The Democracy Machine

10:23:17 education. Graduate with a Masters in Divinity after next week
10:23:20 I had to find my thesis I will
10:23:23 be working with program from
10:23:32 LGBT first trans navigation service in the country. The only
10:23:35 transgender health clinic in the US
10:23:41 Southeast. I primarily work outside of that with LGBT youth those that are incarcerated I
10:23:45 am a mapmaker, printmaker seems her and
10:23:51 a writer. I really love to bring our and activism together and
10:23:54 engage in ways. If you were to look in my studio. You can see
10:24:04 a few pieces I want to talk about these three pieces shortly as a way to point through
10:24:10 as a way to look through a Eye Beam. To the left, you can see this performance
10:24:14 piece I recently did gaze need
10:24:21 not apply. My great grandfather founded a chapter of
10:24:25 an organization called 80H ancient
10:24:28 order of the.[Name]. On Staten
10:24:43 Island. They run a St. Patrick’s Day parade. I had grown up Irish step
10:24:46 dancing and marching in this parade. It is the main cultural events of the island it is a big
10:24:50 day to celebrate Irish heritage. As I grew older this event become very frustrating as it
10:24:54 is the main event to celebrate heritage it is so tied to Catholic
10:24:57 identity in so
10:25:02 many ways. It is a British missionary that people lift up as an example of
10:25:07 their heritage and now the main day to celebrate Irish around
10:25:10 the world is centered
10:25:15 on this missionary what is worse the 80H continues to ban LGBT
10:25:18 people from the per raid based on
10:25:27 this Catholic exclusion even though every New York City parade allows
10:25:30 for LGBT people to walk even though there is gay marriage in Ireland even
10:25:33 our last prime minister was gay himself LGBT
10:25:45 people have been banned from walking in order to challenge this I took part in action that
10:25:49 March the parade route prior to the parade with LGBT folks and block the parade from starting for
10:25:53 a bit. I myself dressed in Saint Patrick’s drag. Rainbow cross and
10:26:01 rainbow stuff. So that was a performance piece and best center you can
10:26:04 see two images
10:26:11 of block aesthetic created in collaboration with two insiders to
10:26:14 initials RDT NDM. How to choose the subject from a fortress style words of multiple prints
10:26:18 this is from a series called sinners
10:26:31 and saints. Unable to participate in carving up locks because the
10:26:34 material bands within the prison. This is an example of insight outside collaboration I really try to build
10:26:38 into my practice. To the right you can see two snapshots from a digital
10:26:41 scene I recently created called “Jesus death continues today. A
10:26:44 Catholic us stations of the cross reflection
10:26:52 Journal. This scene offers a scaffolded approach to
10:26:55 interrogating readers believe in relation to the death
10:27:03 penalty. This can be used as a reflective tool but it is designed to hopefully inspire
10:27:07 action and Catholicism in which I was raised
10:27:10 has a strong tradition of anti-death penalty work. I decided to work from that space and
10:27:14 leverage that within the digital scene. I hope that these three
10:27:18 projects eliminate how my organizing and art
10:27:25 have overlapped. I share these artifacts, as a way to point
10:27:28 towards the overall endeavor that I hope
10:27:34 to take on with Eye Beam this summer I’m in the midst of developing what
10:27:37 I call the shakers and makers lab which will be a series of workshops
10:27:40 between activists and artists to aim to cross pollinate best practices and wisdom across these
10:27:47 two camps. Here we will be able to share how to make things like buttons and the ins and screen
10:27:51 prints
10:27:55 and block print sweet tasting drag art photography and
10:27:59 and more. We also learn about
10:28:05 escalation campaigns and bail funds and de-escalation with the
10:28:08 police, negotiation, power mapping restorative and transformative
10:28:12 justice and
10:28:16 so much more the project is my hope to address an issue I found with
10:28:21 the national organizing and beyond which artists and activists
10:28:28 often will collaborate but often in a superficial way or a way
10:28:32 that stops short from all the beautiful potential I think there
10:28:35 is an myth generative space. So, I’m hoping we can go so much further in
10:28:44 the studio and lab space will allow for serious cross-pollination that
10:28:47 can both elevate the work of both artists and activists in our city.
10:28:50 So, thank you all. I will pass it back to Adela .
10:28:54
>>ADELA LICONA: Sean thank
10:29:00 you so much in your presentation I hear the power of storytelling to
10:29:07 refuse harmful heritage I would
10:29:10 like to ask Yogesh
10:29:13 to introduce himself.

10:29:16 >>YOGESH MAITREYA: Hello everyone. It is
10:29:22 such a pleasure to be speaking in front of all of you.
10:29:28 Thank you Adela
10:29:33 and Shawn for the experience that
10:29:40 you had. My name is Trent am from
10:29:44 India. I belong to one of the communities from India disability
10:29:55 as a crime Constitution and in 1949 and the Constitution which
10:29:59 was
10:30:03 from 1951. It has been making a crime a
10:30:10 punishable crime in India has been practiced
10:30:17 every day. Disability has been a part of an essential part of the cost system. Which is
10:30:21 the social fabric
10:30:26 of India. The fight against the cause has
10:30:31 also been fought recently
10:30:34 in the US especially in the
10:30:41 wake of Seattle as
10:30:49 a discriminatory system has marked its presence also across the world.
10:30:52 I belong to one of the communities
10:30:56 in India. My
10:31:00 art involves with stories of
10:31:05 my people. How I can produce for the larger
10:31:11 audience. As many of you have an idea that India has
10:31:15 many languages.
10:31:26 Almost all Indians, at least no two languages. Indians and those who go to school or college as
10:31:30 they know at least three languages. India is a country where
10:31:37 one linguistic state hardly communicates with another
10:31:41 linguistic state. Because of the nature of the cost
10:31:50 system. Prevents people from communicating with a larger audience. Everybody lives
10:31:54 for their cost
10:31:58 . I as a publisher and a writer and
10:32:04 a translator. My purpose is to
10:32:10 make the stories of the oppressed people people from
10:32:13 the untouchable communities a label for the
10:32:23 larger audience. A story of my community
10:32:23 is not
10:32:30 returning my return which is returning something like
10:32:35 another language called.[Name] I work with the
10:32:40 translation is necessary for one
10:32:44 language to
10:32:54 another and another so the stories won’t buy much of the history of
10:32:57 the community is
10:33:03 not verifiable. In the third world countries know
10:33:06 much about a race as
10:33:12 a discourse. We know more about the black
10:33:19 rates. But my history is not verifiable to the launcher ward. Because of the
10:33:22 languages that we have. The languages
10:33:27 which are made
10:33:31 to sink into the dark list there is no translation
10:33:42 literally changes. I as a member of this community when I started growing
10:33:46 up. When I started reading the language which is
10:33:57 my third language I found that my history my existence all of the stories
10:34:02 of my community have been available and
10:34:08 this language. That is how I also started learning the language
10:34:11 called English. When we knew that
10:34:15 what colonizers
10:34:19 in terms
10:34:25 of writing geographies
10:34:28 and distorting modes of the local knowledge translation angiography
10:34:33 also the languages India
10:34:37 with my community things
10:34:42 happen differently. Because under the system we are prohibited as a
10:34:46 community we were
10:34:50 prohibited from writing from
10:34:56 reading, and if they attend to
10:35:01 read or write basically perceivable life of intellectual life.
10:35:04 There were punished names
10:35:10 and the systems for
10:35:13 an example if
10:35:17 someone was here there was
10:35:25 a punishment of – lead into the gears or
10:35:30 if we have sacred rights in the community. There
10:35:33 was a punishment called
10:35:36 cutting the chopping of the tongue. So, my
10:35:41 community
10:35:45 was basically the life of mine. It becomes
10:35:50 very much obvious as
10:35:54 the fact that the
10:35:57 thing from which you are
10:36:01 prevented from practicing once you start
10:36:06 researching your self one you start to journey on the part of your liberation. You
10:36:12 aggressively persisting persistently do that
10:36:21 thing. So, are emancipated Doctor.[Name] When he
10:36:24 laid the moment for social justice. He had drafted the Constitution for India Doctor.[Name]
10:36:32 Who is also more than a father of
10:36:37 modern India. Inspire us to lead
10:36:44 the actual life and that’s our life
10:36:48 into education. This has inspired me a lot.
10:36:53 I myself I
10:36:57 grew up in Dallas. I don’t want
10:37:01 to create binaries. Just to give you a
10:37:08 slight understanding places which are pushed into the corners.
10:37:11 Places which are
10:37:16 neglected. Places where all kinds of things happen. I grew up in
10:37:24 that post fear. It was because Doctor.[Name] Was an
10:37:28 inspiration. A lot among us started investing in
10:37:33 education. Because
10:37:39 the British it is a very interesting thing and the point of history to
10:37:46 be noted that we were prevented from reading
10:37:50 and writing. Also, doing a dignified
10:37:53 job.
>>ADELA LICONA: It is time.
10:37:57
>>YOGESH MAITREYA: Sorry. I will cut
10:38:03 out I am going to just basically I’m going to show you something.
10:38:11 The thing that I produce. These are some of the books that I
10:38:14 publish. This is the book on my poetry book. This is
10:38:17 the essay’s critical essays. This
10:38:21 against the
10:38:24 poetry. This is again the cross poetry. These are short
10:38:31 stories. This is again the book. This book is the history of my
10:38:34 community. This book
10:38:40 is poetry. This book is again
10:38:43 poetry. You can see there are so much
10:38:50 poetry. Basically this is me.
10:38:54 I practice on my art by
10:39:01 producing stories.
>>ADELA LICONA: Thank you.
10:39:08 Now, we will move towards our conversation with the goal of keeping
10:39:16 the themes of today’s presentations in mind. I would like to generate
10:39:19 conversation among artists and anyone else who would like to
10:39:23 participate. I just want to express my gratitude for being a part of this
10:39:27 radical experiment that Eye Beam has given us the opportunity
10:39:32 to share in as I do that I want to try to bring in these
10:39:37 presentations together. Yogesh the books while. The
10:39:40 poetry that you gave us a
10:39:44 little bit of insight into their especially at
10:39:48 the end. It was reminiscent for
10:39:52 me. I work
10:39:55 poet, linguist of
10:40:01 the.[Name] Nation. Has a poem called “Birth witness” and first witness she
10:40:08 speaks of confronting US
10:40:13 government officials. A border control. At the end of
10:40:16 my poem
10:40:20 she says nevermind. I must now go and account for
10:40:25 myself. In a way, this is what I heard in
10:40:30 your shared
10:40:35 tilings Shawn, Adela , Yogesh . Accounting of
10:40:39 yourself rooted in the domination
10:40:43 of colonialism, patriarchy
10:40:48 of white supremacy of certain refusals and in your RIC touching,
10:40:54 moving matter.
10:40:58 Pulmonologist. As ways of making ourselves
10:41:02 noble. To one another and to our community
10:41:06 members. Even in the face of on
10:41:10 verifiability. I love that language of the
10:41:15 unverifiable. Being made verifiable by our
10:41:19 stories. In a way it is a story of how
10:41:23 we know and the logical positioning how we
10:41:27 know ourselves. Taking account of
10:41:32 our schools and the places we come from. You have shown us the
10:41:35 power of storytelling to Richie is
10:41:41 harmful, violent, dominating narratives. You have reconciled in ways before
10:41:46 us. Colonized imaginations and the refusal of those
10:41:51 imaginations. They provoked us to consider are as the answer. Art
10:42:01 that is multispee part that is multilingual. Multispee sees with the
10:42:04 soil as our mentor. Oral
10:42:09 knowledge is as actual, factual histories and
10:42:12 no abilities. So, I wonder if anything I have
10:42:16 said there stirs anyone of
10:42:22 you to respond and in your responses if you can see ourselves and
10:42:25 one another’s art. Maybe I
10:42:28 will take a breath there and pause.
10:42:33 I think I have raised
10:42:36 the collective sharing’s and try to put them
10:42:41 in conversations. I would really like the artist how they see themselves? Maybe we’ll
10:42:51 start again with Astrid how you might see yourselves and Sean’s
10:42:55 presentation and then training then will move to Sean and then to
10:42:58 Yogesh .
10:44:26
>>ASTRID GONZALEZ: I am really happy to go back
10:44:29 to Sean’s work and Yogesh
10:44:35 ‘s work. I can see that they are interested in biographies
10:44:38 and experiences
10:44:46 in a territory we can once again make ourselves
10:44:52 able to communicate politicizing
10:44:59 this experiences. Evaluate being able to value how our bodies feel in this territory.
10:45:03 In these territories that have been set up by people
10:45:09 with power. And they have set us up to feel in a certain
10:45:12 way. To feel like the others.
10:45:18 I can see and Yogesh ‘s writing
10:45:21 and and Sean’s activism. I see
10:45:26 myself reflected
10:45:31 in this initiative to be the owners again of our narratives. Not
10:45:38 allowing others to make us or set us up in their narratives.
10:45:49
>>ADELA LICONA: Thank you. I hear and body knowledges, newly
10:45:52 embodied knowledge of and traditionally
10:45:56 embodied knowledges precolonial and futurist
10:46:01 as well. I say even a multidirectional
10:46:05 experience of being and desiring. Of
10:46:08 asserting, liberating
10:46:12 narratives. So, Sean will you please enter
10:46:15 the conversation and tell us how you
10:46:19 see yourself
10:46:23 in Astrid ‘s experiences as well as
10:46:29 Yogesh ‘s?
>>SHAWN REILLY: I will be sure. I have a lot of things
10:46:33 rambling around in my head. One of the things I love when Astrid said
10:46:40 I had is when I found other young people there were also thinking
10:46:46 about this. This issue for example
10:46:53 the parade where LGBT people have been banned. They have been banned for a really long time.
10:46:57 The LGBT center and folks have been trying to walk in this parade
10:47:00 for a really long time. It was a
10:47:04 coalition of course of some of our elders as well as the young
10:47:08 people. That is resulted in a newer push to get those
10:47:16 policies changed. I just thought kind of this through line of looking at elders for
10:47:20 wisdom
10:47:24 and knowledge. Maybe some of the energy to change those things.
10:47:32 These realities or socialized realities with a partnership with
10:47:35 young people.
10:47:39 Then with Yogesh ‘s work I was thinking a lot about how so much
10:47:44 of our work folks on the inside of presence in particular
10:47:47 on Tennessee’s
10:47:51 death row. How we often talk about the oppression of those
10:47:57 folks without thinking about
10:48:01 the oppressors. Without
10:48:04 thinking about without being
10:48:07 able to hear the voices of people on the
10:48:11 inside themselves. Often times programs will go into prisons and say let’s make this
10:48:15 thing are due this thing. You can write this
10:48:21 piece. I see a part of my work
10:48:26 as translating this from a prison context to an outside context
10:48:30 trying to build bridges between insiders
10:48:40 and outsiders. Metaphorically translating on different ways if you’ve never
10:48:44 been on Tennessee’s death row. If you have not been in a prison. Lot of contextualization
10:48:48 that needs to happen. I am seeing some of those same lines in Yogesh ‘s work as
10:48:56 well.
>>ADELA LICONA: Sean thank you so much. In a way of what you have
10:49:00 energy as there were elements of this in each presentation is a participatory athletic
10:49:04 that is part of a D colonized methodology.
10:49:07 At least according to Linda Smith
10:49:13 and.[Name] Whose methodology and oppressive
10:49:19 as these methods these D colonized methods will make us recognizable to
10:49:24 one another. So is how we are
10:49:27 related. It is the
10:49:34 same when Yogesh tells us about failed language. The new
10:49:37 languages that emerge will be the language of recognizability, verifiability to those
10:49:41 of us
10:49:44 who have been oppressed, silenced, and made unverifiable by
10:49:52 authorized powers. Before turning it
10:49:56 over to Yogesh you have all touched on biomimicry in some ways. You have
10:50:05 asked us to consider where our mentors are. They are rooted in the
10:50:08 earth. In
10:50:14 that dirt and in the generations yet to be paid when we
10:50:19 can see mentors who are is simply authority figures
10:50:25 prescribed by colonialism but rather as mentors who have been
10:50:31 considered untouchable, unknowable who have yet to breathe. So, thank
10:50:34 you for that wild provocation. Yogesh will you please tell us how you see yourself
10:50:39 in Astrid and in Sean’s
10:50:42 work.
>>YOGESH MAITREYA: I
10:50:46 would
10:50:51 like to thank Astrid and John for sharing the
10:50:57 very important being expressly shared about their lives and also their
10:51:03 intellectual
10:51:08 pursuits. While Astrid was present in her work and also in Sean
10:51:15 was talking
10:51:20 about their activism and Chris
10:51:26 for education. I am drawn to think that
10:51:38 the four we are born as humans. Then we start growing up like we are children. Then we go to
10:51:42 school. We gradually grow. Before coming political and conscious. About
10:51:46 our
10:51:55 history and becoming and for our roots. Before we realize there is
10:51:58 something wrong with the world around us. We need to take
10:52:05 a position to make changes into that. To alter the realities for
10:52:08 the group for the coming generation. Before that
10:52:11 we have experiences. You have experience
10:52:14 of
10:52:18 feeling suffocated. We have
10:52:21 the experience of feeling that we cannot
10:52:25 breathe anymore. There is something wrong around
10:52:31 us. I think experience is the
10:52:34 essential foundation for
10:52:40 all of us to generate that consciousness. I think based
10:52:45 on that when Astrid was talking
10:52:50 about her
10:52:53 experience, her quest for
10:53:00 following that question of who am I? And what am I am not particular circumstance
10:53:03 when John was talking about
10:53:07 the struggle of
10:53:10 community and also how
10:53:17 education can also to basically empower us in that fight. I
10:53:24 realized that there is a respect of many languages
10:53:29 we speak. The languages come to us by the
10:53:34 society. Come to us from school from families from institutions.
10:53:42 I think our people across the globe share the language. The
10:53:50 experience of they experience English they come to the realization
10:53:53 that something is wrong. We cannot take it anymore the way
10:54:00 it is we need to take a position so we can from our site
10:54:04 *attempting to change
10:54:07 for the better that is the thing I have and
10:54:17 I feel when Astrid and Shawn were sharing basically part of their
10:54:20 life as a hardest as a human being. I think this is
10:54:23 where I also feel
10:54:27 connected. We are coming from different
10:54:30 realities,
10:54:33 geographies and different situations. Here if
10:54:39 we can this there is something a take away for me
10:54:43 from today’s English
10:54:48 that is something it is something very much unique
10:54:57 to the solution.
>>ADELA LICONA: I
10:55:03 love that.
>>YOGESH MAITREYA: This is my take
10:55:07 away. So,
10:55:10 I learned this is what
10:55:19 I am.
>>ADELA LICONA: Love that is a tool of education a way of
10:55:22 bringing new knowledge
10:55:25 us to the historical register but also to ways of knowing
10:55:29 one another. Being able to use
10:55:37 our arts as a conduit to shared understanding. To the collected
10:55:40 liberation is so much of our our is
10:55:47 pointing towards. It can be a question
10:55:53 in today’s presentation that does not need to be answered today can sound
10:55:56 the table.
10:56:00 Every question
10:56:06 and maybe hold
10:56:14 or a comment one question only, and you should feel free to use the chat or to speak it
10:56:18 out loud.
10:56:29
>>SHAWN REILLY: One question I have just rambling in the back
10:56:37 of my mind what would it look like to dream about
10:56:40 not only decolonization
10:56:45 but re-indigenous nation how do we dream about these
10:56:50 things away from the structure in so many ways that is impossible
10:56:56 given our reality I dream of a space in which
10:57:00 we can dream of a place that is
10:57:03 not even defined into
10:57:08 cold holiday.
>>ADELA LICONA: What a beautiful provocation to leave us with.
10:57:11 In a way you have sketch the anticolonial. How
10:57:15 do we speak outside of that, yes?
10:57:21 Beautiful. In the last three minutes I would like to leave the very last minute for a
10:57:25 collective breath. Any other
10:57:28 questions or comments to leave on today’s shared
10:57:53 table?
10:59:41
>>ASTRID GONZALEZ: I was watching a movie by
10:59:44 a character. They were talking about
10:59:47 the African futuristic themes. I
10:59:51 realize that we
10:59:59 take too much. We take too much time thinking about how
11:00:03 other people think of us or the image they have of us. Europe does not
11:00:07 think about that. They just are.
11:00:26
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