Nico

wildunicornherd:

nextian:

delladilly:

gatheringbones:

greenkneehighs:

tsarevich:

omgspicegirls:

WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND THIS PAINTING, WHO IS THIS BROAD?
I WANT SOME INFO. TSAR I’M LOOKING AT U
Unless this is a very famous painting everyone’s familiar with, then I’m joking and totally know everything about it 

judith holding the head of holofernes! it’s from a bible story~

i thiiink this one is by lucas cranach the elder? but it’s totally possible i’m pulling that out of my ass. brb research!

 Yep, that one is by Lucas Cranach the Elder! He also did another version of the same subject:

I FEEL LIKE I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT HER.

okay so this Assyrian dude (HOLOFERNES) invades this Hebrew town where this rich widow (JUDITH, OUR HEROINE) lives and she is all ZUT ALORS WHAT SHALL WE DO and talks to some dudes around and they’re all like wow Holofernes sure has a lot of swords and horses and stuff so we are pretty much just gonna hope he doesn’t kill us, and that’s the plan. Judith is like FUCK THAT SHIT so she dolls herself up and goes to Holofernes’ camp with her maid (SUSIE) and is all, Holofernes! I have randomly decided that the Jews are the worst and I wish you all the best in destroying them, let’s get drunk. And Holofernes is like GREAT and he gets drunk and falls asleep. Judith prays to God awhile because this is the Old Testament and then she picks up his enormous sword and cuts off his actual head. She sticks it in a bag and is like WHELP GOTTA GO BYEEE to his guards outside and she and her maid fly on the wings of righteous justice back to the Hebrews where she waves his head around a lot and makes them wallow in her awesomeness. Then they all attack the Assyrians who are all GET HOLOFERNES and then realize he is dead, and headless, and still drunk probably, and then they feel really stupid and leave. 

If you liked JUDITH you may enjoy the story of JAEL who is puttering around in her fabulous tent one day when the leader of an invading army pulls up and is like SHEESH IT IS HARD WORK KILLING ALL YOU GUYS and Jael is like dude, so sorry, would you like some milk? And he’s like I LOVE MILK, and then she nails a tent peg into the back of his head. 

SMOTE.

This is simultaneously epic, and TOTALLY ACCURATE.

Reblogged because I’ve read that passage aloud in silly voices like three times now. My favourite Judith painting EVAR is Artemisia Gentileschi’s. Like Caravaggio’s version, it shows the moment of killing itself—but whereas Caravaggio’s Judith looks dainty with a distasteful expression, Gentileschi’s Judith is straining as she pulls the blade and her expression is cool and determined, and her maid is holding down Holofernes while he struggles. Holofernes is supposed to be modelled after her tutor Agostino Tassi, who stalked and raped her. During the trial they tortured Gentileschi’s hands to prove she wasn’t lying. Then Tassi was convicted. Then she painted this.

That is one of the most amusing versions of the Judith story I’ve heard. :D :D :D

I’ve heard the (not amusing) Gentileschi a couple of times. 

Call for Participation: Disability, Accessibility, and Arts Residency

Call for Participation: Disability, Accessibility, and Arts Residency

Calling artists of all media (visual artists, filmmakers, performance artists, choreographers, sound artists, creative writers, & poets) to participate in a one-week residency to be held at the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) at UC Irvine from June 12-20, 2012. Six artists will be invited to work in conversation with other artists and scholars, to consider issues of multiple access/disability in the conception and design of a creative work. (Approaches to accessibility could include but are not limited to: audio description, captioning, sign language, multimodal design, etc.) We are interested in expanding notions and strategies for works that are multiply-accessible.

Leading scholars in disability studies will offer daily workshops on disability and access in the arts for a small group of graduate student participants. These workshops are optional for artists in residence. The week will culminate in a final day of informal public presentations, aimed to share findings in the form of discussion, sketches and performances.

Residency will include basic support for travel, accommodations, and materials fees, as well as a small stipend. Some meals will also be provided. This residency is organized by the Critical Disability Studies research group (http://www.uchri.org/Fellows/Residential-Research-Groups/2011F-Critical-Disability-Studies.php), and is partially funded in kind by UCHRI and a grant from the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA).

Please submit by November 1, 2011: a one page resume; a 1-2 page written statement regarding your interest/experience in disability, access, and the arts; and relevant work samples. Send URL(s) and pdfs of the above to criticaldisabilitystudies@gmail.com

Mara Mills
Assistant Professor
Media, Culture, and Communication
New York University
239 Greene St., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10003
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Mara_Mills



InterACT Team
Interdisciplinary Augmentative Communication and Technology Team
Montgomery County Public Schools
7921 Lynnbrook Drive
Bethesda, MD 20814
301 657-4929
FAX301 657-4969  FAX

savannahstreethassle:

lebanesepoppyseed:

savannahstreethassle:

raptortooth:

Queer Porn Star Accused of Pedophilia for Breastfeeding Baby

By Diane Anderson-Minshall

Weeks after queer porn star Madison Young had her baby, she created an art exhibit titled “Becoming MILF.” The concept, according to Jezebel.com, was to explore how Young now embodies a contradiction, the dichotomy to end all dichotomies — that of the Madonna and the whore. At the show’s opening, she served up self-made breast-milk shakes and displayed a baby quilt made of burp cloths and porn star panties. Turns out not every feminist porn star agrees. According to Salon.com, a series of sex worker Twitter wars ensued, the controversy tapping into “culture-wide mommy issues.”

Porn star Furry Girl (who is known for her, um, stage name–like features) criticized Young for publicly breast-feeding, tweeting that only “creeps and pedophiles” are interested in seeing a porn star breast-feed and insinuated that exposing her child to such an audience was abusive. Girl called Young a “a revolting person” and dubbed her defenders “baby fetishists” and “pedos.”

Of course Young (née Tina Butcher) is already a well-known feminist porn star, director, author, and the founder of Femina Potens, an ever-evolving, queer and trans nonprofit gallery and performance space in California that the San Francisco Chronicle calls “the most happening art space in the city; a revolution in art and sex.” She’s curated the gallery for years, mixing envelope-pushing women’s sexuality exhibitions and spoken word shows from lesbians like Annie Sprinkle with less kinky feminist projects from literati like Michelle Tea. Young’s shown up on such outlets as IFC and the History Channel and in MSNBC’s Brian Alexander’s book America Unzipped, which has a whole chapter on her art and work.

So what was this controversial display of pedophilia that Furry Girl imagines? According to Salon, Young posed for a black-and-white photograph dressed up like Marilyn Monroe while clutching her daughter to her bare breast, nonchalantly breast-fed on a video, and then announced that she would nurse live and in person at an upcoming event meant to promote “health awareness for our queer, kinky, and sex positive communities.”

At the event itself, Young discussed breast health, while other presenters talked about breast cancer, antiretroviral drugs, and safe sex. “It wasn’t a sex party; it was an adult sex-ed class hosted by sex workers,” writes Salon’s Tracy Clark-Florey.

Furry Girl, an actress in vegan porn, tweeted that context is at the root of her argument, though she no longer wants to comment on the debacle. Meanwhile, Young returned to social media in hopes of ending the Twitter mommy sex wars: “The only one sexualizing this image of me breastfeeding is you. Which makes me feel truly disgusted and violated.”

So, what, porn stars aren’t allowed to have kids or something?

Jeezus.

What bullshit. I remember seeing a mini documentary about her and her space Femina Potens and thought she was so awesome/brilliant. It is what first made me connect “Sex Work” and “Queerness” with “Sex positivity” and “Feminism”.

Read FB’s post on her blog, and while I can kiiiiind of get her point that Young’s child didn’t consent to the demonstration I also think she skipped over the part where the breastfeeding took place in a non-sexual setting.

(Source: advocate.com)

what they did yesterday afternoon.

warsanshire:

-

they set my aunts house on fire

i cried the way women on tv do

folding at the middle

like a five pound note.

i called the boy who use to love me 

tried to ‘okay’ my voice

i said hello

he said warsan, what’s wrong, what’s happened?

i’ve been praying,

and these are what my prayers look like;

dear god

i come from two countries

one is thirsty

the other is on fire

both need water.

later that night

i held an atlas in my lap

ran my fingers across the whole world

and whispered

where does it hurt?

it answered 

everywhere

everywhere

everywhere.

LAUNCH! Sins Invalid’s Full Annual Shows Online for the 1st Time!

Hey crips, queers, artists, activists, allies, kinksters, kids, and creatures!

As part of our work as interns at Sins Invalid in stunningly wheelchair accessible Berkeley, California, my colleague Allegra and I are helping to launch a new web streaming series of Sins Invalid’s Annual shows. The pilot will be launched on the week of August 6th and will remain online until August 12th. Depending on the success of this venture we do plan to continue the series through the fall and winter! 

As you may have seen on www.sinsinvalid.org, our website has a wealth of clips from various Sins Invalid performances. However, this impression of Sins as a sort of cabaret is inaccurate, and we want to bring the full arc of the Sins shows to you, starting with the year 2008. We know that you may have been unable to attend shows in the past, and as a wheelchair user I know how inconvenient and painful traveling can be. This is why we’re taking action and getting Sins to you. This is about getting communities together and celebrating the work of Sins Invalid over the years!

Every piece speaks to and touches the last, they writhe and complicate and bless and grow in one another’s grasp. The 2008 show explores the territories of spirituality, the sacrifice and the sacred, as these themes play out in our relationships and over the landscapes of our disabled bodies. The performers are asserting the blessing that is the knowledge of one’s sexiness, agency, vulnerability, messiness, grace, and power, and if that’s a sin too, then so be it!

This will be a pay per view, sliding scale donation event of anywhere between $0-$100. We are a fiscally sponsored organization; there will be a link on the upcoming event page to our sponsor’s website where you can make paypal donations. We are making a suggested donation of $10 but no one will be refused the opportunity to view the show for lack of funds. 

And the bonus! There will be a discussion packet sent to any interested parties and a live Q & A with directors Patty Berne and Leroy Moore!

To participate in bringing a viewing party to your home or group, email info@sinsinvalid.org, Allegra Stout: astout@wesleyan.edu, Patty Berne: pattyberne@sinsinvalid.org​, or myself, Beast Von Fancy: foxlovesriver@gmail.com!

This is a preliminary event invitation. More details will be released as we create them. Just drop me a line or RSVP to this event to let me know that you’re interested.

Fierce Blessings,
Beast

Facebook Event for LAUNCH! Sins Invalid’s Full Annual Shows Online for the 1st Time!

Chicago Art Magazine » “Are you ready to alter your destiny?”: Chicago and Afro-Futurism

wildunicornherd:

Part 1:

Afro-Futurism is an exploration and methodology of liberation, simultaneously both a location and a journey. The creative ability to manifest action and transformation has been essential to the survival of Blacks in the Diaspora. “Black Secret Technology (The Whitey on the Moon Dub)” Julian Jonker writes, “Black Americans have literally lived in an alien(-n)ation for hundreds of years. The viscerality of their abduction is equaled only by the ephemerality of the bonds which the disciplinary state has since imposed on them.” Similarly, Boykin notes that in this context, “freedom is futurist.”

Chicago’s history is rooted in liberation struggles; the concrete jungle gives rise to a fiesty, rag-tag, Mad-Maxian, blue-collar style that respects hard work and survival of the fittest. We are alchemists in this city of steel, akin to the Yoruba god Ogun, fusing metal to metal. We claim a real space traveler astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space and graduate of Chicago’s Morgan Park High School. In the tradition of grand-forefather Sun Ra who graced our lake shores with his mystical genius, Chicago “shows out” with the sanctification of conduit Avery R. Young’s sweet nectar sweat as he navigates between states of being in his signature Sunday Mornin’ Juke Joint performance style. Chicago Afro-Futurism is revolutionary discopoet Khari B. levitating at the HotHouse long before will.i.am teleported from Grant Park to CNN headquarters on November 4, 2008. It is Krista Franklin’s multi-layered visual planes with giant children spinning LPs on oceans; spliced figures from antique photos become extra-terrestrial as she coaxes new stories from their faded mysteries.

Part 2:

Chicago prophet Curtis Mayfield’s train in “People Get Ready”; Sun Ra’s Solar Arkestra; George Clinton’s Mothership; “Black Moses” Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line: these vessels of transformation rise from the Black mythos. Sun Ra’s musical ascension coincided with the inauguration of space travel; his contemporaries included young, Chicago-born Gil Scott Heron whose percussive poem “Whitey On the Moon” reflected those left in Earth’s tenements whom Ra came to rescue in Space is the Place. “A rat done bit my sister Nell but whitey’s on the moon…”

Afro-Futurism is hot, moist, black nutrient-rich, deep in the bowels of memory and soul iterations. It lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. “The central fact in Black Science Fiction…is an acknowledgement that Apocalypse already happened: that (in Public Enemy’s phrase) Armageddon has been in effect.”[i] In Afro-Futurism, however, “everything is alive and transformed as opposed to being destroyed.”[ii] Afro-Futurism says: even “solid” matter is made of slow-moving molecules; Jesus walked on water and you can, too.

Via Charles Tan.

Pennslyvania: Artist Search- Works For Me Calendar

If you are an artist who lives in PA and you have a disability, this is a great chance for you to showcase your talent! Through this calendar, you can help raise awareness about employment supports for those who have a disability. This calendar will feature information about work incentives and will also include selected artwork, and this is where you come in! Here are some guidelines if you would like to partner with us:

What you can send: (Must be original art you have done yourself; include title of the artwork, full name of artist, phone number, email address)

1. Photographs
2. paintings (picture of)
3. Sculptures (picture of)
4. Wall hangings, textile designs (picture of)

How you can send it:

• Better to use a digital Camera rather than a cell phone camera.
• A picture taken by camera and sent by file through the computer.
• A picture as an email attachment that has .jpg or .gif at end of file name
• Please send only the best picture for each artwork
• Limit of one picture for each email
• Please limit artwork to 3 items per artist

Please submit all artwork by email to: worksforme@iu11.org

Please submit all artwork by July 15, 2011.

*Artists will be contacted in August 2011 if their work has been chosen, and winning entries will be featured in the 2012 calendar. Calendar artists will receive public recognition regarding their accomplishments. If questions, contact: 1-800-360-7282, ext. 3719

… Is it just me or did someone throw this CFP together by copy pasting meeting notes??? o_0 i don’t know. I just know that this got emailed to me on a list of things that someone at OMHSAS PA came across.

Works For Me 

End of the semester T-shirt Giveaway!

badparsiqueer:

I thought about doing this when I hit 500 followers, but the spambots are throwing off my count anyways so I’m doing it early. Because I’m nearly done with this semester. Because I’m going off to see good friends and I want to celebrate. Because I’ve got some free time on my hands. Because no one is ever going to sell t-shirts with these characters.

I’m giving away one screenprinted t-shirt, made specially for the winner.

I can’t do a custom design for the winner, because my exacto knife and painting skills are still pretty limited. But I’ve got 6 designs to choose from!

Here’s how it works. Like and reblog this post and you’ll get entered into the drawing. I’m going to Massachusetts at the end of the week and coming back in late May. When I get back, I’ll draw the name of the winner and contact you.

You can choose from the six designs below, as well as t-shirt color. Then I’ll ship your shirt off to you!

I might draw two winners, if I have the cash to make two shirts for free. I’m also looking into starting an etsy shop, where I’ll sell t-shirts but probably not comic book shirts. (I’m still looking into copyright stuff there — do all those twilight craft people just get away with it because it’s so small fry, or am I missing something?)

So without further ado, here are the designs you can choose from. (Some of the images are flipped. I think they’re still readable so I haven’t unflipped them.)

Nightwing jumping off a building!

[Green shirt with an image of Nightwing jumping off a tall building. He is wearing his skintight black costume with a ‘V’ of unpainted cloth where his costume is usually bright blue. Below him is a flock of bats, and below that is a city skyscape. The design takes up the left side and bottom of the shirt.]

Tiny Titans Cass!

[A design printed on a piece of paper. It is a simple picture of the Tiny Titans version of Cassandra Cain. She is a chibi, superdeformed figure with a large head and small body. She is dressed head to toe in black and her face is covered by a black mask with large eyes and a mouth stitched on. She is raising her arms as if to scare someone. The image is about 3-4 inches tall.]

Renee Montoya 52 design!

[A design screenprinted onto a piece of paper. It shows an image of Renee Montoya as the Question, wearing a fedora, gloves, and a jacket. She has no facial features, and she is tipping her hat at the viewers. Below her text reads “Answer the question.” The text is backwards because the photographer’s computer flipped the image. The image is about 8 inches tall and 5-6 inches wide.]

Superboy logo (okay, you can get this one online. But still.)

[An image of a black screen printed shirt. In red is the Superboy logo, a stylized ‘S’ within a diamond shape. The ‘S’ is flipped because the photographer’s computer flipped the image. The image is about 9 inches wide and 7 inches tall.]

Cass lurking in an alleyway!

[A screenprinted image on paper. The image is of Cassandra Cain as batgirl, lurking in the mouth of an alleyway. She is visible only in spooky silhouette, her cape curled around her and her pointed ears clearly visible. There is the rough image of brickwork spreading out forward from Cass, giving the image depth and making it look like the viewer is actually looking through an abstract representation of an alley. The image is about 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide.]

Jubilee being awesome!

[A screen printed image on paper. It is a simple image in three colors of Jubilation Lee. She is standing with her hands on her hips and looking unimpressed. She is wearing a black jumpsuit with a yellow collar and zipper, a bright yellow coat, and bright pink sunglasses. Her features are more abstract than realistic. The images is about 8 inches tall and 4 inches wide.]

HAPPY REBLOGGING! I’ll choose a winner on May 26th!

Cassandra Cain in the alleyway! I like black, but I don’t know how well black shirt would work with the design. Which I’m in love with. (And if you put it on a swatch of fabric instead of just a T-shirt, I’ll prolly make a skirt with it as the “center piece”/Defining element.)

Submit Your Work to Be Published in the 2011 Disability Culture Zine!

Are you a writer or an artist?

Do you want to express your feelings about disability culture, pride, identity, ableism, and more?

Do you want to have your work seen by hundreds of people?

If you answered YES to the above questions, consider making a submission to the FIRST EVER NYLN Zine Publication.

The NYLN disability culture zine is a 100% youth-made printable online publication. We welcome any length piece of writing (poems! interviews! essays! blog posts!) or type of printable artwork (paintings! illustrations! digital art!) by any people with disabilities between the ages of 14 – 28 years old. Writing must be at 8th grade level (or as close to it as possible).

Deadline to submit is: Wednesday, June 8, 2011 so send in your contribution today!

To submit your work, get ideas, or have questions answered, Contact the NYLN Zine Co-Chairs:

Sara Moussavian (Written Work), saramoussavian2011@gmail.com or
Emily Holmes (Media/Art Work) Cinderella_em1@juno.com