Revolution in the Backyard

OK, so after a year of failed reform, an attempt to democratize a hierarchical organization, aid in the Republican and Democratic National Convention Protests, and work fairly critically and aggressively, I'm taking the revolution outside, to my back yard. Over the years I've had many friends argue that gardening is an important piece of their spiritual and political practice. Turning lawns into food sources, they claim, helps with issues as vast as climate change, finding alternatives to capitalism, and preparing for a likely ecological and imminent economic collapse. I want to see for myself.

So, outside I go, with a hoe in my hand, to join my roomie Jessi in her gardening efforts.

Jessi started our first backyard garden last year. It produced zucchini, squash, and tomatoes. This year, I want a bigger garden that can provide sustenance for the summer and perhaps some fodder to can for next winter.

My Mom and Grandma have always canned food in the summer and have amazing salsa's, pickles, and soups for the whole next year. Their tradition, coupled with backyard gardening, makes sense for me.

Oh, and as I bring this up, I want to remind Denver CPR readers that Ashara Ekundayo has organized the Soul'd Roots Conference, March 13-15th. This event looks amazing.

"Soul'd Roots" is a 3-day intensive, March 13-15, 2009 where invited educators and youth will engage in activities aimed at fostering health, solidarity and green sustainability in Denver's Black and Brown communities through multi-media workshops and panels focusing on food traditions and security, social networking, and arts activism. We are excited about our cross-generational opportunity to learn from each other through traditional and contemporary methods of struggle. Our goals include a desire to shift our thinking from capitalism and immediate gratification, to a slower way of developing social, psychological, physical and spiritual health through interaction with the land and each other as we live in community together. We are planting the seeds in the winter, and looking forward to our crop at our public conference, "Soul'd Roots, Pt. 2," slated for August 5-8, 2009.

A few of the events are public and you should check these out:

Events Open to the Public include; Friday, March 13 – 600pm – 830pm,
at 2895 W. 8th Ave, Denver, 80204 “Take Back the Land” Community Gathering on Immigrant Rights &
Land Justice w/ Max Rameau (Miami, FL) Wine & Cheese Fundraiser for Sister of Color United for Education –
Tix $20

Saturday, March 14 – 700pm – 10pm, at Solar Café & Community Space, 2615 Welton St. Denver 80205, Reception & Panel: “Protest, Brutality & Ink” – Jordan T. Garcia w/ Cheyenne Hughes, Favianna Rodriguez, Terrance Roberts, Jesus Barraza, and Melanie Cervantes + Booksigning w/ Author: Favianna Rodriguez, “Reproduce & Revolt” – Suggested Donation $5 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Sunday, March 15 - 200pm – 500pm, at New Hope Baptist Church, 37th & Colorado Blvd. Denver, 80205, “Community Eat-In & Food Politics Talkback” with Eco-Chefs; Bryant Terry, Shannon Francis, Faatma Mehrmanesh, Dylan Moore, Marilyn Meginity, and Others. – Tix $7 - $10 (sliding scale) RSVP Required – 303.446.8800 SOCUE has been building, supporting and sustaining health and healing with hard-to-reach populations and communities for 20 years through their “Art in Motion” and Promotor@ programs in which community artists, organizers, and health advocates are encouraged to draw from their own cultural wisdom, innate strength and comprehensive training to teach families, neighbors and co-workers about health promotion, risk reduction and health care access around topics such as; human sexuality; STD’s and HIV/AIDS; domestic violence; substance abuse; harm reduction; client advocacy; curanderismo and other culturally relevant practices.

Three Kick-Ass Cultural Spaces + 1 Badass Smarty Pants Video Lecture Series: Philoctetes Society, Mess Hall, and 16 Beaver

For those of you who are getting bored with the same-old same-old half-assed, pseudosmart crap on PBS (how many fucking times can you watch Charlie Rose), you've got to check out the lecture series broadcast online by The Philoctetes Society. From rambles about jazz with Bela Fleck to discussions about biography with the likes of Simon Winchester (The Madman and the Professor) and Judith Therman (The New Yorker), you will not be disappointed with the intellectual breadth and rigor of the panel participants!

The Philocetetes Societ describes itself as follows:

The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of the Imagination was established to promote an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of creativity and the imaginative process.

The Center creates and supports projects, public forums, research and information gathering which foster cooperation and dialogue among diverse disciplines, while seeking to create public awareness of these efforts.

To achieve its mission the Center holds roundtable discussions with participants from various fields (neuroscience, psychology, mathematics, psychoanalysis, humanities and art, philosophy and theology), offers a forum for presentation of works in progress, and is developing a data base on imagination with the aim of becoming a clearing house for all available literature on the subject.

The Philoctetes Society reminds me of a high brow version of some of my other favorite cultural spaces in the U.S.

On Chicago's North-Side (Rogers Park), there is an incredible venue called Mess Hall, run by artists who bring in amazing folks to do lectures, performances, workshops, etc...

Mess Hall is an experimental cultural center. It is a place where visual art, radical politics, creative urban planning, applied ecological design and other things intersect and inform each other. We host exhibitions, discussions, film screenings, brunchlucks (brunch + potluck), workshops, concerts, campaigns, meetings (both closed and open) and more.

Another New York-based space I love is 16 Beaver.

16Beaver is the address of a space initiated/run by artists to create and maintain an ongoing platform for the presentation, production, and discussion of a variety of artistic/cultural/economic/political projects. It is the point of many departures/arrivals.

So many smart spaces in a country that prides itself on stupidity! I wish more of these spaces promoted their series via online video.

If you have an awesome cultural space near you, drop me a line!

Fist in the Mouth

For those of you that don't know my friend Clayton, too bad for you. For those that do, you should check out Fist in the Mouth, his absolutely adorable blog. He has a great post Foods That Affect Your Pee.

Debt Collectors Ravage the Dead; Only Zombie Army Can Stop Them

Imagine, you just got put 6 feet under or scattered in the wind. Some Rabbi or Preacher just finished off your sermon and your loved ones celebrated that you'd finally rest in peace.

But not for long.

The New York Times reported today that getting payback from the relatives of corpses is the new frontier of debt collection. Not even the dead and grieving are safe from the greedy claws of money lenders.

So if your lover just killed himself cause he couldn't pay off those cards and thought everybody would be better off, guess what? Boy he was wrong. The phone starts ringing and the capitalist creeps start knocking on your door.

According to The NY Times:

Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.

Neither grief, morals, nor common sense stand in the way of collection agencies.

Only an army of zombies could stop these lenders from their necrophiliac collection mandates. Please bankers. Stop fucking the dead.

Denver's Best Sex Toy Shop!

OK, so since I'm a localist and just bragged about Good Vibrations, I figured I should also send a shout out to Denver's best women's-centered/queer friendly sex toy shop: Hysteria.

Whether you're looking for vibrators, butt plugs, lube, rubbers, strap-ons, or other resources, Hysteria's friendly staff has always been super helpful, kind, and welcoming to sex-toy novices and pros alike.

Not only that, they did some great work with The Colorado Anti-Violence Program's pancake breakfast last year!

Blushing and Giddy: Couch Potato Revolution Appears on Good Vibrations!

Hands down, Good Vibrations is my favorite online (and in person, when I'm in the Bay Area) place to buy sex toys, books, and safer-sex supplies. I blushed and turned giddy when I saw their online magazine featured a short article on my post How Men Can Get Off With a Woman's Vibrator!

Big thanks to Kuono for the story!

Non-Profits Destroy Social Movements

When the government came up with this whole 501C3 scam, they smartly figured out how to fuck up social movements my burning out awesome people by focusing their energy on running a business rather than revolt. Radicals should be opening squats, growing food, and burning down banks rather than filing foundation reports, massaging the fucked-up egos of spoiled board members, and licking ruling class ass.

Recently, I convinced myself to think you could change a fucked up system from the inside out. This is what doctrinaire anarchists refer to as "reformist" thinking. Stupidly, I've wasted years trying to "reform" so-called progressive organizations from oxymoronic, hierarchical tendencies in "democratic" organizations. You can't make a good omelet out of a bad egg. Non-profits can't be fixed. You can use their resources, pay the bills, and even do amazing projects within them, but when it comes to advancing progressive social change, real change, radical systemic change, you can't do that under any I.R.S. structure. Nope. You gotta take the hard road and do it yourself, with community, without a pay check, just like people have done it for centuries. Revolution is not a job.

Think about it. If a bunch of folks jobs feeding people depend on other folks starving, do you really think the comfortably employed will work to end hunger? They might lessen it, but they need people to go hungry to get a check.

I can't tell you how many people in the progressive non-profit sector feared a Democrat landslide in this last election because they were being bankrolled by anti-Bush sentiment. It felt like the non-profit "activists" needed a fascist president to justify our income fighting fascism.

It's sick.

The revolutionary flames that should be burning through this country are being snuffed out en masses by 501 C3s, professional "activists," greedy non-profit executives, and lackluster boards filled with ruling class creeps justifying their creepiness by "giving back."

I'd love to see a mass boycott of this whole system so we could have some real alternative economies and Democratic structures in the USA.

If folks need day jobs, fine, go work for Greenpeace, but in the evening, consider revolt.