Lorna Dee's Top Ten Favorite Movies

I was going to post this the other day -- seemed fitting since some were in the movie judging mode. Sam of Ten Thousand Things tagged me a while ago on this. This is a hard one for me: I hate to go to movies by myself. And there's a lot of movies I haven't seen. Plus, this just plain makes me nervous. First thing I thought of was, "Oh, I can't wait to see Barbara Jane's list." But then, when I considered it, I have seen a lot of good movies; I can be a bit of a film buff. But this list is for "all-time favorite movies, as I understand it, not just "best." If I were picking best movies, my list would look a lot like Barbara's, with "Rashoman" and "Ran" at the top and a good sprinkling of Bunuel and Jodorowski. But this list includes movies that I've seen over and over again and would watch again and still like them. And, I generally never like to see the same film twice. This list is a date list, those movies I think of if I'm thinking of someone new, those "have you seen this movie?' movies. Mostly upbeat. I listed them in reverse order first, David Letterman style, the way I wrote it out initially. And, as this is always hard, I thought of ten more. Also, I cheated on number nine - you can pick your own favorite of the two. Besides, I listed a documentary as my 3rd choice, so you can always toss it instead.

Now, do you. What's your All-Time Top Ten Favorite Movies?

10. El Topo (Jodorowski)
9. Harold and Maude/ Gone With the Wind
8. Lilies of the Field
7. Little Big Man
6. 'Round Midnight
5. The Color Purple
4. The Commitments
3. Chulas Fronteras (Les Blanc)
2. Smoke Signals (Sherman Alexie, screenplay)
1. The Wizard of Oz

11. Ragtime
12. Gigio (?) (Jackie Gleason)
13. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
14. Julia
15. Reds
16. Bagdad Cafe
17. Milagro Beanfield War
18. Slaughterhouse Five
19. The Grapes of Wrath
20. Play It Again, Sam
runner-up: Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears

Call For Critical Papers On Lorna Dee Cervantes

From: Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson <>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:52:06 -0800
Call for Papers: Critical Essays on Lorna Dee Cervantes.

Published by Wings Press, Cervantes's latest collection, Drive: The First
Quartet was widely anticipated and met with abundant praise from poets and
critics alike. Her first publication in fifteen years, and nominated for this year's Pulitzer for poetry, it marks the return
of a major poetic voice.

Wings Press will publish a collection of critical essays that speaks to the
significance of the poet and her work, both within and beyond the
Chicana/Latino literary movements.

Possible topics/areas of focus include, but are not limited to:

Interviews with Cervantes
Poetics
Art and Politics
Poetry and music/visual arts
Formalist approaches
Canonicity
Xicanisma
Feminisms
Indigeneity
Multiculturalism
Poverty
Poetic Voice
Transnationalism
Solidarity
Revolutions
The lyric
Loss and mourning
Memory and survival
The poetics of place
Cervantes as cultural activist
Poetry and blogging
The place of Cervantes within Chicana/Latina/American/World literature

Previously published essays and interviews are welcome. Essays may discuss
any aspect of Lorna Dee Cervantes's work; those that focus on Drive are
especially sought.

Deadline for 250-300 word abstracts is March 30, 2007. Please send abstracts
to: eliza_rodriguezygibson_at_redlands.edu.

Deadline for completed manuscripts is May 1, 2007. Completed manuscripts
should be between 5,000 and 7,500 words, including works cited page. MLA
style documentation should be used. Manuscripts should be generated in MS
Word (or saved in RTF). Contributors should submit a one page CV and a brief
biographical statement with the manuscript.

Contacts:
Bryce Milligan, Publisher/Editor Wings Press.
627 E. Guenther
San Antonio, Texas 78210
(210) 271-7805
milligan_at_wingspress.com

Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson
Department of English
University of Redlands
1200 E Colton Ave
PO Box 3080
Redlands, CA 92373
eliza_rodriguezygibson_at_redlands.edu

Lorna Dee Cervantes On KGNU Radio Today: Poetry & Project TUPA 2:30-3:30pm

Lorna Dee Cervantes joins DJ IronFeather today, February 26, on the Afternoon Sound Alternative, KGNU radio, between 2:30 and 3:30 pm, mst. She'll be speaking about Project TUPA: Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Americas, a project of Free Radio and Free Radio Berkeley which is helping to empower people by conducting workshops on building one's own radio stations across the Americas, helping to give voice to the voiceless. Project TUPA is currently preparing a center in Oaxaca, Mexico, where U.S. (former Boulder) journalist Brad Will was shot to death last fall while documenting the repressive and violent governmental response to teachers and peaceful protesters.

She'll be speaking about her long-time involvement in the Free Speech Movement as well her pioneer role as an early publisher and small press printer of the first works of some of the most well-known and dynamic Chicana and Chicano poets and authors today. She'll be addressing the role of public access and free radio in the rise of the Creative Class and positive democratic change.

Free Radio for a free society. Free radio for free hearts and minds.

DON'T MOURN. RADIOIZE!

Do something now. SUPPORT PROJECT TUPA: Transmitters Uniting the People's of the Americas.

And listen in, stream it, or check the archives for another day.

Donate and receive free dvds from Oaxaca and Chiapas from Project TUPA, and free signed books and cds from me.

Please help - forward and repost this message.

~ Lorna Dee Cervantes



Create Your Own

Good Poems: Weapons of Mass Discussion from Chelly McLear & S.A. Griffin

Weapons of mass destruction

sit suited in cities

thousands of miles from war

talking of terrorists,

moving pawns,

wiping out towns with a word,

justifying actions

(unjustifiable)

with the same words

over and over

and over and over

again

"Terrorists, territory, democracy

Terrorists, territory, democracy..."



Weapons of mass destruction

sit suited in cities

thousands of miles from war

hiding the truth

(Imperialists, territory, autocracy,

imperialists, territory, autocracy...)



Weapons of mass destruction

are easy to find

thousands of miles from war




- Chelly McLear
(Belfast)




Weapons of Mass Destruction


she was studying Dante’s Inferno
for her senior lit class

we sat side by side in 3rd period art

“Why are liars in a lower level of hell
than the murderers?”

impressed & curious
that she would
defer to me
on something I hadn’t read
I gave it a beat
then surprised myself,
“The truth is,
that the murderer probably only
kills one person.
The liar can potentially
kill millions, like Hitler.”

satisfied she had her answer
we shifted subjects
& continued on with our
drawing

she was more beautiful
than I could have known at the time

Vietnam was waiting for me
rents were cheap & inflation
was just appearing upon the
landscape of our yankee lexicon

if we only knew





S.A. Griffin

------------
Both these poems were posted as comments on Dave Lordan's MySpace and reposted with permission.

"Unconscious Mutterings #212 On 2/25/07"

1. Soldier :: of the heart, shoulder on. Be


2. Lipton :: to a 7-Up of tide. Be the won


3. Reason:: the one who doesn't lie. The decider:


4. Terms :: which do apply under the barrel of a


5. Positive :: gun -- and the siting. Situate it here, an


6. Example :: of the truth, slice of blood and ash:


7. Legacy :: of greed and desire. The power-up of your


8. Solo :: flight to empire, the Imperial


9. Instrument :: of the slicing Doctor, Herr Erring on the latter


10. Later :: part of the equation: Peace, brother. Peace, sister. Cease.

* Be your own dang army; bring many hearts and minds to the table of your own unconcious feast.

"Unconscious Mutterings #211 On 2/25/07"

1. Threshold :: to a dream, your nightmare faced with


2. Jason :: 's liquid grin, the liquifaction of your screams, the silent


3. Suspicion :: within the creams. Suppose you found them


4. Tender :: The sotted hearts, remembering & whimpering,


5. Tempted :: to a cage, the annihilating inebriation of your


6. Crimson :: rage -- all the reaping age; the bit,


7. Repulsive :: to a fading way? Gather your


8. Bulldog :: grins, the grim demembering on the line, the fix-it


9. Garage :: where you tinker in the soul of matter -- the matter with


10. Racket :: and wire, with hidden and lyre, with the silence of the heart. And, fire!

* Birth your own exploding nova -- you don't need to show no stinkin' stars! All at the Subliminal Luna Nina.

Diane Burns & Pedro Pietri - Riding That One-Eyed Poetry Home

You can read more about Diane Burns and another of her poems at Joy Harjo's blog. I believe Joy was reading in her honor at her remembering at Bob Holman's Bowery Cafe on the 21st.

Thank you, too, to The Unapologetic Mexican for a beautifully laid out blog post on poet, Diane Burns. I especially love how he laid out my words for her -- over a background of faces.

Faces and masks. Some carved out of our own features, some like marble casts into which our molten selves are poured. Some just a cast, some cáscara left for some other to use, to hide one's features to a world gone brutal in one's home. Seems to me. Seems to be. Too often, our literati in their graves, reduced to babblers in the streets and in the battered parks our hereditary commons have dissolved into, and shoeless fools on a holiday of the soul searching for their holey mate.

And there but for grace ... I, always ...

I love the stories of her and Pedro, El Irreverand, in serious Sandinista land; how she packed a big pistol for the trip. That trip, I couldn't afford to go. It only cost $600, but that might have well have been $600,000 to me back then when all the money I earned, all those paper dollars went into paper and ink for publishing. "You GO, Grrrl!" I still want to say. Could that have been me, marrying shadows in the depths of the revolution? "You bet!" I want to answer. I wanted to -- heck ya y yoka he! Kiss Pedro? Simon que sí! It would have been a good day to die. Touch those ever-gentle lips that sucked that mana and sprinkled those verses like free joints for poor poets throughout Freedomland in Gringolandia and in the Free World, besides? I would have married him in a heartbeat. But for grace. And sobriety. Respect. Indigenous values, all.

Respect, too, for those poets for whom, as Pedro said so often, "It's poetry or suicide."

Or, as Lalo always said, "La locura cura."

And alcohol kills.

Alcohol killed my mother. The Miller Hi Life, indeed. Poured into that crucible and crusted forever.

Voices now mostly locked up forever in the memories of aging poets, voices muttering and genius-flecting verses into an after midnight telephone line. Our most memorable voices now mostly forgotten memories. Like my people losing the wealth of California for lack of documentation, for the lack of a trace of a mark on paper or a recorded voice speaking the names of the dead in a now nearly dead language. A language long survived in the coos of the mothers, and another native mother loses her tongue to death, a death she poured herself into by pouring another glass into the mold marked: The Best Minds of My Generation.

And we long to tell the stories, to write them down, to record the history of a scholarship spoken from the mouths of those who watched it unfold -- but the best stories are for entertainment value only, it would seem. Shattered and shorn tatters of a truth while the poetry scatters, its yellow pages losing the race of time in a box in someone's garage or attic or moldy basement. Its author reduced in story to a shadow of her former poem, a vacantly staring stereotype drained down to its ironic twist, the tragic-mulata story, half-tragedy, half-comedy about the beautiful Indian Princess adrift in the New World after all the tribes are slaughtered and all the publishers stranded in a moneyless box marked: Return to Sender. Addressee Unknown.

The fistfuls of poems there but for grace.

The grace of friends and editors and publishers and friendlier printers, the sure stitches fine poetry weaves, Maurice and Josh at Contact II, the patient, the fine, the recognizers of good poetry -- and grace. The purveyors of paper and ink. And sobriety.

I always considered Diane Burns to be destined to be the best, in the way I always considered Pedro Pietri to be the best (sorry V H-C!) and the sadness in their passing is the sadness of the passing of their work -- these words, like attempting to grasp at the cloth of their jackets as they're going down into that Laguna del Mar de Olvido.

These words which are always better than ought: a kind of order, a kind of grace.

For you. Por vida. Siempre.

Poet Diane Burns (1957-2006) - Sleep Now, Sweet Sister

Diane Burns



photo copyright 1993 by John Ranard

Sleep now, Sweet Sister. Your light always burned sheer through the fog and grime; the grit and glitter of our youth, some kind of measure. Your black booted steps, your silver and shave; the times the blade of the tongue entered and swayed. You were always a knife and a glade, a silent opening, a threshold. You were mind and will over beauty. You were a spit-on finger in the split socket of truth. I remember you. I will always remember you: your light ever-bright as a Manhattan skyline, riding that one-eyed poetry home.

~ Lorna Dee Cervantes, 2/22/07


----------------------------------
Such sad sad news just now. I am home sick with a vicious relapse of this flu and had to cancel classes again. Now, clicking on Silliman's blog, this sad sad news. More later. I am very upset right now -- that phrase, "she drank herself to death at 50."

remembering Diane Burns at a Gathering of the Tribes

"Diane Burns, Native American Lower East Side Poet"

Dublin Happenings: Festival of Resistance 3/9-11, Where In The World Is Lorna? Free Speech In the Spring - Free Radio

I'm always glad to get any news from Dublin. I so want to be there -- I'll be there is spirit for this event, a festival of resistance that culminates in an open poetry reading including Patrick Jones. One talk I'd really like to attend is saturday morning by Barbara Muldoon on "I wanna be adored: Alienation and the cult of celebrity" -- and it did not escape my notice that she's the only presenter without a bio. I have a reading on March 9 in Boulder, a benefit fundraiser with Tim Hernandez, organizer of the Floricanto in Boulder which will feature my favorite Chicano poet, JuanFelipe Herrera on April 20 -- but maybe I'll dedicate something to the resistance festival in Dublin. On April 20, I'll be reading with an influential elder American Indian poet, Maurice Kenny, an editor, publisher and scholar at SUNY-Potsdam, so I won't be able to participate in the Floricanto -- this year! (hint) On April 20, Dublin poets are calling for a "Love Poetry, Hate Racism" Day and are asking for linked events globally: open mikes, floricantos, readings and spoken word events of all kinds. As all our work is "loving poetry and hating racism" I would suggest these as co-events in conjunction with the day. Any others? And, if I don't see you in Boulder on March 9th at Albums Bistro, I'll be at the AWP - Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Atlanta next week, and speaking and reading on a panel with Alicia Ostriker and others organized by Wendy Barker on (what else?) the connections between poetry and politics; or, "Does Poetry Make Nothing Happen?" on saturday morning, 9:30, March 3. On April 21 I hope to try to work out a way to go back home to my alma mater, San Jose State in time to read as an honorary literary alum -- maybe you'd like me to visit your university, bookstore, class, group, venue in the Bay Area? Any ole time is a good time to visit my jewel by the Pacific sea -- where I first heard Irish and Scottish musicians play and talkstory, poets like Dougie MacLean and Dick Gaughan.

I have long been a lover of all things Irish, all things from any jeweled isle in the Celtic broach. Burns being the first to steal my heart before Dylan Thomas married my Muse so many decades ago while I danced with Hugh MacDiarmond at the wedding. I planned to take my "poets tour" and visit the sites of some of my favorite poets from there when I got out of high school. I went for my passport & visa and was informed that although they could issue me a visa, I would be detained on the plane and denied entry into the country (Ireland) on the grounds that I was "colored" (coloured?) as I was "Mexican-American". "Oh, but I'm half American Indian -- I'm not an immigrant." No matter. That was on the list, too. No matter my name is Lorna Doone, mind ye. Lost Land, indeed.

But I blame the British empire in its dance with imperialism, and the corporate oligarchy.

Cheers! And, cheers to Dublin! Double cheers to Ireland and the xtra fine poets of the Celtic tongues and commons.

Here's to the weave.



(from Dublin poet, Dave Lordan's MySpace site where I've been discovering a wealth of new over-the-pond poets) (not in Dublin? Scroll past for a special message)

Marxism 2007: A festival of Resistance


Tickets: €20 normal price, €10 for students and unemployed and €5 for school students

Ticketline: (01) 872 2682

A weekend political festival organised by the Socialist Workers Party

March 9,10,11 in the ATGWU Union Hall, 55-57 Middle Abbey St, Dublin 1


A weekend of socialist politics , art and culture in the heart of Dublin. Debates on everything from Global Warming to the Left movements in Latin America to the new US offensive in the Middle East.

A chance to find out about Karl Marx's ideas from economics to alienation and how they relate to today's world, introduced by some of the best speakers on the Left today. With over 40 meetings, workshops, film screenings and discussions.

Buy your ticket online here

Highlights include:

* Director John Boorman and others discuss Cinema and social change
* David McWilliams and Kieran Allen debate Class and the Celtic Tiger: How is Ireland changing?
* Frank Connolly and Maura Harrington discuss the corruption of the Irish elite in With a little help from my friends – Corruption and the Irish ruling class
* Duncan Stewart , Eamon Ryan TD , Richard Douthwaite and Owen McCormack ask An inconvenient question: Can Capitalism stop Global Warming?
* Richard Boyd Barrett , Haifa Zangana and a speaker from Palestine ask are we seeing a re-run of Vietnam with The US's gamble for power in Iraq
* Bernadette McAliskey looks at the politics of Northern Ireland since the Peace Process in Northern Ireland: From peace to privatisation
* John Rees , Cllr Catherine Connolly , Rory Hearne and others will discuss the The rise of the new left in Ireland and internationally
* Shane Cullen , Jessie Jones and Brian Maguire discuss Art, politics and activism

Getting to the event ...
Marxism 2007 takes place right in the centre of Dublin city, 5 minutes walk from O’Connell St and on the Luas line from Heuston Station, BusAras and Connolly Train Station.

The venue is the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU) Hall, 55-57 Middle Abbey St, Dublin 1.

Accommodation:
We offer free accommodation for the conference for people travelling from outside Dublin. This is usually floor space in the home of a member of the SWP. If you wish to avail of this please remember to bring a sleeping bag. There are also lots of cheaper hotels near this location.

Full Programme:

Friday
6.00 – 7.30

Cinema and social change - John Boorman and others

8.00 – 9.30

Opening Rally – Full Spectrum Resistance
Haifa Zangana, John Rees, Brid Smith, Palestinian speaker

Saturday

10.00– 11:15

I wanna be adored: Alienation and the cult of celebrity
Barbara Muldoon


10.00– 11:15

A rebels guide to Trotsky
Sarah O'Rourke

11:30 – 1.00

An inconvenient question: Can Capitalism stop Global Warming?
Duncan Stewart
Eamon Ryan TD
Richard Douthwaite
Owen McCormack

11:30 – 1.00
Healthcare crisis – Harney's privatisation virus
Jo Tully
Catherine Connolly

11:30 – 1.00

Iraq - Silencing the outspoken: The systematic assassination of Iraqi academics and journalists
Haifa Zangana

11:30 – 1.00
The algebra of revolution: The philosophy of Marxism
John Rees

2.00 – 3.15

Debate: Class and the Celtic Tiger: How is Ireland changing?
David McWilliams
Kieran Allen

2.00 – 3.15

Imperialism, resistance and anti-capitalism
John Rees

2.00 – 3.15

Bi-centenary of the abolition of the slave trade: Slavery and the origins of Capitalism
Luke Kasuwanga
William Cunningham

2.00 – 3.15

Fast food nation – Diabeties, obesity and the politics of food
Pat O'Sullivan

3:30 – 4.45
The rise of the new left
John Rees
Cllr Catherine Connolly
Rory Hearne

3:30 – 4.45

Northern Ireland: From peace to privatisation
Bernadette McAliskey

3:30 – 4.45

Socially engaged art practice: Latest fad or new beginning?
Shane Cullen
Jessie Jones
Brian Maguire

3:30 – 4.45

Palestine: One country Should Israel be wiped off the map?
Ali Abunimah (tbc)

5.00 – 6.00

From Chavez to Morales: The Left tide in Latin America
Mike Gonzalez

5.00 – 6.00 workshop

Buy, buy, buy: Gramsci, ideology and consumerism
Sinead Kennedy

5.00 – 6.00 workshop

Islam, racism and resistance
Gordon Hewitt

5.00 – 6.00 workshop

China: The rise of the next superpower?
Colm Stephens

5.00 – 6.00 workshop

Parliment, Democracy and Socialism
Mary Harkin

7.30 – 9.30

The US's gamble for power in Iraq

Richard Boyd Barrett
Haifa Zangana
Palestinian speaker

7.30 – 9.30

100 years of psychoanalysis and we're still worse off!
Dr Peadar O'Grady

7.30 – 9.30

Selling Sexism – Raunch culture and false liberation
Ailbhe Smith

7.30 – 9.30

Marx's Capital
Mark Hewitt

10.00 pm – 12.00 Conference Club / poetry evening

Sunday

10.30 – 11.30

Cuba after Castro – Can it survive?
Mike Gonzalez

10.30 – 11.30

A guide to neo-liberal economics
Brian Boyle

11:45 – 1:00

Discrimination Nation: Displacement, border controls and racism in Ireland
Donal Mac Fhearraigh
Kamila Okuniewska
Blazej Nowak

11:45 – 1:00

The wind that shakes the barley: Revolution in Ireland 1917-23
Conor Kostick

11:45 – 1:00

Rosa Luxemburg: A revolutionary life
Aoife Ferry

11:45 – 1:00 workshop

Life after Capitalism – How will it work?
Helena MacNeill

2.00 – 3.15

With a little help from my friends – Corruption and the Irish ruling class
Frank Connolly
Maura Harrington

2.00 – 3.15

From radicals to rulers: A history of Irish republicanism
Sean Mitchell

2.00 – 3.15

From the family to the workplace: The politics of womens liberation
Marnie Holborrow

2.00 – 3.15

90 th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution: Why we should still celebrate October 1917
Dave Gaughran

3.30 – 4.45

The end of Social Partnership: Is it time for radical unionism?
Dara O'Connor
Joanne Delaney
Jo Tully
Kieran Allen

3.30 – 4.45

ASBOs to PSNI: Can the police ever work for the community?
Brid Smith

3.30 – 4.45

Dawkins, genetics, evolution and socialism
Tom Williams

3.30 – 4.45

Politics, art and revolution
Mike Gonzalez

4:45 – 5:15

Closing Rally
Sean Mitchell and Richard Boyd Barrett

Speakers:

* John Boorman – Director of A The Tiger's Tail
* David McWilliams – Broadcaster and author of The Popes Children
* Duncan Stewart – Environmentalist, presenter of Eco-Eye on RTE
* Frank Connolly – Journalist with the Village Magazine , author of The Centre for Public Enquiry report on Shell and Rossport
* Bernadette McAliskey – Author, journalist and leader of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement
* Eamon Ryan TD – Green Party
* Richard Boyd Barrett – Chair of the Irish Anti War Movement
* Haifa Zangana – speaker from the Iraqi opposition, member of Iraqi Democrats against Occupation
* Ali Abunimah – Editor of Electronic Intifada and author of Palestine: One Country (tbc)
* Maura Harrington – spokesperson for the Shell to Sea Campaign
* Cllr Catherine Connolly – Independent councillor for Galway City
* Kieran Allen – Author of The Celtic Tiger and the myth of Social Partnership , lecturer in UCD Sociology Department
* Kamila Okuniewska – Editor of Polska Gazeta
* Blazej Nowak - Emigrant Advice Centre
* Jo Tully – member of the Irish Nurses Organisation executive (personal capacity).
* John Rees – National Secretary of RESPECT Britain, Vice President of the Cairo International Peace Conference , author of Imperialism and Resistance and The algebra of revolution
* Conor Kostick – Novelist and author of Revolution in Ireland 1917-23
* Ailbhe Smith – Radical Feminist, lecturer in Equality studies UCD
* Brian Maguire – Professor of Fine Art NCAD
* Richard Douthwaite – Environmentalist and member of FEASTA , editor of FEASTA report Reaping the wind: Renewable energy in Ireland and author of Short Circuit , The Growth Illusion
* Owen McCormack – Editor of The Busworker
* Mike Gonzalez – Lecturer in Latin America studies, Glasgow University, author of Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution
* Shane Cullen – artist
* Jessie Jones - artist
* Joanne Delaney – Member of Mandate Trade Union who led a victorious campaign after Dunnes Stores management tried to sack her for wearing her union badge.
* Dara O'Connor – SIPTU organiser
* Sinead Kennedy – Lecturer in English
* Marnie Holborrow – Lecturer in DCU languages Department, author of The politics of English
* Luke Kasuwanga – Socialist from Zimbabwe
* Peadar O'Grady – Child psychiatrist and author of Why is the Irish Health Service in crisis?

* Patrick Jones - one of Britain's most influential modern emerging poets, he is the creative glue between politics, poetry & music in Wales . Some of his work includes the play “Everything Must Go”. An album of his featured poems interpreted & set to music by various members of the Manic Street Preachers , Super Furry Animals , Catatonia & others. Patrick will be joined by some of Ireland's best political poets for an evening of music and radical poetry on Saturday 10 th March.



Not going? Nothing happening? Feel alone? Voiceless? Feeling futile in the larger $cheme of things?

DON'T MOURN, RADIOIZE

DON"T MAKE WAR, MAKE COMMUNITY

TAKE BACK THE COMMONS

TAKE BACK THE AIR AND THE ASSEMBLY OF THE AIR WAVES

FREE RADIO NOW FOR FREER LIVES TODAY

SUPPORT PROJECT TUPA: Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Americas

MAKE SOMEBODY HAPPY - BUILD THEM A RADIO STATION on your summer vacation

FREE RADIO SAVES, SAVE FREE RADIO - The World you save may be your own

California Happenings Tonight

I've been out all week with the flu. Better now. But didn't post all week, now playing catch up.
----------------------------
If you're in or near the Bay Area tonight, you'll have to catch this event in San Francisco with a couple of my favorite Xicanerati:

Mexico City, Mon Amour: Readings and Conversations with

Marisela Norte

Alfred Arteaga

Jaime Jacinto


Sat, Feb 17, 2 PM

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the Room for Big Ideas

701 Mission St. (at 3rd)

FREE

In conjunction with Sensacional! Mexican Street Graphics, join us for an afternoon of poetry and conversation with venerated poets Marisela Norte, Jaime Jacinto, and Alfred Arteaga. Reading from published and unpublished poetry and personal journals, our three poets bring life to the contradictions, complexities, and terrible beauty of El Distrito Federal.

-----------------------
And, if you're further south, support Tia Chucha tonight or send donation for their relocation:

Tia Chucha's Cafe and Centro Cultural 5th Anniversary Celebration Benefit - 12 pm - 11 pm
12737 Glenoaks Blvd, # 22
Sylmar, CA 91342

"A Un Desconocido" for Valentine's Day

Selected by Rigoberto Gonzalez, "Five Best Love Poems", for the Poetry Foundation:

"A un desconocido"

(p.s. Rigoberto, it really is to a lover yet unmet)

This Heartens Me . . .

Proof positive that romantic love is NOT an invention of the State.

As much as this disheartens me:


This first discovered on healer-poet, Peter Pereira's blog. Later I hear this photo was taken in 2004. What are they yearning towards, that far into the past? Some shadow of a homeland? Some landscape where it all makes sense?

In high school I debated on the side of the conservationist, sometimes in the voice of the Indian -- a voice that vowed back then to never drive. My first year in "junior college" I took a course called "Future Think" and that I did. I feel I have prepared all my life for these disasters of a planet out of balance which will make our petty politics and consequences seem like a flight of miller moths on a summer evening.

We have to love because we must. Where there's love, there's will. And as my loving grandma would say, "Where there's a will, there's a way." And, there's always a way.

"Unconscious Mutterings #210 On 2/15/07"

1. The best thing :: about this is you. The way I


2. Hold :: autumn in the past of my fist, the slim


3. Rapture :: in the bed of the downed, the under uber


4. Cover :: , this chosen destiny into a discovered future.


5. Restrictive :: though the heart can be, troubled past, wry


6. Baker :: near the furnaces of chance, be the willing


7. Author :: of my plot, this do and tell, tale of day,


8. Pill :: in the mouth of somnabulists, this summer's


9. Months :: let me give it into dawn, let me love it into gone.


10. Valentine’s Day :: Be my gravy. Be the way there's always hot water in this house.

* Always discover a secret message in your mail with the sublimina Luna Niña.

"Unconscious Mutterings #209 On 2/15/07"

1. Plaster :: the walls with mortgage papers,


2. Cabbage :: worms, the fine threads of sanity's


3. Jazz :: Today, the world. Stop for a visit.


4. Darts :: drafts, canapes, the dry


5. Poke :: to a drier existence. Melt with me.


6. Bribe :: the state into a willing stance. Save the white


7. Whale :: and the slim fairy of fame, the fading


8. Receipt :: s of umbrage; and


9. Answer :: the call in a hall full of mirrors.


10. Dentist :: in an age of mirrors, a novacaine.

* Shake your own rafters, be your own bats in the belfry of a subliminal Luna Niña.

Support Free Radio in Oaxaca and the Americas - Support Project TUPA

Click here to see a great slide show of the latest radio transmitter building workshop in Oaxaca this past week. Here's the latest from their Project TUPA website:

Transmitter Building Workshops - Oaxaca, Mexico, January/February 2007 - Click

With the struggle currently taking place in the state of Oaxaca, placing effective communications technology in the hands of the indigenous communities is extremely important. To that end, two 5 day transmitter and antenna building worskshops were conducted in the City of Oaxaca. During the course of the two weeks, representatives from 24 communities reflecting the diversity and breadth of Oaxaca built a total of 24 transmitter and antennas. In addition, workshops were given on the political, social, cutural and practical aspects of creating and running a community radio station. A follow-up program on the progress of these 24 communities will be conducted during the course of the year to see how well they are doing and to offer assistance as needed. A technical support and training center has been established in the City of Oaxaca to provide ongoing support - it is known as Oaxaca TUPA.

In addition, Project TUPA will be working with teachers in Oaxaca in late March to build 10 watt radio transmitters for the schools in various communities.

Please help me support the good work of Project TUPA and Free Radio Berkeley to bring free radio to a freer world. Any donation you can make today will go a long way toward bringing truth, education and cultural preservation to impoverished indigenous communities and empowering the voices of the voiceless. DONATE NOW to Project TUPA: Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Américas (and scroll down for information on how you get cds of love songs and books from Lorna Dee.)

Free Radio For Free Lives - Project TUPA: Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Americas

Support Project Tupa: Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Américas. This week twelve different communities come together in Oaxaca to build their own 40 watt radio transmitters in the second of two 5-day workshops. Your donation helps empower people and gives voice to the voiceless. Free radio for a free people.

Lorna Dee's Love Songs - You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio - Free CDs For Free Radio

Donate now to Project Tupa and/or Free Radio and receive 7 free cds of love (and bummer love) songs compiled by me, Lorna Dee. Match my PayPal direct donation of $200, enough for a build-your-own-radio-transmitter kit for poor communities throughout the Américas, or more, and receive everything I've got: my new 5-volume book of new poetry, DRIVE: The First Quartet and a 250 page unpublished manuscript of new and selected love poems (mostly new) which I've been compiling this year while listening to these playlists. All of these songs are from my personal cd collection of purchased music and offered to you, personally, as my friend, and a friend of free radio. Besides cash, you can donate your old tape decks, CD/DVD players, LAPTOPS, recording equipment, whatever (translation or web skills).

Why should poets care about free radio? For one thing, free public access radio is the only place you will ever hear poets and poetry on air.

Scroll down to read more about Project Tupa (Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Américas), currently in Oaxaca, Mexico offering 2 5-day workshops to about 12 communities each where they learn how to build their own 40 watt radio transmitter along with antenna. They are also setting up permanent training centers in Mexico, and need your help. Your donation goes a long way to providing these communities with the means to communicate, educate, entertain and preserve their cultures and languages. TUPA is the Mixtec word for a mountain forest Spirit, an ethereal entity much like radio waves.

Some of you might have been moved by my poem, "Coffee", about the massacre of 45 peaceful Tzotzil people in Acteal, Chiapas on December 22, 1997. I know how hopeless and helpless it feels, sometimes, but here is something that people are doing with a real effect and tangible result to help the survivors directly. Help preserve free radio which may help to preserve lives. Help keep the air waves free to help keep people free. Let a thousand radio stations blossom! Maybe yours? Go to their website to purchase a DVD or view the video about the project which includes footage from Acteal. NPR has refused to air my poem in its entirety, airing snippets or refusing entirely to broadcast it after it was recorded for that purpose as was the case for Democracy Now when my poem was recorded during a performance at Naropa for broadcast, then never aired.

Spend the summer in the Bay Area and volunteer or attend one of their week-long Radio Camps where for $150-$200 you can buy a kit and learn how to build it, then use it or donate it to an impoverished community. Go to the Project TUPA website for a calendar of summer workshops (I might go on my birthday) or for information on how you can host a Radio Camp for your own community and community station wherever you reside. You can also purchase a book about Free Radio, order kits and download a guide to Free Radio, written in comic book form.

PayPal donations will reach them quickly and directly. You can also send checks made out to Project TUPA/Global Exchange for tax deduction. Just drop me a line at PoetDee(at)mac(dot)com with your shipping address and dedication info in case you'd like me to sign them personally or dedicate them to your Valentine's sweetie along with a description and date of your donation. These CDs are one of a kind, a Lorna Dee Cervantes collector's item, fo'shure: what I've been listening to incessantly while writing all these hundreds of poems these past couple of years while on the blog -- and compiling my own "playlist" of love poems for this new book, Una poca de gracia / Bit of Grace. Be the first one to get a copy of this version of the manuscript (unless you donated to Alfred Aretaga's heart fund earlier). Literary historians and critics take note. Your girlfriend, wife, boyfriend, husband, sister, brother a Lorna Dee or poetry fan? Surprise 'em with this unique gift - instead of corporate candy and poisoned flowers. Send today and I'll try to ship the cds to you as soon as possible, in time for your own personal love celebration. Provecho!

Project TUPA
Free Radio Berkeley
1442A Walnut St., Suite 406
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-625-0314

email: freeradio(at)riseup(dot)net




VOLVER

Come Back To Bed - John Mayer Heavier Things
Home Life - John Mayer Heavier Things
Split Screen Sadness - John Mayer Heavier Things
Wheel - John Mayer Heavier Things
3x5 - John Mayer Room for Squares
Love Song For No One - John Mayer Room for Squares
Back To You - John Mayer Room for Squares
Not Myself - John Mayer Room for Squares
Bullet Proof Soul - Sade Love Deluxe
Bring It On Home To Me - Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
Nothing Can Change This Love - Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
El Fuego - Santana All That I Am
Sideways - Santana / Citizen Cope Shaman
Feels Like Fire - Santana / Dido Shaman
I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love - Santana / Los Lonely Boys All That I Am
The Game Of Love - Santana / Michelle Branch Shaman
I'm Feeling You - Santana / Michelle Branch & The Wrecker All That I Am
You Are My Kind - Santana / Seal Shaman


VOLVER VOLVER

All I Want - Joni Mitchell Blue
Blue - Joni Mitchell Blue
California - Joni Mitchell Blue
River - Joni Mitchell Blue
A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell Blue
Hejira - Joni Mitchell Misses
Car On A Hill - Joni Mitchell Court And Spark
Down To You - Joni Mitchell Court And Spark
Just Like This Train - Joni Mitchell Court And Spark
Volver, Volver - Los Lobos Acoustic en Vivo
Dig Down Deep - Marc Cohn Marc Cohn
Kiss From A Rose - Seal Seal
Love's Divine - Seal Seal IV
Touch - Seal Seal IV
You've Really Got a Hold on Me - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles Smokey Robinson's Greatest Hits
Cruisin' - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles Smokey Robinson's Greatest Hits
Being with You - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles Smokey Robinson's Greatest Hits


NEW WAY AWAY

This Is My Heart - Joy Harjo Native Joy For Real
Ghost Train - Marc Cohn Marc Cohn
Walk On Water - Marc Cohn Marc Cohn
Saving The Best For Last - Marc Cohn Marc Cohn
True Companion - Marc Cohn Marc Cohn
Wedding Song - Tracy Chapman Telling Stories
Devotion - Tracy Chapman Telling Stories
I'm Ready - Tracy Chapman New Beginning (dead air space)
If You Wait - Tracy Chapman New Beginning
New Deep - John Mayer Heavier Things
Only Heart - John Mayer Heavier Things
No Such Thing - John Mayer Room for Squares
Gonna Move - Paul Pena New Train
Wait On What You Want - Paul Pena New Train
Let's Move And Groove Together - Paul Pena New Train
Taking Your Love Down - Paul Pena New Train
Friend For Life - Ross Vick One By One
A Long Time - Ross Vick X3 What Is Mine
Kiss Of Life - Sade Love Deluxe


BEING THERE

Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys Sounds Of Summer
These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You) - Billie Holiday Lady In Autumn: The Best Of The Verve Years [Disc 1]
Nice Work If You Can Get It - Billie Holiday Lady In Autumn: The Best Of The Verve Years [Disc 2]
(What A) Wonderful World - Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
That's Where It's At - Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
The River - Santana Festival
Make Somebody Happy - Santana Milagro
I'll Be Waiting - Santana The Ultimate Collection
The Sensitive Kind - Santana The Ultimate Collection (Disc 2)
What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) - Santana The Ultimate Collection (Disc 2)
Say It Again - Santana The Ultimate Collection (Disc 2)
Brown Skin Girl - Santana / Bo Bice All That I Am
Why Don't You & I - Santana / Chad Kroeger Shaman
Love Of My Life - Santana / Dave Matthews Supernatural
Amore (Sexo) - Santana / Macy Gray Shaman
It's Up To You - Susan Tedeschi Better Days
'Til I Found You - Susan Tedeschi Wait For Me
Never Say Never Love Again - Tish Hinojosa A Heart Wide Open
Derechos De El Corazon - Tish Hinojosa A Heart Wide Open
If Not Now... - Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman
For You - Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman


Going Back

When Will I See You Again? - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture?
The Milkman Of Human Kindness - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg [Disc 1]
The Warmest Room - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg [Disc 1]
The Fourteenth Of February - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg [Disc 2]
The Boy Done Good - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg [Disc 2]
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg [Disc 2]
Somedays I See The Point - Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg [Disc 2]
Rescue Me - Dougie MacLean Live - From Two Ends Of This Earth
She Will Find Me - Dougie MacLean Live - From Two Ends Of This Earth
This Love Will Carry - Dougie MacLean Live - From Two Ends Of This Earth
Deepest Part of Me - Dougie MacLean Marching Mystery
Solid Ground - Dougie MacLean The Dougie MacLean Collection
Caledonia - Dougie MacLean The Dougie MacLean Collection
Ready For The Storm - Dougie MacLean The Dougie MacLean Collection
My Old Man - Joni Mitchell Blue
You Turn Me On I'm A Radio - Joni Mitchell Hits
Help Me - Joni Mitchell Hits
For The Roses - Joni Mitchell Misses


MANU Y MANA

Merry Blues - Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza
La Primavera - Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza
Me Gustas Tu - Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza
Mi Vida - Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza Latin
Trapped By Love - Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza
Le Rendez-Vous - Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza
Te Llevaré Al Cielo - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Mis Ojos - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Hundido En Un Rincón - Maná Esenciales: Luna
No Ha Parado De Llover - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Te Lloré Un Río - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Vivir Sin Aire - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Cachito - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Rayando El Sol - Maná Esenciales: Luna
Eres Mi Religión - Maná Eclipse
Oye Mi Amor - Maná Eclipse
Tengo Muchas Alas - Maná Amar Es Combatir
El Carretero - Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club Soundtrack
Amor de Loca Juventud - Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club Soundtrack


ANOTHER WAY THERE

Happy To Be Just Like I Am - Taj Mahal The Essential Taj Mahal
Them There Eyes - Billie Holiday Love Songs
Brand New Day - Van Morrison Moondance
Night And Day - Billie Holiday Love Songs
Warm Love - Van Morrison Best Of Van Morrison
Body And Soul - Billie Holiday Lady In Autumn: The Best Of The Verve Years [Disc 1]
Meaning Of Loneliness - Van Morrison What's Wrong With This Picture?
All Of Me - Billie Holiday Love Songs
If You Love Me - Van Morrison The Healing Game
Me, Myself And I - Billie Holiday Love Songs
Did Ye Get Healed? - Van Morrison Best Of Van Morrison
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me - Billie Holiday Love Songs
Once In A Blue Moon - Van Morrison What's Wrong With This Picture?
Easy Living - Billie Holiday Love Songs
Taking Your Love Down - Paul Pena New Train
The Very Thought Of You - Billie Holiday Love Songs
Wedding Song - Tracy Chapman Telling Stories
Just For You - Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
I Couldn't Love You More - Sade Love Deluxe
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons - Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
No Ordinary Love - Sade Love Deluxe

Project TUPA (Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Americas) Article About Community Radio Workshops in Mexico

This is an article that was written about one of the workshops conducted in September. (Scroll down to previous post for more information about donating to Free Radio and receiving books & cds from Lorna Dee!)

Original article here


Community Radio Workshops in Oaxaca
by Diana Denham
October 1, 2006

Project TUPA, Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Americas, conducts radio workshops in Oaxaca. A project of Free Radio Berkeley.

A roomful of sweaty people hover over thin metal squares, squinting at the tiny numbers printed on the inductors, resistors and capacitors, comparing the paper diagram in front of them with their own soon to be radio transmitters. The sounds of drilling and fans spinning in vain fill the thick air at this radio camp in the istmeña city of Juchitán, Oaxaca. During the course of the four-day intensive workshop, participants learn how to build FM broadcast transmitters for their own community radios.

There are nearly twenty people participating in the workshop, representing eight community radios on the isthmus of Oaxaca. Members of the Network of Indigenous Community Radios of the Isthmus, they are Mixe, Huave, and Zapoteco young people who want to help educate, entertain and unite their communities through community radio. At the end of the workshop, participants will have successfully assembled a 40-watt transmitter and an antenna, necessary to create a community broadcast station capable of covering and area of up to 8-10 miles in radius.

This radio workshop is sponsored by Project TUPA- Transmitters Uniting the People of the Americas- which brought down enough materials to build twenty radio transmitters for community radios in Mexico. Project TUPA was created by Free Radio Berkeley to empower indigenous, campesino and barrio communities in the Americas with the tools, technology, knowledge and skills to build and maintain their own community broadcast stations. Given the extent of repression of freedom of expression in Oaxaca in recent months, their mission seems all the more pressing.

Stephen Dunifer, the workshop leader and designer of the transmitter that participants learn to build, has been at the forefront of the movement for liberating the airwaves. Recognizing that marginalized communities in Latin America frequently lack the resources to effectively counter the private media, Stephen´s hope for Project TUPA is to provide these communities with a means of communication that they can control, giving voice to a population otherwise excluded. He adds that while start-up costs are generally the major barrier to establishing media access for communities, the transmitter he designed is relatively low-cost. A complete FM broadcast station can be placed on the air for less than $2000, and for $10,000, a 4-5 day radio camp training session like the one in Juchitán can be conducted in any given country, leading to the establishment of ten entry level 40-watt radio stations at an average cost of $700 to $1000 per station.

One of the workshop participants, Cristofer, is a busy broadcaster for Radio Tikambaj (which means "el pueblo" in Huave). Community radio broadcasters don't receive any salary, but to describe his enthusiasm and the extent of his involvement, Cristofer smiles and says: "I am married to the radio, and she's a very jealous wife." As he carefully glues down a capacitor, he adds, "I came to the workshop because I wanted to get to know the other compañeros who are part of the Network, and to understand the internal functioning of the transmitter, so I'll be able to give it first aid when needed." Cristofer comes from San Mateo del Mar, a small town on the Pacific Ocean especially known for how much lightning strikes there, which Radio Tikambaj has found to be their primary technical challenge.

Project TUPA recognizes and supports the struggles of the peoples of the Americas for a decent standard of living, an end to environmental devastation and destruction, social justice, political autonomy, grassroots democracy, control of natural resources and the preservation of indigenous cultures.

Ucizoni, La Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo, shares the same vision. Freddy, a Mixe activist of Ucizoni says, “With Radio Ayuuk, we want to preserve our culture and our history. For example, we tell people about PROSEDE (the government entity working to privatize ejidal land), and they´re not accepting it. We want to help people keep their land.” Commenting on both his experience working for social justice within Ucizoni and his experience in community radio Freddy says: “Once you learn how to speak, you just don´t want to be quiet anymore.”

He sees that his responsibility as broadcaster is to talk about what´s relevant to the community. "If it's the annual festival, we talk about the festival, if there's public health problem, we talk about that." Freddy emphasizes that Radio Ayuuk is autonomous, one of the few radios that covered the Otra Campaña, and also one of the only ones keeping people informed about the teachers movement and the popular struggle in Oaxaca.

Diego is the only participant who is not from the isthmus, but he took the seven-hour bus ride from Oaxaca City to take part in the workshop. Diego is Zapoteco from the Sierra Norte, but studies in Oaxaca City and has been actively involved in the ongoing struggle in the city for the resignation of the governor Ulises and for increased transparency and accountablilty in public policy-making. An engineering student at the Instituto Tecnológico, he carefully constructed his transmitter and took note of all the formulas for antenna-making in order to bring back this information and the transmitter to Oaxaca City. Over the past few months, he has had up-close and personal experience with the ongoing battle for freedom of expression and control over the means of communication.

In Oaxaca City, on August 1st, two thousand women, members of the APPO, peacefully took over Channel 9, the previously state-run channel as well as Radio ARO, the state radio, in order to further the voice of the popular movement. This takeover was largely in response to the destruction, by men paid by the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, of Radio Plantón (the teachers´ radio) on June 14, as well as persistent threats to Radio Universidad, another radio supporting the popular movement, including the shooting by masked men who forced entrance into broadcasting station on July 22.

Nearly a month after the attack on Radio Universidad, Diego was at Radio ARO on August 21st at 3:30am, when masked men entered with guns and proceeded to destroy all of the radio equipment. "It was terrifying. We were unarmed so all we could do was hit the floor to avoid being hit by the bullets," Diego says. The same night, there was a simultaneous attack on Channel 9, where all the television equipment was also destroyed.

"Our means of communicating with the people were gone. At 6am, 7am, as the people of Oaxaca turned their radio dials...nothing. But by 8am: ´Buenos dias, Oaxaca´ and we were back on the air." Between 3am and 7am, the APPO had peacefully taken all twelve commercial radio stations in Oaxaca as a response to the violence of the government. The next day they returned all but two, which they continue to transmit from today.

Diego is now broadcasting from Radio Oro. He acknowledges that on some of the radio programs, there has been a lot of "Ulises name-calling" but he hopes that the stations will continue to emphasize meaningful content, such as the popular movement´s educational programming, which, in addition to keeping people informed about the popular struggle, teaches people how to make organic compost and about how to prevent and treat illnesses, for example. One topic Diego has covered is how free trade agreements and Plan Puebla Panama affect the Oaxacan people.

"There's a constant threat to the stations we have," Diego acknowledges. In the weeks following the workshop, two of the three frequencies used by one of the movement´s broadcasting stations were blocked by the state. With the threat of another desalojo imminent, there is fear that radio stations will be the first thing attacked by the federal police, to prevent the movement from communicating with the people while the attack is underway.

Diego is still trying to find sufficient funds to complete the broadcasting station he started at the radio workshop. He is grateful to Project TUPA because he knows that the more transmitters, the more voice the people of Oaxaca have.

Stephen has referred to his effort to distribute as many community radios as possible as "coup-insurance". He has also led radio workshops in Haiti, which he uses as an example: “In Haiti, when there's a coup and the centralized communication centers are taken over, if there are enough community radios working, people can inform their communities about what's really happening."

In this series of radio workshops in Mexico, Stephen is assisted by Cydney, a woman from the U.S. who built her first radio transmitter several years ago in one of Stephen´s workshops, and since has covered festivals like Burning Man, and has been known to transmit from her bicycle. She asks Lucia, the only female participant in the workshop and a dedicated activist in Ucizoni, why there aren´t more women involved. Lucia responds that while women still tend to be less involved in the technical aspect, there are many women who are active as broadcasters.

On the last day of the workshop, the group visited a community radio on San Dionysio del Mar and Lucia´s assertion becomes clear. All the young broadcasters of Radio Umalalang came out to greet the Network, and most, notably, were young women.

The group celebrated the completion of the workshop by having lunch in the community- a feast of shrimp and eggs with crunchy corn totopos, the tortillas of the isthmus, and plenty of papaya for dessert. The community served lunch outside, overlooking Laguna Superior, lush green mountains all around. Like many communities on the isthmus, the economy of San Dionysio del Mar can be summed up with fishing, corn, and migration. The hope of the workshop participants from Radio Umalalang is to preserve traditions and natural resources of the community while creating new opportunities for the people who live there.

After leaving the isthmus of Oaxaca, Project TUPA continued on to Chiapas for another four-day intensive workshop there. Stephen hopes to come back to Oaxaca in the coming months to support people in their struggle for freedom of expression and against repressive government.

Project TUPA - Free Radio In the Americas: Support the Transformers of the Americas

HA! I just figured out a way to bypass New Blogger and sign in under my old account. This is the comment I just posted. More soon.
-------------------

Dear all,

Last night/this morning all Hades broke out. Both my Flickr & Blogger site went down when I was trying to post some fotos and information on Project TUPA - www.radiotupa.org (Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Américas) - a project of FreeRadio.org which empowers people throughout the Américas to build their own radio stations. (YEA!)


Those of you who know me, and some who do not, know that I am a lifelong supporter of community public access radio, and that I was interested in helping to found a radio station on Isla Mujeres as a means to hurricane relief as well as all the other things great radio brings -- like democratic change. Also, you may have read my post from last year: "What were you doing 30 years ago?" where I talk about once working in a CB radio factory. I'm also a child of public radio, I was born around the time KPFA was and have been listening since I was a child since my brother was a fan and early radio person on the programming end of things.


Anyway, this project ties a lot things together that are near and dear to my heart and consciousness: free speech, democracy, education, truth, freedom, cultural preservation, public access radio and the indigenous peoples of the Américas, and just plain ole do-it-yourselfness (some might remember that I taught myself how to run a printing press in my kitchen when I was 21 years old) so I'm really excited about the work they are doing in Mexico right now: workshops with people throughout Mexico who are being trained in Oaxaca to assemble and operate their own low-cost radio transmitters from kits they design. How cool is that? Project TUPA is currently conducting a second 5-day workshop, building 12 transmitters per week for 12 communities. Each group has 24-26 people, along with 4-5 observers. The transmitters they are building in the workshops are 40 watts [not 10 watt as I previously wrote]. Also, they are training 12 communities per workshop. More info soon. I had a lot of great pictures of the great work they are doing that I was planning to post today & last night when everything went down and I am unable to post anything at all to Blogger right now.


I'd like to help Project TUPA in any way I can right now, when they need it most as they are between 2 1-week workshop sessions in Oaxaca and could use some PayPal donations right now. You can also send a check (tax deductible) or payment to them at their Berkeley address, and any donations of equipment, parts, microphones and other broadcast equipment, cameras, dvd players, tape decks, LAPTOPS -- you name it. Also, especially if you have electronic technology skills or web or translation skills, they could use volunteers in the Bay Area or in their travels throughout Latin America and Mexico. You can also bring them to your own community. You and folk could learn how to build a radio transmitter from a kit (apr. $200) to donate to an impoverished community.


Donate whatever and get free goodies from me!! (CDs of playlists of hundreds of love songs and bummer love songs -- hey, LD collector's items to some; my new book, DRIVE: The First Quartet, and maybe a copy of my new 250 page manuscript of love poems -- just in time for Valentine's day.) More details & pics as soon as I can post again. If you can read this, please let me know.


As I've always said about publishing: "Freedom of the press belongs to the person who owns one" and, as my grandmother always said, and I'll paraphrase: If they can't do it right, do it yourself!

KEEP THE AIR WAVES FREE! SUPPORT FREE RADIO and Project TUPA. Support the transformers of the Américas! Support Transmitters Uniting the Peoples of the Américas.

more fotos here

Support Human Rights Work In Oaxaca

From: Lila Downs
Date: Jan 30, 2007 9:38 PM

Join Me in Supporting Grassroots' Human Rights Work in Oaxaca

 

 Oaxaca is living through a horrifying moment of wholesale human right
 abuses.

 Police and paramilitaries are instilling fear in people opposed to the
 questionably elected governor, Ulises Ruiz.

 Both the current repression and historic neglect of Oaxaca's poor
 majority are on the rise.

 Scores of activists and ordinary Oaxacans are unjustly jailed.

 We have received an urgent request to raise $25,000 by March 1st to
 provide legal assistance and support.

 http://grassrootsonline.org/give_oaxaca.html Please join us in
 extending a hand of solidarity to persecuted Oaxacans and their
 families.

 Protests in Oaxaca began in May, 2006 with a strike by a local teachers union and have since grown into a broad-based movement, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).

The people are calling for the removal of Ruiz, who is accused of systematic corruption and human rights violations. At least 17 have died in the protests, including independent American journalist Brad Will.

The grassroots organizations involved in this human rights initiative will cover the costs of lawyers and legal assistance and provide support to families of prisoners.

Your donation will bring justice to the families of the unjustly jailed and hope to the people of Oaxaca.

http://grassrootsonline.org/give_oaxaca.html Please donate now.

 In solidarity,

 Lila Downs

 Click here to make an online donation and support human rights. http://grassrootsonline.org/give_oaxaca.html

 

Northern New Mexico Need Your Books

from Diana Delgado at Lorca Loca:
--------------------------
Northern New Mexico College Needs Your Help

For the last two weeks, I’ve been teaching a Poetry Class on the Northern New Mexico’s College Campus in El Rito and have realized their library is nil to nada. Granted there are many helpful books in the library (I did see a collected Plath), but the library is lacking those books that you and I have read that have turned the power on, and helped us see ourselves, others, or the world(s) in neon. Fiction, History, Art (anyone have an extra Ernst book?). Basically, send anything.

I know you have extra copies of your chapbook lying around. I know you have piggishly purchased two copies of your favorite book (I do it all the x). I know you have random books that you have wanted to rid yourself of but have not found the time to journey to the garbage or your local thrift store/salvation army. I also know that the majority of people that read this award-winning blog have already published book (s) of their own so you could start by sending a copy of your authored book. And what about you lit mags?

So…

Help a college out and send x-tras or new books to:


Attn: Cecilia Romero
Northern NM College
P.O. Box 160
El Rito, NM
87530

You could even put a donation note in the book: Donated by Diana Marie Nabokov…
posted by Diana Marie Delgado

Molly Ivins: R.I.P. Molly Ivins

we have a right to "raise hell"