HERE COMES MY BABY

FEELING ALL SORTS OF NOSTALGIC,
WITH THUNDERSTORMS COMES TREMENDOUS
FEELING

THIS WEEKEND (XO)

THE STATE EXISTS

SATURDAY IS THE BROOKLYN FOOD CONFERENCE AND ON SUNDAY WE WILL MARCH

There are over 150 panel discussions and cooking workshops at the conference this Saturday and you can only pick about four to attend! Yikes it's going to be difficult to decide! I definitely want to check out Milk Not Jails because they're my neighbors and are also good friends with my friend Andalusia (who works for Families for Freedom, small world). The organization has an amazing analysis of how to divest from prisons and instead invest in local, sustainable agriculture in rural upstate New York. I've been dreaming of gardening, earth-bending of sorts, and it will be good to meet like-minded folks who work with the community that I live in. There are a few community gardens in Bed-Stuy that I've been meaning to explore and the conference will surely be motivation to do so. Lately I've been thinking about how central food justice is to organizing through a racial justice framework, especially when it's mostly low-income, immigrant, and communities of color that are rapidly becoming urban food deserts. This is no accident.

On Sunday Mothers Resisting Racist Policing, a coalition of radical black and brown mothers have organized a Mother's Day march to denounce the prison industrial complex and the militarization of their lives. We will stand in solidarity with these women and their families, and continue to push back on excessive policing and racist profiling. The conference and march are part of Another City is Possible week of actions, so again we will take to the streets!

WHAT IS OURS

PHOTOS: Families For Freedom!

THE IMMIGRANT WORKER JUSTICE TOUR

The Immigrant Worker Justice Working Group threw down on May Day. It was beautiful, and I hope that our standing in solidarity with the Laundry Workers Center, Domestic Workers Alliance, Restaurant Opportunities Center, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (Community Farmworker Alliance in NYC), and the prison divestment campaigns (Families for Freedom) helped shed light on worker and immigrant struggles. If OWS is going to take a real stand against injustice and discrimination, we need to fight where our brothers and sisters are underpaid, overworked, harassed, and treating as being less than human. I can't believe we've been organizing and working towards May Day for the past five months. Between learning and unlearning, we need time to reflect and strategize on how to move forward. I will write more soon when I collect my thoughts and reorganize my energies. Until, I will float on knowing how blessed I am to work with people I truly love to organize and dance with, everyday x

STRANGERS

My New Years resolutions have rarely varied over
the years, and have mostly been as such:

1. READ MORE
2. GET FIT
3. LOVE MORE

But this year, I think I'll add:

4. SAY HELLO
5. WRITE MORE

And with that, I will CREATE/THINK/SAY/BE
as a whole and not so much alone. Together,
we will


HERE IS A POEM THAT DOES IT RIGHT:

WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME
WE'RE HAVING! by: Nick Sturm

In many ways I am not a rabbit
or a spool of ribbon and that is important
because it is amazing How wrong
it would be to say I am going skiing
or Do you want to share this cantaloupe
when you mean Let’s do something
incredible It is not about being specific
It is about opening up your genius mouth
and decorating what comes out in all
sorts of felt and vapor and astonishment
My friends know this and are always unlocking
the garden where I sit in my naked wreckage
I have hidden an amp in the hawthorn
There is a jackhammer in the begonias
You can use it anytime you like


x x x x x x x

KITCHEN SPINS

(THANK YOU M FOR A MOMENT ENCAPSULATED)

FALLING INTO PLACE
WITH WINTER // A SENSE
OF CERTAINTY


x

O H I O

IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME

x

NO CONTRACT / NO PEACE

My classmate/friend (M) shot this video at the Sotheby's rally last night of Teamsters, students, OWS, and union supporters protesting against the company's last art auction of the year. A piece was sold for 60 millions dollars at the auction, which goes to show that this company can more than afford to provide proper benefits and pension plans for the unionized art handlers.

The night was fueled by this mass of visceral, collective energy. It pounded against the glass walls of Sotheby's and the wealthy folks that tried to sulk on by unnoticed. We yelled shame, made a lot of noise, and chanted in solidarity against corporate greed and economic injustice. The sidewalk and the street were thick with tension and fiery passion.

It was wicked. It started to get a rough when the orchestrated direct action took place and about 10 protesters flung themselves on the walkway, lying limply on the concrete, making it extremely difficult for the cops to haul them away. People started to shake the barricades on both sides, and thrust themselves against the cops as we yelled in unison, "Let them, go! Let them go!" I nearly got pummeled by a cop who was being incredibly aggressive outside of the barricade, and he shoved me when I went to go underneath to get out. I was livid.

That kind of fury I have never experienced before, and screamed What The Fuck! I jumped back into the crowd and pushed the barrier back with all my might. The rest of the time at rally I shot daggers with my eyes at the guards standing nearby. Our glare-offs were interspersed with my banging on a bucket and fits of yelling things at the rich people slinking out of the auction, like, "SHAME ON YOU! YOU WORTHLESS EXCUSE OF A HUMAN BEING! AND YOUR COAT IS STUPID!"




The locked out workers better get a good contract, and a lot of back wages.

OHIO!

FUCK YES STANDING UP FOR WORKER'S RIGHTS TO COLLECTIVELY BARGAIN! AND MISSISSIPPI BLOCKED AN AMENDMENT TO DECLARE PERSON HOOD OF THE PRIMORDIAL GOO THAT BEGINS AT CONCEPTION! AND ARIZONA VOTERS RECALLED THE STATE SENATE PRESIDENT FOR WRITING DRACONIAN ANTI-IMMIGRATION LAWS!

FUCK YES FUCK YES.
WE'RE ON OUR WAY.

PEOPLE OF COLOR CAUCUS

Having moved to New York City and completely immersed myself in various activist circles outside of and in relation to the Occupy Wall Street movement, I have found myself craving a more personal and historical understanding of what it means to be a person of color in the world as it is today. While growing up in white, middle class, Midwest suburbia, I was never able to articulate why I felt disconnected from many aspects of social interactions and experiences. I had a base understanding of why this was so, in the most obvious of regards. I didn't have a solid cultural or social connection to the South Asian Desi community, nor did I have any Sri Lankan youth who were of my age to relate to about the pains of being a first-generation Sri Lankan-American in Ohio. I am in no way denouncing my hometown or the people I grew with, because I know very well that I am lucky to have such deeply passionate, kind, and challenging loves in my life who I've known for many years now.

When I say pains I'm speaking of the complete and utter loneliness I have felt amongst people who had little understand of where I'm from. There is only so much a person can say about themselves as an individual in relation to larger collective histories that they are detached from due to generational immigrant experiences that are carried over through familial relationships. Feelings of cultural isolation have always plagued my sense of self and my ability to denote an identity that is conscious of social constructs of race and class.



I am learning how to confront and embrace these issues internally, while also digesting external forces at work. This brings me to my recent experiences at Occupy Wall Street and conversations I have had with my classmates. Two weeks ago I went to a meeting of the People of Color Caucus at Occupy Wall Street, which was in conjunction with an all day awareness session on the subjects of racism, history of oppressed people, and how that plays into OWS currently. I went to the "Where are all the POC? (for POC)" session (which was after "The Whitness of the 99% (for white people)), and it was mind-blowing to have conversations with people who were recently wanting to be more involved with OWS but were hesitant because they didn't feel comfortable, to people who have been involved from the beginning and have felt completely marginalized and frustrated by the not-so-leaderless-leadership, lack of transparency, interpersonal conflicts and issues within other working groups and with the leaderless-leadership, and the lack of structure for information sharing.

The faciliators (two women of color who have experience in anti-racism activism) shaped the discussion around topics of why POC don't feel like they have a voice at OWS, the uniqueness of racism in America and how we are far from being "post-racial", what we can do to educate others about our concerns and stories, ways to participate futher in the General Assembly, and what POC can do to involve their communities in OWS.

A few people talked about how on the Facebook page people kept commenting saying things like, "Why do we need a POC Caucus? Why are we dividing ourselves further?" and how the POC can tackle that naive, ignorant sentiment. Monica, one of the facilitators joked, "You know, we were divded way before we got here..."

In general, the group is interested in accomplishing three things:

1. Creating a safe-space for consciousness raising amongst POC
2. Create a space for POC to take direct action within OWS, and tying that back to our communities
3. Educating OWS about anti-oppression language and the concept of internalized racism

There were a few wandering not-POC who gravitated towards our session and the POC Allies Group were monitoring and steering them away, which was interesting, to say the least. I've never had such an experience before and I'm not sure what to make of it. I think there is a definite need for POC to have a safe space to talk amonst ourselves, but we must recognized the limitations of such a process and the importance of remaining engaged with our allies and the movement.

One women, who's worked with mostly-white ally, anarchist groups since the late 90s had profound insight into the current status of OWS and its direction. She encouraged us to look at the power structures that already exist within OWS so that POC can then demand a seat at the table and get involved in the procedural mechanics of the GA.

Many of the people I met are so invested in seeing OWS through and through. I hope I can maintain the same level of enthusiasm, as the complexities of this movement continue to grow. I am learning to be more critical of social movements and their various actors and factors for the purpose of ensuring that these moments in time do not more forward in a ahistorical, apolitcal fashion. We must constantly question and challenge our ideas of self and the greater whole in order to make Occupy Wall Street sustainable, inclusive, and transformative.


ps. I have yet to write about my experiences with my Radical Women reading group and our discussions of "The Origin of Family, Private Property, and the State" by Friedrick Engels, and my new exploration into feminist thought. I will soon! FASCINATING!