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Berkeley – April 6 – Mangos With Chili: Behind the Music. A 5 Year Retrospective

10:14 am By Maegan La Mala · California|Events|Media|qtpoc · Comments Off

15 Mar 2012

Mangos With Chili: Behind the Music
A 5 Year Retrospective
Friday, April 6, 2012
8:00pm until 10:00pm
$8-$20, no one turned away for lack of funds
La Pena
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705

Buy advance tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/235689
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/118977968226694/

Like Behind the Music but so much better, this evening offers a first hand glimpse into the making, growth and evolution of Mangos With Chili, North America’s floating cabaret of queer and trans people of color performance artists. Featuring Co-Directors Cherry Galette and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and artists from our first 5 years, this event will be part celebration, part birthday party, and part talk show featuring facilitated Q&A, video diaries from former Mangos artists, and teasers from our upcoming 2012 season, including our upcoming National Queer Arts Festival production, “Reclaiming the Rites,” in June 2012, and our 5 year anniversary “Resurrection” tour. More artist info TBC, but save the date!

And as always, come for the interactive community femmeifest/manifest altar, lovenotes, and cupcakes!

Oh yeah- it’s $8-20, no one turned away for lack of funds! We are also going to show vintage Mangos t shirts, and show our old photos, posters and memorabilia!

Access is love: La Pena is fully wheelchair accessible including bathrooms. In order so that beloved community members with chemical injury can attend, please don’t use fragranced products. (For more info about becoming fragrance free, check out http://yogamaya.wordpress.com/about/classes/fragrance-free/ or http://www.brownstargirl.org/1/post/2012/03/fragrance-free-femme-of-colour-realness-draft-15.html for awesome POC specific, affordable fragrance free POC product info.) Fragrance free seating available. ASL interpretation info TBC. This is an all ages event. La Pena is two blocks from Ashby BART.

Have you experienced the Mango at any point in the last five years? Ask us an anonymous question on our Tumblr and we will answer it on stage! mangoswithchili.tumblr.com

for more information or press inquiries:
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com
or email mangos.with.chili@gmail.com

Co-sponsored by the Queer Cultural Center with a grant from the NEA Presenting Program and with the generous cooperation of La Pena Cultural Center.

Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored project of CounterPULSE and is supported by funding from the Horizons Foundation.

Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike Only Kind of Over. Support Still Needed!

9:57 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|California|Justice|Prisons|Violence · 4 Comments

23 Jul 2011

There has been some confusion over the last few days as to if the weeks old hunger strike which began at Pelican Bay California State Prison is over. The hunger strike was started specifically to protest the conditions inside the entire prison system but also very specifically the treatment in so-called Security Housing Units. You can read the entire list of demands of the strikers here.

It has been confirmed that inside Pelican Bay, the strike leaders have accepted an offer from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The leaders confirmed CDCR’s announcement that immediate changes in SHU policy are the opportunity for some educational programs, provision of all-weather caps (beanies) and wall calendars. More substantially, the leaders explained the CDCR has agreed to investigate changes to other policies including the gang validation and debriefing processes, and it is now up to supporters outside prison to make sure the CDCR upholds their promise.

Update from Pelican Bay Hunger Strike : Strikers Reject CDCR Proposal

8:26 am By Maegan La Mala · California|Justice|Prisons · 3 Comments

17 Jul 2011

This update was apparently released Friday but hit my inbox today. I think it is important that we spread the word and reflect on what it means to support those who are incarcerated with one of the goals being changing the way we think of safety, crime and justice.

When reading below, I hope people will check back with the demands of those on strike. The conditions inside Pelican Bay and other California prisons are conditions that were they happening in a prison overseas – there would be a different outcry – a different level of support. But given the racial and class politics inside of the US, most assume this torturous treatment is acceptable or deserved. An “assessment” is what government entities always offer up in the face of protest y dissent. It is what the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration Customs Enforcement have offered up in the face of questions regarding how Secure Communities is being rolled out. To offer an “assessment” is to deny what the community is witnessing and EXPERIENCING as truth.

MEDIA ADVISORY–JULY 15, 2011

Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers Reject CDCR Proposal

Strike Continues

California—This afternoon leaders of the Pelican Bay hunger strike unanimously rejected a proposal to end the strike from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In response to the prisoners’ five, straightforward demands, CDCR distributed a vaguely worded document stating that it would, “effect a comprehensive assessment of its existing policy and procedure” about the secure housing units (SHUs). The document gave no indication if any changes would be made at all.

While the CDCR has claimed that there is no medical crisis, mediators report that the principal negotiators have lost 25-35 pounds each and have underlying medical conditions of concern. Despite promises from the federal Receiver overseeing CDCR, no one has received salt tablets or multiple vitamins.

The hunger strike is now in its third week and shows no signs of weakening. In fact, the settlement document distributed last night to all hunger strikers at Pelican Bay prison, resulted in some people who had gone off the strike to resume refusing food. Hundreds of prisoners at Pelican Bay remain on strike, with thousands more participating throughout California’s 33 prisons. Advocates and strike leaders dismiss the false claims that the strike is being orchestrated by prison gangs.

International solidarity with the striking prisoners also continues to mount with demonstrations and messages emerging from the US, Canada, Turkey and Australia. According to mediation team member Laura Magnani, “From day one, the CDCR has demonstrated its inability to resolve this situation. We call on Gov. Brown to step in and negotiate in good faith to bring this situation to a just resolution.” Strike supporters plan to flood the Governor’s offices with phone calls and emails, echoing the strikers’ demands.

“Given how basic the striker’s demands are, it is immoral that the CDCR would insult these men with such poor faith proposals,” stated mediator, Dorsey Nunn.

For ways to support the strike see here

Half of California DREAM Act Passes

11:58 am By Maegan La Mala · California|DREAM Act|Education|Immigration · 26 Comments

15 Jul 2011

Yesterday the first half of the California DREAM Act, AB 130, passed 26-11 and included the support of one Republican, Anthony Canella. The bill, which is headed to Governor Jerry Brown for a signature (and he is expected to sign), allows undocumented college students access to privately funded financial aid in the form of scholarships and other assistance as overseen by state colleges and universities. According the Change.org, 40% of undocumented high school graduates reside in California, meaning potentially thousands of students could stand to benefit.

AB 130 was the less controversial of the two companion bills that make up the CA DREAM Act. AB 131, which will come for a vote in August, is facing an uphill battle for passage because it would provide undocumented students access to state-funded public financial aid that U.S. citizen and legal resident students are entitled to.

As I have stated before, calling these state bills DREAM Act bills, is a little bit of a misnomer since they offer no legal status for undocumented students.

Via / MultiAmerican

NYC Protesting Prisons and Deportations

15 Jul 2011

I’m working on a few posts right now, including a book review and a post about the California DREAM Act but in the meantime, I wanted to give a heads up to NYC area folks about some rallies where it might be good to say presente at. The weather is supposed to be lovely so the perfect reason to get outside and yell a little.

Today Friday, July 15th

PROTEST IN SOLIDARITY WITH PELICAN BAY PRISON HUNGER STRIKERS
Today FRIDAY July 15 at 12:00 Noon
Federal Bldg. at Broadway & Thomas St. near Worth St. & Duane St.; MAP: < http://is.gd/bsM8D-/>
Info: <http://ow.ly/5EZG2 >

Prisoners on hunger strike in California are close to death.

Immigrants and Advocates Gather to Tell ICE: New Adjustments Fail to Hide Reality of Mass Deportation Program

Groups Also Confront Agency for Refusing to Meet with Families Affected by Unjust Immigration Laws and Policies

WHAT: Immigrants, faith leaders, and advocates will hold a rally to condemn Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s so-called reforms to the mass deportation program known as “Secure Communities” and its refusal to meet with directly impacted immigrants. ICE officials are scrambling to save face, as the program has come under intense scrutiny from Congress and advocates across the country. On a desperate marketing tour through Illinois, Massachusetts, and on Friday in New York – the three states who have refused to participate in “Secure Communities” – ICE is trying to sell advocates, police, and elected officials on the adequacy of recent cosmetic changes made to the fundamentally flawed program.

WHEN: Friday, July 15, 2011, 12:00pm (before ICE’s 1:00pm meeting with New York advocates)

WHERE: 26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY (Broadway side) [probably Broadway & Thomas St.]

[TRANSIT: J to Chambers (north exit to Pearl St./Foley Sq.); #4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (north exit to Reade St./Foley Sq.); R (not N) to City Hall (at Broadway & Warren); A, C (not E) to Chambers St. (north exits to Chambers St. & Church St.); #1, 2, 3 to Chambers St. (at W. Broadway); E to WTC;
Broadway BUS; M22 bus via East Broadway, Worth & Chambers; M103 via Essex & Park Row;
MAP: < http://is.gd/bsM8D-/> -t.]

WHO: Immigrants and their families, faith leaders, and other advocates

WHY: New York immigrants and advocates join their Illinois and Massachusetts counterparts in lambasting the tweaks ICE announced on June 17 to the irreparable “Secure Communities” program. Advocates have decried the record-breaking deportations under the Obama Administration – nearly 400,000 in 2010 – and the role “Secure Communities” has played in exiling en masse immigrants from their families and communities. Protesters will rebuke ICE for excluding from its meetings the very people who are most greatly impacted by “Secure Communities” and call for a nationwide termination of the program, which funnels people directly into the deportation system, jeopardizes trust in the police, and encourages racial profiling.

Monday, July 18th

PROTEST IN SOLIDARITY WITH PELICAN BAY PRISON HUNGER STRIKERS
MONDAY, July 18 from 11:30am-1:00pm
California State Franchise Office
1212 6th Ave. btw. 47th & 48th Streets: B, D, F, M to 47-50 St./Rockefeller Ctr.;
212.633.6646 < www.iacenter.org> 917.328.6470

DREAMers in California Come Out of the Shadows & are Arrested

2:52 pm By Maegan La Mala · California|Immigration · 20 Comments

13 Jul 2011

Yesterday, seven undocumented youth, Martha Vasquez, Isaac Barrera, Ju Hong, David Lemus, Jesus Barrios, Jorge Herrera and Jonathan Perez were arrested after staging a sit-in near the campus of San Bernardino Valley College. All seven were taken to a holding center in San Bernardino County, this is the same county that has a contract with ICE to detain and deport undocumented immigrants. In fact the Sheriff was even on scene and told us point blank, ‘do these kids know they are risking an ICE hold if they pass through one of my jails?’ The youth were protesting the dangerous environment Southern California is for immigrant communities. In San Bernardino there are checkpoints often, local law enforcement cooperates very closely with ICE officials through Secure Communities as well as 287(g). There have even been numerous accounts of undocumented youth being turned over to ICE by campus police.

Jonathan Perez, 24 stated:

“I am undocumented and unafraid; queer and unashamed, I take action now to show the over half million undocumented youth in California that we no longer have to live in fear. My parents were unafraid in coming here to give me a better life and now it’s my turn to be unafraid and fight for my family and my community.”

If you are interested in making a donation towards the bail of any of those arrested, you can do so here.

California Prison Hunger Strike Set to Start Today

6:41 am By Maegan La Mala · California · 2 Comments

1 Jul 2011

Today, prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, CA have started an indefinite hunger strike to protest inhumane and torturous conditions inside the Security Housing Unit (SHU). SHU prisoners are kept in windowless, 6 by 10 foot cells, 23½ hours a day, for years at a time. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) operates four Security Housing Units in its system.

Among the prisoners’ demands are an end to long-term solitary confinement, collective punishment, and forced interrogation on gang affiliation.

LA Film Festival June 16th -26th Features Latino Films

11:53 am By BiancaLaureano · Arts|California|Culture · Comments Off

1 Jun 2011

For our LA readers, mark your calenders for the LA Film Festival coming up in two weeks! Tickets are on sale now and we have highlights of films focusing on Latinos and by Latino directors. We hope to be able to bring you some reviews of these films soon!

Part of the press release we received shared:

Additionally, this year the festival is proud to showcase the best of the newest and best Cuban Cinema with a spotlight as part of Sí Cuba! SoCal. http://www.sicubasocal.org/en There will be A Celebration of Cuban Film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on June 22^nd with an onstage panel discussion with visiting directors hosted by the festival’s artistic director David Ansen and followed by a screening of Cuba’s Oscar-nominated “Strawberry and Chocolate.” www.oscars.org/sicubasocal

Below is a list of the films that may be of interest. The film guide is available now and is in English and Spanish.

Steve Li Released from ICE Custody, Deportation on Hold

9:40 am By Maegan La Mala · California|DREAM Act|San Francisco · 1 Comment

20 Nov 2010

Steve Li was supposed to be released from ICE custody in Arizona yesterday after California Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a private bill seeking to block his deportation to Peru.

It should be noted that his deportation has not been canceled. just put on hold. In the meantime, Li is subject to a supervisor release program where he’s going to have to check in with ICE.

Via / SF Gate

California High Court Rules for Undocumented College Students

11:33 am By Maegan La Mala · California|Education|Immigration · 1 Comment

17 Nov 2010

On Monday, the California State Supreme Court ruled that undocumented college students can receive the in-state resident tuition rate, overturning and earlier lower court’s decision. Specifically, the ruling stated that undocumented students who have been studying in California high schools for at least three years fulfill the requirement for in-state tuition even if those students are undocumented because this same benefit is given students with legal residence in the United States and with citizenship.

From Martinez v. UC Regents (PDF here) :

The section 68130.5 exemption cannot be deemed to be based on residence for the simple reason that many nonresidents may qualify for it. Every nonresident who meets section 68130.5‟s requirements — whether a United States citizen, a lawful alien, or an unlawful alien — is entitled to the nonresident tuition exemption. Attending high school in California for at least three years and meeting the other requirements are not the functional equivalent of residing in California. Some American citizens who are not residents of California may also be eligible for the exemption.

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