fostering diversity, creating change", and will surely be seen again.

It wouldn't be a "7" Sunday without these recognizable L&L icons: host Nathan "7" Scott and buffed, bronzed and braided bartender Chris.

Host Larry D. Lyons II sweats through his second outfit of the evening. But take note: these outfit changes do more than evince his divadom or animated dancefloor antics: they pay tribute to Rashawn.

Handcrafted by designer Alicia Piller, this is a tee with a message. She painstakenly created the design by replicating the words "Remembering Rashawn" hundreds of times in our trademark brown and pink colours. See more of her work here.

Some folks were too timid to ascend the flight of stairs to the dancefloor, where Amerie's "One Thing" quickly became the evening's anthem. We let them be.

Host Steven G. Fullwood models the limited edition RBMS tee, Kenyon Farrow -not to be outdone- models his highly coveted manpurse.

Thanks to the masterful photo imaging of Ocean Morriset, attendees were able to see the face of the handsome young man we'd gathered to pay tribute to.

Taking a break from dancing, blogger ShawnQt reads up on the scholarship fund.

DJ Shuji spins house and classics like a madman. A special thanks to Shuji for donating his services to our cause, and for accodating our requests to spin that hot Vivian Green joint not once but twice!

Most memorable moments:

1. When a certain host marched up the stairs with a limbo stick in hand. This was a scandal waiting to happen. (Needless to say, I was the first to oblige.)

2. When Rashawn's parents and sisters stormed the dancefloor and "got low", giving the bloggers a run for their money.

Feel free to add your own memorable moments!

Attack of the Praya-Haters

2005-08-29T11:54:00.000-04:00

The New Internatonal Urban Bible (NUIB) paraphrases the deceptively un-Christian motto, "love the sinner, hate the sin"

Back by [un]popular demand, it's my boy Jesus Christ. Apparantly, folks can't seem to get enough of my commentary on the radical right's mis-use of the big guy's name. If you haven't heard the buzz, check out my earlier posts about 10,000Jesuses.com, a group that intervenes in American public discourse by challenging the "hijacking of Christian terminology and thought by institutions on the far right of the political spectrum".

As recently as this morning, comments were still pouring in to respond to the January 20th post. Of the many [less than compelling] arguments "Erik Nethken" presented, three were particularly noteworthy. Let's examine them together, shall we?

Argument 1: Peter's Sword

Larry, to protest Bush and policy with statements like "[Jesus] never owned an M16" is completely idiotic. Jesus was not a mere mortal man in a man's army, a police officer or working in any other such capacity. The Apostle Peter carried a sword as a disciple, the modern equivalent to carrying a gun everywhere you go.

Erik: Although I've never seen the then-to-now artillery conversion scale that you use to liken a sword to an M16, let's set that aside for a moment to get to the larger issue. The "10,000 Jesus" protesters were not holding signs that asked "What would Apostle Peter Do?". Peter's example was not the focus of the demonstration, and I don't imagine that it should have been, considering his fraught biblical legacy. Surely, you are a much more learned biblical scholar than I, so you know that in addition to his sword wielding antics, Peter is also known as one of the two men that sinned against Jesus (the other being Judas). Having denied Jesus on not one, not two, but three occasions (Mark 14:66-72), Peter's biblical legacy is hardly untarnished. In fact, even conservative theologians have drawn paralells between these two offenders and the lowly theives that become cross-mates with Jesus.

"All the disciples sinned against Jesus in one form or another. Among the disciples, two figures are especially important -- Judas and Peter. Judas betrayed Jesus and Peter disowned him. They are similar to two other figures in the drama of Jesus death -- the two thieves [that are crucified alongside Jesus]. "
- Rev. Robert J. Saunders (enemy of "liberalism")

Details of who forgave whom notwithstanding, it's clear that Peter's example needn't be the rock upon which we build our moral character, much less our weapons policies. After all, he's a sinner. Jesus wasn't.

If, in the course of your biblical studies, you discover that Jesus carried a pocket knife or or even a stone that he planned to cast (whose "modern day equivalent", using your handy-dandy conversion scale, must surely be an atomic bomb), do inform the rest of the class. If you can locate a single instance where the blessed messiah advocated any type of violence against his assailants (Caiaphas, Pilate, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, Judas, anyone), be sure to let us all know.

Argument 2: Trigger-happy Democracy

"If it wasn't for people like Bush or millions of others owning and using their M16's you would not have the freedom you have to "blog" all over the internet."

Let's be clear: Neither Bush nor the white-collar upper class men to whom he cateers have ever operated an M16. (How many congress members have a child actively enlisted in the military?)They "protect my precious freedoms" by exploiting marginalized folks both here and abroad. Further, though it is true that it's been a longstanding policy in America, I don't imagine violence to be the only way to protect one's rights. Somehow, I think we'd manage to fend off chaos and anarchy without the assult riffles that you love so well. Perhaps better.

Argument 3: The LovingHating God

"And yes God loves you Larry. God also loves homosexuals – but hates homosexuality. "

Come on down folks, it's time for your favorite show "The LovingHating God"! *cue theme music* Please give a warm welcome our host, your favorite wrathful patriarch and mine, The Notorious G-O-D!! *uproarious applause* Stay tuned as our heavenly host demonstrates how it's perfectly possible to be love and to experience hate. But first, a word from our sponsor.

I don't do this, Erik, to blaspheme your god. I do this to demonstrate the fundamental disparity between how you and I cognize the Divine. You believe that God is a willed being. I do not. You believe that God is capable of hating. I do not. I believe that God is love. You do not. Your God can simultaneously embody love and experience (and condone) hate. Mine can not. Hate, in any form, is antithetical to the essence of the Divine as I have experienced it. This, my friend, is where you and I differ.

Mind you, I'm not saying that either of us is right, per se. I only identify that the LovingHating God, with all of His wrath and jealousy and patriarchial attitudes, has been known to be inspire and cultivate hatred, condone war, promote socioeconomic disparity and nourish illegitimate hierarchies. That's all I'm saying. And thanks for tuning in to the Larry Lyons Experience.

"Brighter Days" nearing.

2005-08-26T19:19:00.000-04:00

What do the following bloggers have in common?

GlenlivetWigglesworth

ProcrastinationXtravaganza

they'll all be there.
will you?

Join us on Sunday for "Brighter Days", the official launch party for the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship.

While you're there, pick up your limited edition RBMS tee-shirt.

For a mere $15, you can show your support for the fight against racism and homophobia with this one-of-a-kind Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship tee.

Over 1/4 of our supply of shirts have already been sold through pre-order. Reserve yours today with hosts Larry D. Lyons II or Glenlivet Wigglesworth. 100% of proceeds go directly to our first scholarship recipient.

How You Can Help:

2005-08-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

Q: How can I make a tax-deductible donation to the fund online?
A: Visit the North Star Fund’s secure online donation site by clicking here.
· Enter a donation amount between $5 and $10,000.
· Enter “Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund” as the recipient’s name.
· Enter RBScholars@aol.com as the recipient’s e-mail.
· Click the “donate” button

These steps are essential to ensure that your donation goes directly to the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship Fund. Note: you have the option of making monthly, quarterly or annual donations as well as making corporate or matching gifts. You also reserve the right to make only as much information available to the charity as you’d like.

Upon the completion of the transaction, a page will be displayed certifying that you have made a charitable donation, tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. This page may be printed and used for federal tax purposes.

Q: Are there other ways to make donations?
A: Of course. You have the option of donating in person at the Brighter Days benefit party. You may also send checks directly to the fund’s mailing address.
The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship Fund
P.O. Box 211
New York, New York 10037-9998
To receive a receipt for your donation, kindly enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Q: How do I go about nominating students for this scholarship?
A: Although the RBMS does not solicit nominations, per se, we do encourage you to inform qualified students about the scholarship. Application forms will be available in PDF form on the RashawnBrazell.com website this fall. We also aim to make printed forms available in most New York City high schools.

If you are personally familiar with the student’s qualifications, you may consider providing a letter of recommendation to accompany the student’s application.

Q: Is there anything I can do to help out with the “Brighter Days” event?
A: Certainly! In addition to circulating word about the event amongst friends, co-workers and family through blogs, e-mails, listservs, etc. you can also e-mail RBScholars@aol.com to get involved in our flyering efforts.

Do you party at the Playground? Dine at Day-Os? Work at a CBO? Attend weekly or monthly gatherings of folks affected by the rise in racist and homophobic violence? If so, we could use your help.

Any place that we gather; any place where you think Rashawn’s story should be shared is an ideal place to distribute flyers. Rather than leaving stacks of flyers to go unnoticed, we are placing each of our 2,500 flyers into the hands of a potential supporter of the cause. If you have a particular venue or gathering in mind or if you just want to be notified of where we plan to be, e-mail us today and get involved!

Celebrate Life

2005-08-10T12:13:00.000-04:00

You're Invited: the RBMS launch party
Join us on Sunday, August 28th as we celebrate the life and legacy of our brother and friend Rashawn Brazell. Between six pm and midnight Luke and Leroy, one of Rashawn’s favorite places to party, will proudly host “Brighter Days”, the official launch party for the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship. The requested donation is a mere ten dollars, every cent of which will be used to support the college education of a New York City student committed to the fight against racism, sexism and homophobia.

flyer design: larry d. lyons II

Interested in helping to get the word out about the event? Contact us at RBScholars@aol.com to receive print flyers to distribute at your office, organization or amongst interested friends. We can coordinate a convenient drop-off or pick-up in most parts of NJ and NYC. Also, copies of the flyer are stored (in jpeg form) in the file section of the Rashawn Brazell Collective yahoo group. Download them now by clicking here to share them on your blog, listserv, website or direct e-mail. You may also e-mail RBScholars@aol.com to have the jpeg sent directly to you.

About the Scholarship
The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship was established in the wake of the brutal slaying of 19-year-old Rashawn Brazell, whose February 2005 murder touched many in the black gay community and beyond. The scholarship aims to provide a sustainable tribute to Rashawn by encouraging New York City high schoolers to think critically about the impact of intolerance and violence on our communities. Selection for this need-sensitive scholarship will be based on the student’s investment in the struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of oppression, as well as their commitment to creating peace in the community by affirming diversity.

logo design: ShawnQT

The scholarship will be hosted at The North Star Fund. Founded in 1979, North Star is a unique partnership of donors and community activists dedicated to building a permanent institutional and financial base for progressive social change. Each year North Star funds cutting-edge groups who are dynamic and daring in their approach. The RBMS is proud to be one such group.

For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation, contact:
The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship Fund
P.O. Box 211
New York, New York 10037-9998
E-mail: RBScholars@aol.com
Fax/E-mail: 206-339-5449

Blog Infiltrators Revive Jesus: The Difference Between Christ and Christian

2005-08-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the most misunderstood brown man in America.

It is an interesting time to be Larry Lyons. Recently, I've experienced an suspicious influx of responses to my satirically titled January 20th post, "Jesus Appears at Inaugural Ceremony". In it, I call attention to the wonderfully creative and subversive organizing of 10000jesuses.org, a group that intervenes in America's public discourse by challenging the "hijacking of Christian terminology and thought by institutions on the far right of the political spectrum". Essentially, the group draws attention to the blasphemy and hypocrisy that inhere the invocations of Jesus' name as a means to support fundamentalist agendas, highlighting the very poignant distinction between the example of Christ and Christianity itself.

Why did I blog about it? The November 2004 elections reminded me just how prominently faith figures into the American political system. Surely, the injudicious dichotomy of republican=religious, democrat=irreverent hedonist played a considerable part in the outcome of the election. It appears that nothing invigorates voters like talk of fire, brimstone and the cautionary tale about the dangers of moral slippage that echoes throughout every single election campaign. Too frequently, the "return to the trusty moral standards upon which this mighty nation was built" equates to a return to a mythical edenic state where the hegemony of Christianity is sovereign and uncontested. How's that for the land of the free?

The work of groups like 10,000 Jesuses is essential in that, true to its name, it democratizes Jesus. Jesus is not the exclusive possession of the religious right. In fact, if Jesus' message meshes with the platform any partisan group at all, it is with those of us who rally for a greater distribution of wealth, more peaceable means of addressing conflict and compassionate treatment of the less fortunate. Now, that's the Jesus I know and love.

Which brings me back to this recent influx of responses. I don't know how these conspicuously anonymous folks have found their way to my blog (particularly to a blog entry that is now SEVEN months old). What I do know is that, true to form, they've missed the point of the entry altogether and used my comment section for their grammatically-challenged prayers, confessions, judgments and damnations.

For example, one anonymous poster writes: "God loves us all more deeply than we can imagine, but it doesn't mean that we can believe anything we want and still be correct, nor can we behave any way we want and still be physically, spiritually and emotionally healthy."

I don't disagree with you, kindred. We can not behave any way we want and expect to maintain our health. We can not bomb poverty-stricken developing countries and amass our wealth through self-interested profiteering. We can not ensure tax cuts for the upper class while cutting healthcare and educational programs for the poor. And this is precisely what the folks at 10,000 Jesuses are saying, verbatim.

But perhaps you were talking about me in particular. Perhaps the gender of the person I share my life with is of greater importance than all of this. Perhaps the exploitation of entire nations pales in comparison to the gender of the person that Larry Lyons loves. If this is the case, then it's clear that you do not believe that God is Love. If you did, you would understand that any manifestation of Love is a manifestation of the Divine, and that anyone that desires to police, invalidate and vilify such manifestations of love are contradicting the fundamental essence of the God of Love.

If this be the case, all I can offer is an old quote of mine:
"You create your own reality - the conditions of your own suffering and the means for your own liberation. Consequently, you are subject to the God that you cognize - the God that you create. Show me a god who hates his own children - who sanctions bloodshed, endorses war and requites his displeasure with wrath, and I'll show you the man-made God of a defective and terroristic theology."

In short, you and I do not serve the same God. Your God has been made in the image of man: jealous, wrathful, hierarchal and gendered. This God looks entirely too much like man to serve as my supreme being and central pillar of my faith. For me, yours has been a terroristic theology and it has failed to affirm the beauty, complexity and precariousness of the universe as I have experienced it.

But hey, that's just me. I won't knock your hustle. I won't come to your blog and post anonymously about seven-month-old topics, overlooking the value of the affirmingly transgressive work that's being done in order to articulate a threadbare and antiquated theology. And do you know why? Because I know where you're coming from. I served several years in Christianity and I know that you're just acting on what you've been taught. Some well-intentioned man has used some well-intentioned scripture to convince you that it is your moral obligation to save wayward and resistant sheep like myself. And, sweet sweet you - you are trying to oblige. Earn your wings. Get your halo. Do your job. Fulfill your Christian duties by witnessing here in cyberspace about His goodness and His mercy. O, how your cup runneth over! Sweet sweet you. I understand your role because I spent about fourteen years of my life memorizing the lines. So, let me save you the frustration that is sure to ensue and give you the raw uncut right now: if salvation is laying prostrate before a jealous, wrathful, hierarchial, gendered god - I'll have none of it. None. However, if you play nice, I'll share with you how I managed to cultivate a heterodox brand of salvation that makes Christ himself proud.
.

Of course, I realize and affirm the fact that everyone has a right to believe and practice as they please. I use this blog to share my beliefs and practices with those who desire to hear them. Should you find yourself in disagreement with these beliefs and practices, by all means - engage me in dialogue about them. I caution you, however, that the lord of hosts will punish you with plagues, locusts and loathesome boils if you use my comment area as your personal soapbox for judgment and painfully flawed, invariably futile conversion attempts. It ain't gonna happ'n cap'n. Not on my watch. This is a safespace for the heterodox: those of us who believe differently. This is a space for dialogue and critical thought. There is absolutely no room and no tolerance for judgment and damnation.

self-criticism

2005-07-23T19:33:00.000-04:00

"Any time something is written against me, I not only share the sentiment but feel I could do the job far better myself. Perhaps I should advise would-be enemies to send me their grievances beforehand, with full assurance that they will receive my every aid and support. I have even secretly longed to write, under a pen name, a merciless tirade against myself."

Jorge Luis Borges, 1907

we are our own harshest and most unforgiving critics. why, even borges, the astoundingly brilliant writer and thinker admits to finding an unlikely kinship with his would-be enemies on the grounds of their shared interest in maligning the author's many flaws.

i can identify with borges, and i think you can, too. but as i sit here blogging about the author i should be annotating for my long-overdue paper, i offer this gem:

if i am going to be my own worst critic, i must -for the sake of my spiritual, physical and emotional well-being- agree to moonlight as my own cheerleader. my own forgiver. my own hero. my own supporter. if there is indeed a natural inclination to harp upon what i perceive to be my own inadequacies, i must counter this inclination with a resolute and unwavering agenda to love myself.

Flashback: Honoring the Sacred 03.16.02

2005-06-15T20:43:00.000-04:00

Detail view of the architecture of a window in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, erected between 1163-1345, is one of the most frequently referenced monuments of the gothic era. The stained glass, intricate woodwork, the lifelike Biblical figures and latter day saints are the epitome of gothic perfection. Visiting this sacred place was an interesting experience for several reasons… Being someone who has abandoned traditional ways of approaching the spiritual and enacting "religion," there will always be a bit of tension when approaching any monument with such an overwhelming religious overtone.

At an earlier time in my evolution, I would have attempted to comment only on the architectural value of the cathedral, reasoning that my heterodox position rendered its persona altogether inaccessible to me. Nowadays, however, I recognize but also interrogate the tension that exists. How does the Judeo-Christian tradition attempt to affirm its followers and discourage others? How do sacred relics and figures (the crucifix, the Virgin Mary) attempt to authenticate and define a spiritual tradition and simultaneously embody its precepts? What is alienating about my experience of observing their sacred practices?

What was most interesting to me was the dual function of the church. Not only was it a historicized site for communing with fellow believers, receiving the Word of God, and affirming one’s beliefs; it was equally invested in its role in Parisian tourism. Imagine this: there is a mass going on in the center of the cathedral – hundreds of people [appearing to be] engaged in the religious service. Meanwhile, hundreds more tourists circle about the outskirts of the mass, noisily taking snapshots… pointing, appraising, and wandering about with a wanton and haphazard disregard for the sacred.

For two Euros, (Europe’s new standard currency) they may light prayer candles or cross the velvet rope to kneel at the prayer-only pew. No signs instruct them to remain silent or abstain from flash photography during the service. Rather, the circle through the perimeter of the cathedral ends at the church's quaint (but seemingly inappropriate) gift shop. Suddenly, the domain of the sacred is commodified and the religious experience is grotesquely reduced to consumable trinkets of the marketplace.

The sound system is installed smartly, to overpower the too-loud conversations and carelessly irreverent footsteps of tourists. And I think there must have been a time earlier in the cathedral’s project to fuse religion and tourism when the priest was annoyed with the constant camera flashes or the unceasing drumming feet of non-believers during moments of silence.

And I wonder if I was to erect sacred place of worship to accommodate the community of heterodox spirit-led people… what rules would we adopt and which would we abandon? No non-believers allowed? No exchange of goods or services allowed? And how similar are these rule to those governing the sacred places of worship in biblical times? Hmmm… Did the high priests, pharaohs and Sadducees have things figured out, or are there more appropriate ways to go about creating the sacred?

About those images...

2005-06-03T20:02:00.000-04:00

voyeur

tension

Inspired by the work of Anthony Goicolea and Donald Andrew Agarrat, novice photographer Larry D. Lyons II uses digital imaging to stage tableaus of the intricate range of conflicts that compose his spiritual journey. Simultaneously erotic and volatile in nature, the orchestrated convergences and interactions of his various selves engender tense spiritual negotiations of estrangement and intimacy, alienation and community. His photographs interrogate and underminethe supposed divide between the self and the other and, consequently, the self and the divine. In the Ego Divine Series, Lyons also draws upon his fascination with the performativity of identity to parody performances of gender, class and sexuality.

stevie

you, bitch
Larry D. Lyons II, 24, is a Ph.D. candidate in Princeton University's department of English literature. His research centers on postmodern literature and spirituality.

Take Action: Lend a Hand

2005-05-30T23:58:00.000-04:00

Rashawn Brazell Collective
Key Developments and Action Items

7 Exciting Ways for You to Get Involved:
· Learn about the RBCPlanning listserv
· Attend the next RBC meeting
· Lend a hand at AVP’s posting events
· Submit your Rashawn-inspired art to our exhibition
· Join a Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship committee
· Contact a vendor to donate goods/services to the fundraising auction
· Become our vendor liaison

New Listserv
The Rashawn Brazell Collective has created a separate listserv for members committed to attending monthly meetings and being active on a committee. Through this action we aim to:
· Reduce the number of e-mails subscribers to the RBCollective group receive.
· Facilitate communication amongst members interested in serving in an administrative capacity.
· Provide members interested in supporting RBC efforts in a non-administrative capacity with well-defined avenues of action on a regular basis.

The RBCPlanning yahoo group will serve as an administrative resource for RBC members who express an interest in being involved in the planning and execution of future events and initiatives. For information about joining the RBCPlanning yahoo group, please attend our June meeting. The RBCollective yahoo group will continue to serve as the primary site for receiving updates on the police investigation as well as notification for all Rashawn Brazell-related meetings, events and initiatives. To join the RBCollective yahoo group, click here.

Note: Posts to both listservs must be directly related to the Rashawn Brazell case. Neither will be used for personal reflections, announcements for unrelated events, etc. Moderators aim to keep your inbox free of clutter by promptly removing of such posts.

RBC Meetings
The collective will meet on a monthly basis to do planning, reporting and decision-making. Our next meeting will be held in the first or second week in June. Heru Khuti of Black Funk, this month’s facilitator, will post the time, date, location and agenda of the meeting shortly.

AVP’s flyer campaign
The reward for information leading to the arrest of Rashawn’s murderer(s) is now set at $15,000. Basil Lucas of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP) invites you to help notify the public of this added incentive by distributing flyers at our upcoming posting events.

In addition to the sites recommended by the NYPD (The Warehouse, Escuelita and Down Time), we will be posting the new flyers at locations throughout the city that we deem most conducive to soliciting tips. Because flyers cannot be posted on lampposts or other public property (fines will be levied), volunteers will be instructed where and how to post flyers.

To volunteer, please contact Basil Lucas at felu2@yahoo.com. Flyers and guidelines for posting will also be made available in the “files” section of our yahoo group.

“Art in the City” exhibition
Photographer Bernard Morisset is currently planning an installation that gathers all of the art generated in response to the murder of Rashawn Brazell. The exhibition welcomes the work of RBC members and non-members alike and will be scheduled to coordinate with this summer’s pride events. If you are interested in submitting any medium of visual art, or in assisting in the planning of this exciting event, e-mail Bernard at Spiritus1@aol.com.

Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship
The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship will be hosted by the North Star Fund (http://www.northstarfund.org/), and offered annually to a college-bound student of African descent who resides in New York City and exhibits commitment to the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression.
We will need members to be involved with the “marketing” of the scholarship (i.e. liaising with schools/guidance departments to disseminate information and solicit applications), as well as a selection committee to review applications.

If you are interested in serving on one or both of these committees, e-mail Larry at LarryLyons2@aol.com.

“Brighter Days” Fundraising event
The first fund-raising event for the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship will be held this summer. Titled “Brighter Days”, the party will celebrate Rashawn’s life while generating the funds to sustain this annual tribute to his memory. Two notable DJs have agreed to spin gratis, graciously aiding us in our goal to raise $5000 with this no-cost event.

We also plan to hold a silent auction during “Brighter Days”, which requires us to solicit donations from vendors in the area (restaurants, retailers, publishers, etc). Donations might take the form of autographed copies of books from authors, gift certificates for goods or services, etc. We are relying solely on the work of RBC members to contact potential vendors. To receive informational materials on our official letterhead for use in securing these donations, contact publicist Mervyn Mercano at Merv@riseup.net.

Also, a vendor liaison is needed to keep track of our efforts to secure donations, and to extend our thanks to vendors following the event. Mervyn will be posting a more detailed job description for the vendor liaison position to the listserv shortly.

Bloggers Make a Difference

2005-05-24T08:48:00.000-04:00

thanks to the ongoing efforts of bloggers
and other concerned citizens,
the memory of Rashawn Brazell lives on.

Gay men unite through blogs to keep alive the story of a city teen’s brutal slaying
BY ANDREW LAVALLEE
NewYorkNewsday.com

May 24, 2005

Rashawn Brazell would have turned 20 in April. Instead of a celebration, his birthday was marked with candlelight vigils and town hall meetings. By then, his February murder had faded from headlines. But a growing number of New York-area bloggers, many of them African-American and gay, like Brazell, are keeping his memory, and the search for his killer, alive.

"I couldn't do anything else until I'd blogged about it," said Larry D. Lyons II, 24, one of the first to write about the crime in an online diary. Lyons compiled links to news reports and posthumous letters he had written to Brazell in early March. Dozens of readers posted their comments, and more comments came with each entry. Brazell's murder struck a chord with Lyons and many in the black gay community who believed his murder had been given short shrift by the New York mainstream media. Brazell, of Brooklyn, disappeared Feb. 14. Several days later, parts of his body were found in a Brooklyn subway tunnel and later a recycling plant. Early news reports said he was going to rendezvous with another man.
read the full story here.

Individuation and the Delusion of the Self

2005-05-16T22:52:00.000-04:00

Larry D. Lyons II: egoist? pantheist? buddhist? you decide.

jaqua said...
its always a balancing act of ego vs. true openness of spirit, yes we are all one, yes division is the ultimate illusion, but individuation is divine and there is a such thing as you me and he

larry responds...
i believe that our notions of "you" and "me" are nothing more than temporary and fleeting phantasms. if we believe such things as "you and me and he" to constitute some objective reality, we are only fooling ourselves.

Individuation:
1. the development of the individual from the universal
2. The process by which individuals in society become differentiated from one another.

As I explained in an earlier blog entry, I understand divinity as unity. oneness... That which allows us to experience our intrinsic connectedness. Both of these definitions of individuation (webster's own) point to the distancing, separation or distinguishing of one from another, which is quite contrary to encouraging the experience of oneness. In this way, individuation moves us in precisely the OPPOSITE direction of the Divine, not towards it.

And what is this talk of ego? Is this in response to my statement that no one exists but me? Let's be clear: I communicated this idea in jestful language. I don't believe that I am the ultimate originator of all mankind and that everyone else is merely a version of myself. I do believe, however, that every single interaction I have is purposed to allow me to encounter, confront, experience or process my own karmic energy.

I encounter cattiness because I harbor catty energy and am being allowed the opportunity to experience its toxicity first-hand. I encounter beautiful people because I am being allowed the opportunity to experience and be reminded of my own intrinsic beauty. I encounter sickness, strife and suffering in the world so that I may challenge myself to avoid allowing myself to become implicated in the creation or perpetuation of such conditions. I believe there to be a karmic coordinate or implication of every single occurrence and interaction.

In fact, my entire life is a cycle of encounters with my own energy, often embodied as other people. In thinking about this cycle, the first image that comes to mind is that of washing a garnmet until it becomes radiant in its purity. With each encounter, I endeavor to experience the fullness of my energy... all of the jealousy. all of the love. all of the passion. all of the rage. Then, I wash that energy in such a way that when next I encounter it, it will be a more pleasant experience for all involved.

Aiight, one more analogy and Imma let yall go.

You can also think about this in terms of a fable. Fables are mechanisms that employ fantasy in order to teach a lesson. Generally, fables are told to children so that they can learn moral fortitude. This is done because it is presumed that children can not readily understand abstract concepts like patience, temperance or altruism. So, we give bodies to these virtues to facilitate the child's comprehension. Tortoises. hares, lions, mice. Once children can equate a particular virtue with a particular animal, they can begin to grasp the moral lesson.

Be like the tortoise. He was patient and not impetuous and he won the race.

In this way, my life is a fable being relayed to me by the universe. There are abstract moral lessons that I need to learn in order to grow and mature, so the universe presents Mervyn and Marie and Dorothy as embodiments of my energies. My interactions with each of them provides me with instructions on how to live my life more abundantly... how to realize Oneness.

Just as the goal of sharing a fable with a child is to familiarize him or her so thoroughly with the abstract virtue itself that they no longer need the fictional embodied character to act as a stand-in, so it is with me. My goal is to transcend the need for embodied forms to encapsulate my moral/spiritual and karmic lessons. I pray that the day will come when I look at you and see nothing but our Oneness. No separations. No distinctions. Just the Divine.

On God. (a revision)

2005-04-17T13:47:00.000-04:00

"We want to worship a living God. I have not seen anything but God all my life, nor have you. To see this chair you first see God, and then the chair in and through Him. He is everywhere, saying, "I am." The moment you feel "I am," you are conscious of Existence. Where shall we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?
-Vivekananda

"We want to commune with the Divine. I have not seen anything but the Divine all my life, nor have you. To see this flower you first see the Divine, and then the object in and through the Divine. The Divine is everwhere, saying, "I am." The moment you feel "I am," you are conscious of Existence. Where shall we go to find the Divine if we cannot see it in our own hearts and in every living being?"
-Larry D. Lyons II

On my revision.
1. Worship vs. Communion. I can not say that my impulse is to worship. Beings that desire worship seem, to me, to seek a validation, a reverence that distances the worshipper from the worshipped. And distance is the last thing I want in my spiritual life. I want oneness. I want communion. I want to commune with the Divine.

2. The Divine vs. God. "The Divine" is more than a substitute for God. It's a different paradigm altogether. God, as used in the original quote, is a gendered being. For me, gender is only a useful notion when attempting to classify embodied beings (and even then, it has its limitations). Furthermore, I don't imagine "God" to be a "being" at all. "God" is a spirit, not unlike the spirit of goodwill or the spirit of volunteerism. In the same way that we would not discuss goodwill or volunteerism as "beings", I do not imagine God to be a being.
Finally, I love that the quote acknowledges the ubiquity or omnipresence of the Divine, because I truly believe in the divinity of all things. But I think that using a gendered pronoun attributed a gender to God, and this undermines the otherwise admirable spiritual paradigm the quote models.

3. The chair vs. the flower. This is the least consequential revision; I chose the flower merely because I used the picture of a flower. But I draw attention to it to make a larger point. In conversations like these, I've noticed that people rely on a fairly trite/traditional vocabulary of the beautiful. Flowers, babies, butterflies, serene lakes, [insert the title of any Mariah Carey album here]. Perhaps I should have chosen a different image as to avoid replicating that move... ah, well.. shoot me. What I'd like to say is this: there is nothing more inherently beautiful than anything else. In the place of the flower, I could hase just as easily used any one of the following images:
a bullet wound
two fallen towers
a toenail
a broken condom.
None of these do a better job than any other at realizing/embodying the beauty of the Divine. The more I expand my vocabulary of the beautiful, the more abundant/rich my appreciation of the world and all of its elements.

Where shall I go to find the Divine if I cannot see it in my own heart and in every being?

sprung.

2005-04-11T20:38:00.000-04:00

spring is here
and the view from princeton is beautiful.

Thanks donald for helping me select a digital camera and getting me hip to all things flickr.

The Latest on Rashawn Brazell

2005-04-07T00:54:00.000-04:00

If you are under the impression that the organizing efforts around the murder of Rashawn Brazell are finished, drawing to a close or losing relevance, you're mistaken. Here's a peek at what's taken place since my last post.

The Vigil:

On Friday, March 25th Rashawn's friends, family and concerned citizens from New York and New Jersey gathered en masse at the Nostrand Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn to honor Rashawn Brazell's memory. Above the tunnel where some of the young man's remains were found, we lit candles, we prayed, we cried and we mourned the loss of the man whose tragic murder reminds us all of the preciousness of life and the terrible wages of violence. The event was well-attended and garnered coverage on a number of media outlets, including ABC 7and UPN 9.

(photos courtesy of: Andres Duque)

The Town Hall Meeting:

On Monday, April 4th we gathered again, this time with the aim of translating our sorrow and anger into dialogue and action. Organized by the Rashawn Brazell Collective, the town hall meeting gave concerned citizens an opportunity to voice their concerns about the case directly to their elected officials, community based organizations and the police. In attendance were:

Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn borough President
Lt. John Moran of the New York Police Department
Lt. John Cornicello of the Brooklyn North Homicide Department
Councilmember Letitia James
A representative from the office of Councilmember Albert Vann
Eric Adams, President of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement

as well as representatives from:

New York City's Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP)
Black Men's Exchnage (BMX)
Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD)
The New York State Black Gay Network (NYSBGN)
People of Color in Crisis (POCC)
Unity Fellowship Church of Brooklyn, New York (UFC)

(photos courtesy of: Bernard Morisset)

Key developments from the meeting:

1. Desire Brazell, Rashawn's mother surveyed the area surrounding her home and was unable to find a single flyer. Many also took issue with the fact that Rashawn's mugshot was being used for some flyer, concerned that doing so causes the confusion of the victim and the perpetrator. In turn, we are partnering with the police to post updated flyers about the murder and the reward in the neighborhood with the goal of soliciting more information from the public.

2. At the time of the meeting, the reward listed on the flyer was the standard $2000. Reasoning that community members might be more inclined to offer tips if there were a more substantial incentive, Councilmember Leticia James donated an additional $1000 to the fund, as did 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement and the Unity Fellowship Church, bringing the total reward to $5000. However, at the mayor's discretion, the reward can be raised to $10,000.

In turn, we ask that you contact the Mayor Bloomberg and communicate to him why increasing the award is a necessity and a priority. Don't know what to say? Why not just borrow a bit from Bernie's letter? Be sure to specify why it's important to raise the reward amount!
Contact the Mayor (email)
(212)-NEW-YORK
Fax (212) 788-2460

3. Your letters, phone calls and faxes are important. "The deployment of resources depends largely on community pressure" say the NYPD representatives. So, make use of this telephone list of the 79th precinct, and let them know that getting this killer off the streets is a pressing matter. You can also email Raymond W. Kelly, the comissioner of the NYPD by clicking here.

4. Letitia James is calling for a press conference on the steps of City Hall. As the city begins to debate it's new budget, she believes more funds should be available to the community-based organizations that have made our organizing possible, that the fullest range of resources should utilized in the investigation of this case and that the case deserves greater visibility amongst the media, the general public and elected officials alike. Needless to say, I'm with her.

5. The Rashawn Brazell Collective will be meeting again in the near future. To stay abreast of our organizing efforts, check out the official listserve which disseminates information on the events planned in response to Rashawn Brazell's murder.

6. Wednesday, April 27th: If you are in the NYC area, attending the 79th Precinct Community Council meeting would be a wonderful way to ensure that our concerns about this investigation remain a priority for police and community members alike. The meeting is held the fourth Wednesday of the month at 263 Tompkins Avenue at 7:00 p.m. .

Follow the Vanishing Check

2005-03-26T19:34:00.000-05:00

Photograph by Jane Therese for The New York Times

Larry Lyons, who is 23, vividly remembers the Saturday mornings when his mother would write checks to pay the family's bills, dispatching him to the landlord with one for the rent. When he was in sixth grade, she taught him to balance a checkbook.

What he has more trouble remembering is the last time he wrote a check himself.

"I don't think there are any bills for which I use a paper check," said Mr. Lyons, a graduate student in literature at Princeton. "It's much easier to be able to point and click and make a payment."

Mr. Lyons and other young adults may belong to the first check-free generation as they choose to handle transactions almost entirely by debit card, credit card and computer. The number of checks written in the United States peaked sometime in the mid-1990's; it has been falling precipitously for the last four years, according to the Federal Reserve. At the same time, the number of electronic payments has risen swiftly.

By JENNIFER A. KINGSON Published: March 26, 2005.

Read the complete article here.

(PS: thanks to Margaret and Merv for bringing the publishing of the article to my attention.)

N.Y. man's killer at large; vigil planned

2005-03-24T22:15:00.000-05:00

A vigil is scheduled for Friday [March 25th] in Brooklyn to honor Rashawn Brazell's memory. The event will take place at the Nostrand Avenue subway stop, above the tunnel where some of the young man's remains were found.

Larry D. Lyons II, a blogger who has actively followed the case, told the PlanetOut Network he is going to the vigil because he wants to be part of "the symbolic act."

"In gathering at the site where Rashawn's body parts were found, we are saying, 'Our lives matter. Our bodies matter. Despite the inattention of the mainstream media, we will not allow ourselves to be invisible. Despite our marginalization, we have found strength within ourselves. We are a community of compassionate, loving individuals, and we will not stand to watch one more life fall by the wayside,'" Lyons said.

Tom Musbach, PlanetOut Network
published Thursday, March 24, 2005

Read the full story here.
Find more information on the vigil here.

The Rashawn Brazell Collective is born.

2005-03-15T13:58:00.000-05:00

Last night, an assemblage of concerned citizens met with representatives from several community-based organizations in Brooklyn to discuss how we might best organize our efforts to mobilize in response to the brutal murder of Rashawn Brazell.

The heated dialogue and debate that arose last night spoke and continues to speak volumes about how intimately the murder has affected each of us, challenging us as individuals and as a diverse collective to honor our differences while we continue to heal, to mourn, to strategize and to minister to the needs of the community. In this spirit, the (tentatively named) Rashawn Brazell Collective (RBC) succeeded in outlining the need for two separate but related events that will address the needs of the community.

The first event is a community forum that will allow the public and the police to engage in a dialogue about the progress being made in the case and the ways in which the community can further their efforts. Many members of the RBC feel it necessary to express the urgency of the case to the police, noting how so many similar cases have gone unsolved in the past. The event also aims to solicit tips from the public that may aid the police and to create greater visibility for the case by engaging the press and political leaders.

The second event is a community memorial service to honor Rashawn's life and to mourn his death. We purpose this event to serve as a means for the community to show its support to Rashawn's family directly while also providing a space for concerned individuals and organizations to grieve the loss of Rashawn. Further, the event may also connect Rashawn's family and friends with the counseling resources being made available by the organizations involved.

In order to coordinate the details of these events most efficiently, the RBC formed two committees that will be in communication as they work independently to realize both goals. GMAD, which has taken a leadership role in producing the Brooklyn Community Forum, lists their contact information here on the organization's website. The NYSBGN is guiding the "Remembering Rashawn" community memorial, and invites those interested in assisting in its planning to email Rashawn@NYSBGN.org.

I encourage/admonish/challenge/beg you to get involved. Helplessness and hopelessness are things of the past. We are mobilizing and making progress, and we cannot do it without you.

Action

2005-03-10T15:11:00.001-05:00

You heard Rashawn's story. You identified with him. You were shocked. You were bewildered. You were scared. You were disappointed. In New York's tri-state area, you saw the media's cruel sensationalism. Elsewhere, you saw nothing at all.

You blogged. You lit candles. You said prayers. You vowed to do something. You called for action.

Well, for those of you who want to show Rashawn's murderer, the media and the world that you refuse to sit idly by while another tradegy goes under-reported and unsolved, there are a number of ways for you to get involved and make a difference. The following list represents concrete ways for you to stand up and address the injustices at play. We needn't feel powerless any longer.

1. Today in Manhattan:

Blogger Troy Notorious has worked with Cody Williams to organize an impromptu dialogue about how we can respond to the tragedy. They have extended an invitiation all inviduals who take issue with how the media has covered the story and "demand that the New York City police place a high priority on this case". The meeting is tonight, Thursday, March 10th, at Day-O's Resturant in the NYC's West Village in at 6:00pm.
Day-O's
103 Greenwich Ave
New York 10014(At 12th St)
212-924-3160

2. Sunday in Brooklyn:

This Sunday, March 13th, 2pm-7pm, Black Funk will be the site of a community gathering and ritual to remember Rashawn, offer healing and comfort to the spirit of Rashawn given the violence of his transition and the desecration of his body, offer healing to each other as we acknowledge the pain this murder has caused in the community, pray for justice, and discuss community action.
241 Taaffe Place #209
At the corner of DeKalb Avenue in Bed Stuy/Clinton Hills
G train to Classon Avenue;
B38 to Classon Avenue;
B44 or B48 to DeKalb Avenue

3. Sunday, March 20th in Brooklyn:

The Sakia Gunn Film Project fundraiser. Sakia Gunn was a 15-year-old African American lesbian woman who was stabbed to death early May 11, 2003. Chas. B. Brack, Executive Producer/Director of the film calls it "a story of the continuing invisibility of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered people of color". It is imperative, therefore, that we support the project and acknowledge the interconnections of Gunn and Brazell's lives and brutal murders.

I am attending this event and am willing to pay the $15 donation for anyone who might be interested but doesn't have the money to spare. So, no excuses -- come dance with me, dine with me and let's enjoy the film together! For those of you who are not in the NYC area, you can support the project by making a charitable donation here.
Sunday March 20th at 3:00pm.
Langston's
1027 Atlantic Avenue [Near Franklin Avenue]
$15
Food, Fun and Dancing!
Screen starts promptly at 4:56pm.

4. March 22 (tentatively)
The New York State Black Gay Network shares our concern about Rashawn's murder and are currently planning a community forum in Brooklyn, the borough that Brazell called home. The goals of the forum, as I understand them, would be as follows:
a. To provide the commuity with updates on the case;
b. To connect the community with Brazell's friends and family;
c. To allow organizations (think NYSBGN, AVP, GMAD, POCC, ALP) to enter into direct dialogue with individuals in the community about how best to shape our response.
d. To provide a forum for safety education

5. Anytime, Anyplace
Bernie, a fellow blogger, has provided a WONDERFUL list of 5 ways to translate your anger, outrage and sorrow into acts that "raise the level of public awareness about the murder of Rashawn Brazell and create the type of dynamic tension needed to get authorities to agressively pursue this case". He has also provided links to a number of television stations, radio stations, and newspapers as well as the city council member responsible for the district where Brazell resided, so that you may contact them directly to demand action. Write on Bernie! We all appreciate your vigillance.

Rod, a blogger and veteran newsie, has provided the direct telephone lines for 3 prominent newsrooms, allowing you to bypass receptionists. He instructs: "You should call, be very polite and for the assignment editor or manager. Say you'd like to see more coverage of the Brazell investigation and you're very concerned." Thanks Rod for helping us make our voices heard, literally!

Well, there you have it folks; several concrete ways for you to move from anger to action. Regardless of your budget, geographical location, religious stance or literary prowess, there is a way for our to get involved and to make a change. Keep me posted in your successes and I'll do the same.

rashawn brazell, the blog movement

2005-03-08T06:52:00.000-05:00

Honestly, my impulse is to continue to re-post Saturday's blog about the brutal murder and dismemberment of a 19-year old black man every single day until the world starts to value human life, until the media starts to value black bodies, until the Judeo-Christian tradition starts to value non-heterosexuals.

Is anything changing? Can you point to some legislation on hate crimes, some re-doubled effort to dialogue with the urban LGBT community about safe dating tips, some civil rights organization staging a public protest of how our murders are handled irresponsibly and disrespectfully in the mainstream media (if covered at all)?

Please tell me that you can.
Please tell me that you can.
Please tell me that you can.

'Cause there's a growing body of Americans who die inside when we learn that our bodies do not matter. Gay and straight, black and white, young and old... a part of us dies when we remain silent about these injustices.

So, to everyone who left a comment on Saturday's post: Thank you. This situation continues to fuck me up, and your words, your prayers, your energies mean the world to me (and the community mourners) right now.

Thank you to everyone who's blogged about it:
Steven
Donald (2 entries)
Merv* (2 entries)
Troy
Club 3200
Karsh
SmilingOnThaDl

For the bloggers who share our sorrow and outrage (particularly those of you who responded to the last post), I ask that you devote a blog entry to Rashawn. Steven ranted, Donald wrote a poem, Merv called for action, Club 3200 merely sympathized and provided a link for readers to learn more for themselves. Your post can take any number of forms, what's important is that this story gets out and its injustices are not silenced.

So, this is your call to action.
Matt, with your superior intellect and creative engagement of agency
Pome, with your beautifully striking poetic voice
BruthaFree, with your keen insight and candid introspection
Jazz, with your overwhelming capacity for empathy
My sister Soulful, with your fiery command of the language
My brother Aries, with your thoughtfulness and candor
Shawn, with your glowing spirit and creativity

Basquiat, Starfoxx, Solitaire, Mama JunkYard, Dayrell, Phillipe, Malik, Jaqua, Heru, Bernie, Diggs, Ashon, Gian, PonderingNegro, G. Cornelius Harris, Nikki, HumanityCritic, and all of the other amazingly talented writers whose blogs I enjoy, this is for you, fam.

Needless to say, this is not for me. If you think my motives are self-serving, feel free to ignore the call for action. If you realize that visibility and audibility are key, and that blogs have the ability to serve as a key weapon in the fight against marginalization and injustice, well... write on. .
.
I love you for experiencing this with me and I look forward to the harvest.

rashawn brazell

2005-03-05T17:15:00.000-05:00

Young Gay Man Hacked Apart
Body parts in subway: Human arm, legs in bloody bag
Torso found in Brooklyn
Cops Identify Body Parts Found In Subway Tunnel
SUBWAY CHOP-UP VICTIM ID'D
Detectives Press Hunt for Brutal Killer
Police: Body parts cut with precision

They are mis-pronouncing your name
Rashawn
Mom told 'em about your girlfriends
But they called you flamboyant anyway
They even talked about how you loved Ashanti
They want to quote us, but we still on the low
You know how it is in the game
Shit, you got faggots everywhere
Writing poems and lighting candles and shit

But these reporters are mis-pronouncing your name
Calling you shit that Mom wouldn't even recognize
They call you Parts
They call you Victim
They call you Human remains
And it remains inhumane
But everybody know
If you were a "white aspiring actress"
Shit would be solved by now.

Rashawn,
The media keeps cutting you up. Making you into so many things. Cautionary tale of the terrible terrible DL. The ills of the internet. The calamity of the chat line. The dangers of the tryst. They want you to warn us. To scare us. You work better than the new strain. You capture the young audience.

Rashawn,
This shit hurts my heart and makes me dizzy. Makes me mad and makes me wonder. Why isn't Oprah talking about you? Where's the resounding moral outrage? Where the fuck is your ribbon?

Ra,
It's hard living without you. Everyday, I read these sites and scan these papers. Each of them snapshot a black boy "handsome and well-liked" never making it to destination. You were always going somewhere. Made arrangements to meet a man and met your maker. Who are we to say too soon? Maybe God was saving you the pain of writing elegy to the next Rashawn Brazell. The next "ambitous young man" to go from best friend to body parts in the space of a weekend.

Shawn, Wish we could just fast-forward to when you become a banner at pride, an award at GMAD or a scholarship at Harvey Milk. 'Cause this shit hurts and you ain't here to help us laugh through it.

Suffering Revisited

2005-02-11T07:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's quote generated some interesting responses, so I continue the dialogue here...

Charles: Hmmm. Aren't our societal conflicts external? I am of the belief that until human suffering becomes a societal concern, it will persist.

Me: I don't think the two ideas are in conflict.
1. societal conflicts are external, but arise primarily out of internal conflicts/suffering/strife.
2. Human suffering should be a societal concern.

As I read it, the quote suggests that social problems are not a ghostly, impliable reality that hovers above us, incapable of being touched or altered by our will or our actions. Instead, it highlights the inextricable implication of the individual in the rise of social problems.

Racism isn't merely a force that floats around the universe; it's contained in the hearts of men, made manifest in their words and actions. These men may make community amongst themselves and cultivate that racism until it is institutionalized, at which point the individual feels defeated because the sheer size of racism makes it appear to be insurmountable.

Take Larry Lyons, for example...Simultaneously, I experience racism as an individual problem (it can hurt, limit or anger me, personally) and as a social problem (it's experienced en masse). The quote reminds me that the catalyst that lies at the root of both of these experiences is not some "always-was-always-will-be" ideological monolith, but a vice that lies in the heart of some men. It is not from the earth's inherent badness that suffering sprouts, it is from the heart/mind/will of the individual.

This may seem disconcerting, and the question begs to be asked: If I am not a racist, if I am not personally generating that energy, should I suffer its abuses just the same? Why must I be subject to the negativity that exists in the heart of another individual?

This is when I turn the lens right on back to the individual. Although I may succeed in eliminating my own racism, I may not enjoy the same success when it comes to my envy or my vanity or my cattiness or my elitism. However, the fact that the energy (some might call it "negative") is not manifest as racism, per se, does not free me from the karmic returns of the other forms of "negative" energy that I harbor. Don't get me wrong: I am not suggesting here that karma is a punitive force. Karma is not "a bitch," and karma is not out to get you. Karma does not aim to punish. Karma merely makes it possible for you to experience (be confronted with) the energy that already exists within you.

So, when I experience racism, I can't shake my fists at the gods, reminding them that I am not a racist and therefore deserve to be exempt from it. Instead, when confronted with such "negative" energy, I am challenged to use the experience to understand how others are impacted by the vices I do harbor and enact. My personal suffering as a result of racism is not due chiefly to external conditions, it is due primarily to the karmic returns of the energy that I possess -- energy that I am capable of managing.

Suffering

2005-02-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

The essential truth of suffering is that neither individual nor social problems are due chiefly to external conditions.
-B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up

Jesus Appears at Inaugural Ceremony

2005-01-20T15:54:00.000-05:00

My close friend and partner against the terror tactics of the far-right, Marie sent me the link to 10000jesuses.org, saying that it provided her with a bit of levity on a day so fraught with frustration. The goal of the organization was simple: show up at today's innaguration clad in long hair and flowy robes bearing signs like "Who Would I torture?", "Who Would I Bomb?" and "I never owned an M-16" in order to show Washington's warped theocrats that despite his invocation of "traditional American morals" during campaign time, President Bush's policy, both foreign and domestic "is diametrically opposed to everything taught in the New Testament".

How's that for creative organizing?
Check out what these folks have to say: I'm sure you'll agree that Jesus would be proud!

from the website:

Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor," and "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." He did not say, "Ensure the wealthiest elite in our nation get the easiest tax load; especially when this cuts funding to educational and health programs that help the poor."

Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek." He did not say, "Drop 500 lbs bombs on the civilization centers of ancient Mesopatamia." Nor did Jesus say, "torture prisoners in a sexually humiliating manner to advance the cause of nation building. Or, shoot wounded soldiers in the head while they lie before you, supine and desperate."

Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." He did not say, "Condemn those who disagree with you as being Godless heathens who will be thrust into the bowels of hell for not accepting Jesus as their personal saviour."

Jesus said, "I pass judgement on no man," He did not say, "Judge all those whose religion you do not understand or whose sexuality you fear."

Jesus said, "I give you a new commandment: love one and other." He did not say, "love only people who go to church." Nor did he say, "love only white, non-gay, Christian borne-again Americans with good grooming habits and no history of pre-marital sexual relations." He did not say, "Love only people who may know the verses of the Bible, but who have forgotten how to throw the merchants out of the temple and so support one of the most repressive and intolerant regimes in America's history."

Jesus never said that. Neither should the evangelicals.

More on Safire...

2005-01-14T23:11:00.000-05:00

Originally cited as a "great sea monster" in the first chapter of Genesis, the leviathan has become synonymous with any large monster or creature. It is occassionally invoked to accept blame for tsunamis when God isn't up to the challenge. Explanation below.

Hopefully, reader, you've been keeping abreast of the conversation on God's role in the tsunami that I've engaged myself in for the last few days. If you haven't, take this time to read my Thursday post and its links. If you have, the latest development is as follows:
Hollambeeee, a.k.a. tcrawley, was kind enough to take me to task regarding my response to the William Safire article he posted on his site. You can find his critique my reponse in the comment section of the Thursday post.

My response to his response to my response to Safire's article (ha!) goes a little something like this:

1. Perhaps you've misunderstood. I wasn't saying that he asserted that anyone deserved death. It's quite clear that he thinks the opposite. With his statement "Victims of this cataclysm in no way "deserved" [their fate]", however, he engages the language of blame without explaining why such a paradigm proves incapable of addressing the complexity of this event. Effectively, he paints himself into a corner. Worse yet, it seems that he tries to get out of this corner by distancing the event from God altogether. "Yes, it's a terribly unfair thing for so many people to die... at the hands of the cruel, cruel hands of nature". Well, shit William ... if the hand of God is not inextricably tied to the forces of nature, whose is?

My problem is that he wanders carelessly onto the minefield created by the language of blame, then pulls the "don't blame God" card to get himself to safety rather than forcing the point that there is no way to reconcile the "catastrophe" with the will of God at all, (which is quite different from suggesting that God is not implicated at all in the fray).

I think you've also misunderstood his use of the Job story. Safire's article does not equate the people who died in the tsunami with Job, so it's not a matter of "bad shit happens to good people...and in Job's case, he was such a good person that it caused bad shit to happen" as you say. This is not the point that Safire makes at all. Here's how I know:

a. This wouldn't serve as a good analogue because JOB DOES NOT DIE in the biblical story.

b. Safire says that WE, the living children of God, are Job. Those who perished in the tsunami are the "children" referenced in the line "God let the angel take [Job's] possessions, kill his children and afflict him with loathsome boils." As modern day Jobs, we are challenged to mourn our dead relatives all the while remaining faithful to the God that enabled their deaths.

c. Safire includes Job's original statement "Damn the day that I was born!" to show us that "it is not blasphemous to challenge the highest authority when it inflicts a moral wrong". Again, it's you and I that Safire likens to Job, not those who perished in the tsunami.

I take issue with this particular analogy because it suggests that God allowed hundreds of thousands of people to die just to prove to the devil that we'd still love Him. This paints a portrait of a "ends-justify-the-means" "you-gotta-break-some-eggs" God, who happens to resemble a certain American president much more than it resembles an all-loving, all-powerful divine entity. Don't tell me that it's okay to question God because sometimes God sucks, and occasionally commits injustices. Just eschew the weak ass doctrine that would allow for such a God altogether, and give me a divine entity that's more proactive than the jerk that sits idly by while the devil kills his children. You think it's empowering, Mr Safire, to tell me its okay to curse God when he commits an injustice? Are you effin' kidding me?? How empowered can I be after I realize that my God is capable of being so damn sucky in the first place?

No amount of cursing is going to remedy the fact that I can no longer expect my God to hear my prayers in time of peril because He might just be busy using my loved ones as fodder in his attempt to prove a point to the devil!

Tell me that you're pulling my leg, Mr. Safire... 'cause this God that you're talking about sucks. Big time.

2. I didn't say that Job was a trite example. I'd sooner call it a "token" example.

3. Your "none of this means that gods or goddesses are unjust" point doesn't seem to jibe with Safire's point: [God,] the highest authority is capable of inflicting moral wrongs.

(Ps: Thank you so much for engaging me and taking me to task! You know i live for dialogue.)
(Pps: Note that I haven't said a word about what I believe about God's implication in the tsunami. I'm merely issuing critique of Safire's argument.)

"Where Was God?" Safire Responds, Larry Scoffs

2005-01-13T01:03:00.000-05:00

Understandably upset when a fellow parishioner commented, "if there were more christians and less buddhists, God would have saved more people [from the tsunami]", tcrawley03, in his own words, "flipped out" on her. He blogged about the experience, calling upon an article that discussed the tsunami and how God figures (or refuses to figure) into the fray.

The article was an op/ed piece written by William Safire (pictured below) and published in the New York Times. Perhaps after you read it yourself, (it's a fairly quick read) you'll understand why I felt compelled to reply.
Read the piece here or here, then my response (below).

"
no offense to mr. safire, but the gambling, sadistic, passive/aggressive god has never been a favorite of mine.

on the "lesson"...
1. if the victims didn't deserve such a fate, why are they dead? where's the justice in that? and am i alone in noting that the phrase "inflicted by the Leviathanic force of nature" posits the blame on a "force of nature" which seems oddly but conveniently [removed/distinctly separate] from God? does this suggest that the supposedly omniscient, almighty god had nothing to do with the ordeal? that he was asleep? on break? washed his hands of the region in their time of peril?
[to achieve] what? for us to grieve, band together, send money, remember god and then forget everything until the next tragedy comes along to re-enliven our wonderfully wonderful humane compassion and generosity? chile please. i'd like to believe an infinite being would be a little more resourceful and a little less round-about than that.

2. as with most biblical imperatives, questioning god has as many "exemplars" as it has prohibitions and qualifications. the singular exemplar of job can not negate or counter a longstanding tradition of penalizing heresy, blasphemy and heterodoxy with several forms of death: [literal, social and, of course, spiritual]. the church and its wayward doctrine have leaned overwhelmingly toward the latter.

3. i wonder where the eff "humanity's obligation to ameliorate injustice" is in the fight for reparations and in the levying of penalties for those involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal. humanity's supposed obligation to ameliorate injustice is activated rather selectively, if you ask me... or Mumia Abu-Jamal. or my bruthas down in Guantánamo.

The Beauty of Our Disintegration

2004-11-27T17:31:00.000-05:00

"People who are lonely, people left alone, sit talking nonsense to the air...
imagining beautiful systems dying, old fixed orders spiraling apart"

[from Tony Kushner's Angels in America]

1. Nothing is inherently nonsensical. "Sense" is one of many fictions that we have created in order to maintain order. We believe certain thoughts and actions to be quite contrary to the maintenance of an orderly society. In turn, we must deem these things "nonsensical" and therefore imprudent. Invalid. Negative. Bad. We must make them so unpalatable for the public that individuals will, by reflex, prefer and endorse the mode of thought that we deem conducive to our society.
I say screw it. I wear the supposed nonsensical as a badge. Not too long ago, folks were being dragged off to jails and looney bins for proposing such nonsensical things as a round earth and an American economy without slavery. Nonsense is merely the intelligence that the masses have yet to embrace.
2. Beautiful systems are dying. Fixed orders are spiraling apart. Patriarchy has been unmasked. Capitalism's seems are showing. Increasingly, yesterday's masters are being pushed toward the margins. I see these things and appreciate the uniqueness of our historical moment. I see these things and welcome my own heterodoxy. I see these things and know that another world is possible.

This passage highlights postmodernism's allure, its strength and its utility.
Postmodernity is said to be "a culture of fragmentary sensations, eclectic nostalgia, disposable simulacra, and promiscuous superficiality, in which the traditionally valued qualities of depth, coherence, meaning, originality and authenticity are evacuated or dissolved amid the random swirl of empty signals."

Only in such a fray as this can the verity of master narratives (ideologies that claim to explain the full range of life's phenomena/the stories a culture tells itself about its practices and beliefs)be called into question and suspended. Only here are we empowered to unseat science, religion and Marxism in one fell swoop, acknowledging that no one system of thought can boast primacy over another.

Color me macabre, but I savor every minute as I watch these things die. These decrepit systems, these defunct theologies. I watch them and applaud yesterday's nonsense bourgeoning into today's intelligence.

from Italo Calvino

2004-11-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

At the bar there were fishermen, customs agents, day laborers. Over all their voices rang out the voice of one elderly man in the uniform of a prison guard, who was boasting drunkenly through the sea of chatter. "And every Wednesday the perfumed young lady slips me a hundred-crown note to leave her alone with the convict. And by Thursday the hundred crowns are already gone in so much beer. And when the visiting hour is over, the young lady comes out with the stink of jail in her elegant clothes; and the prisoner goes back to his cell with the lady's perfume in his jailbird's suit. And I'm left with the smell of beer. Life is nothing but trading smells."

"Life and also death you might say," interjected another drunk, whose profession, as I learned at once, was a gravedigger. "With the smell of beer I try to get the smell of death off me. And only the smell of death will get the smell of beer off you, like all the drinkers whose grave I have to dig."

I took this dialogue as a warning to be on guard: the world is falling apart and tries to lure me into its disintegration.

Why it's all going to be okay

2004-11-05T16:20:00.000-05:00

From an email to my friend, Jorge...

Dearest Jorge,

Yes, things do seem bleak, but the perpetual optimist inside me (her name is Marie) assures me that something wonderful will be born of this. Despite their best attempts, the Republican party could not depress us into apathy. People are engaged and begining to think critically. Rather than resigning that our votes do not count, the election has had a sobering effect of sorts, forcing us to come to terms with America as it truly is. For a sizeable portion of the population, fear of the terrorist boogiemen and of the dissolution of Judeo-Chrisitian morals is enough to keep a facist despot in office. Yes, it's a terrible thought indeed, but it's our reality. But if forces us to realize that we can not blame things on hanging chads or grand conspiracy theories. This was not a stolen election.

The American public has spoken. It's said to me, "Larry, if you and the academy and the DNC don't do a better job of actively engaging us in critical dialogue about the domestic and international impacts of the policies of the Bush administration, we will continue to be hoodwinked/frazzled/blinded by/subject to the heavy-handed and morally irresponsible propganda that the Republican party will be pumping into our telephones, televisions and newspapers for the next four years.

So, here's to four years of more expansive and resourceful organizing... Of no longer assuming that the circles in which I run are representative of the voting public at large. Of supporting more Fahrenheit 9-11s, more OutFoxeds, more MoveOn.orgs. I hear you America. You're scared. You want to feel safe. You want to feel moral. And I love you for that. My only hope is that my peeps and I can do a better job of showing you how none of these require an extension of the reign of a self-interested tyrant.

Larry D. Lyons II

Walter Benjamin: A Man After My Own Heart

2004-10-12T13:44:00.001-04:00

"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are 'still' possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge--unless it is the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable."
--Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," (Spring, 1940) trans. Harry Zohn.

My Favorite Past-Time, of Late

2004-10-05T19:47:00.000-04:00

Spending countless hours reading and guzzling down courtesy cup after courtesy cup of free water at my local Barnes & Noble. I think they're thinking about making me go half on the water bill and the rent.

Next Stop, Mt. Rushmore

2004-09-16T01:32:00.000-04:00

C'est moi. Thinking of something artsy and deep, no doubt.