Spring Craft Fair at Temescal Brewing, May 20, 12-6PM

I intended to participate in a craft fair supporting Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries back in December, but a car accident kept me in Los Angeles that week.

Luckily, Stephanie of Monarch kindly invited me again to participate in a craft fair fundraiser, this time at Temescal Brewing!

I have a great love for libraries, which have been a home for me from childhood to my present days wandering in different towns and cities. I'm looking forward to supporting the organization, meeting other makers, and inviting folks to #touchmypottery. 

My desire to have folks handle my pots before taking them home is not scalable in this online-shopping-loving world, but it feels right to me to work this way. And, as I've said before, even when not "making a living," I somehow continue to be alive.

All the practical matters somehow fall into place. And as I get older, those practical matters pull more and more at my consciousness, making me wonder whether I'm doing it all wrong, whether this path is hopeless. Yet I also know that the only way to find out whether something can work, whether something can exist, is to try and make it so.

So, here goes.

Craft Fair
fundraiser for Oakland Public School Libraries
May 20, 12-6pm
Temescal Brewing
4115 Telegraph (look for the pink side door)

Vendors:

April May Jewelry
The Contradiction
Euclid + Jayne
Huglife by Niva Flor
Illuminati Waxworks
Juniper Ridge
Made by Rheal
Monarch 

The Nomad Collection

Oak & Ash Soap
Phoebe Sherman
Sophie Tivona Illustration
Stephanie Hatch

Super Sixy Soda Firing

Please excuse the hasty post. I'll be traveling in less than 8 hours and I wanted to get a quick post in-- I'm trying to post at least once a month here this year. It shouldn't be as challenging as it is. I was so prolific at the beginning of my bloggery.

I'll share more details about this firing eventually-- a cone 6 soda firing, where I attempted to salvage an IMC clay body called Sculpture Freckle by firing it to a lower temperature. Alas, the high ilmenite content means that this clay has a hard time getting along with the high reduction firings I like to do. I think I'll use the big I have left as a slip, though. The surface it created (which you can sort of see in the images) are kind of wild and resemble cast iron or cooled lava.

In reality, this firing may have gotten as hot as cone 8; it's hard to tell, as once soda ash is introduced to the kiln, the pyrometric cones diminish in accuracy.

      

I don't make a living but apparently, I'm still alive. // Selling pottery this weekend

Flyer for this weekend's pop-up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the following exchange:

New friend: Do you make a living from your ceramics?
Me: No... I don't really make a living. Turns out I'm still alive.

It's a statement I laugh at, but it has real relevance today. Our technological advances have necessitated a reimagining of work and of life and of economy that we haven't really engaged. I live outside of many of those norms, but I still have to negotiate rent and debt.

I agreed to have a pop up at Kostüm this weekend because

1) I was flattered to be asked
2) I have a lot of pottery that I'd like to to be out in the world being enjoyed instead of crowding together on my shelves and in boxes
3) I need to make a lot of pots to be as good at making pots as I would like to be, so more will be coming soon
4) I was raised and still live under capitalism.

What do we really need to stay alive? What's the value of an hour? What would we make and how would we feel if we could focus on the difficulty of feeling?

Okay, I'll pause the abstract thinking.

I'm really happy that I'm beginning to build relationships with POC-owned businesses in Oakland, because ultimately what it's all about is relationships with people, and how intimately intertwined our survival is.

Below is a repost of some questions I answered for Kostüm's blog.

The pop up is Saturday and Sunday, February 11-12, 1:00-6:00pm.

Address:
4020 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

Access notes:
Kostum is located on the groundfloor, has a tight layout that may be difficult for a wheelchair to navigate. Store uses Glade plug-in air fresheners.

***I'll have a Square reader to take credit cards, but cash and Venmo are also welcome. If you are a maker and haven't started a Square account yet, use this referral link to give us both free transactions.

------

1. What do you do for work?

My usual answer to this question is “this and that.” Since 2014, I’ve worked seasonally as an outdoor educator, teaching young people wilderness skills from day-hiking to backpacking to rock climbing. It’s taken me from Pinnacles National Park in our own backyard to the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico to the Southern Talkeetna Mountains in Alaska. I’m also a freelance video and audio transcriptionist. I’ve been able to work on footage for some incredible projects, the first of which was American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, way back in 2009. I also recently joined the Bridges Rock Gym staff and am excited to deepen my relationship with their community.

 2. How did you get to this point in your career?

Before 2014, I worked primarily in nonprofit administration. My gateway to becoming an outdoor educator was a program called Girlz Climb On, run by San Francisco-based GirlVentures. I was a volunteer mentor in the 10-week program, then worked as their part-time Admissions Associate, and then the Program Director at the time invited me to be an instructor on a 4-day backpacking course in Point Reyes in 2014. I was hooked. (Enrollment in Girlventures’ summer programs is starting now, by the way! They have courses for 5th to 12th graders.) I took my first ceramics class at Laney College in 2014, using the Segal Education Award I received after serving as a Los Angeles Public Ally 2011-2012. While this path is not easy, I must acknowledge the privilege I have as an able-bodied, cisgender, college-educated person whose parents do not depend on me financially, which affords me more mental and emotional space to manage this life.

 3. What are you passionate about?

 The idea of intimacy— with objects, processes, people. Nurturing interdependence. Supporting folks in articulating and actualizing their desires and possibilities.

4. What feeds you creatively? (If different than number 3)

Coffee!!!
Conversation.
Observation.
Quiet contemplation.

5. What is one of your favorite aspects of Oakland (or area of the Bay in which you live)?

I love the smallness of Oakland, which is a contrast to the sprawl of Southern California where I grew up. To be able to move is a privilege I don’t take lightly, and I’m grateful for the people around me with whom I can grapple with questions of displacement and gentrification— familiar questions to me from my 5 years in Downtown Los Angeles.

6. How do you feel most connected to Oakland (whether it’s the people, culture, environment, etc.)?

I love that there is a large community of queer and trans people of color here. I love the energy around political and social engagement that exists here, the sense that many people are in active investigation of what might be possible to make our world more just. And that there are many people who, like me, cobble together lives of “this and that” and art and activism.

7. How is fashion a part of your daily life?

My aesthetic for daily wear is on the scruffier side. I love wool sweaters and comfortable jeans. My hiking boots make foot travel around Oakland’s concrete much more bearable. I’m tempted to attribute my scruffiness to being a climber and outdoor educator, but I was scruffy long before those activities came into my life. When it comes to clay or chapbooks, I have strong feelings about proportions, texture, lighting, angles, curves. I meander through Instagram quite a bit for inspiration (daily… hourly…) and take note of what seem to be aesthetic trends in pottery and also in poetry. Some of it is similar to what I like to make and write, and some of it vastly different. There is so much wonderful work being made in the world.

8. What do you hope Kostümers walk away with after seeing or purchasing your poetry and/or pottery?

Simply put, I hope they feel good after seeing, touching, and/or bringing my work home. I’ve found such magic and healing in making; I hope they’re inspired to make things with their own hands if they don’t already. I hope that they’ll perhaps find new or greater value in what they do make, whether it’s art or craft or food.

Topsy Turvy Queer Circus

The 8PM show was sold out, with people lined up at Brava Theater around the block. Fifteen (?) acts of queer circus amazingness with a high concentration of steaminess as well.

Don't worry most of the folks in this picture can be caught performing around the Bay Area. 

Body Waaves at Ships in the Night (Photo credit: Elisa Shea)

Rumor has it there's going to be another Topsy Turvy Queer Circus in next year's National Queer Arts Festival. Oh, yes.

Three Great Events I Won't Be At This Week (also, Videos)

Woke up with Quincy's "Summer Days" song in my head the other day, which of course made me think of Los Angeles. I'm always thinking of Los Angeles. 

This week is thick with events! Some of which Audrey Kuo has recorded me performing at.

Tuesday, June 4 - Tuesday Night Cafe

From last July, my last time featuring as an LA resident. Holding of cities and lovers, which doesn't contain the piece I actually read: "morning glory."

Thursday, June 6 - [common ground oc]

CG is the first and only reading I've done this year. Perhaps with the coming of summer I'll find myself reading in a public (or, more likely, public-ish) setting in Oakland. No hurry. Marinating on my 2013 chapbook, which I've declared will be done by late summer.

Video taken, again, by the dear Audrey. This is my entire CG reading. Someday I'll actually watch it.

Friday, June 7 - OUTspoken Sessions

I remember Equal Action's first announcement at TNC back in 2009, my first year as stage manager. A queer youth of color open mic. I was delighted. I'm so glad they are still going strong as an organization, and that I've seen them transition to having youth take on more and more of the leadership and facilitation roles. No video of myself there. Their theme this show is intersectionality, which they've posted this quote to help define:

If you're in LA, pick at least one. If I were in LA, I might go to all three.

If I Were in LA Tonight: Generation Return // Anida Yoeu Ali Art & Justice Tour

Days before I left Cambodia, I finally gained the will to step out of my hermit/incubation period to take an opportunity to sit down with Anida Yoeu Ali at Java Cafe & Gallery. We were able to talk for a precious half hour or so about her work with Studio Revolt, our experience as a Khmer American woman in Phnom Penh, reconciling our Khmer and American identities in Cambodia, poetry-- listing the topics we brushed against makes me realize what a concentrated conversation that was. Perhaps this is what it is always like in the diaspora.

Tonight, Anida's Art & Justice Tour lands in Long Beach, just in time for Khmer New Year. If I were in LA, and if this weren't in conflict with a shoot for TWSS2, I'd be there.

Catalyst Network of Communities will host artist, writer and global agitator Anida Yoeu Ali in her public performance entitled “Generation Return: Art & Justice Post-Genocide and Post-9/11” during the 2nd Saturday Artwalk of Long Beach, CA.

Ms. Ali will present and discuss her works and ideas about contemporary justice and its residual effects on the Cambodian American experience.  

Ms. Ali is actively engaged in international dialogues, community activism, and artistic resistance to multiple sites of oppression. She upholds the belief that art is a critical tool for individual and societal transformation. Ms. Ali, born in Cambodia and raised nearly all her life in Chicago, returned to live in Cambodia in 2011 after nearly 3 decades away. She is part of a returning diaspora of artists and thinkers creating narratives of Cambodia beyond war and poverty. Through her spoken word performance and video clips, she will present a body of work which provocatively considers the diasporic past/present contours of the Cambodian American experience. The video works include her collaborative media lab, Studio Revolt, and their cinematic works with the Khmer Exiled American community (who constitute the deported diaspora).

Art Exchange
356 East 3rd Street
Long Beach, CA90802

It's my third and final New Year of the year, and I'm celebrating by giving my bike some much-needed love today, and spending tomorrow at wat with my aunt and her family in San Jose.

Not until Khmer New Year arrives, one quarter of the way into the Gregorian new year, do I really feel like the transition from the last year is complete. Since the first new year on January 1, I've transitioned between continents, cities, and living situations, and now, with the arrival of my final new year, I feel firmly grounded in a time of building.

Reading at common ground OC Tomorrow

I'm so happy that the common ground space exists, and I'm thankful that I've had the good fortune of being invited to read there a few times since it began in 2010. 

common ground is organized by progressive Vietnamese American community members, artists, and activists committed to cultivating a positive and safe healing space for artistic growth and community empowerment. The common ground collective builds collaborations across communities and supports the work of social justice spaces.

I remember how happy I felt at Tuesday Night Cafe when the first organizers made the announcement about starting the space, how exciting it was that something like this was starting in Orange County, a place that is as inundated with a reputation of stodgy conservativism as Los Angeles is with a reputation of glitz, glamor, and shallowness. More proof that it's always possible to find what you need wherever you may be.

I'd been planning on attending the March 7 show since I was in Cambodia, long before I was invited to read and before I knew that the theme would be "Food for the Soul" in honor of National Nutrition Month. That theme feels good. When asked what "Food for the Soul" means to me:

“Food for the Soul” is: plain rice porridge with artfully spoiled fish; a tiny, sweet tomato plucked from a scrappy, well-loved garden; a long conversation over tea or coffee about all that is serious and/or silly; setting foot on the land your grandparents raised your parents on; sharing a favorite poet with a new or old friend; lengthy email correspondence; receiving letters by post. In short— all that nourishes, whether through vitamin content or sentiment.

My body and soul got a lot of nourishment from the three months I spent in Cambodia. I look forward to sharing some of the writing that came from it.

See more info about CG on Facebook and Tumblr.

Shots from Earth Day South LA // So much goodness

Earth Day South LA was utterly wonderful. I was so glad to be there for the early part of it, and to watch it fill up with people and energy until I had to leave at 1pm. If you didn't make it, click here to see all that you missed.

CSU-made jam, grapefruit-marmalade, & tomato sauce! 4/14/12

CSU has a program called Tree Of Life Harvesting Corps, which is a group of people who venture out into the neighborhood and harvest fruit from local trees which would otherwise go to waste. Glorious.

Jackie and son.

I ran into a LA Community Organizing Academy classmate and her son, who were tabling for the University Muslim Medical Association Community Clinic.

Earth Day stage.

Wanna learn to keep chickens? // Earth Day South LA April 14

I blogged about the 2nd Annual Earth Day South LA in 2010 with great excitement (because I love this earth, it is so good to me), but this is my first year actually volunteering and attending the event.

Earth Day South LA
Saturday, April 14, 2012
11am to 4pm 

Normandie Avenue Elementary School
4505 S. Raymond Ave, LA, CA 90037
At the corner of Normandie and Vernon 

This event is FREE! Suggested Donation $5+
*No one turned away for lack of funds

Last weekend, I joined CSU with other volunteers to pound pavement to spread the word to the community surrounding Normandie Elementary where the festival will take place. This meant knocking on doors, talking to business owners, approaching anyone we saw on the street, and handing out the beautiful Earth Day flyers. I learned to invite people to the event in Spanish (very rudimentarily), which was great. It reminded me that I told myself to take a Spanish class a couple of years ago and never did.

Some Facebook Musings & First Reading of the Year

Taking my lunch break to share that Patty Chung, the composer/singer of the TWSS opening theme song, is having a dual show with her friend Nadia, and graciously invited me to read. (If you're curious, here's what I sound like.

HELLO 2012

Do you need a break from work? School? Internship?
Do you like a nice hot, pressed panini?
Looking for a deviation from the clubbing/pounding drinks, and feel like you may want to spend Fri night in a quiet, cozy cafe, engaging in only legal activities (watching music, drinking lattes)? Don't feel like taking a chance on an open mic, only to be trapped into many, many Eagles and "Stairway to Heaven" covers? That's what I thought.
Then come join us as we share our original tunes and poems for a night @ The Spot Cafe in Culver City. 

7:15 - 7:30 Narinda Heng, reading
7:30 - 8:00 Patty Chung, music
8:00 - 8:15 Nina Ki, reading
8:15 - 8:45 Nadia Kent, music 

Cost: No cover charge, but the owner is asking each person for $7 worth of food/coffee purchase.... which is good news because the drinks and sandwiches are a delight!
Parking: There is limited parking in the back; street parking also is available. 

DIRECTIONS - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
The place can be easy to miss, it's quite tiny. Driving south on Overland, the cafe will be on your right hand side, just after Farragut Dr. You will be able to tell where the cafe is because there are white benches and large umbrellas outside.

Preview the tunes:
www.thesixtyone.com/only1patty
www.thesixtyone.com/nadiakent

I'm amused that Facebook is still a part of my life even though I deactivated my account last summer (read an interesting article about the deactivation page here). Sometimes I don't know about events to which I'm supposedly invited, and people exclaim "You're not on Facebook!" like an accusation, like I've done something terribly wrong.

There are a few reasons I deactivated. One was that I just couldn't deal with managing my own life in real time and managing it on Facebook any more-- not saying that everyone goes through this, but that's what it felt like for me. The whole mix of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances and wondering what to post and when to post was so much to manage. Just not posting or doing anything with the site was an option, rather than deactivating, but if I weren't planning to use it, then why leave my profile detritus on the internet?

Being "deactivated" means that I've probably dropped off the radar for some people I'd rather still be in touch with, and some have dropped off my radar, but I have faith that we'll cross paths again. And when we do, we'll re-exchange phone numbers and email addresses and hopefully still remember each other.

I recently talked with a friend about the way Facebook tricks us into thinking that we're keeping in touch with people when we don't even interact with them. I told her that I found myself browsing friends' profiles, finding out what was going on in their lives... and never actually talking to them. I got uncomfortable with that. Now that I'm off Facebook, I still don't catch up with anywhere near all the people that I'd like to catch up with because I'm a homebody hermit, but at least I'm not spending time pretending to catch up with them.

If you're reading this and we're out of touch and we once kept in touch via Facebook, drop me a line. I'd like that.

Make it the People's Friday // Mercado del Pueblo

Image by Favianna Rodriguez

Description:

Support your local community! Don't Support the 1%!

Inspired by the mass movements that are challenging capitalism here in LA, nationally, and globally! The Youth Justice Coalition is promoting the investment in our local community rather than corporations on this huge day of shopping. Lots of grass-root and organic creations to be sold!

$2 at the door
Ages 12 and under FREE


Vendors. Music. Food. Art. Community Resources. Raffles.

There is a FREE Public Parking lot across the street of our space.

Tekpa Arte

Buko Bomba

Vulva Creations

Luna Sangre

Hyde Park- Miriam Matthews Branch Library

Solidarity Ink

51/50 Apparel

Watts Village Theatre

Critical Mass Dance Company

Revolutionary Autonomous Communities

Food Not Bombs

Luna Sangre

Ticicalli Yahualli Collective

Cucci

Freedom Tree Press

Southern California Library

And others will have essential oils, soaps, shoes, jewelry, clothes, holiday crafts,  cultural and organic foods, hair braiding,political posters, books, natural wombyn and moon time products, stencil art, sex positive gear, aroma therapy pillows And MORE!

Where:

Chuco's Justice Center,

1137 E. Redondo Blvd.

Inglewood, CA 90302

(Near the intersections: Florence & Crenshaw)10:00am - 3:00pm

In Which I Yell A Lot // J-Town Summer Sessions is Saturday!

I don't often post photos or video of myself here. I'm making an exception because J-Town Summer Sessions is this Saturday and maybe if you're amused (and not frightened off) by my frantic yelling in this video, you'll buy a ticket to the concert and support one of downtown LA's longest-running free public arts spaces.

This posting is belated since Tuesday Night Cafe was last night and the 2-for-1 special is over, but I hope that this demonstrates the lengths to which we will go in order to get people to come and make this a great concert for the artists who are performing, vending, and live-painting. 

Online ticket sales end on Thursday, but you can also get tickets at the door for $25 ($20 for students/seniors). Kids 12 and under are free! With Mista Cookie Jar there, it's going to be a family-friendly affair. Even with Higashi selling beer. ;n)

Can you spare $20 for 7 months of art+community in Downtown?

Pearl Girl at OUTspoken Sessions // Allison Santos

I remember when I first heard about Equal Action and OUTspoken Sessions at Tuesday Night Cafe back in 2009. Skim (who will be at J-Town Summer Sessions) was the inaugural featured performer. I attended for the first time in November of that year, when traci was the featured performer. Until this year, the queer youth open mic was held at the Solidarity Hall on Washington Blvd. It was a cosy, intimate space.

The next OUTspoken Sessions on Friday, July 22 will be at KIWA on 8th Street and is featuring visual artist and Pearl Girls Productions That's What She Said co-conspirator Allison Santos:

She plays "Rae" on TWSS and is one of the most recognizable cast members. Maybe it's the hair. Or her boyish charm. Or her magnetic dance moves. 

For clarification: OUTspoken Sessions' intention is to provide space for queer youth age 19 and under, but older folks are encouraged to show up and support! Inter-generational solidarity, yes, please.

Tofu & Cookie at Tuesday Night Cafe // Free Public Art

I help curate the performers for TNC and I'm excited that we were finally able to get Audrey Kuo on the bill! But the fates toy with me, and I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it. It's going to be such a good show, and with Mista Cookie Jar, it'll be extra kid-friendly, too. 

TNC Tonight: Comedy, Cocks, Opera, Poetry

It feels like forever since the last time I heard The Fighting Cocks play. I think it was November, at applesauce's farewell party. (And oh yeah, the frontman is also The Park's Finest bbq master & TNC Resident Host Johneric Concordia.)

This is also going to be the last time in a while that I'll get to hear Mary Rose's sweet soprano live since she's going off to grad school in Santa Barbara. Ah, so much is changing.

Also, along with the tide of theatre that has come to Los Angeles this month (including the 3rd National Asian American Theater Festival & Conference) came Laos In The House from the Midwest. 

Too much good stuff, as is always the case in LA. 

Khmers On Three Stages // LA Theatre

You know what's exciting about living in Los Angeles right now? Other than my blossoming and fruiting little garden? Theatre. Seeing Khmer Americans stories and/or actors take the stage. I'm planning to see them all.

Extraordinary Chambers
(Seeing this on Tuesday!)

Year Zero

Krunk Fu Battle Battle
(I work at EWP where this is playing, but I haven't seen this yet. Soon!)

Gardening Schemes with Colorish Dreams // 1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe

My friend A'misa (artist, writer, and creator of Colorish Dreams) and I have been sharing our growing dreams and schemes-- from future claimed public spaces to throwing all sorts of seeds into the moist earth to see if they grow. She and her mother have been incredibly successful with their saved seeds. Particularly cantaloupe seeds.

baby melons

She gave me this little pot of half a dozen seedlings (which I have no idea where to plant), and has a bunch more that she's trying to find homes for. We're on the lookout for a good spot for a guerrilla melon patch.

As for me, I have at least four dozen chamomile sprouts that I foolishly sowed into an egg carton. I have plans for places to plant them, but I doubt I'm going to find enough homes for them. They don't take much care, though, once they get established, and apparently even flourish with a little bit of neglect.

just-sprouting chamomile 

So we're going to bring our extra seeds and little seedlings to the next Tuesday Night Cafe and share them with any takers. I'm sure there are seed bartering/exchanging events around LA, through the Seed Library of Los Angeles and the like, but it's always nice to be able to incorporate new things with old stand-bys. And, there's going to be music, poetry, live art, vendors, and general community goodness at TNC. So why not add some living green things, too? Not sure where we're going to put them, but we'll figure it out.

Guerilla plant exchange/giveaway
1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe
Aratani Courtyard
120 Judge John Aiso St, 90012
Show starts at 7:30 so come by at around 7:00 to check out what plants make it to Little Tokyo.

If You Want Midweek Music Goodness

Go to these events:

MidTones TONIGHT (& every 1st Wednesday), 9p. in Chinatown

MidTones Open Jam takes place at legendary Grand Star Jazz Club on the 1st Wednesdays every month, offering an inclusive venue for musicians, noise-makers and music-lovers to experiment, explore and experience. Led by SK, music at the event ranges from Miles Davis to Black Sabbath, Michael McDonald to Bob Marley, Frank Zappa to Prince, Journey to uncategorizable pure improvisation.

common ground open mic (for music, poetry, and some tasty community vibes)

This month's common ground features Andrew Figueroa Chang (whose EP I fell in love with last winter), Quincy Surasmith (Tuesday Night Project live web stream master), and forWord (a spoken word collective of fellow UCI grads & Uncultivated Rabbits), which means, obviously, that I must go. 

One day, there will be convenient, efficient mass transit between Los Angeles & Orange County. This is the mantra I'm going to repeat whenever I find myself taking a circuitous 2+ hour transit route or sitting in soul-crushing rush hour traffic between the two.

LGBTQ Youth of Color Events This Weekend

Last night I went to the opening of Barangay's Tulay event. The work of fellow TWSSter, heart-friend, and talented artist Allison Santos is featured in the art exhibit, and she'll be speaking tomorrow on a panel of community leaders from 2-5pm. 

Two of the most memorable performances of last night's opening were Kay Barrett's exuberant spoken word and Dom Magwili's performance art piece, in which Dom sat on a sofa surrounded by brightly colored tsinelas and conversed one-on-one with people as an older, Filipino-accented man whose daughter had just come out to him, trying to understand queerness.

Tonight: 1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe - I'm reading!

Tuesday Night Project is in its 13th Season of putting on this free public art event! And I'm proud to be a part of it, on-stage and off.

If you haven't been to this yet-- why not?

1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe

Aratani Courtyard at the Union Center for the Arts

120 Judge John Aiso St.

90012

7:15pm

FREE