“Ceremony”-Yosimar Reyes
SPREAD THE WORD!
As part of the National Queer Arts Festival:
Yosimar Reyes and Gracie Arguelles team up to curate an amazing show.
Migrating Sexuality: Unspoken Stories of Land, Body and Sex is a mixed media visual art exhibition and literary performance that centers the marginalized voices of Queer (Im)migrants of color in the U.S. The stories as told through performance and visual media, hope to capture the diverse migration narratives embodied by Queer People of Color as they navigate through their daily lives.
Literary Performances and Exhibition Opening:
June 2 at 7pm
Galeria de la Raza
This is a FREE event!
Visual Artist in include:
Gracie Arguelles
Jesse Salas
Julio Salgado
Claudia Defaz
Jorge Gonzalez
and more….
Performances by:
Neza Leal
and more….
http://queerculturalcenter.org/NQAF/visual-arts/migrating-sexuality/
Party and Bullshit: The Questions
I am 23 years old. Single. Latino. Have a passion for the world, humanity, justice, poetry and healing. I am looking to meet powerful movements makers dedicated to the advancement of Queer People of Color, Immigrants, Mujeres and all communities impacted by white-supremacist-capitalist- patriarchy.
I am sitting here trying to minimize my existence into a couple of sentences. Trying to summarize my essence into words that someone will find appealing enough to click on my profile. I am sorting through my pictures trying to find one that will capture my personality. Does this one make me look too gay? Does this one make me look fat? Do I look too Mexican? I have no idea where these questions are coming from but clearly they speak multitudes to my own internalized hatred.
I am imagining myself at 16 typing away on a computer screen looking for someone that would want me. Searching for someone that would make me feel special. I am sitting here thinking of all the dudes I have met, all the dudes I have idolized. Beautiful men that somehow always fell short.
I am sitting here thinking about the communities in which I interact. The club, my friends, alcohol, random dudes I hooked up with, random numbers in my phone, random texts, random pictures. I am sitting here processing all these memories from my body. Trying to remember the faces, the places, the stories and it is just too much.
I am 23 and people are constantly telling me that I should be dating, fucking, or talking to someone, that at this age I should be careless, inconsiderate, hoe it up and I am not even going to lie cause I have been playing the part. It’s been fun, interesting but from time to time I stop and ask “Why the fuck am I doing this? Why is that every time I’ve hooked I’ve been drunk? Why is it that the next day I feel so bad? Why do I even care?” It is hard to explain that I am trying to detach these interactions from any sort of emotion but my attempts fall short and I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Am I expecting too much? Am I too picky? Are all these standards a byproduct of watching too many novelas? I am confused.
And then I think of my friends. The countless stories in the car as we drive to the club. The exchange of dudes’ names we can’t even keep a track off. The small circles we run in, the dudes that did us wrong, stories about the first time we fell in love and how they broke our hearts so now none of us are trying to fall in love, shit we just want to have fun.
I am thinking of healing. The lessons taught to us as men. The hyper masculinity, hyper sexuality, the messages of fucking, fucking and fucking. I am thinking about my heart. Why is it that when I lay my head to sleep at night I try to visualize the day that I will meet someone that I can have this conversation with? When is this party going to end? When are we going to start having serious conversations about these wounds we trying to cover with a superficial touch?
What is it that I am looking for? I know that love is a social construction and if you want to have it you got to put in hella work. I am thinking of my own desires. What informs them? What is the pattern of the men I’ve been with?
And then I think of the babies. The little queers that write to me. The ones that are 16,17,18,19,20, I am thinking of their own development. How they will be introduce to queerness in a club, a pride parade, a random hook-up. I am thinking about how I really don’t have any answers. I am asking these same questions.
I am thinking of the complexities of being, the systems we play into.
I am trying to be as honest as possible with myself without passing judgment, telling myself that it is ok that I am going through this, that these questions are important, necessary for own spiritual development.
I don’t have answers and I am ok with that. I am thinking and wondering if my brother’s are going through this very same thing?
If you are in the BAY AREA I will be rocking the Mic for this great cause. Mark it and be there.
Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/213113562127898/
Your’re cordially invited to an inspiring night of Salud Y Arte with 67 Suenos, our summer Mural Fundraiser.
Come to enjoy some delicious food, youth voice, spoken word, popular theater and penetrating short videos. We will also have guest speakers and performances by local artists / activist and Univision14’s star news anchor Maria Leticia Gomez.
We were recently awarded a “Seed Grant” of one thousand dollars from Ashoka’s Youth Ventures but this is just a start. Our goal for our mural project is to fundraise a total of $10,000.00 to pay our youth stipends, pay local artists, buy materials and put on a health fair. This event is the lead of 4 efforts before the summer to raise our goal.
With your support a powerful mural will go up in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, CA. This area, as many of our youth know, has a high population of undocumented people that are not only affected by failed immigration policies but also health inequilities such as the lack of proper and affortable health care, access to affortable local and healthy food, safe and well paid working environments and health education and resources.
Salud y Arte with 67 Sueños is a group of migrant youth and allies that will design and create a mural that educates the community about health issues that affect undocumented womyn. By collaborating with local artist and community members, we will inspire and begin to liberate the undocumented community by building a safe and sacred space which nurtures them to share their collective stories of struggles and accomplishments.
Join us for a night of youth power.
Salud Y Arte,
67 Sueños
Contact Info event/tickets: Pablopare@gmail.com and (510)-967-1357
New Book: Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and The Prison Industrial Complex. #qpoc (Taken with instagram)
