Daily Archives: April 27, 2021

Fresh Faces of Environmental Action for Earth DayIntroducing Eight Eco-Warriors from Santa Barbara County and BeyondBy Indy Staff | April 22, 2021

The founding of Earth Day in 1970 is inextricably tied to Santa Barbara, where a disastrous oil spill the year before fired up the nations environmental hackles and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Our region remains a hotbed for Mother Earthminded preservation, planning, and restoration, carried forth by generations of eco-warriors, whove taken the form of every archetype from activist to academic, lawmaker to litigator, farmer to philanthropist.

Today, many of the same battles persist over conserving landscapes, fighting development, cleaning up waterways, saving species, and bringing sustainability to everything. But thanks to the zeitgeist of Black Lives Matter and associated equity-aimed endeavors, the Earth Day movement also encapsulates environmental justice in 2021, an era where racial reckoning extends to all corners of society.

Wed like to introduce you to eight fresh faces of environmental action in Santa Barbara. Some of the following folks are new to town, some are multi-generation residents, and one is working on a more regional goal but all are actively engaged in projects, policies, and programs that matter. We hope their stories inspire the next generation to follow in their footsteps.

Happy Earth Day. Matt Kettmann

Jay Reti first visited Santa Cruz Island as a Paso Robles High student, taking a summer course in field biology on the largest of the Channel Islands. That was my first exposure, he explained. I immediately fell in love with the islands.

Today, hes the director of the Santa Cruz Island Reserve, part of the University of Californias Natural Reserve System. With 41 properties totaling more than 750,000 acres of land, the NRS is the largest research reserve system in the world.

We handle a majority of the research and education that happens on the island, said Reti. The goal I have for the research is to use the island to test conservation and land stewardship methodology, and export that to mainland California and globally. Were really well poised to do that.

While pursuing anthropology degrees at UCLA and Rutgers, where he got his PhD, Reti worked 15 field seasons in the deepest corners of East Africa, but he would visit the Channel Islands every time he came home. He lectured at UC Santa Cruz for a few years until seeing the Santa Cruz Island job posted in 2018, when longtime director Lyndal Laughrin, whos been on the island for 55 years, decided to retire. If Laughrins tenure is any indication, the reserve director role could be a lifetime appointment for Reti, who is planning to move out there into a shipping container house with his wife and daughter in the future.

Im stepping into some tremendously big shoes, and Im really humbled by it, said Reti of Laughrin, who still lives on the island and helps with reserve projects in his retirement. By our standards, the Santa Cruz Island Reserve is a remote field station. But compared to where Ive worked, its not that bad. Plus, you dont have to worry about spitting cobras and puff adders. Despite that remoteness, the island is a very heavily utilized reserve, said Reti, who said 1,000 to 2,000 visitors clock an average 5,000 user days on an average year.

The jack of all trades job involves overseeing a small staff; keeping up relations with The Nature Conservancy, which owns the island, as well as the National Park Service and National Marine Sanctuary; processing research applications from scientists around the world; scheduling stays at the field station, where 40 people can sleep in normal times; and fundraising to pay for maintenance and more.

We get everything from people studying subtidal zones to geologists to entomologists to people studying lichens and different kinds of fungi on the island, said Reti, who noted that even art students use the island occasionally. Its extremely varied, and there is a lot of room for collaboration between all these disparate research groups, which makes it very exciting.

Recent research of note is how the reduction in regular fog is affecting Bishop pines and endemic island scrub jays that have adapted to those trees, and a deeper analysis of the spotted skunk, which seems to be less prevalent than it was when island fox species were much lower. The fox is the fastest to ever go from critically endangered species list to off the endangered species list in the world, said Reti. Thats fantastic, but what happens when it bounces back that quickly. Are they in direct competition with the skunk?

COVID hit soon after Reti started on the job. Over this last year, Ive spent very little time on the island, but Ive been completely swamped with work, said Reti of his pandemic year. Ive been able to dive into some more nuanced aspects of the reserve that, if I was out there managing people, I wouldnt get to do. Theres a silver lining for sure.

Hes most proud of spearheading a regional climate monitoring project, which installed eight weather stations around the island to serve an open-access data system. I would love in the future to see scientific publications that are citing these weather stations by people that dont even have to visit the islands, said Reti.

He hopes more people, especially Santa Barbara residents, will take the chance to see the islands for themselves.

I would encourage everyone to visit the islands, he said. Its very common to meet local people who have never been out here. You have this absolutely world-class, spectacular, stunning place an hour away.

See santacruz.nrs.ucsb.edu. Matt Kettmann

Liz Carlisle grew up in Missoula, Montana, listening to her grandmothers memories about life in the Dust Bowl. I was so compelled by her stories of an agrarian childhood, and I wanted that connection to the land, explains Carlisle, an agroecologist and author who started teaching in UCSBs Environmental Studies program in the fall of 2019. But those stories were ultimately tragic, as mismanagement of the land led to the destruction of countless communities.

After graduating from Harvard, Carlisle hit the road as a country singer and ran into similar reports. There were a lot of farming families all over rural America who had incredible traditions of land stewardship, but were all constrained by essentially the same forces, she explained, pointing to federal farming policies of the early 1970s that directed farmers toward chemical-dependent monocultures of commodity crops. It not only encouraged but really forced farmers, as the Secretary of Agriculture said, to get big or get out.

Motivations were multiple. The oversupply of food became a weapon of the Cold War, while corporations like Ford and Sears, which needed low-wage workers for their urban factories, influenced economic policies that encouraged rural flight.

Carlisle found a savior of sorts in Senator Jon Tester, a flat-topped, missing-fingered Montanan who promoted organic farming and renewable energy over fossil fuels and extractive agriculture. After working in his D.C. office for a year, Carlisle went to grad school at UC Berkeley and then worked for four years at Stanford, along the way co-writing two books: Lentil Underground and Grain by Grain.

At UCSB, Carlisle is inspired by a focus on environmental justice and equity. Its just not acceptable to continue with the food system we have if you care about equity and climate change, explained Carlisle. The students I work with at UCSB understand that 100 percent.

Shes about to publish her third book, Healing Grounds, whose working subtitle explains it all: How Farmers and Scientists of Color are Reviving Ancestral Traditions or Regenerative Agriculture to Combat Racism and Climate Change. Theres beautiful symmetry to it, she said of social and eco causes converging. The land is the place where we need to find healing.

The country may finally be prepared for such. The experience of this global pandemic, as well as the racial reckoning of the BLM movement, has pulled back the veil for some folks on the structure of the food system that supports their everyday consumption of food, said Carlisle. I have seen people raise their voices.

See lizcarlisle.com. Matt Kettmann

Meredith Hendrickss mother grew up on a Santa Barbara ranch. When she was young, shed invite her pig Abigail into the house, they were such good friends. When she was a little older, shed ride her horse through groves of walnuts, apricots, and berries down to the beach.

Within a generation, the century-old family ranch was gone, paved over by the Five Points Shopping Center. Hendricks, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, traces a clear line between that loss and her ultimate career path of preserving natural landscapes and agricultural land. It tugged at my heart, she said.

After studying at UC Davis and protecting open space in Northern California, including as Director of Land Programs for the Save Mount Diablo land trust, Hendricks is now leading the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. She started last fall, smack in the middle of the pandemic, but she hit the ground running the Land Trust is pushing ahead on a handful of major projects, including the finalization of one that will be announced in the coming weeks.

Hendricks, like the organization she now heads, is pragmatic about the complicated pursuit of land conservation. Theres absolutely a place for development in the world, she said. People need a place to live and work and shop. Its mindless urban sprawl that she and trusts around the country push against, instead working with landowners willing to explore long-term options for preservation, including for habitat, recreation, or agriculture.

That effort often means bringing odd bedfellows together, as Hendricks puts it, from environmentalists to estate planners to ranchers to builders. But she enjoys it. I like working with disparate entities to get on the same page and do remarkable things together, she explained. And shes well-suited to it, with a masters degree in environmental business relations and true pride in her work.

After more than three decades of success in the southern parts of Santa Barbara County notching wins for Arroyo Hondo Preserve, the Carpinteria Bluffs, several Gaviota Coast ranches, and several other properties the Land Trust and Hendricks are now casting an eye farther north.

Trails and parks in and around Santa Maria and Lompoc are getting loved to death, she said, as sky-high housing prices push workers out of Santa Barbara. As communities grow and get more complicated, its really important we match that with conservation and open space, she explained. We want to provide meaningful resources to everyone.

See sblandtrust.org. Tyler Hayden

Laurel Serieys knew from a young age that she would need to get all the education she could in order to study and help animals, especially wild cats. As a high school student, Serieys read a scientific paper about how most research, money, and effort is put into large cats, even though theres 33 species of small cats that most people dont invest in. So I was like, okay, maybe I should be a small cat person. Serieys received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UCLA, where she studied how anticoagulant rat pesticides affected the genetics and disease susceptibility of bobcats in Los Angeles. From there, she went to Cape Town, South Africa, as the project coordinator and founder of the Urban Caracal Project.

After six years in South Africa, her career studying smaller cats brought her back to the West Coast. On the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, where Serieys is now, logging companies are collaborating with nonprofits like Panthera and with Native American communities to promote a more balanced ecosystem in which predators such as bobcats help control the mountain beaver population, which threatens young saplings.

Closer to Santa Barbara, Serieys is hopeful about the impact of the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing, which is scheduled to break ground in 2021. I think its a really amazing, excellent thing. And I know that a lot of thought has gone into it for many years, said Serieys, who worked in that area between 2006 and 2014. I was there when P-12 became the first cat documented as crossing the 101, and when that happened, I was also doing the genetic analysis for the mountain lion project. And we could immediately see his genetic contribution and how that really helped the population.

Serieys believes that if the crossing can facilitate movement of more mountain lions in and out of the landscape, it will relieve multiple pressures on the cats, adding that another leading cause of mortality there is mountain lions killing other mountain lions, presumably over fights for territory. For eco-biologists and lovers of wild cats all over the world, Dr. Laurel Serieys is a source of information and inspiration.

See urbancaracal.org. Paloma McKean

Teresa Romeros career has taken her from nonprofit administration with the San Francisco Symphony to preserving treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather for Michigans Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. It was complex, she said of enforcing an agreement from 1836. But now, shes come home.

Romero runs the Environmental Office for the Santa Ynez Chumash, keeping a dozen grants and myriad programs on track, from monitoring the valley haze to nurturing native plants. If you take care of the resources, they take care of you, she said. We have gathering permits out in the forest, and weve propagated 3,000 plants of 60 different native species. Trial and error is teaching them which need a freeze or a burn to sprout.

Its about stewardship, she explained. When we care for our environment and our resources, our land and our waters, it protects our communities, protects our foods, our medicinal plants.

This extends to trash. At the annual powwow, unlike most festivals, trash bins dont overflow. Romero and her team start with the vendors, explaining the need to avoid single-use items theyve achieved a 90 percent landfill diversion rate. There has been a huge focus on recyclables, but take plastic water bottles, for instance: Why put them in recycling when you can reuse them? said Romero, who provides hydration stations for refills. My hope is that when people observe what were doing, they think about what theyre doing at home.

Romero is a member of the Coastal Band of Chumash and grew up in Montecito on the hill, canyon, and creek named for her family. She laughed as she said, We all have a Jacques story, referring to the infamous lifeguard who once patrolled the Miramar, running off the neighborhood kids who ventured too close to the resort. She left to study anthropology at Oregon State University.

When you study anthropology and archaeology, you dig things up and study whats been left behind. It really opens your eyes, she said. It becomes quite apparent that were leaving an awful lot of stuff behind. Where are those things going?

See syceo.org. Jean Yamamura

Summer Gray stumbled into the world of environmental activism almost by accident, thanks to a friendly push from Mr. Nagler, a high school art teacher. Gray, the first in her family to attend college, grew up a blue-collar kid in the asphalt concrete wilds of Montclair, where San Bernardino County bleeds into Los Angeles. She was into art the environment, not so much. Even so, Mr. Nagler recommended Gray for a collaborative arts and science fellowship in the Bahamas to study coral reefs. Witnessing the impacts of human development on the sea was a lightbulb moment for Gray, turning her on to the miraculous complexities of marine ecology and later to the more complex ecology of power, equity, and access as applied to the aquatic universe.

For the past four years, Grays been teaching environmental studies at UCSB. Along the way, Gray managed to be almost everywhere: monitoring climate-change negotiations in Poland, studying the impacts of sea-level rise in the Maldives, and co-authoring a scholarly treatise proclaiming the emergence of marine justice, a new variant in the realm of environmental justice.

Along the way, she also signed on with UCSB Professor Ed Keller to study what made some people more vulnerable than others to Montecitos catastrophic debris flow in 2017 essentially, why some got out and others didnt. Her role was to interview 25 people who lived, worked, or did business in the upended area.

Im a qualitative researcher, she said. Data is effective, but what Ive learned over time is that people resonate with stories.

As an assistant professor, Gray has found storytelling a critical tool in teaching community resilience. Many environmental studies students, she said, find themselves overwhelmed by the imminent threat of the slow incremental violence posed by climate change. I show little things that people are doing, like the Santa Barbara Soup Kitchen, for example, she explained, that give students a sense that they have a role to play, that show people can be involved in making change.

See summermgray.com. Nick Welsh

Kristen Hislop grew up enjoying California to its fullest the Stockton native and her family would often venture to the Sierra Nevada to camp amid its towering trees and imposing granite peaks and to the stunning beaches on the states coast. These experiences ignited Hislops love for environmental science, and she now manages an extensive portfolio of issues in her role as director of the Environmental Defense Centers Marine Conservation Program.

Hislop, who holds a B.A. in geography from UCSB, was initially interested in pursuing a career in physical therapy, but she changed her path after becoming fascinated by undergraduate human geography and oceanography classes. She graduated from UCSBs Bren School in 2010 with a Master of Environmental Science and Management degree.

Driven by a passion for protecting and preserving Santa Barbaras abundant natural environment, Hislop works mainly on issues related to climate change, like fossil-fuel usage and the safe introduction of renewable energy sources. While renewable energy may sound like a straightforward way to mitigate climate change, inadequate planning could harm environments and communities.

We want to make sure there are no lasting negative environmental impacts of renewable energy, explained Hislop. We take on that role not only as advocates of renewable energy but also in the venue of offshore wind, which is an exciting issue but should be coupled with protection.

Hislop believes offshore wind is a viable energy source that must be thoughtfully implemented, and she is currently working with multiple state agencies to ensure proposed projects including two near Point Conception will be located in areas that reduce the risk to the environment and other user groups, such as fishermen and recreationalists.

We have concerns about nearshore projects because many species are found in higher abundance close to shore, said Hislop, whod like to see them located further offshore and would like to avoid unnecessary environmental and community impacts.

This is part of a bigger picture that we get to contribute to on a local scale, she said of her work at the Environmental Defense Center. Working in this field and this place is such a gift. It takes a long time to influence policy, but Ive been in the field for enough time that Ive seen some wins.

See environmentaldefensecenter.org. Lily Hopwood

Christopher Ragland credited his mother teaching him how to swim young and his early comfort with the beach as allowing him to become interested in pursuing environmental studies at UCSB.

Originally from San Pedro, Ragland said that he was fortunate to have this opportunity because many people of color dont.

I have Black family and friends now that dont like going to the beach; they dont like sand on their feet, Ragland said. They dont like being in the water, and theyre not safe in the water. They dont think that it is for them its just not a Black thing to do.

So after graduating UCSB and searching for his place in environmental work, Ragland eventually found the perfect fit when he combined his love for the ocean and water sports with his passion for environmentalism and social justice. Hes formed The Sea League a year-round ocean sports league that is accessible to low-income youth of color and creates pathways to environmental stewardship. He wants to take it from a fun first approach rather than overloading the kids with facts.

The project began in January and is still small. Ragland has a team of five kids he takes surfing at Leadbetter Beach twice a week for two hours. He hopes to expand once he is able to get more adults involved to help take the kids into the ocean.

Rebuilding relationships between the natural world and communities of color is a central goal of The Sea League. All of the men older than Ragland in his family either are incarcerated or were previously incarcerated, and Ragland believes that he broke that cycle for himself because of his relationship with the ocean and the environment.

Its not like Black people never had a culture with the environment or the ocean, he said. Its just that its sort of been erased and rewritten in a way where many folks dont think theyre welcome.

Follow his progress on Instagram at @_chrisragland. Delaney Smith

The rest is here:

Fresh Faces of Environmental Action for Earth Day - Santa Barbara Independent

As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have rippled through society, musicians and artists are amongst those whose livelihoods have been significantly affected. With venues closing down and concerts and tours cancelled, many have focussed on channelling their energy into resilience.I didnt write any songs for a good three or four months, says Jeangu Macrooy. The world was so different.

In an exclusive interview with wiwibloggs, the Eurovision star said he struggled to find artistic inspiration throughout the pandemic. I usually get my inspiration from going to the theatre, movies, just meeting friends randomly and having new conversations, Jeangu told our William. Its been interesting. But now, hes ready to bounce back. Representing The Netherlands at Eurovision 2021, Jeangu will perform Birth of a New Age in Rotterdam.

A departure from his Eurovision 2020 entry Grow, Jeangus new song is reflective of his journey with his own confidence and self-worth. When I wrote Grow, I had a long period of time where I was not feeling like myself and I was crawling out of this pit, he explained. I think Birth of a New Age reflects where I am right now.Im more confident, more strong, Im the optimist I always was.

Much of that strength and optimism comes from his heritage. In many ways, Jeangu is an ambassador to Suriname the country of his birth and the place he first discovered music. Rightly so, Jeangu is proud of his identity and incorporates elements of Surinamese culture into his music. I was working on the lyrics a few days before the studio session, he said from his home in Amsterdam. I was thinking about my heritage and the country that is my foundation of who I am as a person. I remembered this old saying which literally means, Im half a cent, you cant break me (because its the smallest denomination of coin). Its a way of saying you may underestimate me, but I know my own worth, I know my own strength and thats what will keep me going.

One of the most undeniably striking features of Birth of a New Age are its lyrics. Many fans have drawn comparisons between Jeangus words and the political climate of Suriname. When quizzed by William, Jeangu explained that this wasnt a direct inspiration. The short answer is no, he said. But I got the association. Because for Suriname, its also the beginning of a new direction, a new age.

However, the song does have a message for the broader atmosphere and current cultural zeitgeist. Its inspired by these movements where people say, weve shut our mouths for too long, Jeangu said passionately. An out and proud gay man, Jeangu remains vocal about his drive for social change. Even here living in Amsterdam, [Black Lives Matter] has had a huge impact because it was a global movement and Im so happy that were living in the time where people have found the courage and the strength to use their voices against these systems of oppression and are fighting for whats right. Whether that be fighting for the Black Lives Matter movement or our queer community. We deserve to be here and we deserve respect.

That sentiment is something that shines through in Jeangus music video and live performance. During the premier performance of Birth of a New Age, Jeangu was joined on stage by his twin brother Xillan and ZO! Gospel Choir singing the your rhythm is rebellion motif.

But Jeangu is planning on a few changes for the Eurovision stage show. Its a different thing, its another chapter. As for the backing vocals, Jeangu plans on using a mix of both pre-recorded live vocals. Its yet to be confirmed whether Xillan will reappear as a backing vocalist, however. I cant reveal that yet, he teased.

What else? Well, Jeangu also gave us his top tips for visiting Rotterdam. He recommends visiting the Kunsthal museum, and grabbing something Surinamese to eat. Rotterdam is a very multicultural city, he said. I must say that I am still discovering Rotterdam myself. And were excited to discover it, too.

His final message for his fans is that hes ready to do them proud at Eurovision. Im ready to hit the stage. Im ready to give it my all, he exclaimed. We wish Jeangu the best of luck, and we know hell do The Netherlands and Suriname proud.

What did you take away from this interview with Jeangu Macrooy? Do you connect with the Birth of a New Age lyrics? Sound off in the comments below.

Read more Eurovision 2021 interviews here

Link:

Interview: Netherlands' Jeangu Macrooy on "Birth of a New Age" | wiwibloggs - wiwibloggs

The intersection of sport and art has long been an interesting conversation. And, as a sector, we sometimes use those statistics to create division, but are art and sport audiences so very different?

Not at all, according to Gerry Bobsien, Director Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG). While we often use those numbers to wedge the two, there is a really basic connection in their use of storytelling and spectacle.

The gallerys new exhibition Shadow Boxer (opening 5 June) will highlight the cultural fascination with boxing, and explore a duplicity of themes from race to gender, physicality and folklore.

Bobsien told ArtsHub: If you scratch the surface a little, so many artists, over so many years have turned to boxing as their subject. Theres a real interest for us in looking at why that is, and the very different perspectives artists offer the compelling stories around sport, rather than conquest itself.

That most literal aspect of narrative is explored by UK writer David Matthews (a journalist-turned-boxer) in a film that sits alongside the exhibition, which includes works by artists Blak Douglas, Fiona McMonagle, Karla Dickens, Keri Glastonbury, Nigel Milsom, Michael Willson, Richard Lewer, as well as boxing champion Bianca 'Bam Bam' Elmir.

-Gerry Bobsien, Director, Maitland Regional Art Gallery

Bobsien says Matthews talks a lot about physicality in his writings. As Bobsien sees it, He talks about similarities, as does Richard Lewer, who draws together the technical aspects of making art in terms of discipline and training.

The Melbourne-based Lewer spends his mornings in the studio and afternoons in the gym training boxers. He has made a series of to-scale steel boxing bags assisted by his crew at the Northside boxing gym. Theyve been shaped and beaten in the most physical way by those he trains.

The physicality of these boxers making marks on the steel is so seductive. Richard speaks fondly about his gym. How everyone gravitates to their own bag, and how the bags take on their own persona. And when all have left the gym, theres still a little movement in the air as though they're embodied in some way, explained Bobsien.

Lewer will also present a number of movement-based drawing workshops during the exhibition period.

The programming around this exhibition is just as important as the artworks, and that really brings out some of those other conversations directly with our visitors, Bobsien told ArtsHub.

Michael Wilson, Harris and coash Faris Chevalier focus on what's ahead, 2018. Courtesy the artist.

Bobsien said the whole narrative around boxing is deeply connected to stories of regional Australia.

The exhibition draws heavily on its collection of personal items from boxing great, the Maitland Wonder Les Darcy. He was a champion, but he was also a musician and a blacksmith. People called him a gentleman he was not a brute, explained Bobsien. There is undoubtably a class aspect around the sport in this region in particular where a lot of coal miners boxed to earn some extra coin and this is an aspect that Nigel Milsom unpacks in his work.

Shadow Boxer also enables the gallery to throw a spotlight onto the participation of Aboriginal champion fighters and the stories of tent boxers that toured country Australia , said Bobsien.

The gallery recently acquired works by Karla Dickens, produced for NIRIN: Biennale of Sydney, offering a moment to interrogate the galleries collection holdings.

Wes Enoch (who directed Roger Bennetts play Up the Ladder) will add his voice to this story in the exhibition publication, Bobsien said.

I suspect many boxing gyms, like those around here have all flags flying, affirming the place of Aboriginal boxers as champions of the sport, and Karla tells that story beautifully through her work looking at celebration and the flipside exploitation.

-Gerry Bobsien, Director, Maitland Regional Art Gallery

First Nations artist Blak Douglas, similarly looks at the idea of the hero and the narratives around David Sands, who also lived in the region and was the first Indigenous boxer to be entered into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

These stories have a very immediate connection to our visitors and our community being able to tell stories that have a basis here in Hunter Region, but also absolute relevance across the country that is what regional galleries do well, Bobsien told ArtsHub.

That amplification of national zeitgeist through the local is also played out in the involvement of Lebanese-Australian boxer Bianca Bam Bam Elmir, who explores the nuances of gender, cultural diversity and again perceptions of physicality around sport as a Muslim woman.

Elmir says that boxing gives her agency. She doesnt shy away from talking about violence and what this means for her in the ring and this is a challenging subject on so many levels Bianca talks about consent and a level playing field with two people facing off against each other in a highly technical and defensive dance. There is something incredibly powerful in the way she talks about it in her workshops finding your strength and taking power through your body, explained Bobsien.

Elmir uses sport as a platform in her community work with young women, and also young boys, in crisis. She will be part of a panel discussion of artist boxers on 19 June.

One of the challenges for this exhibition has been that it presents so many stories. Its hard to know where to stop and rein things in, concluded Bobsien.

Shadow Boxer is showing at Maitland Regional Art Gallery from 5 June 8 August. Visit the gallerys website for public programs tailored to the exhibition.MRAG is located two hours north of Sydney.

Visit link:

Bridging the art/sport divide with creative energy - ArtsHub

"Identifying as an attack helicopter" isn't the brilliant material that comedians like Dave Chapelle and Ricky Gervais think it is.

One of the worst stereotypes aimed at transgender people is that were all a bit uppity. In the soccer game of identity politics we are often characterised as the trigger(ed)-happy referees, just itching to call out anyone who deadnames or gets a pronoun wrong. One of the most policed places that this happens is in the world of stand up comedy. Trans jokes are big business.

Have trans people become the unwitting poster children of woke culture? Over the past few years a lot of red cards have been flashed at stand up comedians, and as a transgender woman I can definitely see why but as a transgender woman who also does stand up comedy I find myself genuinely conflicted.

When I watch a comedian saying something offensive about trans people Im more preoccupied with their technique than their offensiveness. A strange case of being offended as a comedian first and a trans woman second.

Its like inside me are two wolves; locked in eternal battle. One is a trans woman and the other is a comedian. They are both humping my leg.

Ive been doing comedy for 20 years (five of those post-transition) and Ive seen it change a lot. In the early to mid 2000s the aim of most comics levelling their wit at hot button topics was to make people laugh despite their politics. A punchline so clever it cut through any prickling social discomfort you might have felt during the premise or setup.

But for comics nowadays the audiences tastes have changed. And some might say for the better. Presently when I see a new comic trying to joke about school shootings, or pedophilia, or the Me Too movement, or even rape culture my sphincter tightens and I feel like an anxious mother watching her child try to do a Russian table cloth trick. Will the punchline justify the ugly tension Im feeling or will a tumult of offensiveness and cutlery rain into the audience and take out someones eye.

Inside me there are two wolves. One is a comedian and the other is a trans woman they are both blogging furiously about the show they just watched.

Theres no end of straight cis men (on Netflix) doing transgender comedy material. I think Ive watched them all (quarantine helped), and so Ive collected my thoughts about a few and thought Id share them with you all.

Like the thing today, the thing right now you cant make fun of, the thing thats too sensitive at this moment? Transgender people. See? You cant do it. Cant make fun of them. Its too sensitive. In fact, you cant even call them chicks with dicks anymore. No. No. You have to call them men who talk too much' Anthony Jeselnik

Anthony Jeselniks jokes never look good on paper. In a live setting though, (even one recorded on Netflix) you can still feel the sucker punch of his dark and black musings, but to pick at them from a page they lack any wit or surprise just their apparent danger. Jeselniks act can only be described as a cancel culture BDSM session. An offensive onslaught framed in a safe and comfortable environment. His audience knows what to expect and most (if not all) will lean into it. They expect to have their limits tested.

Saying the unthinkable is an often hilarious and cathartic way to rail against social mores (identity politics included) and Jeselnicks real skill is to accomplish this in as fewer words as possible: including his joke about transgender people. Jeselnik offends on two fronts (transphobia and sexism) in just ten words. Its a marvellous feat of economy and audience control.

Tracy Morgan in his post accident comeback special Stayin Alive says he would fuck Caitlyn Jenner (a bold move and the one thing the movement needs more than anything else: trans amorous men brave enough to say out loud they would fuck us) but Tracy cant leave it at that. He has to go into graphic detail about how he would fuck her. Graphic detail about the state of her body when hes done with her. Id fuck her pregnant! I know she doesnt have a pussy but she will when Im finished with her. Its as if Morgan has something to prove, as if he misguidedly feels he has to fuck the gay away.

So, the prime suspect in our criminal line up is Ricky Gervais. The arrows he has levelled at the trans community are noted and many. Gervais takes shots at Caitlyn Jenner both at the Golden Globes and in his 2018 special Humanity, albeit to make light of Jenners vehicular manslaughter case, and in particular the way celebrities arent held to account like the rest of us. He yanks the table cloth and leaves the cutlery and our indignation still standing. Being the medias newest trans darling doesnt make her exempt from critique is what hes saying. A hard but necessary pill to swallow. So far so good but where Gervais gets it wrong is in wrapping up this routine, where he tells us he now identifies as a chimpanzee called Bobo.

One thing I find genuinely upsetting about this is how trite and hack it is. Its nothing new for trans people to listen to the cis folk use our language and idioms against us. I identify as an owl! Im short but I identify as a tall person! I might be fat but Im actually thin on the inside; Im trans-slender. I identify as an attack helicopter (Fnar. Guffaw. Snort!!) To this last one my bog standard response lately has become Well why dont you fly away and fuck off then.

Find a new joke.

When Gruen host Wil Anderson came under fire in 2019 for suggesting that a Digital Avatar Instagram Influencer (read; fake-in-the-computer-made-up-bloop-bleep-person @lilmequila) identified as a robot I think the backlash was largely due to the joke feeling like more of the same. While I could see this as an attempt to utilise the currency of a zeitgeist buzz phrase for comedic effect its not lost on me that the trans community and our allies probably all rolled our eyes and thought Oh no, not this again. Any broader inference that both trans identities and robot influencers are actually fake feels like a long bow to draw, but as a comic my opinion is also that zeitgeist buzz phrases are not the only ingredient of which great jokes are made.

And then we come to Chappelle. First off I will say this he is really good. The tension he creates when bringing up taboos is electrifying. He owns what he says 100%. Chapelles mode of attack is often say the unthinkable and work back from there. He truly is a court jester dancing within the grey areas of public opinion. And while this does work to his benefit he really does seem to want to have his cake and eat it too. Again, much like Gervais, Chappelle wants to revel in his audiences ignorance of us. His routine is a laundry list of trans scare stories: surely sex with us means youre gay. Or Arent you all like Rachel Dolezal? Or I danced with one and I didnt know they were trans. I feel tricked!

Chapelle keeps saying how much he respects us and has no problem with us the smart persons way of saying Im not transphobic, but. yet once again this feels like misdirection. A way to get us on side while setting up for the punchline.

Chappelle is also under the impression that he has gained a free pass card because he met a trans woman (another comedian; the late Daphne Dorman) who laughed at his trans jokes. No mean feat Dave. Even I laughed at some of your trans jokes. Were not all the same and no one has to be trans to find your material problematic.. Like duh! This is about as genuine as saying Well, my one black friend doesnt mind.

Other comics with trans material include Louis CK, Joe Rogan, and Steve Hughes. They range from acutely transphobic (Steve Hughes) , to winkingly offensive (as is the case of Jeselnik) to even oddly compassionate (strange to say, but that honour goes to CK). While Louis says he envies us for being the only people who have fully worked out what is wrong with us and subsequently fixed it, he then includes a throw away gaffe about identifying as an owl.

The truth about all these routines though is that theyre simply not written for us.. Theyre written for cisgender people. And if we find them funny its usually by default. We laugh but we remain on guard because this humour still others us. The audience laughs because we remain alien and unfamiliar to them. Most of these comics are uniting the audience in their mutual ignorance of us and that isnt helping at all. No one goes home with any renewed insight into trans peoples lives. When people leave the comedy club we all still seem a bit uppity.

Chloe Black is a comedian, screenwriter and broadcaster. She tours regularly and is writer/ creator of web series Transferred, currently in development with Electric Yak Productions and Screen Australia

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What Offends Me Most About Transphobic Jokes Is How Lazy They Are - Junkee

8/10Director: Shaka KingStarring: LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons, Dominique FishbackRunning Time: 2hr 6minRating: 15

In the ever-present wake of a turbulent year for Black Lives Matter, it seems appropriate for the story of Fred Hampton to be reignited and given new air to breathe in 2021. This historical account eerily soundtracks the current zeitgeist. BLM didnt start with the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain (to name but a few), and it certainly didnt end with a generous posting of a black square on Instagram. This is a fight for equality that has been happening for generations. Shaka Kings new flick takes an investigative look into the whereabouts and the circumstances leading up to Fred Hamptons assassination in 1969. The film sheds further light upon the racism which is deeply interwoven within Western society and demonstrates the terrifying power of a pig-headed government with censorship, at any and all costs, on its mind.

Judas and the Black Messiah follows the story of William Bill ONeal who, having been offered as a plea deal by the FBI, infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther organisation, led by Chairman Fred Hampton. The story unfolds as we see the way in which the FBI utilise their informants as expendable pawns in a game of politics, capitalising off the financial desperation of blue-collar, black Chicago citizens in the late-60s. They use any means necessary to quash what they deem to be a terrorist organisation.

On the flip side of the coin, King pays tribute to Chairman Hampton and the Panthers, maintaining a poise and a delicacy in the treatment of their legacy. The violent imagery in some of Hamptons public speeches remains, the kind of imagery that Right and White history books will cling on to, but so does the necessity of these messages. Sure, there may be talk of killing pigs, but only to emphasise the fatigue of being an ignored and non-existent entity underneath a fascist system. It is also not only the shoot-outs with Police that are being remembered in the film, but also the Panther-led Free Breakfast for School Children programme, the creation of a Rainbow Coalition in a unifying movement across all oppressed ethnic communities, and the Panthers doctrine of respect towards women. It becomes clear that preconceptions of the Panthers are dangerous and frequently do not paint the entire picture.

We see Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield reunite from their days in Jordan Peeles Get Out. Both actors performances in Judas and the Black Messiah have been recognised with an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor for each of them. Kaluuya is a tour de force. He more than fills the large shoes of portraying Chairman Hampton, carrying an air of enormity with him on screen. He manages to create this empowering feeling which washes over when he delivers Hamptons public speeches; his vocal mimicry is astonishing, almost entirely replicating the eternally rolling forward cadence of the real Hampton.

LaKeith Stanfield has commented on the difficulty he found in having to portray ONeal. He reports breaking down on set on multiple occasions, due to the guilt he felt in playing this character. Despite these difficulties, Stanfield delivers a stand-out performance. Whilst ONeal is seen as a traitor by many, I found an element of pity and sympathy being created toward his character. Shaka King discusses in a podcast with IndieWire that there was an attempt by the writers and by LaKeith to demonstrate the apolitical nature of ONeal he was not motivated by politics in his role as an FBI informant. He was, in many ways, trapped. He was part of the struggle of the time. His motivation was to try and create a better life for himself. It takes quite some mastery and a high level of skill to create so many dimensions and layers to a character; a set of chops which Stanfield has in apparent abundance.

Whilst Kaluuya and Stanfield are especially strong performances, they by no means run away with the show. Dominique Fishback gives a beautiful voice to Deborah Johnson, Chairman Hamptons significant other. She gets in touch with the human aspect of Hamptons messianic personality and, through exposing Fred to his own vulnerabilities, gives him more power and drive than ever. Furthermore, Shaka Kings directorial eye must absolutely be commended. Exposition is spared and instead moments and conversational exchanges inflate any required context. This drops you right into the film and whisks you away on the ride with no seatbelts.

Judas and the Black Messiah is a memorable film. It is engaging, exciting, cerebral and empowering. It is certainly an important film in an age where we begin to question the motives and the actions of those whom we elect to speak for us. Judas and the Black Messiah I hope will stir the people into questioning and inspire change where the people see fit. For, as put by Chairman Hampton himself, where theres people, theres power.

Editor's Note: Judas and the Black Messiah is available to rent on the BFI Player

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Review: Judas and the Black Messiah - Nouse

Lives and ways of expressing emotions have witnessed a pronounced shift during these past 12 months. Normality has been replaced by a dehumanising reality that has regressed the traditionally mundane into a warped counterpart. Devices like the computer and the mobile phone have become windows, opening up into our minds and souls.

The externalisation of our thoughts, opinions, emotions and hopes have become intricately dependent on social media. Human interaction has on occasions been reduced to a Zoom meeting, virtual hugs, kisses and all. The most basic instinctive human behaviour of sincere endearment has become a forlorn travesty, emoticons and such. However, this outward expression of repressed feelings is still a necessity for some, even though reduced to a most empirical and elemental digital format.

Pawlu Mizzi, in his mission statement for his Wi Imb Wi exhibition, clearly expresses this: The pandemic is a protagonist game-changer that has manipulated how we behave; how we eat, how we relate, how we have sex, how we breathe, how we experience our innate human senses. It is as if life has been suspended in a virtual, simulated nether space, compounded by an impotence and an apathetic despondency. Our frustration is vented through the urgent clicking away on a computer keyboard or through the frantic caressing of a screen.

Going through the online comment boards of newspapers can be regarded as a litmus of frustration levels. Arguments at times degenerate into a demonstration of our mother tongues ability at the most colourful of expletives. Hate speech is showing a more dehumanising pathway, augmented by the relative safety offered through this inhuman impersonal interaction. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, was insightful and prophetic when he declared that I like being myself. Myself and nasty. It is so exasperating when one cannot put a face to an offensive or insensitive comment.

Whoever coined the term keyboard warriors was certainly on to something; he or she captured so effectively the zeitgeist of our times, particularly these pandemic ones. Sometimes, confinement and solitude bring out the worst in us, that which former human interaction somewhat mellowed. Those who lived in the pre-internet age, and who were more temperamental and impulsive, often resolved a squabble via strong words, followed, in the most extreme of cases, by a fist fight. The argument hence would many times be resolved, and bad blood would not curdle into lingering, simmering hatred and distaste that might fester into something dreadful; an invitation to forego the safety of ones home and venture outside into the real world, to deliver on ones keyboard threats.

Mizzi has transposed multiple exposure to a contemporary digital setting that integrated images from social media into totally new 21st century narratives

The photographic technique of double or multiple exposure has been used since the early days of photography, way back in the 1860s. These early photographers used this novel manipulation of the medium in double portraits of the same sitter, thus creating an otherworldly image that was intriguing and somewhat upsetting. Eadweard Muybridges pioneering photographic work, via his studies of motion and motion-picture projection, explored the possibilities of recording multiple images of the same subject in various stages of movement and abandon. In the 20th century, master photographers like Man Ray, Cecil Beaton and John Deakin poetically exploited the surrealistic possibilities of the technique.

Mizzi has transposed multiple exposure to a contemporary digital setting that integrated images from social media into totally new 21st century narratives. The protagonists are people who have agreed to participate in a project that the artist defines as a social exercise of collective portraiture. This was launched via The (Facebook) Portrait Project II Fading Social Distancing Facebook group on December 27 of last year, having an end-of-the-year deadline for any interested individuals from all around the world.

Each participant was consequently tagged and invited to share his/her thoughts and reactions about the modern ostracisation of social distancing, and the itch for the human touch, lost through the imposed solitude of lockdown.

The outreach transcended geographical boundaries, bringing the whole world together into one global village. A total of 363 people replied to this request, who were game to the project. Chronology was the only non-variable that Mizzi considered in the improvised juxtaposition of the profile pictures. The exercise is slightly reminiscent of Tristan Tsaras 1920s Dada experiments in spontaneous poetry, and of the much later Burroughs-Gysin cut-ups of articles and their impromptu rearrangement into new unconventionally structured narratives.

Mizzi factored in the chronology regarding the enrolling progression of members to the Facebook group as a springboard for the finished pieces. A collective portrait was created for every 10 consecutive group members who enrolled and who had to furnish the artist with one of their Facebook profile pictures to be used as fundamental material for the artist to work on. Thirty-seven composite Auerbach-like deconstructed portraits were thus created, which democratically merged physiognomies, emotions, disabilities, traits, cultures, races and ages into the blurred, schizoid, out-of-synch collective portraits, seemingly thriving amid multiple personalities.

The pandemic has deprived us of our identity and of our corporality, reducing our individuality to a mere shadow lost in the many pathways of the internet. Mizzi has exploited the mediumistic idiosyncrasies of social media to summon pixelated ghosts, together with their stories.

The artist has printed these composite portraits on aluminium dibond, for his third solo exhibition. His preoccupation with dualities has defined the artist along his career. Wi Imb Wi builds on his 2013 masters research project, titled (Facebook) Portrait Project. This current exhibitions title, loosely translated into English as face to face, investigates the metaphor by actually transposing and integrating multiple faces and identities. Absolute strangers, with no connection to each other, are merged into metaphysical, virtual alternatives.

The early photographers, even Muybridge, enjoyed the playful magic of a new technology which enabled them to create multiples of singular subjects in various ways and manners. Photographers like Beaton and Deakin created multiple exposures which are like ripples, most of the time originating from one single human face. Mizzis portraits are eddies that interact between themselves, through concealment and through selective revelation. These manifestations, captured on aluminium dibond, seem to embody the famous biblical verse: I am Legion, for we are many, a Boschian contemporary devilish nightmare of loss of identity.

Wi Imb Wi, curated by Melanie Erixon from Artsweven, is open at Il-Kamra ta Fuq, Mqabba, between April 27 and May 18 and can be visited by appointment. Visit the events Facebook page for more information.

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The intimacy among strangers - Times of Malta