Interview with Ange Loft from YT//ST on #IdleNoMore

Ange Loft is an artist and member of Canadian No-Wave band Yamantaka//SonicTitan. She hails from Kahnawake Nation outside of Montréal and is the instigator of the Idle No More Documentary Performance Project, an oral digital archive about the movement which she sees as intricately catalyzed by working mothers, older women, and youth involved in the struggle for First Nations justice. I  reached her via telephone at her home in Toronto on Jan 21 to talk about what she calls the “vibration behind this movement” and how youth, women, and knowledge-sharing are central to its power and expression. 

http://archives.ckut.ca/64/20130130.08.00-09.00.mp3

The 26-minute interview (Starting at 12min, edited from a 48-minute original) aired today (Jan 30, 2013) on CKUT’s Wednesday Morning After. Special thanks to Courtney and Marc from CKUT for production assistance.

FUCK THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Image via gandystuff.tumblr.com

"Pope's Christmas present to gays: you're (still) a threat to human nature"

by Jordan Arseneault (originally published on 2Bmag.com)

In his December 21^st message to cardinals and the upper bureaucracy of the Catholic church, Karl Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, claims that gay marriage is part of an attempt to “manipulate” human nature, and that modern gender theory is all wrong. Merry Christmas from the Vatican!

Karl Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, the head of the most corrupt and homophobic organization on the planet, said in his speech to church officials at the Vatican today that the institution of the family is in the midst of a “crisis that threatens it to its foundations – especially in the western world.” Like a well-trained logician in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas, Ratziger outlines a series of propositions which attempt to invalidate the rights of same sex couples to marry, a constant thorn in the side of his organization, which relies on heterosexual family structures to maintain the teachings of its misogynist and homophobic system of thought and domination.

“The family [is] the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence. This is something we learn by living it with others and suffering it with others. So it became clear that the question of the family is not just about a particular social construct, but about man himself – about what he is and what it takes to be authentically human,” Ratizinger told the cardinals and other unmarried priests in the chapel known as the Clementine Hall. The irony that, in preventing same-sex couples from forming legally recognized families, his church is actually fighting the creation of families, was obviously lost on him.

He goes on to say that gay marriage is a threat to the notion of “commitment,” echoing the widespread prejudice that gay relationships are not as lasting or “real” as straight ones : “First of all there is the question of the human capacity to make a commitment or to avoid commitment. Can one bind oneself for a lifetime? Does this correspond to man’s nature? Does it not contradict his freedom and the scope of his self-realization? Does man become himself by living for himself alone and only entering into relationships with others when he can break them off again at any time? Is lifelong commitment antithetical to freedom? Is commitment also worth suffering for? Man’s refusal to make any commitment – which is becoming increasingly widespread as a result of a false understanding of freedom and self-realization as well as the desire to escape suffering – means that man remains closed in on himself and keeps his 'I' ultimately for himself, without really rising above it.” Riiiiight. So the desire of LGBT people to form lasting relationships somehow contradicts and undermines God's plan for humans to engage in lasting relationships. Fascinating!

Then comes the big whammy: gays are contributing to the loss of “essential elements of the human experience.”

“[O]nly in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child...” Sounds like Karl wants us all to be bottoms, but doesn't want us to ever find a top!

With the marked rise in support for same-sex marriage in France, Mr. Pope made a predictable shout-out to the French community, notably by quoting renowned feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Ratzinger begins by discounting: “one is not born a woman, one becomes so” (on ne naît pas femme, on le devient),” quoting the famed existential writer of Le Deuxième sexe, before offering us a primer on contemporary gender theory.

“These words lay the foundation for what is put forward today under the term 'gender' as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature, that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society. The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious.” Clear as day. What exactly would compel us to believe anything that he has to say about gender and sexuality, when his business still bans women from occupying positions of priesthood, the basic middle management position required to occupy the upper echelons of his multinational corporation?

Then comes the kicker: “When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defence of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.” Yep. All of those people who have killed and raped and pillaged in the name of “God,” they were “defending man,” while the simple and demographically marginal fact of men wanting to marry men, women wanting to marry women, and of transgender people even existing is the real threat to human nature and civilization?

Thanks, Karl. It's all clear to me now. You really do hate us. The official theological highest authority of half of the world's Christians has officially singled out gays, lesbians, and transgender people who support same-sex marriage and embrace the fluidity of gender are a threat to the human race. Let there be no mistaking who is the real threat here: the Catholic church has and will always have the upper hand on destroying and violating the human. The hierarchical, heterosexist, hypcritical ideas that Ratzinger expounds barely mask a message of hate and exclusion towards the LGBTQ people of the world that feeds into laws like Uganda's “Kill the Gays” bill, and all of the violence and exclusion that gay people face and will continue to face the world over. This Christmas, if you celebrate it, remember who loves you, and remember who doesn't. The world is apparently worse off with us in it. Happy holidays from the Vatican!

A Rosary for the Holy Innocents of Newtown

A Rosary for the Holy Innocents of Newtown, Connecticut: A Liturgay for Peace

Make a sign of faith or meditative readiness.

            Prayer Refrain:

            O Goddess make speed to save us, O Creation make haste to help us.

First Meditation:

A voice was heard in Newtown,

sobbing and loud lamentation;

America weeping for her children,

and she would not be consoled,

since they were no more.

            Prayer Refrain

Second Meditation:

May all evil sleep,

May all good awake.

May bright wisdom prevail,

May deep peace dwell in our hearts.

            Prayer Refrain

Third Meditation:

From division, keep us

From hatred, shield us

From scorn, relieve us

From vengeance, turn us.

            Prayer Refrain

Fourth Meditation:

May hard choices be made

May the greater good be known

May peace be our rock

May loving-kindness, healing and Justice be among us.

           

            Prayer Refrain

xoxo,

N. Sr. Aloysius Hardon

Sister Aloysius Hardon of the Montréal Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

SILENCE = SEXE "La nouvelle équation"

Poème destiné pour la lecture à voix haute, en lien avec l'affiche SILENCE = SEXE, créée et imprimée en collaboration avec AIDS ACTION NOW (2012). 

"La nouvelle équation"

par Jordan Arseneault

C'est ce moment embarrassant quand...

Tu te retrouves nu au lit avec le gars que tu as frenché sur un toit

En regardant la croix, toute petite comme un jouet,

Au sommet de la montagne si sombre

Ce moment embarrassant quand tu fais entrer en scène le choeur d'une tragédie grecque

Formé des personnages d’Angels in America

Et le camion-vidanges plein de cadavres et

Des fragments de nouvelles à la télé de manifestations où on lance des cendres

Et Diamanda Galas qui hurle par-dessus "Fire in My Belly"

Ce moment embarrassant quand tu te décides à cracher le morceau

À arracher le pansement d'une plaie toujours ouverte

Et tu lui dis :

Il faut que je te dise quelque chose qui n'est vraiment pas facile à dire et

Je suis légalement obligé de le faire avant qu'il se passe quoi que ce soit d'autre

Je suis sur la liste des finalistes d'un prix spécial

Les finalistes qui n'ont pas gagné le pari

Je suis biopolitiquement condamné à toute une vie de moments d'embarras

Il y a en moi 50 parts par millilitre

Qui trouvent ça Vraiment Intense, mon Homme

Qui sont arrivés trop tard pour un vaccin.

Qui n'ont pas fait leurs devoirs

Qui font écho à une Voix Intérieure Hardie

Qui crie : « Approche-toi pas! »

Même si n’importe quelle autre combinaison de corps

Seraient en train de s'envoyer en l'air

En ce même moment


C'est ce moment embarrassant quand tu lèves les yeux et tu vois l'affiche

Qui dit SILENCE = MORT(SILENCE = DEATH)

Sur le mur de sa chambre en bordel

Et que tu dis les mots

JE SUIS SÉROPOSITIF

Et là tu le vois se figer, perdre son érection, soupirer

Et essayer de t'expliquer fébrilement qu'il a un trouble d'anxiété

Et qu'il ne peut « juste pas dealer avec ça maintenant ».

C'est ce moment embarrassant quand tu veux arracher l'affiche hypocrite

de son mur

Ou du moins la moitié

SILENCE = ccrrrrsssh boulette boulette

SILENCE =

SILENCE = SEXE

Toutes ces affiches, c'est ÇA qu'elles me disent, maintenant :

Silence égale sexe.

Si tu pouvais juste fermer ta gueule

Et ne pas parler de cellules et de réplication et d'indétectabilité

Et de petites coupures et de micro-lésions dans les membranes

Et de rincer avec du jus de citron

Et des tests à tous les trois mois

Et de comment tu l'as attrapé, anyway...

"Ah ouais", tu demandes, "t’as aussi été dans une campagne contre la sérophobie?"

Et de rajouter "Oui oui, je suis sûr que t’es très ouvert d'esprit.

Merci de m'en avoir fait une si belle démonstration."

En te rhabillant.

SILENCE = SEXE

Habituez-vous à cette nouvelle formule

Parce que ces trous d'cul ne comprennent vraiment pas l'équation.

Traduction de l'anglais en collaboration avec Anaïs Bertrand-Dansereau et Elie Darling

Pièce écrite pour voix haute originalement publiée en anglais par VisualAIDS, suite à une lecture à voix haute lors de la "Drop Dead AIDS Literary Salon" de la Universities Without Walls (au mois d'avril, 2012, à Montréal).

SéroSyndicat / Blood Union @ the VAV Dec 1

SéroSyndicat @ VAV Gallery Dec 1 World AIDS Day

Action/discussion/perfo/bricolage animé par le SéroSyndicat pour la Journée mondiale du sida 

(avec/with AIDS ACTION NOW!)

Discussion/action/performance/crafting for World AIDS Day with SéroSyndicat / Blood Union 

samedi 1ier décembre, 2012 : 16 à 18h30 au 1395 René-Lévesque Ouest

Saturday, Dec 1, 2012, 4pm-6:30pm at the VAV Gallery (1395 René-Lévesque Ouest) 

En collaboration avec le collectif de partenariat queer (QP Collective) de Concordia (Erin Silver) et AIDS ACTION NOW!, le SéroSyndicat vous invite à une discussion animée, intervention performative et atelier de création de bannières (pancartes et écharpes) qui sera GRATUIT et ouvert au public pour l'occasion de la Journée mondial du sida. 

Alex McClelland, Jessica MacCormack et Jordan Arseneault présenteront le projet d'affiches poster/VIRUS 2012 de AIDS ACTION NOW, en ouvrant la discussion sur les actions politiques et artistiques contre la stigmatisation et la criminalisation des personnes porteuses du VIH. Nous sommes également heureux d'accueillir l'artiste Sarah Mangle (Toronto) qui performera la pièce "Deathlist". Des membres du SéroSyndicat faciliteront la discussion et création de de bannières (pancartes et écharpes) que nous porterons lors de la vigile de la Journée mondiale du sida, qui aura lieu au Parc de l'Espoir (coin Panet et Ste Catherine) par la suite (heure exacte à confirmer).

http://contrecriminalisationvih.blogspot.ca/ 

In collaboration with Queer Partnership Collective (Erin Silver, Concordia http://www.facebook.com/events/453351414702001/) and AIDS ACTION NOW! the SeroSyndicat will host a participative presentation, workshop, and sashes/sign/banner crafting intervention that is free and open to the public. 

Alex McClelland (AIDS ACTION NOW!) will present the poster/VIRUS project, followed by presentations from Jessica MacCormack and Jordan Arseneault about their posters for the 2012 series. We are also happy to have artist Sarah Mangle to present her spoken piece "Deathlist" as part of the interactive programme. Members of the SeroSyndicat will facilitate a discussion for the creation of hand-made fabric sashes, placards, and/or banners to transmit messages that address HIV stigma and criminalization, which will then be worn by the group to the annual World AIDS Day vigil at the Parc de l'Espoir (Ste-Catherine Est), exact time TBC.

http://contrecriminalisationvih.blogspot.ca/ 

Interview on CKUT 21 Nov 2012 starts at 16min29: http://archives.ckut.ca/128/20121121.08.00-09.00.mp3

YES WE WERK / YES WE CUNT

Cuntdragulations, America(s), this is a good day, and we will sleep better tonight.