Happy Thanks-taking.

Hey folks,
The third Thursday of November is fast approaching and here at Swat-land, there are bursts of bright fall colors on the branches one day and then on the ground the next.

At Swarthmore, I'm a vegetarian. But outside the bubble I'm a flexitarian, meaning I'm flexible and will usually eat meat if it's served. But I'm thinking about all the turkeys we kill during our November holiday and the histories of colonization and hurt that we inflicted on Native Americans (and many many other people) which is forgotten when we celebrate Thanksgiving.  My friend asked me the other day what I was doing for Thanks-taking and I thought it appropriate to call it that.  Sarcastic yes but it gets us talking about everything that has been swept under the rug.

I hope we can all start talking about our unsustainable traditions surrounding food.

Anyways.....

We just pre-registered for classes today and *gasp* it's my last time pre-registering at Swarthmore! I can't believe how quickly the semester has gone by and that I only have one more semester left.

I'll be continuing with my senior art workshop in preparation for my senior show.  Other than that I'll be taking a double-credit honors seminar on Lu Xun, a famous Chinese writer's works.

3 credits! I'm trying to convince myself that less is more in this case.  With preparing for honors exam and my thesis show I know I'll be super busy regardless.

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I just got back from a really great conference at Columbia University for Japanese culture groups at colleges and universities on the East Coast. Swarthmore's Dean's Office funds one conference per year so it was great to have that support to network with other students involved in Japanese culture groups.

At Swarthmore, me and a few other students started the group Kizuna last semester when the earthquake/tsunami hit Japan.  So it was really amazing to hear about what other groups did for that and what they continue to do to promote Japanese culture on their home campuses.

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Okay so that was pretty scattered but that's what's been going on these days at Swat! Hope everyone has a great break!

List Gallery Show: Collage Perspectives

If you're on campus or close to Swat's campus, I highly recommend visiting the List Gallery (next to LPAC) which is open every day 12-5PM except Mondays.  The show up now is fantastic!!! My favorite artists showing at the moment are Njideka Akunyili:

(Swat alum and current assistant professor)

and Chie Fueki:

It's up until 12/11/11. Seriously, check it out!

What's up in the studio?

Hey folks! I've been playing with spray paint, origami, lace, sewing patterns and dark tree trunks in the studio! 

Just had a mid-term critique with four of the studio art professors last Friday and they gave me some great suggestions.  

Some artists they recommended I look at:

John Currin

Lisa Yuskavage

William Kentridge

Lucas Samaras

Fall Break in Chicago!

Swarthmore never has days off for national holidays but it does have FALL BREAK!
There are only two more days left but I've been enjoying myself for the past few days visiting a Swat alum in Chicago! I've always come through O'Hare airport to fly out to Asia, but never have I been out in the city.


It's quite something! I did all the obligatory tourist site seeing (i.e. the bean, architecture tour on a boat down the river, deep dish pizza etc) but also got to see some cool local in-the-know things. 

1. Big Chicks free dinner Sundays! 

I gave them a little tip but it was well worth going to Argyle Station in Uptown for their gyro, salad, chips combo! It was a really cute gay bar bustling with an older gay crowd.  Me and my friend were definitely the youngest ones there. 

2.  Barrel of Monkeys' That's Weird, Grandma.
What a great model for theater/education for kids. So the crew of Barrel of Monkeys goes to schools and does writing workshops, then uses what the kids wrote to do mini performances.  Here's one of the pieces:


The Pig
by Tabyrious F 3rd Grade Dewey
What if a pig look like Lil Wayne.
But it was a marching pig that looks
like pop starz and it hates when
people make fun of him because
he is not like everybody else so 
he just walks away without saying
anything and morphed his self
into a private jet. An then I met 
the pig and we both could change 
into pop stars so we made friend
and we could do whatever 
we want. The End.


One of the members pretended to be a pig that could morph into Beyonce, Michael Jackson and of course Lil Wayne. EPIC. 

3. Off Chances Monday dance party at Danny's in Wicker Park

No cover. Good beats. Lots of queer folks dancing. 

FUN!

And that's just a little preview! Chicago has so much to offer. 

But so does Philly...haha which brings me back to events that are happening in the city of Brotherly Love!

1. Design Philadelphia! Check out the schedule here: 10/13-10/23

http://www.designphiladelphia.org/?page_id=265

2. My friend and Swarthmore alum Lexi Starr is going to be performing on the 29th!:

http://mazzonicenter.org/events/daquan-sgt-sass-w-lust2love-lexi-starr-show-ethel-cee-dj-kit-night-1000-friends-event

Also, I have to mention this blog about "critical voices in the 99%" and people of color (POC) experiences in occupy wall street spaces. 

http://infrontandcenter.wordpress.com/

Back to Swat in 2 days! 

Excited for the new semester!

My senior thesis show will be in May. Until then, I'll be working like mad in my new senior studio. I plan to take you along the way. 

Here's a closeup of a quilt I made last semester. I want to explore gender and sexuality with traditional craft materials. Let's see where I end up.

CHINA WAS GREAT!

I taught 4th graders in rural China (in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Province) art and art history over the summer! It was fantastic. 

                     

This is a picture of me and a couple of students from the elementary school I went to in Inner Mongolia.  We're about to wash our hands (and in her case, her entire body!) because we were just finger painting and having a paint party.  Of course that wasn't the initial lesson plan but when I was in Ningxia, I discovered that the kids didn't know anything about mixing colors and had never finger painted so I quickly added that to my lesson plans.  In one class the kids got so excited by having paint on their hands that they ran over to the nearest white wall and started making handprints.  Fortunately the building we were in is being torn down at the end of the summer since they're building a newer building.  

My fellowship ended mid-month at which point I traveled and couchsurfed to other parts of China. 

A few more words about my experience at the schools.

1. What types of schools did I go to?

In Beijing, I went to two elementary schools. One was for the children of migrant workers and the other was for the children of really rich parents.  The differences were stark.  The children of the first school were more lively and happy to answer all of my questions.  The students at the second school were often quiet in the beginning, dressed fashionably and didn't open up as quickly.  

In Ningxia I went to two more elementary schools. One was comprised completely of Hui people who are all Muslims.  The other school was about 30% Hui, 70% Han (the majority of China is Han) The conditions at the first school were about the same as the first school I went to in Beijing while the second one had a nice building and computer classes for the students!

In Inner Mongolia I went to my first boarding school for students from rural communities.  The parents of these students were all farmers and didn't have any money to send their kids to school so the government provided all of their school expenses.  They only get to see their parents once or twice a year :(

2. Were there other schools in the communities I visited or were these pretty much the only schools serving students?

There were many other schools in the communities. Some were a lot smaller than others but they were all approximately 10-30 minutes away from each other by car.  Many of the parents of the students come home once or twice a year from various cities where they're working. 

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I miss China but I'm excited to be back at Swarthmore!

Queer and Trans Conference 2011

March 25th until the 27th (today) was the Swarthmore's annual Queer and Trans Conference.  I was a part of the planning committee and also did some work with the artists' collective I started (Zero Hour Artists' Collective) to make advertisements and decorations for some of the events.  This year our goal was to really integrate the Philadelphia community (more proactively) into our discussion of the theme, "Envisioning Queer Futures."  We had a really great skillshare dinner to which we invited queer and non-queer groups from Philly to come and present as well as to network and talk about the theme of our conference.  I think the conference was an overwhelming success and I was so excited to be a part of it.  I learned so much from the talks and was inspired to do more in the groups that I'm already a part of.

One of the biggest ways I helped was by coordinating a skype-in talk with Mia Mingus and Stacey Milbern, called "To the Other Side of Dreaming: Building Home as Disabled Queer Women of Color." Check out their website here: http://dreaminghome.tumblr.com/  Not only is the work that they do incredible, but the two of them were such great speakers and amazingly inspiring! The crowd ate up every word that came out of their mouths yesterday. Here's the poster I made for the event:

 

Here's the one I made for the skill share dinner:

  

The Zero Hour Artists' Collective helped out with making the big banner for the conference:

We were also asked to make centerpieces for the tables at the skill share dinner. We just had a really great time putting buttons, fabric and animal crackers on these pieces :) They seemed to be a great hit at the dinner too!

I wanted to end the post with a few quotes that I jotted down during the conference:
"Interdependency is key to our liberation"
"Platonic Life Partners"
"Are we becoming queer cliches?"
"I make sure I don't take things out through (emotionally) ableism."
"We need to acknowledge that we all have needs and that we can help each other."
"We're reclaiming what home could be."
"Society says that valuable work means you work 80 hours a week...we need to redefine what it means to do healthy organizing."
"NPOs today don't cultivate care!"
"People are either respectfully distant or extremely intimate. We need to find a happy medium."
"Holding a loving horizontal line so that you can bring people with you."
"Where is the line between struggle and harm?"
"We can't even remember what trauma is!"
"Infrastructure that's community-based."

That's it for now!