Still Black: A portrait of Black transmen

check out the trailer for Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen

http://www.stillblackfilm.org/




Directed by Kortney Ryan Ziegler, and produced by Awilda Rodriguez Lora, the web site desribes the film as an alternative feature-length documentary that explores the lives of six black transgender men living in the United States. Through the intimate stories of their lives as artists, students, husbands, fathers, lawyers, and teachers, the film offers viewers a complex and multi-faceted image of race, sexuality and trans identity.

-sam smiley

The Girl Effect

I found this video via information esthetics It's off a web site called The Girl Effect..it's basically a text movie made in Flash. Stylistically it borrows heavily from Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, a Korean artist who has made many poems in this style. Although the sponsors are hard to find on the web site, Nike is one of them.

What do you think about:
the style?
the message?
the messenger?

-sam smiley

Games and Representation

Today I followed a great thread about gaming, politics and representation. So just a few links here, to start this out.
First, Girl in the Machine, a blog about race, gender, politics and gaming caught my eye. Lots of great links and articles. Hosted by a straight girl, a gay guy, and a bi girl, the blog talks very opening about gender dynamics in gaming, with the added advantage of being written by gamers (not ABOUT gamers) You can find it at http://girlinthemachine.blogspot.com/


From there I got a link to a game called ICED: I Can End Deportation. The object of the game is to escape deportation from the United States. You can download the game from here: http://www.icedgame.com/ I think the dialogue surrounding the game is as interesting as the game itself, and if you want to read more about it, you can go an article at Joystiq, a blog about gamer culture, to read the various comments.

I could go on, but I'll stop for now..and start playing.

-sam smiley

Ill Doctrine

I can't stop bloggin' today..hip hop is taking on racism in media, and hip hop philosopher Jay Smooth takes on racist comments vs. racism. ill Doctrine "is a hip-hop video blog hosted by Jay Smooth, creator of the hip hop music blog and founder of New York's longest running hip-hop radio show, WBAI's Underground Railroad." You can find it at http://www.illdoctrine.com/

Hear what he has to say on responding to racist comments..



-sam smiley

Nas and Sly Fox

Wednesday July 23, 2008 outside Fox News in Manhattan
Photo courtesy of Racewire



The blogosphere is erupting with the delivery of over 600,000 signatures to Fox by protesters, and hip hop artist NAS to protest its representation of African Americans in its news delivery. You can read some stories on Alternet.


Nas's music video of Sly Fox (some great instances of Fair Use and media commentary thru images)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QstENh0xrHY






Selected lyrics from "Sly Fox" by Nas:

It's sly Fox, cyclops
We locked in an idiot box
The video slots broadcasting
Waco Dividian plots
They own YouTube, MySpace
When this ignorant shit going to stop?
They monopolize and lose your views
And the channel you choose

What's a fox characteristic?
Slick shit, sins in, misinformation
Pimp the station, over-stimulation
Reception, deception
Comcast digital Satan
The Fox has a bushy tale
And Bush tells lies and foxtrots
So, I don't know what's real (what's real)

Watch what you're watching
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking outside of the box
And unplugged from the Matrix stopped you
But watch what you say, Fox Fire is watching

Only fox that I loved was the red one
Only black man that Fox love is
in jail or a dead one

Xenobia Bailey

Introducing the work of Xenobia Bailey. Born in 1955, her crochet'd sculptures and mandelas are in her own words "a utopian prototype for the aesthetic of funk". Her work will be at the Fuller Art Museum in August of 2008.

For more info about her work:

http://www.craftsreport.com/January03/profile.html

She is also an active blogger:

http://www.xenba.blogspot.com

-sam smiley

What's Wrong With this Picture?

Now from Time Magazine, August 2008. How to present a diverse group of people as a monolithic entity. Thanks to Jonathan Adams of Racewire for the lead. Comments? -sam smiley

Further reading:

The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism  

by Rosalind Chou and Joe Feagin