Kumbia Queers = The Bomb

This weekend we were very excited to get the new cd from one of our favorite groups, Kumbia Queers, in the mail. Kumbia Queers are from Argentina and Mexico, a bad-ass group of women making great music. They started out doing primarily cover songs put to cumbia with their own lyrics (so is that still a cover song? or a remix? or just campling the original?) , and they are creating more material all the time. We first came across them when bent found a link to their myspace page and listened to the amazing hits "Isla Con Chicas" and "Chica del Calendario." Now we have the full cd "Kumbia Nena" which is 12 tracks of excellence.


The tracks include the songs we already knew well (see above) as well as many that were new to us including an amazing tune called "Kumbia Zombia." A perfect tune for the time of year, it also seems they are quite attuned to the important theme shared by Radio Hybrid - zombies and the undead. Other stand outs include "La China es Kumbianchera" (to the tune of "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" by the Ramones) and more. It's really great to find a cumbia band that not only is composed of women, women singers, but singing about great stuff and not the same old same old - even as we love cumbia and many other genres that are dominated by the usual powers that be, it's refreshing to see our people making this great music.

It seems Kumbia Queers have made it to the US at least once before, so Mothersheister and bent are determined to bring them to DC, come hell or high water. In the meantime we will have to settle for listening to them and playing them at dance parties and clubs whenever we are rocking the decks.



In the meantime a great vid of them:



And a great video of some other random group that is hilarious....



Speaking of rocking the decks - OMG - our dear friends DJs Choque y Fuga are opening for DJ Rekha on Halloween at the Black Cat!!!! This is very exciting and you all should get your butts there because it will be OTMFH!!!!

Disco is alive and well....and we're dancing to it on Radio Hybrid!

So we've been late on updating but we will soon put a whole host of witty commentary, reflections, and humorous sentiments. But in the meantime, check out this video from one of Mothershiester's new favorite songs--fotonovela.

Thanks Ivan for keeping disco real.

Hos Up! Haters Down!

I need to start today's post with this statement: My life has been changed today. I went to Museo Frida Kahlo, the house where Frida and Diego Rivera lived, and my mind was completely destroyed. I am so completely in love with Frida Kahlo, there are no words for it. I am obsessed. OK, Diego Rivera is OK, but Frida Kahlo is OFF THE HOOK!!!!!

Otherwise, I wandered about Mexico city, buying many great CDs and even some vinyl! OMG! I found this sidewalk vendor stall with probably 3,000 records for sale - they said for 1 peso each but in the end most cost closer to 2 or 3 pesos - it was just too bad that I had already spent most of my money.

Tonight, after all this, I got to attend a fancy dinner with lots of big-wigs and speeches, but at least my good friends from EMPOWER were there- we had great times last nite at the same exact place, drinking and dancing. The hos and the drug users always bring the party, what can I say. But EMPOWER did deserve to get honored tonight for sure. They are a huge example to all of us in the sex worker/HIV/human rights world, and I know that we in DC at least unabashedly copy them. Their latest amazing work is the creation of a popular education game/show about the 7:55 that we sex workers are not actually having sex (as opposed to the 5 minutes of sex that most people are obsessed with).

Today I took a break from the conference, but tomorrow I will be back in action, as I have to present a poster an there are many exciting things going on. Then at night, otra fiesta! I spent a lot of time on the Mexico City Metro today (funny that it is called the same as in DC) and I like although some fucker was sticking his hand down my pants when we were really packed in but I held my anger in and simply moved. Kind of like when UNAIDS head Peter Piot was talking tonight at the reception of the Red Ribbon awards about supporting the rights of marginalized people and I wanted to scream "Why doesn't the UN have a coherent platform supporting sex worker rights!?!?!?!" but I didn't.
Ok see yall soon at wild times party the nite of the 8th when I make a crazy appearance after 9 hours of travel!!!!!! Expet much new musica!!!!

Sex Workers of the World Unite in Mexico City

This is my amazing new friend Samanta, who is one of the key organizers with an amazing sex worker organization in Guatemala that's called Mujeres en Superacion - they do rights organizing and leadership development as well as HIV prevention. Samanta is an incredible activist and we stayed up late last night drinking an entire bottle of rum, talking about sex work experiences, activism, children, and more. She is a mother of two, married, and a very public sex worker activist. One beautiful story she told is how she doesn't work for a pimp, in part because she works on a street where there are trans sex workers and all the sex workers there are human rights activists so they don't shit from anyone!

Wow, what an amazing couple of days it has been here, at the pre-conference event with all these incredible women and men, including trans people. It has been a little frustrating at times with too much talking in circles, but mostly amazing to see activists from other countries who i've met in the past, and to meet new ones from all over Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Asia, and Europe. Today we are having a march for sex worker rights and we all have these amazing shirts:

Then the conference (International AIDS Conference) begins soon and we get to cause troub le, learn from each other more, and try to make the foolish governments and international institutions listen to us and stop criminalizing sex work, stop arresting us in the name of saving us from traffickers, and support sex worker rights as an integral part of HIV prevention and the fight against AIDS.

I leave you with one last photo of new beautiful friends - Dino, Mariam and Princess, from Jamaica and Guyana.

Final day in Chi-town

It's a few hours before heading back to DC. The final day here brought excitement and sadness. I got to finally eat a jibarito which was very very tasty. On the way back to the conference I had a nice talk with an old man as we waited for the bus. The conference was cool although I spent most of the day moderating sessions, and won't be able to make my presentation about our research tomorrow, but oh well. There was a really interesting session at the end of the day with a panel of current and former street-based sex workers, and it was pretty intense. There were some quite controversial comments made, and some tension, but then things came around and good discussion was had. It is not easy for people who feel that sex work is bad and people who feel that its ok to speak together about how to commonly confront the challenges that all workers, regardless of their feelings about the sex trade, face. But it was an important space and especially to try to keep having those kinds of conversations because they are difficult. At the end of the day I got to enjoy a really nice meal with some fantastic folks including the amazing Scarlot Harlot, folks from SWOP in San Francisco and SWOP Tucson and from Chicago and DC. Not to mention to beautiful little munchkins! We ate at Soul Veg which I didn't realize is actually part of the same business that is Soul Veg in DC - they had a really big restaurant with nice seating and a menu, no buffet and the food came quick (except for Scarlot's but that seemed a mistake). They did not have the traditional delicious man n cheese, but the lasanga with greens that I had was fantastic. About to get on a plane and head back to the District - hopefully photos can be uploaded soon.

Windy City Part Dos: Hos and Jibaritos

OK genderfatigue-ers, it's been another action packed day here in Chicagoland. I hope you enjoyed my drunkenly written post yesterday, and again I apologize for lack of photos! I was hoping to borrow a cable today to upload pics from the digi-cam, but alas it did not work out. So you will have to wait! But I will give you one photo - of a sandwich that mothershiester has commanded me to search out and eat.... el jibarito...


damn that looks good. i am going to eat it mothershiester!!!!

meanwhile, i got to watch two of my favorite tv shows last nite! hooray for hotel cable! the shield i have not been able to catch for a while since the stupid my20 channel in DC changed it from late sunday nite to late saturday nite, but i got to see a great episode in which vic and that female cop make out! oh shit! then there was an episode of aqua teen hunger force, which sadly was quite up to snuff but still had funny moments.

today we had anti-oppression training at the conference, and it was pretty good. it was interesting b/c the trainer kinda rejected the idea that power+privilege=oppression, instead saying that anyone can act out oppression (like not only white people can be racist) - i don't know if i really agree with her analysis on that point but it was an interesting argument that she made and overall a great training. we got to talk towards the end in little mini-affinity groups, and i was in the sex worker parent group (since i'm a god-parent and have done sex work) and it was really nice conversation and cool. hm, not very articulate right now but whatevs. then i moderated a workshop by a great woman who started an organization in guatemala for very low-income sex workers, who i'd seen a film about at last year's sex worker film festival in san francisco, called "las estrellas de la linea" (the railroad allstars, because the women work by railroad tracks). it was pretty inspiring to hear about their work, and how they are overcoming some pretty intense obstacles to organizing and service provision.



The group is called MuJER (Spanish acronym for Women for Justice, Education and Awareness) and although it's a shame that it was started by three non-sex workers, at least Ana (who gave the presentation) is herself Guatemalteca, and she is committed to transferring leadership to the women in the organization. Some of the women from the program will be at the sex worker pre-conference gathering in Mexico City in advance of the International AIDS Conference. Speaking of which, I will be blogging from there not only on our very own gender fatigue blog, but also the blog of CHAMP (Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project).

Gender Fatigue on the road again

This time our intrepid blog heads to Chicago. Bent is here in the Windy City for the Desiree Alliance Conference, an annual (or semi-annual, depending on how things go) conference for sex worker rights activists. Although extremely underfunded as a movement, sex worker rights activists have worked hard to get the resources together to make these conferences together.

Right here we should have a picture of an amazing sex worker activist from California who has been battling cancer this past year, and she is looking damn good. This year's Desiree Alliance Conference has started off with an homage to one of the early sex worker rights activists: Margo St James. Margo was on hand tonight to give a short speech recalling some of those early days in San Francisco and her belief that the next generations have carried the flame forward for sex worker justice. She recalled the early days of the movement when she was living in Marin County north of San Francisco and helped to start the organization WHO - "Whores, Housewives and Others" ("Others" she quipped, "were lesbians but you couldn't say that then."). Margo St James went on to help found COYOTE (Call Off Your Tired Old Ethics) and start the first Hookers' Balls, amazing parties for sex wokers which often attracted politicians and top police officials among others. The night ended with some amazing films from the 70s about Margo's work, including a PSA on HIV called "Margo's Message" and the short film "Hookers" which includes some amazing Hookers' Ball footage as well as hilarious shots from sex worker sessions and intense stories from sex workers themselves.

The conference is happening in this interesting neighborhood of Chicago that is mainly light industrial - as in autobody shops and such - with residential pockets interspersed. I ate at a delicious Mexican joint called Traspasada where I had a chorizo taco with a Negro Modelo, and some chips and amazing salsa, probably some sort of chipotle, tomatillo mix. Pics to come! I came there (at intersection of California, Elkton and Belmont) after stopping in an amazing little taqueria just around the corner from the conference space, but they didn't serve beer! There seems to be an interesting trend in Chicago restaurants to not offer beer or liquor, and a lot of them say "BYIB" on the door, which is really cool but if you're from out of town maybe you just want to eat and drink in the same place.

Ironically, our hotel is located on the trans stroll and almost directly across from the bar where trans women can pick up tricks. Stay tuned!!!!