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Against Equality: Prisons Will Not Protect You

The third & final Against Equality book is finally out! See info below...

cover design by Chris Vargas (me)

From Against Equality.com:

In the third and final installation of its trilogy, Against Equality once again demonstrates that another queer and radical world is possible.  The essays in this volume take a critical stance against the prison industrial complex and the system of inequality and violence perpetuated by hate crimes legislation, formally passed in the United States in 2009 as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.  

Prisons Will Not Protect You, a compilation of archived work, is located at the difficult and traumatic point where the violence of the state against queer and LGBT people colludes with the violence we are always trying to escape. The pieces here question the gay community’s fealty to the prison industrial complex, arguing that hate crimes legislation, which enhances penalties and can even be used to bring in the death penalty, only serves to funnel massive numbers of people into prisons with increasing lengths of time served and the use of tortuous methods like solitary confinement. This has significant racial and economic implications in a country that houses five percent of the world’s population but nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners and where prisons have become, for many impoverished area and people, the only source of livelihood.

With an introduction by Dean Spade and work by contributors Liliana Segura, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Jason Lydon, Jack Aponte, Sébastien Barraud, Imani Keith Henry, James D’Entremont, Yasmin Nair, Erica Meiners, Liam Michaud, Josh Pavan, Bridget Simpson, Prisons Will Not Protect You introduces the history of hate crimes legislation and its part in the expansion of the prison industrial complex. It also examines specific cases, like that of the New Jersey Four and Texas Four, demonstrating the vulnerability of raced and gendered bodies within the labyrinthine and mundane realities of the law. Prisons Will Not Protect You exposes the deadly links between state-sponsored violence, homophobia, and the criminal punishment system.

.... AAAND, I'm back!

Tumblr wasn't all that I needed it to be, and I don't have the energy to set up a Wordpress, so here I am! Back on blogspot. Yay. Lots of stuff happened since August but I'll spare you the 3 month update, and I'll let you check out my website for an itemized list of all the different screenings, shows, etc.

Most excitedly though, at the end of September Greg & I finished our chapter 20 adaptation for Michelle Tea's Valencia movie! Sadly though, you're not able to view it just yet since it's part of a larger project that hasn't been officially unveiled to the public. But just to tide you over, below are some stills from our chapter for which we cast Michelle's character as Angelina Jolie from all her mid 90s iconic dyke roles [Gia, Girl Interrupted, Fox Fire, Hackers], animated cat eye glasses on & necessary props atop the appropriated footage, and re-dubbed all the dialogue. Watch out for this thing to be touring film fests soon!

Also, have you seen Xara Thustra's new book, whose release party was last night? You should find a way to do so if you haven't. I'm not sure how you go about doing that, so good luck to you. But you'll find a way. I trust. [maybe: sarathustraplease (AT) yahoo com ? ]

 Me enthralled by Xara's new book [in between trying to get drunk punks to pay for it]