I'm still a little verklempt...

Girl Talk was just flat-out incredible. Bless you & thank you, Ryka, Ryka, Tina, Lauren, Nomy, Rose, Dorian, & Julia. Tina, Lauren, Nomy, Rose, Dorian, & Julia. You were all engaging and brilliant. Right now, I want us all to take over the world. Or at least go on tour together. ;) My favorite moment from my individual reading was the audience response to this excerpt:

[...] Using the word genderqueer to describe myself is hard. For a long time, it felt like a word that was fundamentally not mine. Like a word that other, more masculine, more entitled-to-it people had the power to take away. Before I met [my ex], genderqueer was the property of female-assigned people who ape a kind of masculinity that I find privileged and pompous. None of the genderqueers I met in college – and I've been out since I was 11, but college was the first time I heard people using the term in any kind of wide-spread way – none of those people had genders like mine. They were skinny, wealthy, WASP-y, self-described “tranny b-o-i-z,” sporting trucker caps and workshirts when they'd never actually driven a fucking truck in their entire trust-funded lives. They talked a lot about the evils of other peoples' privilege without examining their own. They were devotees of hipsterism, and drinksterism, and the “We'll have sex with hot femme girls, but we won't let them actually talk” School of Butch Chauvinism. They were the Dude-Bro's of the genderqueer world. You know who I'm talking about?

I was not expecting to get quite such a resounding "YES!!!" from the audience. It was hella comforting, and -- as cheezy as it sounds -- really renewed my faith in my dyke community. Anyway, Julia and I will have footage from the show up soon. I'll link to pictures and audio/video footage then.

"Enter Jesus's email address"

Moving, moving, moving!

So, I'm looking to move within San Francisco on August 1st. Me and my beloved housemate of four years are parting ways because I'm adopting a cat and looking for a room with a little more space than what I currently have. After a fairly abysmal hunt for affordable studios that aren't Hobbit Holes, I've decided to look at room shares. (If, by the grace of God, you know of some Magic Crazy Awesome Rent Control Studio Deal, hit me up, please). More about me: I'm a queer femme writer, activist, and cultural worker (most of my artistic and activist work is about queer, trans, and sex worker communities). I'll be starting the MFA in Fiction program at SF State in the fall. I'm a San Francisco native (I grew up in the Ingleside/Lakeview), and I've lived in Mission for the past four years. I'm a good tenant and a good housemate -- responsible, communicative, no drama, tidy but not neat-freaky, with good credit and my finances in order, a stable non-profit job (come August, that'll be stable Financial Aid), and great personal references. I tend to stay in apartments long-term. I don't have to be best friends with the people I live with, but I like at least being friendly with my housemates -- watching the occasional movie or grabbing the occasional cup of coffee together. I eat meat occasionally, but I mostly cook vegetarian. Some weeks I'm out a lot, at events or teaching or doing performances; other weeks I'm home a lot, writing. I like having friends over to cook and hang out, but I don't like to bring the party/bar/club home. I don't smoke and rarely drink, but I'm not picky about what my housemates do as long as the house isn't Party Central. What I would love in a share situation: Queer/trans friendly, sex worker friendly, kitty-friendly, good sunlight, a shower with a tub, a maximum of 3 other housemates, room to store my bike indoors, and reasonable rent (for a share, $700 is about my max -- less would be great, too). Neighborhoods I'm potentially jazzed about living in include the Mission (including the Outer Mission and the border of Glen Park), Bernal Heights, Noe Valley, the Castro-ish/Dolores/Church Street areas, Potrero Hill, Hayes Valley, the Inner Sunset, Cole Valley, the Lower & Upper Haight, and South of Market. Pretty please ping me if you know of anything! I'm queershoulder[@]gmail[.]com.

REBEL GIRL round-up

1. Oh my god. You guys! REBEL GIRL was so good last night! Melissa's sweet, awkward, funny internet/teen goth/riot grrrl crossroads memoir! Zuleikha's Muslim Shark Manifesto! Chan's Riot Brrrlesque! Liz's amazing & hilarious Riot Grrrl Mail Bag (she read from people's zines & letters!), and the snippets from The Slut Manifesto (now available for download on Kindle, OMG!). And the amazing Nomy & Melodie doing grrrl covers on the accordian. (I got shivers when they sang "Calculated," people. Shivers.) And, amazingly, my month-long anxiety/panic streak and writer's block finally broke. I wrote something new, and sweet -- a letter to one of my favorite grrrl penpals, a dozen years later. I'm really happy with the piece, and with the audience response. I'll be posting it here and at Bilerico soon. The goodness of the show last night makes me feel even more optimistic and excited about Girl Talk. Which you should also come to. Duh. 2. I really like my new 1940's-style curly girl haircut -- my hair curls like whoa when it's short, and I've been wearing a fake rose in my hair. I also got a magenta fake feather tuft. I have decided that life is more fun with flowers and feathers in my curls. 3. I was so glad to have Melissa back in town, however briefly. I've missed her a lot. San Francisco just isn't the same for me without her around.

A life/show/writing update

1. I wrote this little piece about my early porn years for Bilerico.com awhile back. Take a look. 2. I've been a little stressed out this month, what with National Queer Arts Fest. See also, I'm leaving my non-profit job in late July to start school in August. See also, I'm moving in August (still within SF, just to a bigger and kitty-friendly place -- my current room is tiny and my current housemate, while absolutely beloved to me, has a rabbit that the kitty I'm getting would probably terrorize). All of these changes -- especially the going to school one -- are really positive for me, but I'm a bit in that "YIKES, THIS IS A LOT AT ONCE" place right now. 3. Have I mentioned those two shows I have in two weeks? If you're in San Francisco, please come to "REBEL GIRL: a riot grrrl nostalgia show" on Thursday night. Performers are bringing old & new zines, buttons, flyers, and other riot grrrl ephemera for folks to ogle and buy. In addition to all our awesome readers -- me, Melissa Gira Grant, Zuleikha Mahmood, & Liz Henry -- Chan Dynasty is performing some Riot Brrrlesque, and rumor also has it that Nomy Lamm & Melodie Younce are gonna belt out some riot grrrl covers on the accordian. I'm also baking the audience cupcakes, wearing a vintage slip, and reading about SF grrrl culture circa 1996-1998. My piece is a lot of stories about things that felt very integral to my growing up, but are gone now -- the Bearded Lady, BUILD Arts Collective, the Harvey Milk Institute... Come out, pretty please! It will be a lot of fun! 4. Also, if you are in SF -- please don't forget to come to "Girl Talk: A Cis & Trans Woman Dialogue" on June 17th. Featuring me, Nomy Lamm, Julia Serano, Rose Simms aka Little Light, Ryka Aoki de la Cruz, Lauren Steeley, Dorian Katz, and Tina D'Elia! 5. I love that I live in a city where, during my 4 block walk to BART, I spot one of my favorite writers walking and one of my favorite porn stars biking down Valencia Street.