E of Q Review: The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America

The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America

By Michelle Tea

Foreward by Brandon Stosuy

Afterword by Eileen Myles

from Semiotext(e) Native Agents Series

Publisher: Semiotext(e) 

I got Passionate Mistakes… a couple months ago and it has been my companion most nights as a place to escape from the world around me. I have really appreciated the space it provides me to jump into someone else’s world and experience their problems.

Tea tells the story of growing up a young queer punk in Boston, which brings us all the likely tales of angst, rebellion and jealously. She writes about coming out, navigating life as a total freak that wants to clash with the world and eventually falling into a relationship which reeks of the worst emotional atrocities I see my friends going through every day. The whole story is woven with anecdotes about sex work, desires for queer sex and rebellion and the not so glits’ and glamour lifestyle of a poor kid growing up, with a big income and no future.

Passionate Mistakes… has been a welcome release from the anarchist theory and politics I previously read before bed. but lets be honest, insurgent writings about the crisis of everyday life doesn’t leave me with a clear head before bed.

I really appreciated Teas writing style, she is capable of sucking me in and leaving me with fading thoughts of her trip to Provincetown or her hot hook up with the dyke bartender. This was Michelle Teas first novel, followed by critically acclaimed Valencia and the graphic novel about sex work, Rent Girl. I know the publisher, Semiotext(e) more for their theory than their first person narratives, but I better understand their appreciation for writing after seeing the diversity of their books.

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Sexploratorium 2

 

Last week I sat down with Harlott Fever and Jayy Black, two of the three organizers  of Sexploratorium 2 which is a queer, trans, kink, sex and poly positive event happening in Guelph on November 12th.

This will be a day offering a collection of workshops exploring desires, sexualities and kinks. The day ends with a playful and erotic social event designed to provide participants with an opportunity to explore and engage with the ideas of the day. Sexploratorium2 is a safer, anti-oppressive and gender-inclusive event. Regardless of experience level, participants can expect to gain a deeper understanding of kinks, eroticism and themselves.

To find out more about the event and the workshops taking place check out the Facebook event page.  You can also check out Id Elixir’s website for more resources and information about past events.

Queer Discussions on Im/migration and Criminalization featuring NOII, QUAIA, and HAVOQ

On Wednesday September 28^th  at Beit Zatoun in Toronto, Ontario folks discussed recent struggles by Queer and Trans folks in Toronto and in San Fransisco.  The panel featured Craig Fortier from No One is Illegal – Toronto and Natalie Kouri-Towe from Queers against Israeli Apartheid.

They were joined by Li Morales, Molly Goldberg and Essex Lourdes from HAVOQ (Horizontally Aligned Very Organized Queers) who have been on tour launching their zine Undoing Borders: A Queer Manifesto reflecting on two years of collective organizing around migrant justice.

They spoke about recent victories like the community mobilization to stop the deportation of Alvaro Orozco and about the challenges of organizing against borders on occupied land.

Listen to the whole panel here:

Introduction by Gabi

Craig Fortier, No One is Illegal – Toronto

Natalie Kouri-Towe, Queers Against Israeli Aparthied

Molly, Essex and Li, Horizontally Alligned Very Organized Queers

Tags: borders, HAVOQ, immigration, israeli apartheid, migration, no one is illegal, Palestine, prison, queers, queers against israeli apartheid, settler

Undoing Borders: Queer Discussions on Im/migration and Criminalization

Essex, Li and Molly joined Earful of Queer live in studio to talk about their tour and their zine. The interview was followed by a short set by DJ BootyKlap.

Undoing Borders is a collective writing project that comes out of the Migrant Justice Work Group of San Francisco Pride at Work/HAVOQ (The Horizontal Alliance of Very Organized Queers). We first started organizing together in 2007 when a group of us formed a contingent to the US/Mexico No Borders Camp in Calexico/Mexicali. That summer, at an event to raise money for our trip south, we were asked for the first time a question we would hear again and again for years: What does being queer have to do with borders?
This document was born out of action and conversation, and our hope is that it will continue to live there. We’ve been sharing it with all of the incredible people we organize with here in the Bay Area, but we’d also like a chance to get feedback from people working in the many different locations and contexts across our border regions and the interior. Nothing beats a face-to-face conversation, so we’re taking this manifesto on the road!
This was done one month into their tour when they stopped in Guelph, Ontario.

Tags: borders, class, HAVOG, immigration, migrant justice, migration, Prison Resistance, Queer, race, status, undoing borders

Captive Genders for Prisoner Justice Day

Today on the Show, We interviewed Eric A. Stanley, one of two editors of a new book being released through AK Press on Sept. 1st, 2011 called Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. Our interview explores some of the articles and issues the book covers, relating to prisoner voices, The Toronto Bath house Raids and Riots and how interlocking oppressions play out in the prison experience.

Bio from Books Website: Eric A. Stanley works at the intersections of radical trans/queer politics, theories of state violence, and visual culture. Eric is currently finishing a PhD in the History of Consciousness department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and continues to organize with Gay Shame. Along with Chris Vargas, Eric is a co-director of the films Homotopia (2006) and Criminal Queers (2011).