I’ve seen more cops on my block in the past 24 hours than I have in months; a series of fights and muggings have brought them out in ever-increasing force, reminding me vividly that I have been wanting to write about violence, about crisis and trauma in communities, and all the ways we deal with those things. I’m thinking about this in the context of the US Social Forum and the Allied Media Conference on the horizon, the convergence of so many queer/POC/women-led groups doing powerful anti-violence work (lots of links embedded towards the end of this post), and also in the context of my own relationship to violence and safety as a white person, as a trans person, as a person with class privilege, as a person read as female, as a survivor. Continue reading “On crisis and community”
Conversation with Tiny for make/shift
Hello! I just got back from the Bay Area where among many things I had the pleasure of co-hosting a house party for POOR Magazine, and it reminded me that I should post that interview/conversation I did with Tiny in the last issue of make/shift. So here it is! Though you should really buy the magazine – you get lots of other amazing articles, plus an extra cute and dorky picture of me and Tiny.
Community Reparations Now! Tyrone Boucher and Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia Talk Revolutionary Giving, Class, Privilege, and More
Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia is the cofounder (with her late mama, Dee) of POOR Magazine, a grassroots arts and media-justice organization in San Francisco. Tiny and Dee were houseless for much of Tiny’s childhood, evading various systems that threatened to institutionalize, exploit, and incarcerate them. They survived and fought back by remaining fiercely dedicated to each other, creating independent microbusinesses to make ends meet, becoming underground avant-garde art celebrities, and creating POOR Magazine to make silenced voices of poor and indigenous people heard through media and art. Tiny tells their story in her 2006 memoir, Criminal of Poverty: Growing up Homeless in America (City Lights). Continue reading “Community Reparations Now! Tyrone Boucher and Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia Talk Revolutionary Giving, Class, Privilege, and More”
Hi, remember me?
Sorry for the lengthy silence. I’ve missed you! I’ve been thinking about so many Enough-related things lately – somehow I live this charmed life in which creative anti-capitalist projects and conversations surround me – and I’ve been wanting and planning to write about them all here, but, well – I haven’t. But I will! I guess I’ve been busy, with many things, some of which I am going to tell you about now. Also, let’s be real – it was winter, and sometimes winter can tend to drag on, and for some of us who are from Texas the lack of warmth and sunshine can have the effect of my life completely falling apart a slight decrease in productivity. But the sun is back and cherry blossoms are blooming all over Philadelphia, and I’ve been wearing shorts and sitting on my roof and planning a garden and I’ve been filled with joy and exuberance and also, of course, anticapitalist fervor. The feelings go hand in hand, really. We should make up a new word for anticapitalism, something positive, don’t you think? Because when I say I’m against capitalism, what I really mean is that I’m for, you know – liberation and people taking care of each other and collectivity and spiritual wholeness and cherry blossoms and such. Anyway, the point is, I really do believe in my heart that springtime = more writing on Enough. And that doesn’t just mean me and Dean, it means you too! Okay? Continue reading “Hi, remember me?”
A history of the Self Education Foundation
Hello dear Enough readers, I promise we haven’t abandoned you! I have a new piece to post, by the incomparable Jessica Hoffmann: The Practice of Freedom: A History of the Self Education Foundation.
The story of SEF has inspired me for years – they were a very small, very grassroots funding project run mostly by young women – organizers and activists who had few sources of individual wealth but shared an expansive vision of self-education that was rooted in social justice movements. None of the founders and organizers were traditional philanthropists – they just wanted to direct whatever resources they could to support the movements that inspired and sustained them. I’ve learned so much from being connected to some of the organizers of this project and hearing their reflections and anecdotes, and I’m very excited to be able to share this written history. Their story is especially inspiring in this era of professionalized social change work – SEF is a great example of what capitalism often makes us forget: that change is created by regular folks with vision and creativity, learning as we go, making mistakes, making up new models, taking risks, working together. Check it out.
The Practice of Freedom: A History of the Self Education Foundation
by Jessica Hoffmann
I don’t have a college degree. Though I was on the path to go to a private liberal-arts college out of high school, after a series of financial-aid-related bureaucratic snafus, I ended up one gray morning when I was 18 staring at a sheet of paper offering aid mostly in the form of loans. I’d been raised by a single mom whose finances were generally precarious and who was afraid of the credit game. She never had credit cards or car loans or a mortgage or anything like that when I was a kid, and so the loan concept felt unfamiliar and frightening to me. I was pretty much on my own in terms of finances and big decisions at that point in my life, handling the college/tuition stuff by myself, without any parental or other guidance, and trying to go to school in a small town where jobs were scarce. The idea of signing on to a bunch of debt made little sense to me. I thought: I can read and write, research and explore ideas, on my own; libraries are free, and the world is vast and full of lessons. I don’t need to go into debt for this. Continue reading “The Practice of Freedom: A History of the Self Education Foundation”
The politics of disaster relief
For more info on responsibly supporting Haiti, this article by Tim Wise breaks down some ideas in a way that might be helpful in talking friends or family out of making their donations through huge and/or U.S.-funded aid organizations: “The problem is that aid goes not to projects or services but first to service providers, the agencies themselves. And aid is power. Those who get more aid end up stronger than those who don’t.” Continue reading “The politics of disaster relief”
More Haiti resources
I walked into the gym this morning at 7am to find people gathered around a TV screen, weeping over the coverage of the most recent earthquake in Haiti early today. I can’t imagine what survivors must be going through.
Several people sent me these resources, and I wanted to share them here:
“As these important efforts are underway, we recommend that we also pause and ask the question: How can we intentionally support the long term sustainability and self determination of the Haitian people?”
ONE Petition to cancel Haiti’s debt
“Dear Finance Ministers, IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and bilateral creditors,As Haiti rebuilds from this disaster, please work to secure the immediate cancellation of Haiti’s $1 billion debt and ensure that any emergency earthquake assistance is provided in the form of grants, not debt-incurring loans.”
Haiti resources
As I’m sure is true for all of you, my heart is breaking over this new devastating human catastrophe made infinitely more desperate by poverty and imperialism – over all of the immediate suffering, as well as the all-too-likely possibility that this tragedy will be used by the U.S. and corporate interests to push forward even more brutal forms of capitalism in Haiti. I’m sure we’ve all been inundated with various links already, but I thought I’d consolidate a few that I’ve found helpful anyway. Continue reading “Haiti resources”
Anti-capitalism and spirituality
Have y’all seen the website Bolder Giving? It’s all about people who give away lots of money – like, way more of their money than is normally sanctioned by capitalist society. It’s not very explicitly political, but a lot of the profiles are really amazing and radical. Anyway, I participated in a conference call they hosted the other day because I thought it would be interesting to report back for Enough. It was a conversation with Tom Hsieh, a high earning executive who decided with his partner to live at or below the national median household income and give the rest of their family’s income away, which they’ve been doing for years. Continue reading “Anti-capitalism and spirituality”