In Case You Missed It

One of my homegirls sent this link to An Illustrated History of Sex Toys that I found very entertaining and useful.

Sunday Night Common Sense

After writing a bit on the 23rd of this month, I went back to check out the text I suggested would help make connections to Puerto Rico's history and sexuality (Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality & Race In Puerto Rico 1870-1920 by Eileen J. Suarez Findlay). Here's a quote from the text:

"But economic issues were not the only area where [Luisa] Capetillo broke new ground. While advocating the control of male sexuality, she also spoke boldly of women's capacity for sexual pleasure and their right to experience it. Women, she insisted, 'have strong sexual appetites, which, like in a man, are a great virtue.' Denying women the satisfaction of their desires, she argued, could even harm their health."

pg. 162

Read more about Luisa Capetillo.

Musing On Sexuality

Two very different articles I've written on sexuality have been published!

First, on Anti-Racist Parent I've written an article for parents of college aged students entitled: Back To School & Getting Schooled: The Sexual Health of Your College Student . If you or someone you know is a parent of a college aged person please share this with them!

My latest article for Amplify Your Voice In The Culture where I have a column called Media Justice, is up and is about the film Jennifer's Body. It's not so much a film review because I have yet to watch it, but rather what an amazing director can do with a less than exceptional screenwriter! If you are in NYC and want to check out the film together let me know! Read it here.

Today in Puerto Rican History

Today is the anniversary of Puerto Rico's Grito de Lares. It is also the 4th anniversary of the murder of Filiberto Ojeda Rios by the FBI. Below are interviews in Spanish with English subtitles by director Vagabond who is also the director of Machetero.











Wondering what all this has to do with sexuality? I highly recommend you read the book Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality & Race In Puerto Rico 1870-1920 by Eileen J. Suarez Findlay.

ERIKA LOPEZ in NYC

BAAD!
What's Up
# CROSSING THE LINES: RADICAL CARTOONISTS
# ERIKA LOPEZ'S THE WELFARE QUEEN
# BRUNEGRO
# BlakTino continues through November 7 with the following events:
# Thanks to our sponsors and supporters

BlakTino Performance Series begins Oct. 1!
Art! Theatre! Dance! and mucho more!


The Blaktino Performance Series at BAAD! kicks off with an exciting evening of cartoonists and graphic novel artists who have broken through the straight male dominated world of comics; and the weekend continues with the NYC Debut Performance of ERIKA LOPEZ's The Welfare Queen and the daring and dashing BRUNO APONTE.

blk 09 Comics CROSSING THE LINES: RADICAL CARTOONISTS
Thursday, October 1, 8pm/Free

Opening Night!
Calling all cartoonists, zinesters, visual and graphic artistes and their fans and admirers

This evening features the work of four groundbreaking and accomplished LGBT comic book and graphic novel artists who will share their provocative work along with stories of their obstacles and barrier busting triumphs in the straight male world of comics with Ivan Velez (Tales from the Closet), Jennifer Camper (The Juicy Mother: Celebration), Erika Lopez (Flaming Iguanas) and Carlo Quispe (Killer Heights).
Let us know you're coming! Click here or call 718-842-5223.

the welfare queen ERIKA LOPEZ'S THE WELFARE QUEEN
Friday, October 2, 8pm/$15

Direct from San Francisco! NYC Premiere!


The time has finally come for the unabashed, chick crazy, cartoonist, writer, performer, one-woman art sweatshop ERIKA LOPEZ to bring her fun, daring, sexy and irreverent show for the first time to her native New York providing comfort and cheeky glances to the recession-struck Bronx.

"When you're on welfare and pushing your latest art project in an attempt to pay the rent, what it means to 'have it all' obviously require some redefinition." - Eryn Loeb, blogger.
Click to reserve your seat or call 718-842-5223
blk 09 brunegro BRUNEGRO
Saturday, October 3, 8pm/$15

Clash of a Culture Titan!

Actor, poet and performance artist Bruno Aponte presents a one man show (in Spanish) delving in Queer Dominican Blackness. Overflowing with flamboyance, Aponte's multi-disciplinary approach was described by Time-Out New York as "Bruno Aponte, scaled the stage to perform interpretive dance and read verse in a multicolored robe, sunglasses and hoop earrings."
Click here to reserve your tickets or call 718-842-5223
BlakTino continues through November 7 with the following events:

Thursday, October 8, 8pm/Free
An Intimate Living Theatre Experience
SHORT MEMORY/NO HISTORY
Award-winning performers and artists Jack Waters and Peter Cramer transform BAAD! into their living room and invite the audience into a unique installation/Living Theater presentation that has traveled throughout the world of their experience living with AIDS and commemorating art and artists' work on the subject. The evening will include their oral history documentary "Short Memory - No History" discussing the role of women and people of color (and Spanish speakers) in the early days of ACT UP. Video interviews in Spanish are also included.

Friday, October 9, 8pm/Free
The NY International Latino Film Festival presents
NAKED WHITE ROSES and DISH
Two films fresh from the 2009 NY International Latino Film Festival debut in the Bronx. NAKED WHITE ROSES by Henry Roa uses music, poetry and stunning visuals to tell the story of Trance, an aging poet on the crossroads of life and love and explores the subjects of following your dreams, gay and bi- cultural relationships, and loss. Dish by Brian Harris Krinsky follows two Emo kids, Israel and Louie, as they walk around their East L.A. neighborhood and dish about their high school classmates and sexual escapades. Filmmakers will talk after the film.

Thursday & Friday, October 15 & 16, 8pm/ $20
Dances to Nina Simone
SUGAR IN MY SOUL
Ten choreographers present dance works inspired by or set to the music of the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone including Miguel Anaya, Esteban Arana, Christopher Campbell, Ingrid Graham, Ranardo- Domeico Grays, Amin Jai, Silver Light, Dorrell Martin, Paloma McGregor and Joey Tomocik.

Saturday, October 17, 8pm/$15
Afro-Caribbean Meets East African Dance
GETTING FOLKED: RETUMBA! and TRANSWORLD CULTURAL PERFORMANCE ARTS ENSEMBLES
The vibrancy and tradition of folkloric dance takes center stage when the Bronx's own all-women Afro- Carribean drumming and dancing troupe, Retumba! share a program with the color and majesty of East African dance and drumming group Transworld Cultural Performance Arts Ensembles.

Wednesday, October 21, 8pm/Free
Unid@s in the Big Apple Teams up with BAAD!
FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE: POETAS AND WRITERS
A no holds barred celebration of Queer Latin@ poets and writers who experiment with style and breathe life into their words including Janis Astor Delvalle, Devon Gallegos, Rigoberto González, Karen Jaime, Mariposa, Ignacio Rivera, Roberto Santiago and Charlie Vázquez.

Thursday, October 22, 8pm - Free
Barrier-Breaking Boricuas
QUEER RICANS
Scholar and cultural warrior Lawrence La Fountain- Stokes discusses his new book, Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora, and shares the work of his subjects including choreographer Arthur Aviles, visual artist Erika Lopez and writer Manuel Ramos Otero and many other groundbreaking queer Puerto Ricans. Followed by a book signing.

Saturday, October 24, 8pm - Free
Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre's newest project
RECREATING OZ
BAAD!'s own Arthur Aviles assembles an "A" list team to re-examine the classic movie "The Wizard of Oz" to transform it into a musical stage production that delves into the issues that queer young people face in "ghettos" as experienced through life of the young Maevicita who is coming of age and coming out in the old South Bronx. Come share this intimate invitation into the mind of an artist and his collaborators Retumba!, Elizabeth "Macha" Marrero and singer Mildred Ruiz. The evening will include theatre, dance, song and drumming. Followed by a Q&A with the participants.

Saturday, November 7, 8pm - $5-$25 suggested donations
Kwikstep and Rokafella host
ON THE REEL:
ALL THE LADIES SAY
Kwikstep and Rokafella, the dynamic duo of Hip Hop dance, present a special evening of music, jamming, art and a sneak peek screening of ALL THE LADIES SAY, Rokafella's a fresh new documentary that highlights the lives of six iconic female street dancers from San Jose, Atlanta, Miami and Chicago who've carved a niche in the physically challenging, male dominated breakdance world. Discussions about motherhood, sexual tension, femininity versus masculinity and the rap industry/mainstream images are a few of the themes explored by the documentary's main characters. The event includes performances by guest artists and photos by Vanessa Bahmani and Emily Lady Caprice. This event is a fundraiser to support the completion of the film and will be followed by an after party with an open jam.
Click here to rsvp or call 718-842-5223
Thanks to our sponsors and supporters

BAAD!/AATT receive support from The NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, The Bronx Council on the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, The Tides Foundation/Starry Night Fund, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo, The Stonewall Foundation, The North Star Fund, Dance Theater Workshop's Outer/Space Grant, and private donations. BAAD! is a proud recipient of a 2006 Union Square Arts Award.
Make a donation through BAAD!'s Website
Follow up Links
# Visit our links page

About Us
Crowned "a funky and welcoming performance space" by The New York Times, BAAD! is an art, performance and cultural workshop space that presents cutting-edge and challenging works by established, evolving and emerging choreographers, playwrights, poets, musicians and visual and performing artists. BAAD! presents four annual festivals, BAAD! ASS WOMEN, THE BOOGIE DOWN DANCE SERIES, OUT LIKE THAT! and the BlakTino Performance Series. BAAD! celebrates the arts created by and featuring women, people of all colors and/or the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community.

COME TO BAAD! WHERE IT'S ALL GOOD.
email: crg_bx@yahoo.com
phone: 718-842-5223
web: http://www.BronxAcademyOfArtsAndDance.org

At The Cine

If you are choosing to celebrate the 30 Days of Latino Heritage (submit something here) there are some great films that are now on DVD and that I highly recommend you add to your viewing list!

Sugar
Read my review here.




Rudo y Cursi
Read my review here.



And if you want to read my latest album review Tales Of The Earth, by Mark Weinstein & Omar Sosa check it out here.

Ya No Te Espero

In honor of yesterday's concert in Cuba that was called Paz Sin Fronteras I share with you my favorite Silvio Rodriguez song (I saw him perform live in Cuba in 2003 when I went to the World Association of Sexology Conference (now the World Association of Sexual Health) where I presented IN Spanish). Lyrics in Spanish and a bad translation in English below.



Ya no te espero
Llegarás, pero más fuerte
Más violenta la corriente
Dibujándose en el suelo
De mi pecho, de mis dedos
Llegarás con mucha muerte

Ya no te espero
Ya eché abajo ayer mis puertas
Las ventanas bien despiertas
Al viento y al aguacero
A la selva, al sol, al fuego
Llegarás a casa abierta

Ya no te espero
Ya es el tiempo que fascina
Ya es bendición que camina
A manos del desespero
Ya es bestia de los potreros
Saltando a quien la domina

Ya no te espero
Ya estoy regresando solo
De los tiempos venideros
Ya he besado cada plomo
Con que mato y con que muero
Ya se cuándo, quién y cómo

Ya no te espero
Ya he liberado a tu patria
Hija de una espera larga
Ya hay un primero de enero
Que funda a sus compañeros
Con la sed de mi garganta

Ya no te espero
Porque de esperarte hay odio
En un noche de novios
En los hábitos del cielo
En madre de un hijo ciego
Ya soy ángel del demonio

Ya no te espero


English
I no longer wait for you
You will arrive, strong
more violent current
Drawing itself in the
ground Of my chest,
my fingers
You will arrive with much death

I no longer wait for you
I already threw down my doors
the windows wide open, awaken
To the wind and the heavy shower
At the forest, at the sun, the fire
You will arrive at open house

I no longer wait for you
Now is the time to fascinate
Or the blessed walk
At the hands of despair
It is already beast of the pastures
Jumping to dominates that

I no longer wait for you
I am already returning alone
Of the coming times
I have already kissed each lead
Whereupon I kill and whereupon I die
I know when, who and how

I no longer wait for you
I have already released to your mother country
Daughter of a long delay
She already has first of winter
That she founds to his companions
With the thirst of my throat

I no longer wait for you
Because to wait there is hatred
In a night of lovers
In the habits of the sky
In mother of a blind son
I am already angel of the demon

I no longer wait for you