SAFER DIY SPACES

 Safer DIY Spaces is a 501(c)3 nonprofit staffed by building professionals and artists. We assist low-income DIY spaces with life-safety alterations and tenant-led building acquisitions. We also craft policy and building/zoning codes.

https://www.facebook.com/saferDIYspaces

Bread and Circuses: On the distractions of commodities and fame

 

The answer to the Roman phrase "bread and circuses," which is defined as "as extravagant entertainment, offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance" is "bread and roses," which suggests that we need bread but roses too: pleasures are not necessarily distractions or superfluities.

Roses in that phrase can mean radically different things to different people; "bread and roses" was coined in 1910 by a suffragist to mean that we have a right and a need for not only material sustenance, but for pleasure, joy, beauty, culture, nature, whatever works for you. The phrase was taken up by the labor movement and lives on.

A friend posted this mocking mock-up, and I replied with a version of the following: My brain can accommodate fluff and issues with gravity, and Taylor and Travis are actually political in meaningful ways (which is not the same as perfect in every way, I'll add to fend off the puritans; I am not arguing for their beatification, just for the legitimacy of giving 15 minutes to this perky drama).

It makes MAGA's blood boil that a hugely powerful, successful woman can be desired by and happy with a manly man (she makes a lot more money than him and he's apparently okay with that) and vice-versa. Women are too often told they can't have love if they have power and agency and an independent mind, and too many men are not okay with women who do have that stuff. Kelce has made it clear he's proud of her.

She's been a role model for young women, especially when she countersued the guy who groped her and turned the court into an arena for a brilliant performance of 'refusal to take responsibility for his bad decisions.' She's a big time donor to disaster relief in the Southeast, to her former local library, gave her workers huge bonuses on the Eras tour and reportedly treats them well, has been an advocate for women's rights and LGBTQ issues, spoke out on reproductive rights and endorsed Kamala Harris. Oh and has gotten a lot of voters to register. (That doesn't mean I think she's Che Guevara.)

Travis was an early kneeler during the National Anthem to protest racism and has spoken up on racism, was a covid-vaccine endorser, and is a good role model for young men in a moment when there're so many bad ones, leaving aside that football is a weird gladiator spectacle that can mentally and physically trash its players.

I think people should enjoy what they enjoy. I had fun looking at the engagement Instagram photos and read an article about them before I did my climate action zoom yesterday afternoon.

Rebecca Solnit is a journalist and art historian.

https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/

Where we are part 1 Edgar Heap of Birds Installation at UIUC

 What's on the screen? Follow the link for a short essay about an artwork by the indigenous artist Edgar Heap of Birds, which in whch he exhibited signs naming the Peoria, Piankesaw, Kaskaskiam, Wea, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Odawa, Myaamia, Quapaw, Meskwaki, Sac, and Kickapoo peoples who once lived in the place where UICU is located.

https://unitforcriticism.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/experiments-in-collaboration-a-conversation-with-anna-tsing-and-ryan-griffis-response-by-angela-baldus/

More work by Heap of Birds 

Climate change resources

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE- straight forward explanation

Video Oilfield Witness - XAI in Memphis

 

Direct address: Signs and billboards

Scenarios for imagining safety without the police

What constitutes safety? What does it feel like? What would just safety look like? 

Check out these Abolitionist Enactments  and this illustrated guide about the connections between law enforcement and inequality

Practicing Everyday Abolition- 

Audio version HERE