Keeping It Queer

A genderqueer person of color trying to figure stuff out. Willing to share some of my thoughts but with no grand illusions that what I say helps anyone but me.
anti-oppressivebabyanimals: [IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A BABY MEERKAT STANDS UPRIGHT ON A DIRT SURFACE AS IT LOOKS FORWARD WITH LARGE, DARK EYES. TEXT READS, “THE ‘M’ IN ‘FTM’ DOES NOT STAND FOR MISOGYNY.”] THE TEXT IN THE POST IS DERIVED FROM THE POWERFUL POEM “TRANS/NATIONAL” BY JANANI BALASUBRAMANIAN. A VIDEO WITH AUDIO OF JANANI PERFORMING THE PIECE CAN BE FOUND HERE AND A TRANSCRIPT CAN BE FOUND HERE.  YOU CAN ALSO CHECK OUT JANANI’S BLOG HERE! or should not and often does not anyway.

anti-oppressivebabyanimals:

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A BABY MEERKAT STANDS UPRIGHT ON A DIRT SURFACE AS IT LOOKS FORWARD WITH LARGE, DARK EYES. TEXT READS, “THE ‘M’ IN ‘FTM’ DOES NOT STAND FOR MISOGYNY.”]

THE TEXT IN THE POST IS DERIVED FROM THE POWERFUL POEM “TRANS/NATIONAL” BY JANANI BALASUBRAMANIAN. A VIDEO WITH AUDIO OF JANANI PERFORMING THE PIECE CAN BE FOUND HERE AND A TRANSCRIPT CAN BE FOUND HERE. 

YOU CAN ALSO CHECK OUT JANANI’S BLOG HERE!

or should not and often does not anyway.

gorgonetta:

[Self-portraits by Carrie Mae Weems, Käthe Kollwitz, Judy Baca, and Frida Kahlo, text “Never apologize for selfies”]

Wanted to get modern women artists and some WOC up in this one.  If you reblog it would be cool if you kept the part in the brackets so these artists, two of whom are still working, will get credit—this conversational part below is nbd.

(via unheardofsongs)

Even the argument that ‘the presence of a penis would trigger the women’ is flawed because it neglects the fact that white skin is just as much a reminder of violence as a penis

—

Whose Feminism Is It Anyway? The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate by Emi Koyama (via sage-power)

i need to find this entire piece! nao!

(via sheknowshowtofly)

Here is the whole essay!

(via noetherian)

(via genderfork)

theatlantic: How Cuban Villagers Learned They Descended From Sierra Leone Slaves Even the Afro-Cubans who kept alive the songs and dances of this specific chiefdom had lost all knowledge of where they originated. Only by a long and arduous search, and with a great amount of luck, did my thousands of informants lead me here, where on my first visit the people looked at my screen in utter astonishment, said “they are we,” and then joined in with the songs. Read more. [Image: They Are We] “There is a pervasive idea that Africans are generally unmoved by the fate of the descendants of slaves throughout the Americas. That belief is born largely of the tragedy that the vast majority of Africa’s diaspora have little left of the specific languages, cultures, or beliefs that would tie them to a particular place of origin. The utter callousness of slavery, the endless destruction of families, and the sheer weight of the decades since have all attenuated much that originally crossed the ocean with their forebears. In the absence of those ties, some African-Americans have gone to central sites of commemoration, such as Gorée Island or Cape Coast Castle, looking for all that has been lost. Those who hoped for an individual connection to the motherland have sometimes reported these places rather disappointing. They are tourist sites, after all. What’s more, dark skin is here the norm, so it does little by itself to symbolize kinship or affinity if not bolstered by shared language, culture or experience.Pokawa and his people have, by contrast, found some of their lost kin in the Americas. This tiny group of people in Cuba — a country they had scarcely heard of—singing and dancing their songs, was a gift from God.”

theatlantic:

How Cuban Villagers Learned They Descended From Sierra Leone Slaves

Even the Afro-Cubans who kept alive the songs and dances of this specific chiefdom had lost all knowledge of where they originated. Only by a long and arduous search, and with a great amount of luck, did my thousands of informants lead me here, where on my first visit the people looked at my screen in utter astonishment, said “they are we,” and then joined in with the songs.

Read more. [Image: They Are We]

“There is a pervasive idea that Africans are generally unmoved by the fate of the descendants of slaves throughout the Americas. That belief is born largely of the tragedy that the vast majority of Africa’s diaspora have little left of the specific languages, cultures, or beliefs that would tie them to a particular place of origin. The utter callousness of slavery, the endless destruction of families, and the sheer weight of the decades since have all attenuated much that originally crossed the ocean with their forebears. In the absence of those ties, some African-Americans have gone to central sites of commemoration, such as Gorée Island or Cape Coast Castle, looking for all that has been lost. Those who hoped for an individual connection to the motherland have sometimes reported these places rather disappointing. They are tourist sites, after all. What’s more, dark skin is here the norm, so it does little by itself to symbolize kinship or affinity if not bolstered by shared language, culture or experience.

Pokawa and his people have, by contrast, found some of their lost kin in the Americas. This tiny group of people in Cuba — a country they had scarcely heard of—singing and dancing their songs, was a gift from God.”

(via zenjamaican)

likeafieldmouse:

Roman Opalka

Opalka shot 50 self portraits over the course of 40 years, each one immediately upon the completion of one of his numerical Infinity paintings. He died in 2011. 

(via queerio19)

mohandasgandhi: thefreelioness: “As of today, I’ve spent more than 11 years in Guantánamo Bay. To be precise, it’s been 4,084 long days and nights. I’ve never been charged with any crime. I’ve never been allowed to see the evidence that the US once pretended they had against me. It’s all secret, even the statements they tortured out of me.” - Shaker Aamer, held in Guantánamo prison since 2002, cleared for release six years ago. Aamer has been on hunger strike for 70 days. Read his op-ed. This hunger strike has been going on since February 6th and there’s a category of detainees designated by the U.S. government, which includes 46 people, who will never be tried for their alleged crimes or released from Guantanamo Bay. Since Sunday (April 21st), 84 of the remaining 166 prisoners have joined the strike and 16 of them are being force-fed through tubes.

mohandasgandhi:

thefreelioness:

“As of today, I’ve spent more than 11 years in Guantánamo Bay. To be precise, it’s been 4,084 long days and nights. I’ve never been charged with any crime. I’ve never been allowed to see the evidence that the US once pretended they had against me. It’s all secret, even the statements they tortured out of me.” - Shaker Aamer, held in Guantánamo prison since 2002, cleared for release six years ago. Aamer has been on hunger strike for 70 days. Read his op-ed.

This hunger strike has been going on since February 6th and there’s a category of detainees designated by the U.S. government, which includes 46 people, who will never be tried for their alleged crimes or released from Guantanamo Bay. Since Sunday (April 21st), 84 of the remaining 166 prisoners have joined the strike and 16 of them are being force-fed through tubes.

(via unheardofsongs)

My BFF Coming out to her 89 Year old Grandmother

  • BFF: Grandmother I need to talk to you
  • Grandma: [concerned voice] What? What is it? Are you sick?
  • BFF: No, no. Grandma. I'm gay.
  • Grandma: What?
  • BFF: I'm gay Grandma. I have a girlfriend now.
  • Grandma: [relieved voice] Oh honey, is that all? I thought you had cancer. Anytime someone needs to tell me something they are sick. Who's your girlfriend, when is her birthday? I'll bake her a pie.

zenjamaican:

norwegianfeminism:

Tommie Smith & John Carlos - Black Power.

I met John Carlos at a socialist conference once. REALLY nice guy. I got an autographed copy of his biography for my dad :)

(Source: theyoungsocialist)