SpaceKitty Wanderings

joyful resistance in difficult timesClick here to send an email to the editor of this weblog. Click to see the XML version of this web page.

Aimée's Recent Radio Work

Visit Scorcher Radio for more radio features and documentaries

Media, Democracy, Peace & Justice. 5 minute audio collage using the voices of "Making Contact" for their 10th anniversary (5 minutes, MP3)

Documenting Torture: Holding the United States Accountable. On this edition, we trace the seeds of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to 9/11 and previous to that time. We hear from survivors of torture, human rights advocates, and a soldier. And we'll revisit the official government reaction. (29 minutes, Real Audio)

On a Mission. Scott and Joe were both raised in the Mormon community. But being gay puts them at odds with their families and the church.(26 minutes, Real Audio)

November 2002
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Monday, November 4, 2002
npr starfucker
i went to the third coast festival this weekend. it's kind of an npr starfucker conference, with ira glass, the kitchen sisters, joe richmond and robert krulwich running around.

the highlight of the festival for me was alan berliner a filmmaker and audio genius. one of his projects is a large filing cabinet, much like an old library card catelog. in each of the 108 drawers is a different sounds, and you can play (pull out) as many as you want, ascending scales, crickets, a man screaming (called wit's end), a cacophony of sounds.

he started off as a special effects sound catelog librarian at abc sports, and has been collecting sounds and film at garage sales and wherever else since, to make his art work. his films--the festival only showed little clips of them, oh what a tease!--are brilliant. the only thing i could compare his films to is piano playing, where multiple themes and ideas come at the eye and ear weaving together a complex and beautiful melody.

if i can get ahold of his work, i would love to show a screening at my house with friends.

and the other surprise discovery was another filmmaker they brought in to discuss trespassing. elizabeth barret films the apalachian people of her community in kentucky. stranger with a camera is documentary about a canadian filmmaker who'd been shot and killed in a neighboring town. as an insider, but also a filmmaker, she's in a unique position to understand the dynamics of the tensions of insider/outsider. again, only saw a wee bit of this film, aching to watch the rest of it.
7:02:20 PM  comment []    
salt in the wound
from a letter by Gabi Clayton to the Lions Eye Bank in response to rejecting her openly bisexual son as a donor organ. Bill Clayton had been beaten up in school result of his sexuality, and committed suicide at age 17:

It has taken me some time to respond to your letter. In it you explained that the Lions Eye Bank would not accept my son as a donor because he was openly bisexual, and therefore a member of a high risk population. It is somehow ironic that Bill had an eye operation when he was younger which was paid for by the Lions Club in Mississippi.

Bill committed suicide at age 17, after being assaulted in a hate crime because he was bisexual. Frankly, reading your rejection and justification was one of the most difficult things I have had to face since his death. In your words I saw what my son decided he could not face in the world every day - all the homophobia, hatred and fear of who he was as a person.

Just who is it that you believe is safe? Heterosexuals? Married persons? Children? In my work as a mental health therapist, I work with young children who are at risk of HIV from sexual abuse. WHO IS SAFE? Open your eyes. You are in total denial if you believe that you are protecting people with this policy.

I am also shocked that a group who is using the facilities at a state funded hospital is able to do so with such blatantly discriminatory policies.

I am assuming that you were not stating your own personal beliefs in the letter, but the policy of the Lions Eye Bank. This makes it no easier. Institutional intolerance and discrimination are VERY personal. And institutions are made up of individual persons. If you do not agree with this policy, I urge you to help change it.

Silence is where the hate grows that killed my son.


5:59:16 PM  comment []    
doorways
when you walk through a doorway, take a moment to be present and fully see the world around you.
4:06:16 PM  comment []    

 

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