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Mangos With Chili Presents Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead in the Bay Area Tonite & Nov. 15th

7 Nov 2009

MWC_Front_Vert2 Porque we remember our loved ones from our familias and community everyday and porque the mujeres that are involved in the creation of this project are beautiful and kick culo.

Mangos With Chili: the floating cabaret of QTPOC bliss, dreams, sweat, sweets & nightmares
proudly presents the premiere of:

BELOVED: A Requiem for Our Dead
because we refuse to forget you

Featuring:
Nalo Hopkinson
Charleston Chu
E. Rose Sims
SoliRose
Nico Dacumos
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ms. Cherry Galette
and more

With video by Storm Florez, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, and more

November 6th and 7th, 8PM
The Lab
2948 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds

November 15th, 8PM
Hechos en Califas Festival
La Pena
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds

In this highly anticipated premiere of the newest Mangos With Chili production, we invite you to join us at the crossroads for a night of conjuring, memory, mourning and celebration. Through elegies of story, song, dance, drag and more, the Bay Area’s noted and notorious queer and trans people of color performance crew will honor our erased, fallen and slain queer and trans people of color family lost to hate crimes, war, colonization, and genocide. We will celebrate our queer legacies and the ways we’ve found to survive through the beautiful resistance of memory, and whisper stories about grief, loss, healing, sweet darkness, and walking between worlds towards rebirth.

Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead will feature the brilliance and blaze of renowned Caribbean speculative fiction storycrafter Nalo Hopkinson; multimedia invocation performance art heart wrench by playwright and poet Nico Dacumos; In Memoriam, a new collaborative dance theater work by Charlston Chu and Cherry Galette; ancestral prayer/spoken love letter by writer and theater artist Rose E. Sims; a mixed media jazz dance cabaret extravaganza by Charleston Chu, an autobiographical musical journey traversing the Middle East and African Diaspora by virtuoso trio SoliRose; the powerful truth renderings of queer Sri Lankan writer and performer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; and the premiere of Moorish Salt a burlesque-dance theater/ritual performance art piece by fusion dance artist and theater-maker Cherry Galette.

Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality performance of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face. Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco based arts organization CounterPULSE, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators: www.counterpulse.org. Mangos With Chili is supported by the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation, and the generous support of our community of donors.

Both venues are wheelchair accessible. The show contains material of adult nature. Parental discretion advised. Please refrain from wearing scented products to ensure that audience members and performers with multiple chemical sensitivity can attend.

For more information:
mangos.with.chili@gmail.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com

Protests at University of California Campuses

1:01 pm By la Macha · California · Comments Off

25 Sep 2009

In the face of huge budget cutbacks that many argue are little more than an effort to privatize public foundations, the students and faculty in the University of California system protested in huge numbers yesterday.

Daniella, a petite second-year Latina undergraduate sitting quietly in the shade echoed what many making the rallying calls were articulating. “My whole life I wanted to come here. If they increase the fees I will have to drop out. We have to fight this.”

via the LA Times

Among those in the crowd was third-year psychology major Vico Melgoza of Santa Ana. He said he was skipping two classes today to be there. “This is more important. That’s my personal belief,” said Melgoza, 21, adding that he was worried about how fee increases will affect not only his future but also future generations of low-income students. The fee hikes and cutbacks, he said, “are beating the people who are already beaten.”

From Time

The demonstrations did not disrupt schoolwork. A spokesman for UC President Mark Yudof said most classes were held and that “most of the action was at the rallies.” But there will be more rallies. Protest organizers at Berkeley said that discussions are under way for a march on Sacramento that would include participants from the UCs, the 23-campus Cal State University system and the states’ junior colleges. “This is just the beginning,” says Miller. “It’s a wake up call to students about what is happening to their education.”

Vivir Latino will keep you updated to future happenings!

Prison Riot in California

3:34 pm By la Macha · California| Controversia| Violence · 2 Comments

9 Aug 2009

art.prison.fire.newspro CNN is reporting that serious rioting broke out at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California last night.

More than 250 inmates were injured in a riot that erupted overnight at the California Institution for Men in Chino, a spokesman said Sunday.

Flames leap from a housing unit at a prison in Chino, California, on Saturday night.

Fifty-five inmates were taken to area hospitals with serious injuries, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, prison spokesman.

None of the facility’s employees was hurt in the melee, which broke out at about 8:20 p.m. Saturday at the Reception Center West facility, Hargrove said. The situation was under control by 7 a.m. Sunday, he said.

The scene of the violence was the medium-security housing facility with seven units, each of which houses about 200 inmates, he said.

Some 80 officers responded to the riot, during which a housing unit was heavily damaged by fire, he said.

Guards used pepper spray, “less lethal force, and lethal force options” to regain control, Hargrove said in a written statement.

The institution was placed on lockdown pending an investigation of the cause of the fighting, and visiting privileges were suspended.

I have friends that are both prison guards and prisoners. So when I hear news like this I get very anxious. I want both the guards and the prisoners to be safe, and yet it always seems like it’s the prisoners that are subject to “lethal force options.”

I hope that all involved people, including the prisoners, are ok. That everybody survived with the least amount of trauma.

Villaraigosa Bows Out, Won’t Run for Governor of California

6:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Los Angeles| Politics| society · 1 Comment

22 Jun 2009

Along with celeb Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, L.A.’s Latino mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (and co-star of telenovela-like love dramas) had his sights set on becoming the Governor of the great state of California, but today has announced that he’s bowing out:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced on national television today he would not be running for California governor in 2010 after flirting with a bid for higher office for months.

Elected to a second, four-year term in March, the mayor told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he wanted to devote his full attention to Los Angeles, which is facing its worst fiscal crisis in decades.

Villaraigosa’s decision adds a dash of clarity to the race for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination which, at the moment, appears will be between state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Brown has yet to say if he will run, while Newsom already has announced his candidacy.

The L.A. Times attributes the bow-out to the Mayor’s low approval ratings – 55% on the job he’s currently doing as mayor in L.A. — and the fact that historically, Los Angeles mayors have had a very hard time at gaining support in their quest for Governor of California. Oh, and the $530 million deficit for the city in fiscal year 2009.

Meanwhile, Mr. Villaraigosa was just re-elected as Mayor of the great city of L.A., which apparently means he has a lot of trabajo to do.

Any L.A. reader want to let us know the real deal? Is L.A.’s crisis just an excuse? Did Villaraigosa ever even have a chance to be governor? What’s his report card for L.A. looking like? Let us know in the comments.

Via / Los Angeles Times and Politico

Ex-Miss California: I Lost my Crown Because of the Gays

6:28 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Controversia| GLBT| States| society · Comments Off

12 Jun 2009

carrie-prejean-parents Wow, I basically saw this one coming yesterday, word for pathetic word:

Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says she lost her crown because of a comment she made about gay marriage and not because she had been skipping appearances.

Prejean told Matt Lauer on NBC’S “Today” show Friday that she “absolutely” had been dethroned because of the comment, when she said marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Nice try, Carrie. But in another captivating display of my psychic prediction powers, pageant officials are saying exactly what I predicted yesterday: you couldn’t keep your commitments because you were too busy making anti-gay marriage appearances for the Evangelicals. And having hangovers.

So, bye-bye, La Jolla, Viva Miss Malibu!

Via / AP – Yahoo News

Miss California Loses Her Crown After All

10 Jun 2009

carrie-prejean

We called it the story that wouldn’t die, and apparently it still hasn’t. Miss California, Carrie Prejean – that bastion of morality and American values — has been stripped of her crown, after originally keeping it after a photo scandal. This time it’s not because of her liberal ways with her blouses but for something a lot less sexy – for slacking off. CNN reports:

Carrie Prejean has been dethroned as Miss California USA for “contract violations,” including missing scheduled pageant events, according to a state pageant official.

Prejean, 22, retained her title last month despite a controversy over topless photos, missed appearances and her statements against same-sex marriage.

Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump decided to fire Prejean a month after he gave her a second chance.

“Carrie is a beautiful young woman, and I wish her well as she pursues her other interests,” Trump said.

Tami Farrell, Miss Malibu, will assume Prejean’s title and assume the responsibilities she apparently wasn’t able to be bothered with. Pageant officials say she violated her contract because she was unwilling to make appearance on behalf of the pageant.

My guess is that Prejean slacked off because she was out there trying to pursue her career as a spokesperson for the Christian Right’s anti-gay marriage movement. ¡Le salió el tiro por la culata!

Via / CNN

Gay Latino Teen is Prom Queen in L.A.

1 Jun 2009

It sounds like a script for the feel good movie of the year, but it’s a true story. An openly gay L.A. teen decided it might be fun to be a part of his high school’s prom court, but he didn’t want to be prom king — he thought prom queen would be more up his alley. And instead of being the target of bullying or ridicule, Sergio Garcia’s classmates at Fairfax High rallied around him and made his wish come true:

A few days before the dance and election, the contenders gave short speeches on why they deserved the crown.

“At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best-looking guy or girl were crowned king and queen. Things have changed and it’s no longer just about who has the most friends or who wears the coolest clothes,” Garcia told the crowd of seniors. “Sure, I’m not your typical prom queen candidate. There’s more to me than meets the eye.”

The audience erupted in applause after his speech, and a group of his female friends spent the rest of the week wearing pink crowns and campaigning for him.

On Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, wearing a charcoal-gray tuxedo and a black bow tie, he was named prom queen.

“I felt invincible,” Garcia said.

He’s among the first male students in Southern California to take the title usually owned by female high school beauties.

“It just shows how open-minded our class is,” said Vanessa Lo, 18, the school’s senior class president.

Congrats to Sergio and his classmates. We can only wish that the rest of high schools in America — or in California for that matter — were so cool. Viva Fairfax High!

Meanwhile, anti-gay marriage protests rage in Sergio’s home state.

Via / LA Times

California, Get Some Courage

4:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Controversia| GLBT| society · 2 Comments

26 May 2009

Guess who’s not proud to be a Californian again?

Even in the worst of times, it is important to remember: the fight is not over.

Please sign the pledge to keep the campaign for marriage equality in California going. This can’t end this way.

Via / Courage Campaign

Dirty Lender Charged Latinos More for Loans

11 May 2009

000004273718xfeature With all of the corruption and dirtiness and in finance-related industries of late, it should perhaps come as no surprise that beyond just “legally” taking advantage of unsavvy consumers by lending them money they could never pay back, at least one of these institutions made it a policy to charge Latinos more for borrowed money. A federal investigation has been opened on California lender Golden Empire Mortgage, Inc., of Bakersfield, which allegedly cannot explain the drastic differences in prices between white customers and Latinos. ConsumerAffairs.com reports:

According to the FTC’s complaint, Golden Empire violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in pricing mortgage loans. They allegedly gave loan officers and branch managers wide discretion to charge, in addition to the risk-based price, “overages” through higher interest rates and higher up-front charges. The defendants allegedly paid loan officers a percentage of the overages as a commission and failed to monitor whether Hispanic consumers were paying higher overages than non-Hispanic white borrowers.

The complaint alleged that the company’s policy and practice of allowing loan officers to charge discretionary overages resulted in Hispanics being charged higher prices because of their national origin – price disparities that are “substantial, statistically significant, and cannot be explained by factors related to underwriting risk or credit characteristics of the applicants.”

I don’t know why I am surprised by this. It seems that when it comes to the finance sector, the news just gets more and appalling as the days go by. Is it any wonder why we are in the situation we are in now, with so many dirty banks in control of our money and our homes?

Via / ConsumerAffairs

Miss California May Have to Give Up Crown Amid Photo Scandal

2:37 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Celebrities| Chismes| Controversia| GLBT · Comments Off

7 May 2009

carrie-copy-1 Yesterday La Macha told us about the apparent hypocrisy of Miss California Carrie Prejean – defender of American moral values — upon the revelation that she had posed nude. Now the firestorm against the beauty queen and 1st runner up for Miss America is getting stronger, as The HuffPost reports that yet another nude photo has leaked to press and that Carrie may have to give up her crown as a result of the scandal:

A second topless photo of Miss California Carrie Prejean has been released by TheDirty.com, days after Prejean promised the state pageant that there was only one such photo in existence. [...]

Back to the crown drama. On Wednesday Prejean’s runner-up Miss Malibu told “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush she is ready to step in should Prejean lose her crown because of a morality clause in the pageant contract contestants sign that promises they have no nude or semi-nude photos in their past.

In an even more surprising twist, TMZ (consider the source, take it with a grain of salt) says Prejean’s bias against gay marriage might stem from the fact that her father is gay.

Via / HuffPost

Image via TheDirty.com

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