DANZA VOLUMINOSA: Cuba’s Sensational Plus-Size Dance Company
Danza Voluminosa, a dance group created in 1996 by dancer and choreographer Juan Miguel Mas, features prima ballerina Mailín Daza and seven dancers in total: six beautiful fat women and himself. They have three full-length productions under their belts as well as 30 shorter pieces. A Canadian documentary, “Defying Gravity” (2004) chronicles Juan Miguel Mas’ vision for his troupe and the obstacles they have faced.
According to Mas:
We provide a context for obese people to develop artistically, to create a language and a structure that makes them able to interact with society. But it’s not limited to fat people. We’ve worked with dancers who gained weight, retired dancers – all kinds of artists said to be ‘good for nothing’. We’ve worked with people with AIDS.
We’ve played in places for the first time where people have shouted at us, ‘look at those fat people!’ We still hear giggles sometimes, but when audiences see the sense of purpose, the work that has gone into the show, our concentration – well, there’s always huge applause at the end.
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To some people, punk rock might have represented another wave of ethnic cleansing in Rock & Roll. However, that first wave of the New Wave was more integrated than most people might think. Several Black performers had key roles in punk bands during the prime early years (1976-83), particularly in New York, which, as the home of the Black Rock Coalition (a musician’s collective), has had a long involved history of Blacks playing Rock & Roll. This is a salute to the brothers and sisters that helped make it happen.
As far as Black punk’s relationship to Hip Hop, there’s lots of soundbites to give, but they don’t necessarily add up to much. Rick Rubin recalls Russell Simmons’ initial reaction to Public Enemy being, “Rick, this is like Black punk rock. How can you waste your time on this garbage?’” Perhaps the most famous record ever done in an 80s hardcore style was “Cop Killer” by BODYCOUNT, rapper Ice T’s novelty project where he had an all Black band playing hardcore/thrash. Johan Kugelberg, who compiles discographies of insanely obscure punk singles for Ugly Things magazine, has recently come out of the closet as a rap-head by declaring in print that early Electro records and battle tapes have the vitality and spirit of their punk contemporaries. And, of course, there were a few cases of cross-pollination, with projects like Time Zone (Afrikaa Bambataa and Johnny Lydon) and bands like the Clash becoming interested in Hip Hop (a nod returned when zillion sellers with Clash hooks began popping up from commercial Hip Hop).
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(Note: Bands mentioned in descriptions in ALL CAPS have separate entries, either in main listing, in Also Notable section in Other Punk/New Wave Hardcore Bands With Black Members section. Bands in bold type are acts with a significant relationship to Black Punk that do not have a separate entry)
BARRY ADAMSON - Adamson, later of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, played bass in Magazine from 1979-1981. The band, while not too punk, was the product of the undeniable punk pedigree of Howard Devoto of the Buzzcocks. Adamson brought funky influence to the band, and that funkiness continued with his solo work in the 90s, especially The Negro Inside Me [Elektra, 1993], which explored his relationship with Funk, Jazz, Hip Hop and Euro Pop.
STEVE ALDRICH - The perpetually sunglassed Steve fronted the late 70s Grand Rapids, MI punk/New Wave band GWBT (which, believe it or not, stood for the Guys With Big Teeth) and then had a career spinning punk records on college radio (WSRX) which morphed into spinning “alternative” music as a pro-jock on WLAV. I’ve heard Aldritch’s take on punk described as “possessed of a rare naivette” and also as that of “a big New Wave poseur.” I suppose those aren’t actually contradictory. GWBT’s “Now I’m Really Mad” may be the only punk song to feature a celeste solo. (JA)
Terry Mohre adds: Way off in stating that STEVE ALDRICH fronted the GUYS WITH BIG TEETH, Stig had little or nothing to do with the band except we used his drums, which I remember urinating on. Members of the GUYS WITH BIG TEETH were M. DUNG, CAPTIAN TODEL, TERRY, WALTER WRIGHT, SPUDDY, and sometimes FROOT TA MAN. Also, no celeste it was a little blue toy piano
ALGEBRA MOTHERS (a/k/a THE A-MOMS) - This Detroit punk band was led by the African American guitarist Gerald Collins. They released the single “Strawberry Cheesecake” b/w “Modern Noise” on Aftertaste in 1979.
ALLAH AND THE KNIFE WIELDING PUNKS - Bernie Edwards, Nile Rogers and Tony Thompson were among the members of this 1976 co-ed New Wave act (they did not release any records) before morphing it into the legendary dance act Chic. Rogers and Edwards became two of the most successful producers in pop history, and each has worked with a number of rock artists (Rogers’ collaborators include David Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Sting; Edwards’ include ABC, Duran Duran and Air Supply). Edwards died of pneumonia while on tour in Japan in 1996. Thompson also played with Duran Duran members and Robert Palmer in the Edwards-produced rock supergroup Power Station, and was the drummer for the Led Zeppelin reunion at Live Aid in 1985. He died of cancer in 2003. (JA)
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we got a question on AAGU about if white people can make casual racist jokes with their POC friends if their POC friends don’t seem to mind it and seem to be okay with it. i said nope because no racism allowed, not even in the context of jokes. and then i got another ask from a POC saying that just because you think a POC might be okay with it doesn’t mean they are, and many people of color don’t speak up or call out offensive stuff all the time just because generally when we’re hanging out with friends, we don’t want people to start treating us like we’re overdramatic or causing problems, etc. sometimes it’s just better to keep quiet and let it happen.
and i think that’s such an important point because even in my own personal experience, like calling out your white friends is most definitely NOT an easy thing to do. white people don’t realize that and keep making the jokes and thinking “well my POC friends are ok with it, so it must be ok”. that’s why “my black friend said this” is bullshit because your black friend might just be lying to you so you won’t freak out and accuse them of creating drama. they might just be hiding their actual feelings because guess what? standing up to mobs of casually racist, entitled white people is not easy.
i remember for my last couple of years of high school, my close friends started making terrorist jokes about me, and it was fine at first because it was supposed to be funny and only a joke and of course they didn’t REALLY feel that way etc etc. but then it got annoying because it was the same 10 unclever stupid little jokes, and then people who weren’t my close friends but rather just people i saw around at school did it too. and finally i was just like “ok you guys stop. this has gotten too annoying, i want you to stop.” and they all told me i was being too dramatic because “damn, it’s just a joke.”
but before the breaking point, i dealt with it quietly. whenever i’d meet someone new, i’d think “oh yay this person knows not to make terrorist jokes about me, finally some relief.” when i was a senior, i thought, “yay i’m going to college where people won’t make terrorist jokes about me!” and then one of my friends who was gonna go to college with me started doing it in high school, and i literally remember almost crying and being like “no please you can’t start because then it’ll happen throughout college too.”
that’s what happens. i’d venture to say most POC don’t particularly think your shit is that funny, but they don’t wanna be the one person causing problems. so no, white people, casual racist jokes are never okay, no matter how much fun you think your POC friends are having with it too.
LISTMANIA 2012: TOP 10 LINES FROM LIL B’s NYU LECTURE
- “I’m a watercolors type of dude.”
- “Regardless of what anybody says, I want all of you to live as long as possible, have a great, healthy life, fun, full of adventure, full of mystery, full of trials and tribulations.”
- “Embrace yourself. Embrace your health. Ayyy!”
- “Stay positive. That’s the only way. Positivity, happiness, forgiving, forgiving, forgiving. Forgiveness? Forgiving.”
- “Some of the things I think about on the daily: Safety, man.”
- “Ah, man, it’s just business. Business is business. It’s business.” It’s like, what are you talking about? Have some people love! What happened to humans? Everybody’s thinking about capital gains!… What happened to being a naked human being? Even though we’re not. We’re advanced now, like you see. It’s obvious we’re not naked. “
- “Appreciate every single person. Look at them like a golden, million-dollar baby.”
- “And real talk, like, seeing these ants and studying them and respecting them, it’s like, man, they’re in their own community too. They’re trying to survive. They love. They fight. They telling themselves something. We can’t understand, but one day we will.”
- “Life is hard, kinda.”
- “Please stop the gun violence. Stop the knife violence. The chemical warfare, let’s stop that. Biological warfare, let’s stop that. Who knows about hydraulic fracking? Let’s stop fracking! Hey, bruh, stop messing with the earth, bruh. Real talk, we hear about these deadly gases going on in the earth, and I’m like, whodie! For real. I’m like, whodie. Whodie, get that oil out the ocean, whodie.”
-waikiki was once a taro patch that fed all the native hawaiians on that side of the island.
-oahus current population numbers were once all native hawaiians. Now they comprise less than 5% of it.
-native hawaiians comprise less than 15% of the total population of hawaii but are most of the homeless and well over half the prison populace over non-violent petty offenses.
-native hawaiians have the lowest life expectancy, lowest income and least chances for education out of damn near all ethnic groups in the u.s.
-hawaii is stolen.
Pornography isn’t the elephant in the room, it’s the unicorn.
Throughout most of my experience in the feminist movement, pornography as a medium, has and still is, treated as infallible.
Criticizing the misogyny of pornographers and how they’ve integrated their hatred of women into this “art form,” can get you labeled as anti-sex.
- Just some examples of how some pornographers feel about women:
- “I’d like to really show what I believe the men want to see: violence against women. I firmly believe that we [pornographers] serve a purpose by showing that. The most violent we can get is the cum shot in the face. Men get off behind that, because they get even with the women they can’t have. We try to inundate the world with orgasms in the face.” - Bill Margold, porn industry veteran, quoted in Robert J. Stoller and I. S. Levine, Coming Attractions: The Making of an X-rated video; 1993.
- “There’s nothing I love more than when a girl insists to me that she won’t take a cock in her ass, because — oh yes she will!” - Max Hardcore, interviewed in Hustler (June 1995).
- “My whole reason for being in this Industry is to satisfy the desire of the men in the world who basically don’t much care for women and want to see the men in my Industry getting even with the women they couldn’t have when they were growing up. I strongly believe this… so we come on a woman’s face or somewhat brutalize her sexually: we’re getting even for their lost dreams. I believe this. I’ve heard audiences cheer me when I do something foul on screen. When I’ve strangled a person or sodomized a person, or brutalized a person, the audience is cheering my action, and then when I’ve fulfilled my warped desire, the audience applauds.” - Bill Margold, porn industry veteran and Free Speech Coalition board member.
- “It might promote violence against women in the United States, but I say, ‘Good.’ I hate those bitches. They’re out of line and that’s one of the reasons I want to do this … I’m going through a divorce right now. … I hate American women.” - What pornographers really think of women (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 14 October 1999)
Criticizing how women are sometimes raped on film and then have their rape uploaded online, accessible to millions, who can masturbate to a hate crime, can get you labeled as anti-sex.
For example: Linda Lovelace, the “Star” of the “iconic” vintage porn “Deep Throat.” Even though Linda has come out about being brutally physically assaulted and raped on set:
“During the filming of Deep Throat, actually after the first day, I suffered a brutal beating in my room for smiling on the set. It was a hotel room and the whole crew was in one room, there was at least twenty people partying, music going, laughing, and having a good time. Mr. Traynor started to bounce me off the walls. I figured out of twenty people, there might be one human being that would do something to help me and I was screaming for help, I was being beaten, I was being kicked around and again bounced off the walls. And all of a sudden the room next door became very quiet. Nobody, not one person came to help me. The greatest complaint the next day is the fact that there was bruises on my body. So many people say that in Deep Throat I have a smile on my face and I look as though I am really enjoying myself. No one ever asked me how those bruises got on my body.At another point in her testimony, Linda Marchiano said: Mr. Traynor suggested the thought that I do films with a D-O-G and I told him that I wouldn’t do it. I suffered a brutal beating, he claims he suffered embarrassment because I wouldn’t do it. We then went to another porno studio, one of the sleaziest ones I have ever seen, and then this guy walked in with his animal and I again started crying. I started crying. I said I am not going to do this and they were all very persistent, the two men involved in making the pornographic film and Mr. Traynor himself. And I started to leave and go outside of the room where they make these films and when I turned around there was all of a sudden a gun displayed on the desk and having seen the coarseness and the callousness of the people involved in pornography, I knew that I would have been shot and killed.
Needless to say the film was shot and still is one of the hardest ones for me to deal with today.” - Report of Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, Final Report (1986) & In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings.
- “Sheila Jeffreys, in her book “The Industrial Vagina”, translates an account by European ex-porn star Raffaela Anderson, who describes it this way: “Take an inexperienced girl, who does not speak the language, far from home, sleeping in a hotel or on the set. Made to undergo a double penetration, a fist in her vagina plus a fist in her anus, sometimes at the same time, a hand up her arse, sometimes two. You get a girl in tears, who pisses blood because of lesions, and she craps herself too because no one explained to her that she needed to have an enema…after the scene which the girls have no right to interrupt they have two hours’ rest.” - Kat Banyard, The Equality Illusion, The Booty Myth, p. 159
Another video I suggest you watch (although it can be EXTREMELY TRIGGERING) is from Ex-Pornstar Shelley Lubben who discusses the violent treatment of female performers in the porn industry, the hazardous, unsanitary workplace environment, the abuse of power by male pornstars and male pornographers, the rampancy of substance abuse by performers in the industry and much more.
- This is what she says about the video in her own words: “
This video has footage the porn industry doesn’t want you to see. Women are abused, screaming, crying, raped and in pain on the porn set…No woman should have to go to work only to return home beaten and traumatized.”Her site: shelleylubben.com also features confessional videos from male and female pornstars alike coming out about the sexual violence and exploitation in the industry. She also has a tumblr here.
Addressing how studies have shown that men who consume high rates of pornography have the most misogynistic and chauvinistic attitudes towards women, can get you labeled as anti-sex.
Although…
- Regular users of pornography are more likely to think of women in stereotype, as “socially non-discriminating, as hysterically euphoric in response to just about any sexual or pseudosexual stimulation, and as eager to accommodate seemingly any and every sexual request. - Allan, K., & Coltrane, S., “Gender displaying television commercials: A comparative study of television commercials in the 1950s and 1980s”, Sex roles; 1996Dolf. - Zillman and Jennings Bryant, “Effects of massive exposure to pornography”, in Neil Malamuth and Edward Donnerstein Eds., Pornography and Sexual Aggression; 1984
- In 2002, a professor at a Texas University conducted a study of online pornography consumers (heterosexual men who used pornography via Internet newsgroups). On average, respondents looked at 5 hours and 22 minutes of pornography per week. Respondents were divided into three groups: High consumption (more than 6 hours per week), average (2 to 6 hours per week), and low (2 hours or less). The study found that the more pornography men use, the more likely they are to describe women in sexualized and stereotypically feminine terms. They were also more likely to approve of women in “traditionally female” occupations and to value women who are more submissive and subordinate to men. - Ryan J. Burns, “Male Internet Pornography Consumers’ Perception of Women and Endorsemrent of Traditional Female gender Roles”, Austin, texas: Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas; 2002.
To address how patriarchy has constructed male-female sexuality in accordance to male dominance and female submission, and how this manifest itself as the default presentation of PIV in pornography, can get you labeled as anti-sex.
Although…
- Findings of social science research have shown that prolonged exposure to pornography resulted in:
— a diminution, and eventually loss, of repulsion evoked by common pornography;
— an increasing need for pornography featuring less common forms of sexuality, including forms that entail some degree of violence;
— an alteration of one’s perceptions of “common” sexual behavior;
— a decrease of trust among sexual intimates;
— an increase of tolerance for violations of sexual exclusivity (Moral condemnation of sexual improprieties diminishes sharply); — a diminution of the desire for progeny (The strongest effect of this kind concerns the desire of females for female offspring);
— a discontent with the physical appearance and sexual performance of intimate partners;
— a loss of compassion toward women as rape victims and toward women in general;
— a loss of concern about the effects of pornography on others;
— a need for more violent and bizarre forms of sex;
— a desensitization to violent, hardcore pornography;
— an increasing acceptance of rape myths;
— an increased insensitivity toward victims of sexual violence;
— a trivialization of rape as a criminal offense;
— a trivialization of child sexual abuse as a criminal offense;
— a promotion of men’s belief of having the propensity for forcing particular sexual acts on reluctant sexual partners;
— a predisposition of the willingness to rape;
— an increasing sexual callousness;
— an increasing acceptance of violence against women. - Sources: Dolf Zillman & Jennings Bryant, “Effects of massive exposure to pornography”, in Neil Malamuth and Edward Donnerstein Eds., Pornography and Sexual Aggression; 1984; James Check and Neil Malamuth, “An empirical assessment of some feminist hypotheses about rape”. International Journal of Women’s Studies; 1985; Neil Malamuth and James Check, “Aggressive Pornography and Beliefs in Rape Myths: Individual Differences”, Journal of Research in Personality; 1985; Dolf Zillman, “Effects of Prolonged consumption of pornography”, in Dolf Zillmann and Jennings Bryant eds, Pornography: Research Advances and Policy Considerations; 1989; and Diana Russell, Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm; 1993.To demand that porn be not only analyzed, but criticized for promoting sexism, will most likely result in misogynists and feminists alike covering their ears and shaking their head.
More so, the fact that misogynists and [liberal] feminists share similar opinions about pornography says a lot about the current state of pornography.
When men can find a venue to express arousal and reinforce this arousal through sexual stimuli, at the idea of assaulting women and most feminists will applaud this as “sex positive,” - there’s a problem.
Sex positivity has been used as a non-directional, neutral phrase that is brought up to ignore how human sexuality is structured in context with oppression. This means that ideals of male superiority and female subjugation still have an affect on our sexuality, from what our culture tries to convince/coerce us into being aroused by and the things it successfully teaches us to pursue as desirable.
Why don’t we focus more on being “female-positive,” instead of just “sex positive?” This shift in what feminists are aiming for, in terms of female sexual agency, would help us be able to sift out and better understand fantasies formed from how rape culture, porn culture and patriarchy interact with one another.
The Aba Women revolt of 1929 (Igbo womens war of 1929)
In November of 1929, thousand of women from the eastern part of Nigeria, came together to protest against the warrant chiefs of whom they accused of diminishing the role of women in their local government and high taxes on market women. The revolt was led by village women from Calabar and Owerri.
They employed a non violent method of “sitting” or “sitting on men” to censor the accused. This was done by singing, dancing and chanting sounds all night around the warrant chiefs offices and homes until their plight was heard. By following these men around, some of them where forced to resign and as a result the position of women’s role significantly improved. They were able to achieve the following.
- Women were able to replace the Warrant Chiefs.
- Women were also appointed to serve on the Native Courts.
- After the Women’s war, women’s movements were very strong in Ngwaland, many events in the 1930s, 40s and 50s were inspired by the Women’s War, including the Tax Protests of 1938, the Oil Mill Protests of the 1940s in Owerri and Calabar Provinces and the Tax Revolt in Aba and Onitsha in 1956 (wikipedia)
- They were able to stop colonial masters from imposing higher taxes on market places.
- They succeeded in taking over businesses, banks and courts runned by colonial masters. The British guards fired at the women, killing 50 and injuring 50.
Notable women that led a the peaceful protest include;
- Nwanyereuwa
- Mary Okezie
- Mary of Ogu Ndem (Mary of the Women’s War)
- Ihejilemebi Ibe of Umuokirika Village Ahebi Ugabe of Enugu-Ezike: “The Female Leopard” who was appointed as a Native Court Member in 1930.(wikipedia).
I just recently learnt about this incident in Nigerian History (when i think of 1929, great depression comes to mind)…and i am not sure if any of us learnt this in school in Nigeria, I sure didn’t…sad. But its stories like this that should be passed down to not only inspire us but also commemorate those that lost their lives standing for their rights…rights that impacts us till today.
The picture above is from the revolt and a list of the lives that where lost as a result of the Brit soldiers gun fire attack.
To learn more about it click here
Pretty early on Mami decided that watching TV was beneficial; you could learn the language from it. She saw our young minds as bright, spiky sunflowers in need of light, and arranged us as close to the TV as possible to maximize our exposure. We watched the news, sitcoms, cartoons, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Johnny Quest, The Herculoids, Sesame Street—eight, nine hours of TV a day, but it was Sesame Street that gave us our best lessons. Each word my brother and I learned we passed between ourselves, repeating over and over, and when Mami asked us to show her how to say it, we shook our heads and said, Don’t worry about it.
Just tell me, she said, and when we pronounced the words slowly, forming huge, lazy soap bubbles of sound, she never could duplicate them. Her lips seemed to tug apart even the simplest vowels. That sounds horrible, I said.
What do you know about English? she asked.
At dinner she’d try her English out on Papi, but he just poked at his pernil, which was not my mother’s best dish.
I can’t understand a word you’re saying, he said finally. It’s best if I take care of the English.
"RICH WHITE AMERICANS IN THE CARIBBEAN.
HOUSE HUNTERS: COLONIALISM.
