And, already there are indications that companies are interested in bringing broad actions for infringement against organizations that most people would consider perfectly legal. Advertising giant GroupM recently asked its entertainment industry customers to compile a list of “sites dedicated to infringement,” not unlike what’s found under PROTECT IP. Universal Music, Warner Bros. and Paramount were three key providers to that list, which ended up covering a large number of perfectly legitimate sites including the famed Internet Archive (widely recognized as the library for the internet). It also included numerous innovative startups that are frequently used by content creators to get their works out, such as SoundCloud and Vimeo. Even more worrisome, it included a variety of publications and blogs, including Vibe Magazine, the quintessential hip hop and R&B magazine founded by Quincy Jones, as well as Complex, a popular lifestyle magazine recently recognized as one of the most valuable startups in New York.

Even worse, it appears that Universal Music also included the personal website of one of its own top artists, 50Cent. The hiphop star has a personal website as well as a website owned by Universal Music. The personal website is much more popular… and it appeared on the infringement list. Suddenly, you can see how letting companies declare what sites are dedicated to infringement can lead to them looking to stifle speech and competition.

— “The Definitive Post On Why SOPA And Protect IP Are Bad, Bad Ideas” by Mike Masnic for TechDirt

So why did Racialicious go dark yesterday?

SOPA and PIPA are bad business for the internet, but are particularly problematic for those of us who engage in cultural critique. If we discuss TV shows, music, movies, comics, and video games, that means that we will illustrate our points with music videos, clips from TV shows, promotional trailers, scenes that make it to YouTube, and scanned images. And all of those things could technically be put under a copyright claim.

We rely on the really tenuous concept of Fair Use to continue to exist. We have some legal protections, but not as many some groups of people (like documentary film makers) who have fought these issues in court. Without fair use Byron Hurt wouldn’t have been able to create Beyond Beats and Rhymes and Sut Jhally would not have been able to create Dreamworlds 3 – if they had to seek permission from the person they were critiquing they wouldn’t have been able to use the material. The problem is there are no hard and fast rules for Fair Use. The EFF cautions us to guidelines and best practices but it is really a matter of what will stand up in court.

I’ve talked to Patricia Aufderheide, director of American University’s Center for Social Media and author of Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright, off and on for about two years on these issues. She has encouraged folks like me to continue to do our work since, in her summation, fair use is part and parcel with freedom of speech.

But as the owner of an indie media site, there are some serious risks with that. A while back, Boing Boing pointed their readers to a piece by Waxy, who talked about how his transformative project involving Miles Davis turned into a legal nightmare. The quick and dirty – Waxy cleared the samples he used for the album tribute, but pixelated the image cover believing that the work was changed enough under the guidelines. The judge on the case disagreed. While Waxy and his legal team believed they were in the right, he eventually settled for $32,500 – just to stop the mounting legal fees. Aufderheide, who I interviewed for a piece that will run next week on the ONA site, says that this is part of the process and that by exercising free speech, we are also accepting some of the risk that things won’t be seen our way.

But most of us out here in the internet wilds would drop cases and abdicate our rights because our pet projects and sites would not make enough money for us to defend ourselves, let alone continue operations while we do so. And it’s always the little things that can get you – Sepia Mutiny’s legal issues from a few years ago taught us that we have to watch not only what we say about folks, but also what commenters say – since we actively moderate comments, the court of law might see us as endorsing a commenter’s statement even if we disagree and challenge it.

SOPA and PIPA would essentially take the perilous place in which we operate and obliterate that safety net. If we could get shut down every time we post a Beyonce video or a segment of a movie or show that is outside of the promotional material, then this site isn’t worth running. Especially since these arguments wouldn’t be in public – the way the bill is written means that they would shut us down first, and force us to prove why we were not infringing before we could come back up. Allegedly, SOPA and PIPA would mostly target foreign websites – but we all know how legislation and laws tend to creep and mutate depending on who is doing the interpretation.

We aren’t saying intellectual property is a bad thing – for African Americans in particular, it is important to understand our rights to the work we create, for both historical and financial reasons. However, the laws governing intellectual property have not kept pace with the way we live and passing vague new laws is not going to solve this problem.

So do us a favor – write your congressperson. (And someone write for me – I live in DC now, so I don’t have anyone to appeal to with voting power.) If you’re outside of the US, petition the State Department. We have until January 24th to formerly protest, and while most of the co-signers of the bill are backpedaling, it doesn’t mean the bill is dead.

We received this email from Macy’s promoting their retail development program:

We’re excited to introduce a Macy’s program designed just for business owners: the 2012 Macy’s Workshop!
Macy’s has developed the Workshop, a retail development program designed to give multicultural and/or women business owners the tools to better succeed. Macy’s is committed to helping diverse retail vendors grow within the industry, and after a successful program in 2011, the 2012 Workshop is shaping up to be even more exciting!

The Workshop is a once-a-year, 4 ½ day training course for up to 20 participants.

According to their site:

Macy’s is in the business of fashion and is committed to aggressively pursuing business opportunities with innovative multicultural – and women-owned retail vendors. This commitment not only serves as a way to cultivate new talent, but as a way to contribute to the fostering of business development in the ever-expanding communities we serve. The Workshop is a comprehensive retail vendor development program designed to give select
high potential multicultural and/or women business owners the tools to better succeed and sustain growth in the retail industry. [...]

The Workshop at Macy’s will provide you with:

*An exclusive program located at Macy’s Herald Square Corporate Offices in Manhattan, New York, designed by Macy’s senior level merchants and learning and development experts
*A unique learning opportunity with courses taught by retail experts and accredited faculty
*Exposure to successful multicultural and women business owners
*Interaction with experienced merchants, industry leaders and private brand specialists
*An opportunity to network, collaborate and engage with fellow aspiring vendors

The Workshop at Macy’s offers a comprehensive program that includes classes in:

*Strategic planning
*Branding
*Merchandising and assortment planning
*Sales and marketing
*Access to capital

The workshop is FREE but you will have to pay your own travel to NYC and lodging if accepted. Interested? Apply here; deadline is January 22nd, so hurry!

Jobs in racial justice, women innovate mobile, and info on a health center catering to transgender clients after the jump.

WORK FOR ARC

Friend of the blog Applied Research Center (the think tank that publishes Colorlines) is hiring!

Online Marketing Associate

http://www.idealist.org/view/job/ZkS49JKFtN2D/

Posted on: January 5, 2012
Posted by: Applied Research Center (ARC)

DESCRIPTION
The Applied Research Center (ARC) is racial justice think tank using media, research, and activism to promote solutions. Our mission is to popularize racial justice and prepare people to fight for it. ARC publishes Colorlines.com, a daily news site offering award-winning reporting, analysis, and solutions to today’s racial justice issues. We are a dynamic national organization with offices in New York City and Oakand, CA. The Online Marketing Associate (OMA) will work closely with the marketing and communications team and with the broader staff on promoting ARC and Colorlines.com through email marketing, social media, and organizational websites, and set up internal systems to track and anayze the success of these marketing efforts.

Responsibilities
Coordination of ARC’s email marketing, including managing schedule, identifying and implementing best practices, managing database, and marketing lists, including list segmentation and implementing strategies to grow email lists.
Development and coordination of overall ARC and Colorlines.com social media engagement strategies across Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.
Manage the ARC website (www.arc.org). This includes updating website content and graphical elements.
Coordinate tracking system for marketing analytics and results driven evaluation of our marketing efforts.

Desired Skills and Qualifications
Understanding of and experience with harnessing online marketing and communications tools, with particular emphasis on email marketing
Demonstrated understanding of creating impactful social media engagement strategy, ideally in a nonprofit environment.
Experience managing website content and familiarity with basic web design and HTML. Joomla experience a plus.
Experience in creating a system for tracking and analyzing marketing analytics that will help Marketing and Communications Director, Communications Manager, and other staff make continuous improvements to marketing and communications efforts.
Strong communication and project management skills.
Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and balance multiple projects.
Must thrive on innovation, teamwork, and particularly understand the dynamic and sometimes unpredictable nature of the nonprofit, activist, media environment.
Demonstrated commitment to racial justice and progressive social change and experience working in a multiracial organization.

HOW TO APPLY
Please submit cover letter, resume and short writing sample to spena@arc.org.

The position is based in NYC.

NEW COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER

TRANS:THRIVE COMMUNITY DROP-IN CENTER TO HOST OPEN HOUSE IN NEW LOCATION

TRANS:THRIVE, a community drop-in center serving San Francisco’s transgender community, is hosting an open house to introduce the public to its new location at 730 Polk Street. The drop-in center provides social support and HIV prevention services to transgender people of all ages, races and ethnicities. Offerings include counseling, case management, regular group activities and HIV testing.

The new location offers stronger security and safety for clients as well as more convenient access to the Wellness Clinic, a free community health center also located at 730 Polk Street. The Wellness Clinic is equipped with medical staff trained in transgender health. Open House attendees will have a chance to meet with staff and learn about the array of services available to the community, including an exciting city-wide HIV prevention collaboration slated to begin in January 2012.

The diverse TRANS:THRIVE staff and volunteers will present a brief program describing their services and facility. They will also introduce the new HIV prevention collaborative, funded by San Francisco Department of Public Health. Collaborating agencies include Instituto Familiar de la Raza, EL/LA and Native American AIDS Project.

TRANS:THRIVE community drop-in center is at the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, 730 Polk Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco.

WOMEN INNOVATE MOBILE

Women Innovate Mobile (WIM) is the first startup accelerator and mentorship-driven program designed for women-founded companies in mobile technology. WIM’s goal is to provide women entrepreneurs with the guidance, feedback and connections needed to make their startups best in class companies and formidable business concerns.

Apply today! WIM is accepting applications for its first class of startups until February 1, 2012. WIM is a three-month mentorship driven accelerator program and our first program is taking place in New York City (March 26 to June 29). Our companies will receive $18,000 in funding, free office space, product development and design support, mobile-marketing promotions, and access to an incredible network of mentors, funders and advisors. In exchange for our investment and services, we receive a 6% equity stake in each company.

2012 WIM Accelerator Program Schedule:

February 1 – Application Deadline
February 15 – Selection of companies for final interviews
Week of February 20/27 – Interviews
March 1 – Selection of participating companies
March 26 – WIM Accelerator start date
Mid-June – Pitch/Demo Day
June 29 – WIM Accelerator end date

Deadline is Feb 1, apply here.

The yet-to-be-titled show will start on Saturday, February 4, and will air Saturdays and Sundays 10AM to noon.

Well, Twitterville wasted no time in helping Dr. Harris-Perry christen her new program. Hashtagging as #NameMHarrisPerrysNewShow, some people chimed in with monikers tying into Rick Santorum’s ridiculous backtrack on saying people misheard him saying “blah people” instead of “black people” in discussing Black people and public assistance.

@cnmoffat Blah Like Me.

@paulhlin How about “Blah with Melissa”?

and even the R’s Managing Editor Arturo chimed in with:

Good Morning Blahmerica.

Other were inspired by her well-known love for New Orleans (and the city’s football team). Several chimed in with “Who Dat?” or some variation with the word “bayou.”

Some others came up with some play on popular vernacular:

@AngryBlackLady Is MHP Gonna Have to Choke a Bitch?

@AngryBlackLady Keepin’ It Real w/ MHP

@thesadredearth “S’up with Melissa Harris-Perry

@Besnaz Quit Playin’

@problemwiththat Hard in the Paint

or one that Dr. Harris-Perry said she likes: “Represent with Melissa Harris-Perry.”

Quite a few of us thought of phrases that reflects her role as an academic/writer/public intellectual:

@MagicLoveHose Surveying the Wreckage with Melissa Harris-Perry

@RandomExcess Front and Left

@RufferinAK Civil Discourse

@RLM1911 Politics 101

@Shoq Politics Matters, with Melissa Harris-Perry

@Besnaz Think Twice

A couple of people (including friend of the R Rob Fields) suggested using the name of her latest book, Sister Citizen. I came up with “The Intersection.” (I even have the opening sequence: panorama shot of Dr. Harris-Perry coming across a couple of literal intersection. It goes to aerial shot that follows her cross the streets and the words “race,” “class,” “gender,” “politics”,” and so on going by like cars that stop as she passes. It goes back to Dr. Harris-Perry enters the MSNBC studio and readies for her appearing on the air. The final shot is a close-up of the front of her desk with the show’s logo, “The Intersection.” Cut to live shot of Dr. Harris-Perry. And she starts the show.)

Any way we look at it, we think the show will be great.

Here’s what the good professor said about her new gig:

“This is an extraordinary opportunity…[a]ll I’ve ever wanted to be is a teacher. Phil Griffin and MSNBC are giving me the chance to have a much bigger classroom. I’m particularly excited to join the growing weekend lineup where we have a chance to take a longer and broader view of the week’s political news.”

We’re looking forward to seeing this work!

Photo credit: madamenoire.com

I know that headline sounds a bit naughtier than it really is…or my imagination just works that way. Either way–yes, the R has its own Tumblr.

We’re looking at the tumbleblog as a bit more chilled-out space than this main blog, catching our thoughts about race and pop culture that may not quite need the total R treatment, but we just wanted to say a word or few about what we’re seeing. Of course, we’ll connect to the posts here, but you’ll may catch us posting a photo and comment on, say, a Disney animator or an all-Black Shakespeare production or a piece of interior design that makes us smile or frown.

And I said in the first post, Tumblr–like this blog–is a living document and will change moods and timbre over time. And we’re looking forward to hanging out with you through it all as you’ve been hanging out with us here at the R.

2011 was a busy, crazy, chaotic year for the entire Racialicious team. We’ve been looking a bit ragged around the edges (as some of y’all have noticed) so we’re going to take a much needed breath before diving into 2012. See you all Jan 2!

(NYE image via Shutterstock)

“Now, I know Shakespeare’s a dead white guy. But he knows his shit, so we can overlook that.” — Mr. Morgan, in 10 Things I Hate About You

Ever since one of my mother’s boyfriend’s pressed a copy of Othello into my ten year old hands, I’ve been semi-obsessed with untangling the dynamics of Shakespeare. I love remakes, and the 90s was rich with them, including O, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Romeo + Juliet. And as I get older, there is so much more to tangle with. The roles of race in Shakespeare (I’ve read at least four interpretations of Othello); ethnicity/religion (where do we even start with Shylock?) are always ripe for exploration. And recently, I’ve read about anti-colonalist interpretations of The Tempest and queer interpretations of Othello. So the themes can be endlessly explored and remixed.

So I was thrilled to be offered a spot discussing The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s interpretation of Much Ado Without Nothing – SET IN CUBA!

The set was gorgeous, the production well played, and I would love someone more versed in Cuban politics than I to check it out and report back.

In the meantime, here’s the schedule for the symposium:

Sunday, December 11, 2011

10:00 a.m.
Welcome Remarks
Shakespeare Theatre Company Audience Enrichment Manager, Hannah J Hessel

10:05 a.m.
On Much Ado About Nothing
Professor Elizabeth A. Charlebois of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

10:20 a.m.
Gender Skirmish
A discussion on the role of gender in the play with Holly Dugan, whose scholarship focuses on gender,sexuality, and the boundaries of the body in late medieval and early modern England at The George Washington University, and Latoya Peterson, Editor of Racialicious.com.

11:15 a.m.
Changing Times: Much Ado in Cuba
Ana Serra, author of The New Man in Cuba: Culture and Identity in the Revolution and Ricardo Ortiz,author of Cultural Erotics in Cuban America , will discuss the location of the play with director Eleanor Holdridge, whose all-female production of Much Ado recently ran at Taffety Punk Theatre Company.

12:10 a.m.
Much Ado About Music and Dance
Much Ado About Nothing choreographer Marcos Santana will speak with Latin American music scholar
and historian Brian McCann about the role of music in Latin America and in this production.

The central mission of the Shakespeare Theatre Company Education Department is to deepen
understanding of, appreciation for and connection to classic theatre in diverse learners of all ages through accessible programs that celebrate multiple perspectives.

We seek to fulfill this mission through strengthening our collaborations with schools locally and
nationally, engaging in scholarly dialogue with community and audience members, and increasing our use of technology.

Much Ado About Nothing is directed by Ethan McSweeny and runs Now–Jan 1.

BIOS

ELIZABETH A. CHARLEBOIS, Associate Professor of English, St. Mary’s College. She received her B.A. (Government and International Affairs) and M.A. (English) from Georgetown University and her Ph.D. in English literature from Northwestern University where she specialized in English Renaissance Drama. Her research to date has been primarily devoted to exploring the historical intersection between jealousy in Renaissance drama and early modern theology, but her teaching and writing are also animated by her more contemporary interests in performance and film theory nd criticism. Beth is especially enthusiastic about her ongoing work with The Chicago Shakespeare Theater, for whom she regularly delivers pre-performance lectures and workshops. Among her many teaching interests, she is particularly passionate about her courses in Shakespeare and literature and film.

HOLLY DUGAN, Assistant Professor of English, The George Washington University. Her research
and teaching interests explore relationships between history, literature, and material culture. Her scholarship focuses on questions of gender, sexuality, and the boundaries of the body in late medieval and early modern England. She is currently working on a book-length project, co-authored with Scott Maisano, that examines the pre-modern history of primatology through the lens of Shakespeare.

LATOYA PETERSON provides a hip-hop feminist and anti-racist view on pop culture with a special
focus on video games, anime, American comics, manga, magazines, film, television, and music. Her
perspectives have been quoted in The Boston Globe, CNN, the Guardian (UK), and The Metro-Times
(Detroit), ColorsNW , the Austin Chronicle, The New York Times and Newsweek and she regularly speaks on topics of race, gender, and social media at conferences like Women, Action and the Media and South by Southwest Interactive. Skilled in interviewing, creative non-fiction, and editorial content, Latoya Peterson spends her time editing the blog Racialicious.com – the intersection of race and pop culture. She was contributor to Jezebel.com and has written for Vibe, The American Prospect, The Atlantic Blog, Bitch Magazine, Clutch Magazine, the Women’s Review of Books, Slate’s Double X, The Poynter Institute, The Root.com, and The Guardian.

ANA SERRA, Director, MA Program in Spanish and Latin American Studies, American University. Author of The New Man in Cuba: Culture and Identity in the Revolution (2007), Serra’s research and teaching dwells on the intersection between state discourse and cultural products in Latin America, particularly during the revolutionary era that started with the Cuban Revolution. She is interested in the rhetorical strategies employed in literary works, testimonials and film that explore the origins, pitfalls and possibilities of radical ideologies in Latin America.

RICARDO L. ORTIZ, Associate Professor in the Department of English, and Director of Graduate Studies, Georgetown University. Prof. Ortíz specializes in U.S. Latino/a Literatures and Cultures. He is also interested in teaching and research in “Américas” Studies; critical and cultural theory; cultural studies; intellectual history; gender and queer theory; popular culture. Prof. Ortiz’s first book, Cultural Erotics in Cuban America, was published by the University of Minnesota Press in early 2007; it was awarded Honorable Mention for the Modern Language Association’s 2008 Alan Bray Book Prize, A second book project, well under way, is entitled Testimonial Fictions: the Post-Dictatorship Mode in US Latino Literature and Culture. Prof. Ortíz is also a regular contributor of review pieces to The Lambda Book Report.

ELEANOR HOLDRIDGE, Assistant Professor, Head of the M.F.A Directing program, Catholic University.
Off-Broadway productions include Steve & Idi by David Grimm at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Cycling Past The Matterhorn at the Clurman Theatre, The Imaginary Invalid, and Mary Stuart at the Pearl Theatre Company. Among her regional productions are Gee’s Bend (the Arden Theatre), The Crucible and Much Ado About Nothing (Perseverance Theatre); Noises Off and Art (Triad Stage); Julius Caesar and Macbeth (Milwaukee Shakespeare); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Hamlet (premiere, national tour and remount), As You Like It, Lettice And Lovage, The Tempest, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare & Company). A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis); Henry V (Shakespeare On The Sound); The Taming Of The Shrew and The Tempest (Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival); Betrayal (Portland Stage Company); The Lion In Winter (Northern Stage); and The Cenci, The Two Noble Kinsmen, (Red Heel Theatre Company). In the past she has held positions as Artistic Director for the Red Heel Theatre Company, Resident Assistant Director at the Shakespeare Theatre and Resident Director at New Dramatists. She has directed and taught students at the Yale School of Drama, NYU’s graduate program and the Juilliard School, among others.

BRYAN McCANN, Associate Professor, Director, Master’s in Global, International and Comparative
History, Georgetown University. Professor McCann teaches courses on Colonial and Modern Latin
America, particularly Brazil, and advanced topical courses on popular music in Cuba and Brazil and the history of Latin American Populism. He has published works on the history of radio, popular music, politics and journalism in Brazil. He is currently researching a book on the neighborhood association movement that reshaped urban space and politics in Rio de Janeiro in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is open to the public – tickets are $20. Students and teachers can attend the symposium for $5! Click here for that ticket price.

Hope to see you there!

And something on this:

And some chat on this:

And you know we have to bring up this:

If you are in the area, please feel free to drop by Sci 199 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM and join the conversation.

A little delinquent on this, but here are the winners!

The winner of the DVD is Kim Akins, with a simple, but thought out outline for the logical progression of the film:

My suggestion for the sequel starts at the jail. Moses is being booked and housed with other young men who have been arrested for being the wrong race and class at the wrong time. The Attack continues with the constables believing that shooting will solve the problem. Moses and his crew successfully lead other prisoners out of the jail with some cops in tow. They end up in London central where they have to teach upper class Londoners,that along with an ability to fight, that they can strategize and utilize the environment to defeat an enemy.

And the winner of the poster is Keisha, with a similar idea, but a bit more detailed, with a fun twist:

So maybe the sequel can have one of the aliens not really dead from the first movie and go to exact revenge on Moses and his crew for killing most of the aliens. Since we never really see them dead, one could be alive to get even. He can call more reinforcements from outer space to make way for a second alien attack.

Initially, the cops won’t believe Moses or his crew about the aliens and they’ll arrest and charge Moses with all that has happened in the first movie. Obviously he’ll be given a major sentence for all the crimes that were committed (deaths of several persons, car theft, and armed robbery). But when the rest of the aliens land the cops will have no choice but to rely on Moses. This is because he is the only one who successfully killed the aliens and lived to tell about it. They will have to grant him a full pardon on the condition that he helps get rid of the aliens. And although they will still have their qualms about Moses, his crew and inner city youth altogether, they will be forced to view Moses on a higher echelon because he has done what no other person has done: kill an alien. They need him. He’ll be like Spider-Man or Batman; hated and loved at the same time.

Also, I want to see a bigger role for the girls as well. They massacred one of the aliens in the first movie and they will become a huge asset to Moses’ crew. Let them become part of the alien fighting crew since Moses lost two of his friends. Oh and the gangsta little kids too. Obviously they can hold their own.

While everyone didn’t win a prize, there were other good suggestions. Gregory suggests putting the sequel in Detroit; SA suggests having Moses explore the culture shock of university; Momsomniac says no Dakota Fanning; and Ashley pointed at the Riots as a possible backdrop for the next film, with more kids and shopkeepers (I’d love to see that one as the 3rd film).

Thanks to everyone!

Winners, please email team@racialicious.com with your email and street addresses.

Thanks to Northwestern University’s Poetry and Poetics Colloquium for the heads-up regarding a new annual competition geared toward unpublished poets of color.

The PPC is teaming up with Northwestern University Press for the inaugural Drinking Gourd chapbook poetry prize. A panel of POC poets will select the winning entry, and the first prize chapbook will be introduced by poet

Northwestern University’s Poetry and Poetics Colloquium (PPC) proudly announces a partnership with Northwestern University Press for the inaugural Drinking Gourd chapbook poetry prize, a first-book award for poets of color. Poet Ed Roberson will introduce the winner, and will also publish an accompanying chapbook of new work to launch the series.

The submission deadline is January 15th, 2012, and the winner will be notified by March 15th. The two chapbooks will be published in Fall 2012 by Northwestern University Press. Submission guidelines are under the cut.

Award

• Winner receives $350 prize money, publication by Northwestern University Press in Fall 2012, 15 copies of the book, and a featured reading. Results announced in March 2012.

Judging

• Judging will be conducted by a panel of senior minority poets and scholars assembled by the Northwestern University Poetry and Poetics Colloquium.

Eligibility

• Poets of color who have not previously published a book-length volume of poetry. Simultaneous submissions to other contests should be noted. Immediate notification upon winning another award is required.

Deadline

• Reading period begins January 15, 2012. Manuscripts must be received by January 15, 2012. To be notified that your manuscript has been received, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard. The winner will be announced on March 15, 2012.

Submission

•  Send two copies of a single manuscript. One manuscript per poet allowed.
• Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope to receive notification of results.
• Author’s name should not appear on any pages within the manuscript. Copy One must include a title page with the author’s brief bio (200 words, maximum) and contact information: author’s name, postal address, e-mail address and telephone number. Copy Two must include a cover sheet with the title only.
• Manuscript must be typed single-sided with a minimum font size of 11, paginated and 25-35 pages in length.
• Manuscript must include a table of contents and list of acknowledgments of previously published poems.
• Manuscript must be unbound. Use a binder clip—do not staple or fold. Do not include illustrations or images of any kind.
• Manuscripts not adhering to submission guidelines will be discarded without notice to sender.
• Due to the volume of submissions, manuscripts will not be returned.
• Post-submission revisions or corrections are not permitted.

Reading Fee

• $10. Enclose check with submission, made payable to Northwestern University.

Direct packet to:
Northwestern University Poetry and Poetics Colloquium and Workshop
Drinking Gourd Prize Chapbook Series
University Hall, Room 215
1897 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Attn: Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb

• New York Comic Con
• Occupy Wall Street
• Sex, Power, and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later
• Festival of the New Black Imagination

The Take Back America Conference is currently happening at the Hilton in DC, having started yesterday. Livestream and tweeting is up – yesterday boasted everyone from the progressive rockstars (Van Jones, Congressional Representatives Donna Edwards, Barbara Lee, and Keith Ellison Ai-Jen Poo, Keith Ellison) to people we know (Baratunde, Elon James White, Rinku Sen.)

Free Speech TV asked if I could help with the reporting, along with friends of the blog like Adele Stan of Alternet and Chris Rabb of Afronetizen and Demos. I’ll be on tomorrow from 10 – 12, interviewing Saru Jayaraman, Tracy Van Slyke, Raven Brooks, Jim Miller, Robert (Biko) Baker, Mike Lux, and Ai-Jen Poo.

You can check the livestream here, or follow the twitter hashtag #takeback11.

Also, Wednesday, I’ll be covering the Jobs Not Cuts Rally, also with Free Speech TV.

I’m working on a children’s book that celebrates engaged fathers with the intent of uplifting families, moms, children… everyone. The language isn’t outwardly political, but it is also about presenting positive images of boys and men of color, especially as integral pieces of loving, thriving families.

I recently launched the project on Kickstarter. Check out its quick 2-minute video:

I’d be really honored if you posted this project on your blog!

The book is for dads, and moms, and single dads, and single moms, and kids. I see engaged fatherhood is key to lifting up our communities. This book counteracts the stereotypes of deadbeat dads of color. It shines love on those fathers out there that are amazing, and making amazing contributions, but invisible within mass culture. It paves the way for this generation of boys to be just as amazing. And from the mom and girl end, I believe that men’s full engagement in family life is key to ending the oppression of women (in so many ways).

Donate here.

Friend of the blog Rob Fields is having Bold As Love‘s Festival of the New Black Imagination, featuring artists like Tamar-Kali, DJ Reborn, Dope Sagittarius, Imani Uzuri, No Surrender, and Saidah Baba Talibah. There are also speakers like Elon James White and Touré, the ringShout folks will be bringing literary hotness and plenty of discussion on the future of black creative power.

They are still fundraising – the easiest way to help out is to buy a ticket. (Or, if you can’t make it, buy the mixtape.)

Cheryl Lynn of Digital Femme sent us a note with the panels that mention race:

Comics Studies Conference 6: Understanding Comics and the Self
Saturday, October 15, 4:00PM – 5:30PM Location: 1B03
Neil Cohn (Tufts University) discusses several psychology experiments measuring reaction time and brainwaves that contribute to our understanding of what goes on in the brain when a person reads a comic and reveals that the understanding of comics involves a complex negotiation between a hierarchic system of narrative and the construction of meaning. CJ Suzuki (Lehigh University) focuses on the ways female Japanese comics creators (mangaka) employ shojo manga to critique, contest, and/or negotiate the hegemonic narratives and ideologies of the nation, gender/sexual normativity, and patriarchal social structure. Jeff Barbanell (Arizona State University) traces and deconstructs the transformation of Native American stereotypes and tropes in the comics medium to demonstrate how to work with elementary and secondary Native American literacy students, using the sequential visual medium of comics.

Always Bet On Black
Saturday, October 15, 7:45PM – 8:45PM Location: 1A02
A multimedia exploration on the history of Black ( African American) heroes Ebony White to The Black Panther from Lando to Spawn. Focusing on their cultural impact, unifying/underlying traits & what the future holds based on what the past his shown us.

And finally, we have a huge conference on the 20th Anniversary of the Anita Hill hearings. Called Sex, Power, and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later, the conference boasts an amazing line up of speakers:

Witnesses: What Happened?

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
Lani Guinier, Harvard Law School
Catharine A. MacKinnon, University of Michigan Law School
Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School
Judith Resnik, Yale Law School
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, (NY-28th District)
Jamia Wilson, Women’s Media Center

Responders: What Does Anita Hill Mean to You?
Rha Goddess, Move the Crod
Melissa Harris-Perry, Tulane University
Maria Hinojosa, NOW on PBS (Moderator)
Emily May, Hollaback!
Ai-Jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance
Joanne N. Smith, Girls for Gender Equality

Special Lunchtime Discussions

Special Lunchtime discussions hosted by:
American Association of University Women
ACLU Women’s Rights Project
Girls for Gender Equity
Stop Street Harassment
Third Wave Foundation

Keynote Address
Introduction: Patricia J. Williams, Columbia University

Anita Hill
Professor of Law, Public Policy and Women’s Studies
Heller Graduate School of Policy and Management
Brandeis University

What Have We Learned in 20 Years And What Comes Next?
Devon Carbado, UCLA School of Law
Kimberlé Crenshaw, The African American Policy Network
Kathleen Peratis, Outten & Golden, LLP. (Moderator)
Gloria Steinem, Co-founder of Ms. Magazine
Virginia Valian, Hunter College
Julie Zeilinger, FBomb

Closing Remarks
Vita Rabinowitz, Hunter College

“Speaking Truth to Power”A performance
Co-Curated by Eve Ensler and Purva Panday Cullman.
The performance will include original works written by:
Edwidge Danticat
Asali Devan Ecclesiastes
Eve Ensler
Deborah Copaken Kogan
Lisa Kron
Lynn Nottage
Mary Oliver
Kevin Powell
Hope Anita Smith

Andrea Plaid and I will be running around trying to make sure we cover a little bit of everything – but since there is so much of a convergence in NYC, is anyone down for a meet up on that following Sunday, morning or afternoon? Indicate your interest in the comments.

ETA: The meet-up will be at Jing Fong at noon on Sunday, 10/16. The details about the eatery, including which trains to catch to get there, are here. I know I said this in the Comments Section, but I added it here, too, so this info doesn’t get lost in the thread. Thanks!–AJP

So, a hilarious interlude.

Today marks our brand new ads. They are prettily situated at the top and sides of the site, and will soon be in the bottom of each post. Please enable ads, I would love to stop having Dreamhost stop threatening to shut down the site because we’re late on our hosting. There will be no take your screen hostage ads – everything is programmed to be banners or sidebar.  We are with the RawStory ad network, and the ads as nice looking as they promised. However, there is one catch – the ads are still as random as the ones in your Gmail inbox.

So, while we were testing them, we spotted:

• Kiva Microloans
• Some water charity
• BP Oil Spill Response
• Albertson’s Grocery Store
• Interracial Dating web site
• Russian Love Match
• US Army “Wake Up” Call
• Square Credit Card Swiper Thingy
• Forex Trading
• Progressive Change Campaign Committee
• Dove Body Wash
• Downy Fabric Softener

Most of you have noticed that there are 20 duplicate link posts on site and in our feeds. Delicious is set up to autopublish links to the website once a day – somehow, during the night, it’s switched over to once an hour.

I’ve deleted the job request in Delicious that autopublishes, but that hasn’t helped – I’ve also sent an email to customer service, and received an automated email saying they will attend to the matter in 24 hours.

Outside of that, I’m at a loss for what to do. I’ve asked techie friends to weigh in on how to stop a 3rd party site from publishing directly to ours – if readers have any ideas let me know.

Until then, bear with us while this is being resolved, and we apologize for the inconvenience. – LDP

Hello Dear Readers,

It’s time once again to update you on Latoya’s personal hell, also known as our seemingly endless Beta phase.

What’s New?

So you’ll see two new things popping up this week.

The first is already live. Notice a little box popping up, or seeing little pushpins on articles?

That’s ReadrBoard, a creation by my friend Porter. He’s already made some cool tools that focused on online engagement, so when he asked for our help in testing this one, I said yes. ReaderBoard is designed to essentially be a better comments system – it allows you to pinpoint line by line your reaction to an article, and then share it across your social networks. It’s being demoed with other sites, like DailyCandy, but most are politically focused or consumer focused. Porter wondered if this kind of thing would work with our audience, so I agreed to give it a try out.

I’m interested in seeing how you all will engage with this tech – I’m not looking at a Disqus replacement, but there’s been some feedback over the years about articles being long, and this may help people who are a bit intimidated by our comments section to weigh in a bit more, and hopefully make it easier to share things you like. Also, I customized the stock phrases (Provocative/Problematic/Cosign/THIS!) to the things you all say most often. And, as always, you can drop longer ideas into the comments section. So let me know how you like it!

Also coming soon – our first ad network. No idea how this is gonna work, but we will see. I haven’t gotten any feedback from Care2 yet on if their little widget is doing anything, so we are going to try out an official network to see if it works. If not, we’ll see about creating something that will allow direct sale ads that won’t crash the site.

Setbacks.

The podcast still. Finally, there is content – I just ran out of time to put it together last week. Crossing our fingers for this week…

Also, our fabulous tech man Philip has said farewell to freelancing. We are alone on a hostile digital sea, with no webmaster!

Victory!

Porter is installing the freaking ad networks, so at least I can stop worrying about that and go back to writing stuff.

As always, stay tuned for more updates. I’m cooking up a digital engagement piece for the site that should be fun, and more stuff before the year is out.

We are looking for talented media entrepreneurs to participate in a start-up camp and pitch slam! The benefit: Four people will walk away with $10,000 for their idea – and did I mention, it’s going to be in Vegas? The catch: You have to be a member of one of the UNITY organizations.(But there’s still time to pitch and join!)

The New U: News Entrepreneurs Working Through UNITY is a competitive program for journalists of color who want to become entrepreneurs. It supports and helps grow the creative ideas of participants through a national “startup camp”. In addition to offering a unique formula based in training and one-on-one mentoring, the program includes a competition for start-up funding to assist media entrepreneurs in realizing their ideas.

Since its inception in 2010, a total of 16 fellows, members of AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ and NAJA, have learned about entrepreneurship and had an opportunity to pitch their ideas to a carefully-selected group of mentors, panelists and guest financial experts. In fall 2010, the participants’ video pitches were voted on by their industry peers, and 4 of the 16 participants– one from each of UNITY’s alliance partner organizations – each won $5,000 in seed money to further their entrepreneurial ideas.

In 2011, The New U project will offer one group training start-up camp for 20 selected fellows in Las Vegas that will convene October 17-19 of 2011. New U’s leadership team and returning mentors remain committed to its mission of increasing the number of innovative thinkers and product developers who are of color, providing them with a forum in which to develop and express innovative ideas. Participants’ travel expenses are covered through the grant, as is the cost of the program, and award grants for 2011 will increase to $10,000 per winner, of which there will be four.

Go here to review application process and apply for the 2011 New U Fellowship.

Deadline is NEXT WEEK: August 26th. So apply. Even if you just have an idea, looking at the form will help you flesh it out – and it may be a stronger idea than you think!

Also, some disclosures: Doug is a good friend of mine, and I am also participating in this camp as a presenter. (The panel I will present to the fellows has a working title of “Things I Wish I Had Known Before Trying to Launch a Business.”)

—

Elected Officials and Women’s Advocacy Organizations Hold Press Conference In Support Of Nafissatou Diallo

Request Continuation of Manhattan Criminal Case; Demand Public Scrutiny of Victim Cease

New York, NY— On May 14, 2011, former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with the sexual assault of 32-year-old Nafissatou Diallo, a Guinean housekeeper at the Sofitel New York Hotel in New York City.

By May 19, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on seven criminal counts, two of which are first-degree criminal sexual acts. His bail was set at $1M, with additional 24-hour home detention and an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. After Mr. Strauss-Kahn turned over his passport and posted an additional $5M bail bond, he was placed under house arrest in Manhattan. On July 1, a special hearing was called in which Manhattan District Attorney prosecutors cited credibility issues in regards to Ms. Diallo’s background, and released Ms. Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance. He was arraigned on June 6, and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

As these events have unfolded, media outlets have used alleged sources from the Manhattan DA’s office to imply that the criminal case against Mr. Strauss-Kahn was unstable. These same alleged sources have been used to paint Ms. Diallo as a prostitute and a con artist, as well as accuse her of lying in her application for asylum in the United States, and for describing a false gang rape in Guinea.

Following Ms. Diallo’s accusations against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French writer also filed rape charges accusing Mr. Strauss-Kahn. In fact, the writer’s mother, who previously had a consensual relationship with Mr. Strauss-Kahn, described him as “a predator who isn’t looking to please, but to take.” A French newspaper later published claims that Mr. Strauss-Kahn harassed female flight attendants of Air France to such a degree that the airline instituted a policy of placing male attendants on his flights.

Public scrutiny of women who accuse men of rape is itself a manifestation of misogyny. In this particular case, the fact that the accused is wealthy, politically connected, and white; while the accuser is poor, non-white, and immigrant suggests that there are other social factors at play. The public “leaking” of confidential information regarding the criminal case (if these alleged sources are legitimate) directly interferes with the ongoing criminal case, and is unfair to all involved.

GOALS– Urge the Manhattan DA to look at the facts of the case, as well as the Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s history of conduct. Cease leaking of information pertaining to the case. Take into STRONG consideration Ms. Diallo’s medical report which includes testimony consistent with what the accuser told police, and which lists the cause of injuries as “rape”.

On August 16, medical reports which are consistent with Ms. Diallo’s testimony to police, and which lists the cause of injury as “rape”, were leaked. Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys allege that the report is “misleading and deceitful”.

WHEN: August 18, 2011

5:00PM- 7:00PM

WHERE: the steps of City Hall

Interested? Contact (212) 788-7081.

This all started with J*Davey.

The first sunny morning I experienced in San Francisco, right before I went to hang with the Wikipedians, I checked my email and was treated to a free download of Jack and Brook’s cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit“.

Little did I know that later in the year I would get a chance to try to contextualize the impact of Nevermind, and Nirvana, and I would do it in the pages of Spin thanks to my awesome editor Charles Aaron. (The magazine is on newsstands now, page 45, and in digital form.)

My pitch for a piece exploring the 90s, and cultural angst was accepted, and the opening paragraph of my pitch was so well received it ended up as the opening for the article. But when I sat down to research, I realized I was making some assumptions about writing on culture that weren’t going to bear out. And after interviewing J*Davey, Jeff Chang, Laina Dawes, Allison Wolfe, Simon Tam, Mimi Thi Nguyen, Frannie Kelley, and Felix Contreras, I realized I had an 8,000 word draft that had to fit into a 2,000 word space. So a lot of really amazing thoughts – especially thoughts that veered a bit too far from the angst theme we eventually settled on – ended up on the cutting room floor. What’s the deal with Generation X? What did NWA and Nirvana have in common? How did corporatization impact the grunge movement? Did the grunge movement push out black rockers? I could have written a dozen other articles based on the stories people told me, but alas, print has space limits.

Still, I wanted to share with you all a bit of the overflow. Fun quotes and discussions after the jump.

Jeff Chang is consistently amazing as an interview subject. Every time I’ve interviewed him, he’s just given me a solid 30 minutes of amazing quotes, which always makes me want to die when I have to edit them down. He’s in the final version of the piece, talking about the mood of so-termed Generation X (a designation he called “bullshit”) and and movements. But here’s what he said about Nirvana and NWA:

Nirvana and NWA, to me, are both sides of the same coin. So it wasn’t ever surprising to me that you have Nirvana fans listening to NWA and NWA fans listening to Nirvana. I am also not surprised that both came out of the West Coast, both movements kind of being ignored by the East Coast establishment. These movements came out and said “here’s who the fuck we are” so in a strange way they were kind of parallel.

Chang also talked about the moment he discovered Nirvana:

My Nevermind moment came before Nevermind. I saw Sonic Youth at the Cress Theater or something in Seattle.And this guy comes on stage with long hair, just trashing it out, and I was like “Who are these guys?” They were primal, really primal. They must have gone through all of Bleach. They played “Love Buzz” and it was one of those moments when you weren’t listening, you were inside the song. I didn’t see Kurt’s face the entire time – just his hair. But the emotional pull was so powerful, it was almost like you could feel inside Kurt’s pores – you were just there. And I still get that feeling now. Even when I listen to his music now, I get that feeling.

With Hendrix, you admire his virtuosity. But you never feel like you can be him. With Janis, you could never be her. With Jim, you never wanted to be him. They were all martyrs for the rock and roll cause, but they still felt distant. But when Kurt died, it was like we all died. You just wanted to protect him because you could have been him. His work was always rich because it was within reach, it was always accessible, emotionally accessible. He didn’t feel like a distant rock god or goddess. Kurt was ours.

A lot of people probably feel the same way about Kurt that they do about Tupac. Kurt was the person you could be, but Tupac was the kid down the street that you loved. Maybe it’s the same thing.

I also got to speak to Jack Davey and Brook D’leau of J*Davey, via Skype, which is always cool. Jack made it in, but I had to cut Brook, even though he had some interesting insights on our changing culture.

Brook D’Leau:

Over the last 15 or 20 years or so since the internet has emerged, it’s this huge abyss of everything and nothing. There are more critics, a lot more people to say something about something. So there are a lot of artists walking on eggshells [to please critics] but that’s delusional. These [critics] are people in their homes, living their life on the internet and it can be trying for artists affected by popular opinion. Anything that has some substance or any real meaning, they don’t like to market it because it will be offensive to someone. Everyone’s so PC right now, so anything that bucks the system stands out. Everything is so homogenized right now. The trends now – I mean the internet gives you access to the new trend, but there aren’t a lot of people standing firm in their selves.

Then I asked both Brook and Jack if they thought there would ever be another Nevermind:

Jack: I think so…I think people are at their wits end and are waiting for someone to wipe the slate clean. You know, it’s like the Rapture…we don’t have a date for it, but it’s coming. People are opening their minds to it, but it’s really going to take someone very persuasive, who can carefully break down these constraints called political correctness. Once people are doing being PC, we can open our minds to a new Nevermind.

Brook: I think the reason why a band like Nirvana was able to do what they did at that magnitude was because they didn’t take themselves seriously, they didn’t take society seriously – all they knew was what was inside of them. Nirvana was successful because they didn’t care what the hell else was going on. if more people did that, we’d actually have something.

I wanted to interview some Riot Grrls for the piece, since they were such a huge part of that movement. Kathleen Hanna declined, pointing me to a video where she said she had already answered most of these questions. I suppose that’s one of the problems with doing a piece on something so well known – everyone tangentially related to Nirvana has been interviewed millions of times between 1994 and now. But I did get in contact with Allison Wolfe, the self-proclaimed “riot granny” from Bratmobile, who took time out from her ridiculous schedule to talk to me on the phone about various things. Her memory of Nevermind was hilarious – I think part of this quote made it in, but here’s the whole one:

I remember thinking [the Nevermind album] was the beginning of the end. Like, there goes the neighborhood! Everything that was so fun, home-grown, community supportive, and stimulating was about to go McGrunge. I loved Nirvana, but I could see it was something no longer special to our community. They were great, but their audiences got worse and worse as they expanded. There was no longer a place for us politically minded girls. Well, there probably never was, but we inserted ourselves in there anyway, and I think those bands valued us. I remember Nirvana’s first big show at the Paramount in Seattle, just before Nevermind’s release. Bikini Kill and Mudhoney opened, and a bunch of us riot grrls went up to the show. A lot of people backstage treated us girls badly. We weren’t taken seriously. In that arena, Bikini Kill wasn’t taken seriously either. [...]

My [twin] sister told me she was at a Nirvana show once after they got really huge and was just getting pummeled. It was not a safe place for women. And they played “Rape Me,” all these sweaty shirtless guys screaming rape me and being pushed around – and she was just like I’m done. And she went backstage and told Kurt and he was really upset – [he kept saying] “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do. And I always remember that story. After a while, it gets out of everyone’s control, even the creators.

Wolfe and I got to talking, and I told her how I was being informed by other things during the grunge era – mostly hip hop and the women there. (I was aware of grunge and riot grrl, but it was really limited to what I heard at my friends houses on on Top 40 radio – I didn’t really embrace rock until 1997.) So we got into a side convo on women in hip hop:

A large part of erasure is women being written out of history. There were so many amazing women hip hop artists – Yo Yo, Monie Love, MC Lyte, Roxane Shante, Queen Latifah, Salt-n-Pepa, just like real people with real message, singing about real things. It definitely had style and flair and sexuality, but there was a lot more to it as well. And at the same time with Public Enemy – there was so much cool and engaged hip hop. It was something that really inspired me and my friends in riot grrls. But women have just been brushed under the rug.

We even talked about backlash and corporate power, a theme that kept coming up time and time again.

I think [the move away from politics in music] is backlash. People in power don’t like to feel like they are out of control. In the early 90s there was so much energy, a kind of rebel spirit in all of these things. But mass culture in the end has to control it, defang it, declaw it, and spit it back out as a product. So in the end it’s just a fad. [...] So you think you’re political, but it’s just a fad. And suddenly we’re post. Post-feminist. Post-racial. Like anything has really changed. Things have gotten better, but there’s still racism, classism, sexism – women are still ending up in ditches. Dead women are still the opening on TV shows.

I then asked Wolfe about an interview she gave to Church of Girl where she said “I don’t want my entertainment/culture/scene just co-opted and sold back to me by Clear Channel or MTV.” We talked a bit about watered down versions of empowerment – I mean, I was a Spice Girls feminist, but yes, it was equal parts marketing message and feminist pop cultural discourse. Wolfe contextualized the shift like this:

I think about when I was in middle school, who was I crying over? Duran Duran. I’d much rather girls be crying over the Spice Girls instead of these guys they can’t obtain. I mean, I’m like Riot Granny – but I’m in a band now with these young girls who know about everything. And they think it’s funny because they don’t know about these obscure bands – but they just troll YouTube all day and discover so much stuff. So in a way it’s kinda cool that they have access to all these historical things…but sometimes I wonder if it’s too easy, that they don’t struggle for these things or experience them live, or amass these experiences where you discover bands because you played for them.

I also wanted to talk to folks outside of the sphere of grunge. When I first started researching for the article (back when I thought it was going to be about suicide narratives, Kurt Cobain and Notorious BIG, and how race plays into attitudes about suicide), I just did a quick search on black kids and Nirvana. I figured someone had to have written about the impact of Cobain on brown kids in the suburbs, right? Wrong! This article may exist somewhere, but it isn’t on the internet. So I started reaching out to black rockers to ask their memories and perceptions. Rob Fields, friend of the blog and creator of Bold As Love offered his thoughts, and also put me in touch with Greg Tate of the Black Rock Coalition. Unfortunately, Tate got back to me too late to be in the article, and I had to cut Rob, but one day I want to circle back to his last thought:

In terms of memories associated with Nevermind, it was definitely a combination of that video for Smells Like Teen Spirit and the music itself. I remember seeing a lot of videos on “The Box” back then, and it had this whole, gauzy Matt Mahurin look to it. The cheerleaders with the scrawled circled A on their uniforms suggested something slightly demonic. Musically, the thing that I immediately noticed–and always loved–was that rumbling bassline. It always sounded kinda black to me.

The impact on black rockers? I remember a lot of folks in the BRC really loving it. It was a big album that fall and into 92, so everybody seemed to be listening to it. But in terms of other musicians, I feel like what was really exciting us was that it seemed to be a moment in which black rock bands might break through. We were hopeful. Here’s what I can remember: Living Colour released their Biscuits EP that year. Fishbone released The Reality of My Surroundings. Lenny Kravitz’s Mama Said came out that year. The Family Stand released the critically acclaimed Moon In Scorpio. Eric Gales had his first release on Elektra. Sony released Eye & I’s debut album. 24-7 Spyz would release Strength in Numbers in the summer of 92. My point is that there was a lot of black rock bands that seemed to be on the verge of breaking through. We were more hopeful that things would change for the better, and it had very little to do with Cobain & company. To be fair, though, the focus on Seattle grunge probably pulled critical attention away from bands like Spyz and Fishbone.

Metal critic Laina Dawes, who did end up in the piece, also noted the expression that allowed Cobain to resonate with so many people would have been blocked from the mouths from those designated as others:

When Nevermind came out, it seemed like the perfect blend of rebellious, angry punk, macho heavy metal and youthful disillusionment. I had a friend who was a die-hard, Joe-Jock metalhead, yet he was able to tap into the feminine, sensitive side of Kurt Cobain’s lyrics, loved him in an almost homoerotic sense, and who sobbed like a child when Cobain died. Nevermind was really the voice of that generation of youth who didn’t buy what Regan had tried to sell; who didn’t want to become their parents whom they….not despised, but felt like they sold their souls for a rigid conformity that only the youth could see was a bullshit, soulless existence. Unlike today, that era seemed to legitimately know and believe that making money was not going to bring them emotional or spiritual happiness – something that we, in this age, seemed to have conveniently forgotten. That generation questioned authority – not through violence, but by looking to popular culture’s elders and sub-dwellers; by reading books and lyrics from people whom they seemed to feel had the key to enlightenment. While simplistic, that act of investigation through developing one’s knowledge and questioning authority in a non-aggressive manner, seems to have been totally lost in this age of technology.

As a young black girl, I didn’t quite get the angst on Nevermind, as I knew that Cobain, despite his poverty-stricken childhood and physical ailments ( some self-inflicted, some not), had more societal privilege than I would ever have. But I appreciated the effort, and the music was so diverse and enraptured so many different kinds of people and thoughts, that you were allowed to take from it what you could to suit your specific existence, and run with it. After all, his lyrics tapped into a vulnerability that transcended across racial and gender lines. But some had the luxury of speaking about it openly and garnering a legion of fans who would be their to and others were chastised for it. I was always well aware of the contradictions.

And finally, the cut that hurt the worst, was leaving our blog home girl Mimi Thi Nguyen out of the final product when I adored what she had to say:

I remember the ’90s through something of a static screen; it was the time of my pop culture blackout, since I imagined myself to be too punk to care. I recall that I worried that post-Reagan (and the first Bush), that our political and cultural labors would lose their urgency under the more liberal face of the Clinton administration. Indeed, in the ’90s, we witnessed a raft of draconian measures targeting immigrant populations, youth of color. I was also a women’s health care activist and organizer and a clinic defender, and some of the worst violence against clinics and abortion providers happened in the ’90s (clinic bombings and several murders), as well as the emergence of new legal tactics to restrict access to women’s healthcare. I suppose I saw this mirrored in the mainstreaming of independent music too. By the time Nevermind came out, I was already invested in punk, and not a fan of the Sub Pop sound, and no doubt a critic of the corporate music industry when I bothered to consider it at all. I didn’t feel that Nirvana or Nevermind had anything to do with me, frankly.

The memory I most associate with Nirvana is the cover of a 1994 Maximumrocknroll (issue 133), featuring a closely cropped photograph of a gun barrel inside someone’s mouth with the headline, “Major Labels: Some Of Your Friends Are Already This Fucked.” At the time, I worked at the not-for-profit record store Epicenter Zone, located in the Mission District, which was affiliated loosely with the magazine, and I remember too that we were all shocked when Cobain killed himself — with a gunshot.

I don’t even know what ’90s fashion is; I was dressed in black for most of that decade. I was never into grunge as either a sartorial or musical style, but I would hazard that grunge as a fashion or anti-fashion statement emerged from thrifting as scavenging practice for anti-corporate cultures. I know that grunge became commercialized in the ’90s, alongside the music, though again I plead pop culture blackout. (Ugh, plaid.) The 2010 revival did not appear to bear this particular historical memory, but perhaps I’m wrong; perhaps it did hold out hope for some semblance of an “authentic” way of being.

I remember the ’90s as an outsider in an outsider subculture. Over the course of the decade, I found that it was too late to save punk rock for me. I still have what I consider to be punk-rock reflex, but my identification was made precarious and partial especially in confrontation with punk rock’s whiteness, its masculinist bent, and its often reactionary politics and aesthetics. (Once a straight, white punk boy wrote a song about wanting to rape me. Just another reason why I made the compilation zines …Race Riot, about race and racism in subcultures.) Throughout the ’90s, I learned over and again that punk rock was as contentious a cultural, political and social sphere as any other. For me, punk rock was not an exception to the rule, to the so-called “mainstream,” and neither are punk rockers.

I wrote this in a column for Punk Planet: Does my presence necessarily or automatically critique punk rock hegemony? Did the presence of women in punk rock mean that riot grrrl did not fundamentally tear at the social fabric of unquestioned masculinity and privilege in punk? Does the fact of Latino or Asian American or black or queer participation within the span of punk rock history negate the mountainous evidence of racisms and homophobia? (Answer to all of the above: NO.) Without downplaying the complex acrobatics of identifying, what are the terms and logic of inclusion? What do I have to look like, act like, speak like, in order that I might become one of the gang? Or consider: do you read my presence as a reaffirmation (to your relief) of your punk rock (and Americanist) bootstrap ideology of exceptionalism and self-made individuals? “Oh, she’s different than the others.” (That’s not my idea of a compliment.)

I wish all this could have fit, but I had to find a way to squeeze in disco, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, Rickie Vasquez, Aeon Flux, and emo. I also couldn’t get a firm bead on Nirvana and the Rock en español movement that Felix Contreras pointed me toward. Such are the issues with time limits and space. But hopefully, I’ll get a chance to revisit it some day.

Please help support – check out the issue, buy a copy, and help keep our voices in the cultural conversation.

From Jen Chau and Susan Lambe:

Are you the parent of a multiracial youth between the ages of 3-22? Participate in an online survey for the opportunity to win one of two $100 Amazon gift certificates! Get started here.

Are you the parent of a multiracial high schooler (9th-12th grade)? They may be eligible to participate in an in-person 1-1 interview and a short survey that last approximately 60 minutes, and will be given a $20.00 Amazon gift certificate for their participation. E-mail Susan Lambe at multiracialyouthstudy@gmail.com for more info.

Go to their website for more information.

Friend of the blog Bao Phi sent this in:

The Asian Pacific Islander American Spoken Word Poetry Summit 2011 takes place in the Twin Cities August 4-7! It is a biennial gathering of Asian Pacific Islander American community artists and activists.

The Summit is a space intended specifically for artists and activists who self-identify as Asian American, Asian, and/or Pacific Islander. These definitions are inclusive of West Asian (Middle Eastern), South Asian, LGBTT and Multi-Racial peoples.

You do NOT have to be a spoken word artist to register! If you are an APIA community member who is interested in arts and activism, you’ll love the Summit.

Registration is required for all events except Saturday’s show, which we will sell public tickets for. *But* if you register, the cost includes *all* Summit events including Saturday’s big show!

Here’s what the $25 registration gets you:

*Admission to all three Summit showcases
*Admission to all Summit workshops and plenaries
*Admission to the two after-parties featuring food, wine and beer cash bar, and music by DJ Nak!

The Summit includes workshops, performances, and participation from Lawson Fusao Inada, Brenda Wong Aoki, Joe Kadi, David Mura, Beau Sia, Regie Cabico, Parag Khandhar, Kelly Tsai, YaliniDream, Robert Karimi, Ed Bok Lee, Tou Saiko Lee, Guante, Juliana Hu Pegues, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Jane Kim, Christy NaMee Eriksen, Catzie and Michelle of Yellow Rage, DJ Nak, Sahra Nguyen, Bao Phi, Giles Li, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and many, many more.

REGISTER! https://www.loft.org/summit-registration

If you’d like to volunteer for Summit in exchange for free registration, please contact Eva at evalynnsong@gmail.com

For more info, go to apiasummit.com

Still playing around with things. This week’s experiments:

• Used Vector Magic to smooth out the logo, since it was annoying all the graphic designers who read the blog.
• Partnered with Care2 on their widget, which will provide us with revenue.  After learning from Clarion West, we realized we needed to fix infrastructure on the site before attempting direct ad sales again.  This widget is a nice test to see how that works – one, it’s a social issue focused widget.  We essentially are paid from you all taking action on different petitions and items, and I think you will be asked to sign up to other people’s mailing lists. (This is all voluntary.) Eventually, you will see that Care2 widget at the bottom of each post – at the moment, it’s only in the sidebar.  We’re also hunting for a good ad network, let us know if you’ve seen any sites where you like their ads/layout.
• We are prepping for September rollouts of various things.  So I’m going to be playing around a lot in the sidebar doing promotional stuff. Be forewarned.
• Added most of our contributor books to the sidebar, as well as the book club landing page.

Things we are still working on:

• Accessibility check – Holler if you’re having problems with sizing arrangement now that we’ve changed the margins.
• Apple users – All my mobile devices are Android. So if you are using an iPad or iPhone let me know if things start looking weird. I’ve got a plug-in that’s supposed to auto-format these things, but you know how it goes.

After this is done, we will continue working on:

• The podcast. Still.
• Site survey. Still.
• Bringing back the newsletter. Oy.
• Business updates.  Renina and I had a chat on twitter about making the process more transparent for digital entrepreneurs, so I’ll see if that’s a good fit here and will talk about it.
• Email – I finally got Boomerang for Gmail, so I am running through the inbox now.  Hoping to start August with Racialicious Inbox Zero.

Thanks for standing by, leave your comments/suggestions/complaints in the box below.

Racializen and playwright Shawn Harris will premiere her play, Tulpa, or Anne and Me, this Thursday, June 2, at NYC’s Robert Moss Theater, the eco-friendly performance space located at 440 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. The show starts at 6PM.

Tulpa, or Anne&Me explores a strange friendship that begins with an artist whose lonely world gets turned upside down when Anne Hathaway crawls out of her television. As their friendship blossoms, they begin to examine how race impacts their lives as women, as friends, and as human beings.

The 90-minute show will also run on these dates:

• Friday, June 3rd @ 4:00PM
• Thursday, June 16 at 8:00PM
• Sunday, June 19th @ 8:15PM

The play’s proceeds will benefit the anti-racism organization People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. While anticipating the show, you can follow behind-the-scenes convos about it, check out the show’s musical inspirations, and much more here and here!