BEAT BACK BUSH IN THE SAND

August 27, 2006 marked a very special day. Not only was it my (Kira’s) birthday, Beat Back Bush was decked out for a LIVE PERFORMANCE AT VENICE BEACH!

In sunglasses, workout shorts and high spirits, we arrived at Venice Beach armed with a boom box, dvds and a clipboard of voter registration forms. Walking towards the graffiti park, we noticed a higher concentration of people than usual lying on grassy mounds. Jurassic 5 had beat us to it! A live concert was organized for the same spot! We began to feel defeated by the high tech speakers, presence of police everywhere, and confusion as to where to go and what to do. We considered leaving and going to a special beach Jo knew about, open to performing should a more ideal situation present itself. But luckily! Our friends arrived and insisted we perform, at least for them, because they came specifically to see our live performances.

Okayyyyy we decided. Let’s do it!
Between sets, we ran off the grassy hill and stood in the sand before the lazing concert goers.

“When I say beat back, you say bush!” shouted Jo. “Beat Back-“
“BUSH!” they answered, the chant growing in volume each time.

We turned on the boom box and performed Down Bush, calling out the words as we moved through the sand in unison. People were laughing and beginning to pay attention. We shouted out our greeting introduction, and continued on to Don’t Buy It, with Miyo leading a rousing workout. Bikers stopped to watch and the laughing crowd grew. We performed Down Bush one last time, to a more attentive audience, and then began to register people to vote and answer questions in the crowd. Miyo and Kira performed an improvised version of Fight Back, and we left them with everybody’s favorite, Makin’ a Noise.

We finished just as J-5 came onstage, gathering our milk crates and headed for the Santa Monica Pier in high spirits. We had lunch at Jo’s family’s restaurant, the Surf Shack, eating delicious fried fish, onion rings and the soft served icecream that reminded us of (but far exceeded!) our college meal plan cafeteria.

We spent the afternoon at a beautiful beach, El Matador, swimming, sunning, and dancing. We held a ceremony to celebrate the life, the tour, and to honor our friend Luis Pagan, who passed in January 2006, and reminded us all of the importance of loving and living in love.

In the evening we celebrated our successes with a victory gala. Gone were the sweat suits and tank tops, this was a night to remember. We toasted our victorious summer and pledged to keep on BEATING BACK BUSH!!!

TRAVELLIN WOMEN (AND ONE MAN!)

After the LYRIC screening, Beat Back Bush reconvened for Thai noodles in Berkeley, surrounded by the loving support of our Bay Area friends. We said sad goodbyes to Shanna and Nina, because the next day, Kira, Miyo and Julia were southern bound, with the new addition of Kahlil.

On Friday we (well, mostly Kahlil) drove all day down the coast, through changing landscapes of deserts and coastline, to the city of Angels, Los Angeles. Put four radical folks, two fluent in Spanish, in a car driving through endless cities and towns with anglicized Spanish names (“LAS ahn-jell-ehs”) and we have entertainment for hours.

By the time we reached Jo’s house in West Hollywood, we were exhausted and hungry. After many hugs and kisses and showers, we shared a delicious vegetarian meal and met Jo’s LA friends. We screened Beat Back Bush in her living room, and held an impromptu question and answer afterwards, telling every one about the very exciting events coming up throughout the weekend . . .

LYRIC(AL) VOICES

Our last screening in the Bay Area was hosted by LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center) – a queer, questioning and trans youth organization- at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center. We were excited to drive into the Castro, welcomed by an enormous pride flag waving easily in the misty yet sunny San Franciscan morning.

This was slated to be one of our biggest events in the Bay Area. As the night wore on, we realized it was also going to be one of our most challenging and revelatory screenings. Local businesses generously donated food and beverages, and we had a big screening area complete with a stage for our performances. LYRIC youth were hanging around the rec center as we got ready, excited to help us out with carrying supplies or setting up the room and curious about what we were going to be doing. It’s hip hop? Is it a dance? Is it free?

The evening included performances by Kahlil Almustafa, Julia Ahumada Grob, Venom, and Soha Al-Jurf. We came onstage and led an enthusiastic warmup, joined by one of the audience members onstage who was eager to begin moving.

This performance marked our “live debut”, with all four of us dancing along to Down Bush instead of just calling out and singing along and encouraging others to do the same. The entire audience, especially the youth from LYRIC, were incredibly excited and supportive of the video. They sang along, shouted and laughed throughout the whole show, really appreciating the ways we had changed the music around and deviated from the orginial. In fact, when “Move Bush” came on, before the lyrics started, one girl called out “Move, Bush!” anticipating the way we would change the words from the original, and inspiring even more shouting when it turned out she was right. One of my favorites was when, at the end of “Fight Back”, another boy called out “Fight crack!”

The energy carried over into the workshop, where the youth created their own performance protests about the educational system and gay rights. Their raps and poetry directed frustration towards a political system and administration that was not paying attention to their needs.

While this was one of our most energetic and inspiring screenings, it was also one of the most difficult. Over the course of the tour, we realized how important it is to develop solid communication and outline clear expectations with tour venues and partners. We realized that we had no knowledge of the expectations of group behavior for LYRIC events, whether swearing was allowed or how to be consistent with disciplinary action and the organziation’s behavioral expectations.

We were also trying to work with a group of teenagers who spent a lot of time together and had very complex, intricate histories with each other. It was frustrating to try to handle their relationships with each other in the moment having no prior understanding of disputes and problems between groups. It was hard to negotiate these high tensions while encouraging people to trust themselves and each other enough to risk performing their ideas in front of the group.

As the proverbial wisdom always tells us, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and I know the experience at LYRIC was inspiring for all of us, and helped us to clarify how we will lead workshops in the future. Above all, while sharing Beat Back Bush with all demographics is exciting, I think working with those who would identify themselves as part of the hip-hop generation, those who especially recognize and identify with the sort of music and styles we chose, is the most fulfilling, because it is truly in that vein that we offer something unique. It is within the culture of hip-hop that we are identifiably revolutionary, offering an entirely new perspective and fresh voice.

Screening at Epic

We had two very successful and interesting screenings/workshops. The Berkeley screening was held at the Epic Arts Center, a non-profit organization that promotes collaboration and community development through the arts (obviously a perfect place for BBB!), housed on the second floor of a house on Ashby. The screening was attended by 40-50 people--a diverse assortment of friends, activists, and educators---our biggest screening till that date!!


  

  

  

  

  

  

After the screening and q & a, about 15 people stayed for the Performance Protest Challenge. The Performance Protest Challenge is a workshop Miyo and myself (Julia) developed during the winter at the Beyond the Box Conference at Swarthmore College, in order for participants to experience some of the methods and process of Beat Back Bush. We broke the participants into 3 groups, and they were each given the following criteria for their performance:

1) Choose a political issue
2) Create a message
3) Include coordinated body movement
4) Something rapped, spoken, or sung
5) Something in a language other than english



  

  

  

The groups chose a range of issues and encountered a range of challenges. A sampling of the topics: price of BART trains, HUMILITY, stopping violence and building community. Their performances where diverse as well. The Humility group used sign language and repeated phrase to speak about the effects of different oppressions on individuals. The stopping the violence group used rap, multiple levels of movement, and performed in a circle.


  

  

The BART group struggled to the greatest degree because they found it difficult to create a message around their issue. Like many participants they got bogged down with thoroughly interrogating the issue, becoming heady and heavy, struggling to move on to the action side of things.

After the performances we debriefed about the process. One participant responded that it was liberating to be silly with other activists when talking about politics. One member of the BART group responded passionately about his frustration with the transportation system. The group suggested that they actually go down to the BART and perform guerrilla theater on the buses, refusing to pay as a group and raising awareness about the issue. Miyo was our fabulous facilitator and did a professional job directing questions and helping to expand the ideas that people put out.

We left the workshop tired but extremely content with the success. Thank you to all who participated and to Epic Arts for hosting!!!!!

Goddess Day in the Bay!!

First of all apologies for our delay in writing. We have been traveling, seeing friends, movin fast...always movin fast.

The Bay Area brought us good friends, good vibes, and good food. Among the highlights were the fabulous bbq (see earlier blog for photos) and a wonderful womyn's after noon with the lovely Rachel of Devika's Palacio. Rachel, an Oakland native, is an amazing Mexican/Peruvian folk artist who also is a skilled mendhi artist. Devika means goddess in sanskrit and her business caters mostly to goddesses, like ourselves. Rachel and fab fiance Josh cooked us a beautiful middle eastern meal (jalapeño falafel) and then we spent the rest of the afternoon, just girls, on the roof: tanning, talking, and being blessed & healed by Rachel. We left feeling like the goddesses that we are!


  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Bonus fotos from the trip south...

Here are some fun extra fotos from the trip down to the bay including Bay Area Welcome BBQ flix!! Enjoy!!!



  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

I'm a travelin woman...

Its been days since we've uploaded pics and stories and we know you are aching to get the goods...so here goes:

On Wednesday we left Seattle at 10:30am (just 1.5 hours after our planned departure). We drove to Portland where we went to a People's co-op, ate yummy fresh multigrain bread, avocado, cheese and fresh tomatoes (eating in style always), and listened to male folks singers harmonize with banjos & guitars. We slept that night in Oregon wine country with Uncle Kira & woke up early, managing to make a stop at his winery and see the fermentation process!!!

We made it to Eugene for lunch where we had another beautiful gourmet meal on the grass by the river and managed to jump in for a quick dip!


  

We made it to Ashland in good time where we screened at the Mobius. We were inspired (probably by the fact that we knew noone in the area) to get dressed up for funkiness and did a quick foto shoot outside. Yes, the Beat Back Bush women are sizzling hot. Don't forget you heard it here first!!! (Make sure to check out our interview on Jefferson Daily, at Jefferson Public Radio !!!)


  

  

  

The Mobius space was perfect for Beat Back Bush...big open gallery space which we converted into a workout studio!!!


  

  

  

The next morning we woke up early again for a day of beautiful driving and views. We took the long route through the redwoods arriving in Northern California on the beautiful coast. We spent the day driving, talking about life, dreams, and dilemmas, eating (of course), and dancing, yogaing, and singing to the ocean. We were met by the pelicans who decided it was eating time too and flew over and around us. It was truly magical...a moment of blessing.


  

  

  

  




Later that day we stopped for fresh blackberry popsicles (yes, we took a picture of course!), drove through the redwoods, and then slept underneath the stars in the Tubridy Family Tent (thank you Tubridys!)


  

  

  

The driving trip has been reviving, rejuvinating, and radical! We have been overwhelmed by the beauty of the land, so diverse and powerful in its ways: from the looming Redwoods to the crashing ocean to the many rivers we jumped in along the way, we have been blessed constantly. We have been blessed also by the kindness of strangers and friends: being fed and housed all along the way. Thank you to everyone who is supporting us! Returning to humanity has been a little jaunting: we have moved from the silver-bullet-4-bbb-womyn-family to the Bay Area with so many friends surrounding us. It is warming and overwhelming to be back.

Getting settled in . . .

Nina's idyllic cooperative home (complete with a bountiful garden and cozy backyard yurt) hosted the Oakland Welcome Beat Back Bush potluck. Surrounded by friends, family, and performers from earlier versions of Beat Back Bush, we enjoyed delicious grilled food and told stories of activism and politics.

Today we are preparing for our Bay area events. We are screening and holding a workshop tonight at Epic Arts, and Thursday, August 24th we are co-hosting a film and poetry night with LYRIC- Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center. Located in the Castro, LYRIC is a wonderful non-profit community center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth. We are excited to work with such a dynamic and important organization and share the stage with talented Bay Area poets!

Arrived safely!

We arrived safe in Berkeley today after visiting Portland, Ashland, the California Redwoods, Northern California coast, rivers and ocean, with warm bellies and smiles. We are recovering tonight but will be sure to post tomorrow once we can upload pics and stories.

Thanks for all your support...we are sun drenched and smiling right now.

911 MEDIA ARTS Screening and Workshop

  

  
Kira arrived in Seattle on Monday afternoon, so we were all together for the Tuesday night screening at 911 Media Arts. Sadly, it was our last screening with Kate since we are moving on down the coast to Portland.

We welcomed everyone with a short performative introduction and another warm up. We had an intimate, enthusiastic audience, who, after learning the words from Fight Back- "I said my people work hard, put on your leotard and/push that Bush away/ now fight back! fight back! fight back! fight back!" sang along during the workout.


  

One of the main goals of our Civic Engagement Tour is encouraging and registering people (especially young people!) to vote. We are partnering with Music for America to register voters. At the 911 Media Arts screening, we registered three eighteen year olds. In our talk back we asked the three of them to comment on how the video may or may not have affected their politics. One was inspired to be more active in his daily life about the issues he believed in, since he recognized that he could "go out and do something", another wanted to learn more about the issues we presented in the workout, and the last one told us the video made her think about how each person, inside of ourselves, has the power to make change.

Hooray for the youth!

During the talkback, we also received the comment that it would be fun to have even more audience participation during the screening. Audience members were excited to move their bodies more, to become physically engaged with the messages displayed on screen just as the performers were doing.

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Following this suggestion, we modified our workshop plan for the evening and instead held an audience participation screening of the instructional yoga video in the DVD extras, from our original December 2004 version. A little release felt good to everyone. We finished the screening, ate some veggie crub at Teapot, and got into bed to be ready to leave for Portland fresh in the morning.


  

In the morning, Kira and Julia did an interview for Oregon's Jefferson Daily, at Jefferson Public Radio . Our segment will be aired tomorrow at 4:30 and 5:30 pacific time. We were on the road by 10:30 (1 hour and a half later than planned) and headed out to Portland. The Beat Back Bush Civic Engagement Tour has begun!!

Now we are in Portland, bellies full, off to wine country to sleep...

Ashland here we come!

Seattle welcomes Beat Back Bush

  
We arrived at our Seattle premier in the Silver Bullet, aka. Tubridy Family Van, a 7 seat VW Eurovan that will take us from Seattle to LA this summer. We had packed our T-Shirts, DVDs, mailing list, ready to take Seattle by storm. Imagine my comfort when the sign said Brooklyn, and right on the post was the Vera Project's fabulous poster!!

  
The organizer of this performance was Vanessa Gibbons of Seattle's Vera Project, a non-profit all-ages venue. The Vera folks hooked us up with a fabulous theater, the UW Ethnic Cultural Theater, and booked DJ Bgirl (dope dj), Beyond Reality (mother and son seattle-based hip hoppers...they do it for the kids!), and Romanteek (Olympia, WA supafunkydiva.)

  
The performance started with a bang! We led the crowd in an interactive warm-up, teaching lyrics and dance moves so they'd be ready to sing-along (down bush bush, mothafucka!!!). We had the crowd up and movin, chanting with us, giggling and getting in the BBB spirit.

  
Following the performance we facilitated a q&a session. One of the most interesting conversations that arose was regarding the profanity in our piece. We were asked who our target audience was and whether our use of curses might prevent us from getting our message across. Now remember, this project was born following Bush's win in 2004. It embodies our frustration, disillusionment and anger with the state of this country. The lyrics purposefully reflect this energy. However, while we never had any idea that we would one day be touring the country in film festivals, schools, and conferences; the issue of profanity has come up because it prevents us from being screened in many schools. DJ Bgirl responded to the question by proclaiming that we shouldn't apologize for our use of profanity. "We are living in a profane world," she proclaimed, "own your words and your work because it reflects the reality in which we are living."

  
I think what is important to remember is that the tools that are being used against our movements, our communities, our people, and our schools: whether it be police violence, counterintelligence & surveillance programs (Patriot Act), denial of quality education and health care for all, government repression of information, etc., are all PROFANE and HEINOUS. The tools we use to resist this profanity may offend some, but it is important to counter state terror with whatever means necessary.

Beat Back Bush is ours & we will not apologize!

  
On a final note, Upendo, the 8 year-old brotha from Beyond Reality (check him rockin the BBB tank w/the Beyond Reality Crew & BBB Ladies), helped us create a clean version of "Down Bush!" Here goes:

"From the East Side to the West, all my people say, down with bush today! Down with Bush MOTHER-MOTHER! Down with Bush, CORN-DOG!!"

Thanks Upendo!