Crush Mail, a love story

By on May 9, 2013

Springtime! Flingtime! Time to start making decisions that are influenced by sunlight and excitement rather than darkness and despair.* And that means: the return of making and sending out crush art. Nothing finer to make or get, in my opinion. Well, nothing finer IN PAPER at least …

Anatomy of a piece of crush art: paper, envelopes, stickers, pens, stamps, random things.

For who? I especially like to send  crush art to:

  1. Crushes. This one is obvious but worth stating. I might actually never do anything but crush on said person, but that alone inspires and is worth making art over.
  2. Friends. If people I barely know who impress me get my time and attention, how much more do my beloved and brilliant accomplices and partners in action deserve crush art? Lots, that’s for sure. I accept friend crush art and I send friend crush art, for the record.
  3. Dates. People who I’ve already wooed using crush art [and other methods] still get crush art! Water the garden, people. It’s not enough to just plant the flowers and walk away.

Anatomy of a piece of crush art.

    1. Gathering materials — what does this person make you think of? What would make them smile to see written down? What can you pad and fit into an envelope? Do you even have an envelope or will you have to make one? I have a gathering place in my room where I place things I know I will mail. It’s like a little altar to the love I have for all the amazing folks I know and it makes me super happy to look at it.

Things to go IN the art!

  1. Assembly & Content– don’t forget to write something fun / sexy / smart / funny / whatever your heart tells you to on something. Layering items inside items can be fun, and also a way to keep things from getting smashed in the machine that is the USPS.
  2. Sealing– this is a spiritual practice, for me. Am I truly done? Have I said everything I want to? Should I fill this with glitter or more comics with the lines changed first?

    Are you ... SURE you're DONE?

  3. Delivery– you have three options:
    1. USPS: Tape that shit up, double-check your zip code and postage & just hope for the best!
    2. Punk Mail: give to a hopefully trustworthy friend to deliver in person while on their travels.
    3. Handoff: give it to the person yourself. Positive: seeing the look on their face! Negative: it’s a little less magical than the surprise effects in the other two methods.

Delivery method? The HANDOFF

Special considerations

I like to use one of two psychological tactics:

1.  Surprise: hey! I wrote down your address in the morning/at the meeting/some other sneaky way! While this can cross into sketchy territory, I’m hoping you don’t do that. Surprise mailed crush art might not be technically and formally consentual, but it usually isn’t creepy. Don’t be a dirtbag and ruin something beautiful.
2. Tease with the impendingness of the mailed crush art. Hey, I have something for you. Hey, I saw this thing and thought of you. Hey, I tagged you in my instagram feed. Both are totally savory [but frankly I think I prefer to surprise -- and be surprised].

Return Address: Just, always include it. That’s how you get return mail, people. And how shit you didn’t put enough postage on gets back to you.

Outcomes.

Ahh, the joy of utilizing recycled paper, dollar-store stickers, hoarded treasures and ephemera, markers and post-its expropriated from past employment, and a bit of creativity to put together packages for beloveds and people you frankly don’t know as well as you want to.

Folks: Email, texting, even hanging out does not compare to a package with a letter that’s also full of gathered small bits and pieces, special, all for you. A partner of mine excels at this and its one of the most awesome things she brings to the world of people around her.

And, just this week while writing this, I received an unexpected crushy mail art package that made my day. It had a VAN PIN, glitter and earthy/natural items in the box, and a letter in the shape of a paper airplane. Just…wonderful.

That's a tiny VAN PIN in the mail art I received this week. Do I WIN or what?

But — even if I did’t get magical and random deliveries of crush art in the mail as much as I do — making and sending it Feels So Good. Don’t just rely on email and texting, people. Woo better – do it in paper.

*No really, wasn’t this winter extra-brutal? I GAY SHAME this past winter for it’s extreme austerity measures on the spirits of me and so many of us. Luckily the last month and especially today’s new moon are healing. But, really, I’d take unexpected crush art over most things any day. 

Posted in Kink/Sex/Queer, when yr friends make awesome art! | Leave a comment

The first weekend in May is so queer…

By on May 2, 2013

Saturday 5/4, 7pm @ Bluestockings: JACKS McNAMARA’s INBETWEENLAND book launch

Join us at Bluestockings for a night of queer reading & resilience to celebrate the launch of Icarus Project co-founder Jacks McNamara’s first book, Inbetweenland. Featuring readings by Jacks, Victor Tobar, and myself.

Preview some of Jacks’ gorgeous writing: http://ashley-mcnamara.net/category/text/writing/poetry
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/157687084399863

Sunday May 5, 8pm @ Branded Saloon: Opentoe Peepshow queer salon #7

Sunday May 5 at 8pm, come to Branded Saloon [in Brooklyn at 603 Vanderbilt Ave, 11238] to see new art work by: Tennessee Jones, Amber Dawn, Nicole Myles, Katia Perea & Zavé Martohardjono
Bios on all the artists are here: http://www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com/?p=500
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/110293645840847/

Posted in Video/Art/Performance, when yr friends make awesome art! | Leave a comment

10 Reasons to see all the queer performance in NYC this weekend

By on April 11, 2013

There really is NO such thing as too much queer performance art, and NYC has it going on for FOUR DAYS starting tonight.

TEN REASONS TO SEE ALL THE QUEER PERFORMANCE SHOWS IN NYC THIS WEEKEND

10. Because it’s not every weekend that you can be part of recurrent smart queer audiences in a not-loud / intoxicated situation. Wanting to cruise? Wanna talk to someone you’re crushing on? A show like this is the place.

9. Touring is hard as shit and if you go in person and listen and applaud, it makes it a little less hard — and all these are touring shows.

8. There are so many creative and non-didactic gender expressions happening this weekend it might actually negate all the badly-done poetry and drag you’ve ever had to witness in your life.

7. Annie Danger has lavaliers for Fully Functional!! Those beasts are expensive so going helps make it worth her time in getting it.

6. Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon came all the way from Canada and crossing borders sucks.

5. When you have gay descendants, you can tell them about the time you saw 17 brilliant queer performance artists LIVE in one weekend.

4. You could decide that seeing every show is your own form of endurance art, and have a *meta* performance art experience.

3. Sister Spit via Michelle Tea has been doing this show over 16 years. Ivan and Rae have been collaborating for 7 years. Heels on Wheels has been touring for 4 years. Fully Functional is on year 2. That’s 29 years of touring NOT EVEN INCLUDING all the other work all these artists have done. What have you done for 29 years? Aren’t you really pretty good at it?

2. Stories told by queer folks are fucking important because they push back on hegemony and make visible the breadth of our magical lives. And these four shows present stories told sooooo well.

1. There is nothing that compares to the emotional experience of live performance. Not a video. Not a Facebook event comment. Not a tweet. NOTHING. Live performance is what it is because it happens only once that exact way.  The spirit of the audience is part of the magic, so go, go, go!

So, here are your options:

HEELS ON WHEELS GLITTER ROADSHOW [site]
Thursday 4/11 @ Stonewall Inn, 9pm, 21+, $5-15 sliding scale
Friday 4/12 @ The Spectrum, 10pm, all-ages, $5-15 sliding scale

FULLY FUNCTIONAL CABARET [site]
Friday 4/12 @ Barnard College, 8pm, all-ages, free [do-it-all tip: head to Heels on Wheels at The Spectrum after--you can totally make both shows!]

GENDER FAILURE (Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon)
Friday 4/12 & Saturday 4/13 @ Dixon Place, 10pm, all ages, $12-18 [get tix]

SISTER SPIT: NEXT GENERATION [site]
Sunday 4/14 @ New Museum, 3pm, all ages, $12 [get tix]

Posted in Video/Art/Performance, when yr friends make awesome art! | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow: West Coast March 22–April 7

By on March 14, 2013

Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow

is a queer performance art cabaret of radical extravagance and thought-provoking glamour. Our fearless performers rampage across the femme-inine spectrum serving up poetic theatre, hilarious performance art, and rocknroll you can sink your heels into! The four touring artists are: Shomi Noise [NYC], The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins [SF], Heather Acs [NYC], and Damien Luxe [NYC] + special local guests at every show!

DONATE!

We’re fundraising for sustainability and to keep our glitter sparkling — if you donate by March 20, you have the option of getting VIP presage tix to our shows! Or a carabeener cup, or a bondage lesson from me… please $upport! http://igg.me/p/356603/x/61736

Connect with the Heels! Tour Calendar, Artist Bios, Glamour shots: http://www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com // facebook.com/heelsonwheelsroadshow // @HOWroadshow // tumble: http://mfaindiy.tumblr.com/post/44205743719/heels-on-wheels-glitter-roadshow-is-a-queer

ABOUT THE GLITTER ROADSHOW PERFORMANCES

Shomi Noise plays guitar and reads from her zine series “Building Up Emotional Muscle,” the story of her journey as a Bolivian immigrant navigating U.S. culture and finding herself through alternative music scenes. Damien Luxe invites the audience to participate in a satirical and sincere aerobics session for all bodies about dissociation and survival (complete with spandex and sparkle!). Heather Acs uses theatrical storytelling and scientific theory to explore the formation of stars and her working-class, Appalachian roots. Adelaide Windsome [video] is a fabulist storyteller and puppeteer who queer-ifies fairy-tale structures into trans-narratives. The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins uses dance, movement, and performance drawing from traditional burlesque techniques to explore herstories of her working class, femme, sexworker ancestors, while interrogating the exotification of feminine bodies, race, and of exotic dance itself.

DATES FOR TOUR

March 22: LA @ Pieter — Doors 8p / Show 9p / all-ages
March 24: San Francisco @ El Rio — Doors 9p / Show 9:30p / 21+
March 27: Olympia WA, Stonewall Youth / 3:30-5:00pm / all-ages
March 28: Olympia, WA @ The Northern — Doors 8p / Show 9p / 11p dancing! / all-ages
March 29: Seattle, WA @ The Cockpit w/ Butch Queen — Doors 8p / Show 9p / 11p dancing! / all-ages
March 30: Portland, OR @ The Local Lounge — Doors 8p / Show 9p / 11p dancing! / 21+
March 31: Portland, OR @ RECESS / Workshop 4p / Show 7p / all-ages
April 1: Vancouver, BC @ ArtBank — Doors 8 / Show 9 / all ages
April 3:  TBA
April 4: Eugene @ TBA
April 6: Oakland, CA @ SoleSpace — Doors 8p / Show 9p / 11p dancing! / all-ages
April 7:  TBA

April 11: New York, NY @ Stonewall Inn — Doors 8p / Show 9p / 11p dancing! / 21+
April 12: Brooklyn, NY @ The Spectrum — Doors 9p / Show 10p / Midnite dancing! / all-ages

ABOUT HEELS ON WHEELS ORGANIZATION

Heels on Wheels has been presenting cultural events for four years, and is a NYC-based group of queer, interdisciplinary performing artists who create performance-based art and community events that have a feminist and radical agenda, are produced from sites of femme/inine-positive queer embodiment, and reveal the power in under-represented communities.

Heels on Wheels is an all-femme-powered working-class led, multiracial, and anti-oppressive-focused arts and cultural organization who showcases live performance and offers artistic and social justice workshops by diverse, queer feminine-spectrum artists who work in theatre, music, multimedia, performance and literature.

Posted in Travel/Vehicles, Video/Art/Performance | Leave a comment

FISTS n PIRATES = a cure for February blues…

By on February 28, 2013

Damien at 24: Once a pirate queen, always a pirate queen...

Folks it’s February and I, like surely some of you, failed to get a vacation. FMML.* So, I made a music mix for the season, and planned some cool art to share: at least there is some hope in the future…

Sunday 3/3 7pm — Opentoe Peepshow #6 @ The Village at Guerje
Featuring Silas Howard, Cristy Road, Lotus Eater Machine and Merrie Cherry. 7:30 showtime $3-$10. Details: www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com/2013/02/opentoe-peepshow-6/

Thursday 3/7 7pm — Raised Fist Slideshow @ The Forest of the Future
Remember how I used to hang out? That was before graduate school. FMML. But, I’m sharing a slideshow about my rad research on the history of the raised fist image, before Kate Huh shares photos from her g-d incredible archive. This is at the Forest of the Future, which you might want to be checking out anyway due to all the amazing programming: http://forestofthefuture.org/.
Also, I made a special raised fist poster, for fisting You’re welcome.

Saturday 3/9 1am — Hey Queen: PIRATE QUEEN @ Public Assembly
If you ever wondered what a combination music industry liberation/parkslopedyke-

hogtie/bannerdrop/pirate dance would look like? See you at 1am at Hey Queen, people.Future: Heels on Wheels GOES ON TOUR!
Save the dates, NYC: April 11 @ Stonewall in Manhattan and April 12 @ The Spectrum in Brooklyn.

And tell your west coast pals to look out for Roadshow extravagance March 22–April 7. We’re touring from LA to Vancouver!! http://www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com/roadshow/

*FMML=Fuck My Magical Life: an acronym for when you know things could actually be going badly, but maybe you’re just overwhelmed by doing a lot of cool/magical/chosen things.

Posted in Writing/Speaking | Leave a comment

My Cunt Is A Muscle The Size of Your Fist

By on February 14, 2013

My Cunt Is A Muscle The Size of Your Fist, Damien Luxe 2013

[print pdf] My Cunt Is A Muscle… is based on the wonderful Your Heart Is a Muscle 1999 woodcut by Dalia Sapon-Shevin, then a member of the Syracuse Cultural Workers, it was made as an inspiration to activists and a response to the state repression experienced during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999. Dalia’s image has been reproduced and re-versioned widely across multiple activist communities in prints, patches, and more. I find it simple and therefore powerful, and wanted to pay homage while also adding a queer, and for me, a dyke element.

Your fist may be the size of your heart, and it’s also the same size as your uterus [for those of us who have 'em]. Fists can fit in any of the holes–cunts and otherwise–that we fuck with. In the words of artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz:  Every Time We Fuck, We Win.

I feel that in all the ways I fight and work and celebrate being able to fuck any and all the fists I’d like, and I feel it in the queer history of all our bodies getting the pleasure and love we deserve and want — and so I believe that statement intensely, and I adore fisting. I feel that I’ve survived in my body when I’m fisted/fisting, and this act of choosing and intensity has healed and shaped [ha!] me. It’s been with me as long as I’ve been practicing BDSM [12 years] and for all the bodies and cunts and holes and asses and fists I’ve thrown and caught, this is a love letter.

My Cunt Is A Muscle is set in Blue Highway Linocut, produced in InDesign. The cunt is from Wikipedia Commons, and the fist is from an image taken by Shaun Slifer from the Interference Archive’s collection of raised fists. To encourage sharing, My Cunt Is A Muscle is copyleft with a Creative Commons NC-BY-SA [attribute, share under the same copyleft license, for noncommercial purposes].

Enjoy. Fist. Win.

Posted in Kink/Sex/Queer, Video/Art/Performance | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

On power

By on February 11, 2013

Musical Power Notes, Feb 2013

In preparation for the “Queer Power, Queer Vulnerability” talk I gave at the IVYQ conference last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about power…

I think about it in many forms and am actually kind of obsessed.

I think about resistance, social change, revolution and “people power.” The ways and means from which individuals and groups step into, leverage, develop, and demonstrate power.

I think about the raised fist image, the power which is a threat or a show of solidarity. Power as a way of saying something else: I am here. I am surviving. I am unmovable.

I think about power as freedom; an access route on the road of choice. About how the ability to choose is a kind of power, and so therefore how consent is powerful. Choosing based on our desire; the ability to desire in the first place.

Power-as-choice is also complicated. Many of our choices are situational, that is to say they are from a set of limited options. Not all choosing is power, though sellers and marketing would like us to think otherwise. Picking a white or a black piece of technology is not exerting power. It’s just exerting choice.

I think about how it’s complicated; how unacknowledged power can manifest as obliviousness, harmful uses of privilege, oppression, and interpersonal violence.

I am working on making the speech I gave into a piece of writing; hold tight. Until then: power is complicated, and that’s a really good thing.

Posted in Writing/Speaking | Leave a comment

Colleges Here I Come: Yale, Hampsire, New Paltz

By on January 27, 2013

Photo by Najva Sol

On Friday Feb 8, I’ll be speaking at Yale at the IVYQ conference, on “Queer power, Queer vulnerability: BDSM, femme, and generating resistance in identity,” talking about personal instances where queers created joyous lives, structures for accountability, and modes of resilience that pushed that back on dualism, domination culture, and histories of shame. I’ll post a link to the text & slides soon!

The Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow is performing at the Five-College Queer Gender and Sexuality Conference at Hampshire on March 1.

Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow is performing at SUNY New Paltz on March 10.

Last, Heels on Wheels is officially going on our first West Coast Tour March 22–April 7! We’re booking it now, so our dates will be announced in a few weeks!

Posted in Video/Art/Performance, Writing/Speaking | Leave a comment

#3 Digital Humanities Report: Creepy Art Possibilities

By on January 21, 2013

The DHWI Art in Odd Places award goes to: Digital Forensics & BitCurator

BitCurator [http://mith.umd.edu/research/project/bitcurator/] is a project that I’m rather excited about, although not wholly for the developers’ original reasons. It’s a set of Linux-based OSS’s which “incorporate the functionality of many digital forensics tools” for the purposes of humanities research and archiving. The site says, “the BitCurator project is an effort to build, test, and analyze systems and software for incorporating digital forensics methods into the workflows of a variety of collecting institutions.”

Translate your CDs, disks & hard drives into hexidecimal with BitCurator. Use it to play Archivist or Forensic Scientist...

The forensic and “bit” part of the project involves reading and recording the hexadecimal static data that exists on readable drives, to incorporate extra information into a data pull, keeping both original file order and original disk order. This results in files which contain sections and clips of extra information; much of it hexadecimal gobbledygook [<-- see left side], and some of it useful notes on the hex data [<-- see right side]. Continue reading “#3 Digital Humanities Report: Creepy Art Possibilities”

Posted in Production/Communication/Multimedia, Technology/DIY/Skillshares, Video/Art/Performance | Leave a comment

#2 Digital Humanities Winter Institute Report Back

By on January 13, 2013

Everything I did not take a course on: Data Sets, APIs, Random Links & Intersectionality

I’ve been writing about the Digital Humanities Winter Institute, reporting on the Data Curation track here, and weird data archiving here.  The DHWI was a faucet of information which I spongily absorbed, learning that I am especially apt and interested in: large-scale data/text analysis, working with open data sets, and image algorithm analysis; and that I will continue to apply my radical and working-class understanding of the world to something as ostensibly “neutral” as data and technology.

After being in the Data Curation track for a few days, I comprehended that I am a huger nerd than I had realized, and what I actually care about is sitting with a powerful computer and crunching data because I think that ideas outside of institutions are important — surprise! And there are, in fact, really cool and not-that-hard ways to do this. And, I learned about APIs and gathered a bunch of rad resources. Continue reading “#2 Digital Humanities Winter Institute Report Back”

Posted in Production/Communication/Multimedia, Technology/DIY/Skillshares | Leave a comment

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  • photo from Tumblr

    Sunday May 5, 8pm @ Branded Saloon: Opentoe Peepshow queer salon #7

    Sunday May 5 at 8pm, come to Branded Saloon [in Brooklyn at 603 Vanderbilt Ave, 11238] to see new art work by: Tennessee Jones, Amber Dawn, Nicole Myles, Katia Perea & Zavé Martohardjono
    Bios on all the artists are here: http://www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com/?p=500
    Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/110293645840847/


  • photo from Tumblr

    OMG the Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow indiegogo fundraising campaign is almost at 50% of our goal! You can get THESE mugs when you donate, you know: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/heels-on-wheels-keep-the-glitter-sparkling/x/61736


  • The DIY Couturier: 21 Tips to Keep Your Shit Together When You're Depressed.

    rosalindrobertson:

    A while ago, I penned a fairly angry response to something circulating on the internet – the 21 Habits of Happy People. It pissed me off beyond belief, that there was an inference that if you weren’t Happy, you simply weren’t doing the right things.

    I’ve had depression for as long as I can…

  • photo from Tumblr

    **Trigger warning: car accident/trauma** http://www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com/2013/03/resilience-and-the-heels-on-wheels-glitter-roadshow/

    WHAT’S HAPPENING

    In Olympia, four Heels on Wheels touring folks were present during the tragic, though thankfully not fatal, accident that happened to our friend, host, and co-organizer femme badass extraordinaire Siobhan. She was hit by a speeding drunk/high driver that appeared and accelerated out of nowhere as we were crossing the street together. She is alive and going to survive, but she is in the ICU w multiple serious injuries, some of which have changed her physical reality forever. She needs/will need an incredible about of financial and many other types of support.

    Immediately, community skills as street medics, space-makers, crisis interventionists, and caretakers materialized from the Olympia, Bay Area, and NYC folks present. We are so grateful for each person’s presence; it was also extremely upsetting. Being so close to the physical harm of our old friend [and for some, a person they’d just met] was and continues to be traumatic for all who were there.

    As folks work together to help and support Siobhan, it’s with love that we request support for all of those in her networks, including the folks not present who are organizing for her, the folks who were there, and folks who love and care about Siobhan across the country. Because of the ripple effects of trauma, each of us will need various kinds of care and healing, even as we continue to give each other and Siobhan care and support.

    Heels on Wheels canceled what was to be our Olympia show for Siobhan’s community to gather, collect donations for her long-term needs, and write her notes, and we are not doing our scheduled show on Friday in Seattle.

    We are rescheduling our show in Seattle to Tuesday April 2 and keeping our other tour dates, after taking some healing time and discussing among ourselves.

    ART, RESILIENCE, and TRAUMA

    We are continuing to tour because the work we individually do and collectively create is about healing and communities, and we want to continue to share this art as we strive for healing among our group.

    The Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow is deeply about resiliency — our performances, our transformative organizing, the magic that we femme-ifest for ourselves and the people around us. Our working-class-led tour harvests resilience to make art and to share it in the first place. As a group we honor and experience a wide range of oppressions, marginalizations, traumas AND creativity, prevailing, survival, community, and general badassery in all forms. So, we know about healing.

    And we know that art heals hearts.

    It has healed each of us, and as performing artists for many years we’ve seen it heal rooms of people. We know that many permutations of folks immediately affected by this specific tragedy need healing, and also that each of us, including those not touched at all, moves through the world affected by trauma, harm, and the pains of living; and its for that and for each of us and for the many communities we are part of that we tour in the first place.

    We need each other in many ways, and one way is to inspire resilience. This is one way to, in Heather’s words from her piece, “hold each other tightly.” This tour is one small healing gift.

    WHAT YOU CAN DO & SHOULD KNOW

    Heels on Wheels touring folks are physically ok, but we are collectively and individually in various states of shock, PTSD, and just fucking sad for our friend. We are also individual humans who are full of many kinds of feelings — you’ll also see us cracking jokes and aiming for some fun. We might not all be excited to talk about our experiences.

    At our remaining shows we will be collecting donation$ for Siobhan*.  We are also open to accepting healing items for ourselves, including: essential oils, crystals, jewelry, snacks, and/or talismans/gifts from whatever your practice may be.

    As a tour, we look forward to sharing dialogue and our witchy and powerful selves with folks on the west coast.

    xo,
    Damien Luxe, with Heather Acs, Shomi Noise, Lizxnn Disaster and Vagina Jenkins

    *Donations of items can also be mailed to: 1411 8th Ave SE, Olympia WA, 98501. We don’t yet have a financial donation link to share, but we will be involved in further fundraising efforts.


  • photo from Tumblr

    abundanceorscarcity:

    Double decks = double trouble. One for love and one to fuck shit up.


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