I remember a really stupid thing I did back in 1999. Some friends and I were camping on the island of Culebra, off the coast of Puerto Rico. Culebra used to be a US military base (like Vieques) until 1975 when the residents of the island successfully managed to have them removed. The military left, and left behind all of their undetonated charges, their tanks and other good things like that. We knew this, but that didn't stop us from taking a "three hour hike" - which actually turned into 8 hours - around the island's tip. We did run across undetonated charges. We saw lots of other things, too, which were heartbreaking. We also heard the military tests on Vieques that killed Daniel Sanes. We heard them and didn't know yet what they were. But there we were, across the water. Hiking through US military detritus.

And now that the military has moved off of Vieques, destroying the local ecosystem and causing conditions that increased health problems for the local residents, they want to move to the neighboring island of Santo Domingo - Kiskeya - and they want to set up a military base on the isla Saona.

Here are some facts (garnered from the change.org petition):

Saona Island is home to several endemic, threatened, or endangered plant and animal species (Abreu & Guerrero 1997), most notably the Hispaniolan Parrot (Amazona ventralis) and the Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). the Hispaniolan Parrot is categorized as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN 2010), Currently, the Hispaniolan Parrot is categorized as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN 2010), while the Hawksbill Turtle is categorized as Critically Endangered by the same entity.

Over 112 bird species have been found, 8 species are endemic to the island, 11 species endemic to the Caribbean; including the White Crown Pigeon declared as extinict by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN). Amongst other species of animals in danger of extinction, you can also find the Manati on the Island of Saona.

It is also of extreme importance to highlight that every year, between December and April, around 3,000 humpback whales come to breed in the warm waters off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Until recently it was believed that only 85% of Atlantic humpback whales are born in Dominican waters and return annually to mate and reproduce. But a recent study revealed that all populations of the North Atlantic come to breed in our waters.


My heart is breaking. I couldn't handle the base in Vieques. I remember crying as we climbed over a ridge and spotted a field of abandoned tanks in Culebra. Why does the US need a military base on Isla Saona?

Over the next two weeks, I will be posting short video interviews with several Dominican activists focused on questions about the current political moment. I will be translating the interviews in English shortly.

The first two interviews are with Marianela Carvajal Diaz and Anny Teresa Figeuroa.

Dominican hair salons, hair products, women and their hair are notorious as homes of the "dubi", and an entire range of deep-relaxing products. I have had my fair share of traumatic Dominican hair salon experiences over the years. I grew up going to the hair salons with my aunt. We went there for everything from hair washing to deep conditioning to hair straightening to - yes - haircuts. I used to have burn marks on my ears from the hair dryers (the ones that go over your head), and I was one of the lucky ones. However, I stopped going to Dominican hair salons (in New York and the D.R.) after I cut my dred locs off. I think I just got tired of the trauma of it all. That last time, I had to spend 20 minutes convincing the stylist that my hair is indeed CURLY so that she could cut my hair accordingly. She didn't understand why I had dred locs in the first place.


I know I'm not alone. Plenty of sistahs in the D.R. go through the same thing and worse. Ginetta Candelario has done whole studies on Dominican hair salons and cultural expectations/transformations in the U.S., so I won't go into it here. And I wrote an essay that was published in Blackberries and Redbones (ed. Spellers and Moffit) a couple of years back that talks about how women's "presentability" (yes - with all the class, race, gender and age appropriate assumptions that you think would go into that kind of categorization) and economic sustainability in the Dominican context. So...imagine my JOY to see this video report - posted on Yaneris Gonzalez Gomez's page (thank you), which covers two resources for women who want to keep their hair natural: One to One Hair Salon (Santo Domingo, DR) and Go Natural Caribe (webpage).


Kiini Ibura Salaam, who did a student exchange program in the D.R. and wrote a very significant article on her experience, points out one of the main challenges for women of African descent who go to visit the Dominican Republic from the U.S....I'm not saying that her concerns are addressed, now, eight years later, but I do think that Dominican women, on their own terms, are defining new parameters for their struggle. Check it. (Sorry if you don't speak Spanish...I will try and put translation here soon...or maybe, you can learn Spanish.)

Mark Bradford changed my life. I was in Chicago, on the train out to Oregon, this past summer. There just happened to be an exhibit of his work up at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. I was only in Chicago for a night, part of a day, and so I had to go and see it if it was the only thing I was going to do while there. The show comes down on September 18, and I only wish I had told more people about it sooner. What moved me about his work were the varying textures. You could feel sorrow, anger, irony, challenge embedded in the texture of the papers layered with paint and other materials. I could have known about him sooner, as he is one of the artists featured in the series "Art 21", but I'm just glad I know about him at all.

This is the summer of new. Learning new forms of laughter. New ways of doing things.

After six weeks in the Dominican Republic learning more and more and more about social movements and the bad ass people who've made them possible, I came back to the U.S. and took a train cross country. It started in New York. The train wound through New York state over to Chicago.

While I was in Chicago, I went to see the amazing Mark Bradford exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. If you haven't seen Mark Bradford in your lifetime, please, please, please - go see his work when he's in town. He is brilliant. I also walked along Lake Michigan and took in the water that is a sea but isn't really.

The train crossed Illinois, Idaho, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and up through the mountains of California until we got to Sacramento. Along the way, I saw so much scenery that when I actually got to the hotel in Sacramento, they have those special "relaxation" videos, and I had to put the one on that was house music because I thought I'd lose my mind in the one with scenery. Being on a train for three days was like Baraka on crack, except it was my life. Still, there was one more leg of the trip: up through the mountains to Eugene, Oregon. Where I've been all summer, learning new.

Here, I've been writing, working as usual on stuff. Lots of stuff, but not so much anymore because I'm learning new ways of walking through time. kt and I have a staged reading of a play we've been working on this year coming up on August 11. I'm excited for it. The play has been really fun to work on - making me laugh as I write (or read what kt's written) - and kt is an awesome director. I head to Austin next week to work on this with her and to visit family, friends, loved ones. I can't wait.

And then, I decided to go ahead and do a performance project for my birthday this year. It's my 36th birthday. So, the performance is 36 daysweeksmonthsyearslifetimes. I learned, as I told a new acquaintance about the 36 day project, that 66 is the number of pornography in 19th century Chinese literature. "Chapter 66," she told me. "It's where the good stuff is." Thanks, M.E. I'll keep that in mind. We could all use a little good stuff.

Upcoming Events
April 7, 2011 (7pm) A La Vista: Screening and Discussion of Caribbean Queer Shorts 212 York Street, Room 106 Featuring filmmakers and activists: Celiany Rivera-Velazquez, Joselina Fay and Carlos Rodriguez And featuring the films: *Lucha Libre (Republika Libre) *Reina de Mi Misma (Celiany Rivera-Velazquez) *Afuera Hay Aire (compilation) *Palabras y Gestos (La Candela) A La Vista is a one-night showcase of short films by Caribbean LGBT filmmakers from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Inspired by the first national Dominican LGBT film festival in Fall 2010, this showcase will connect voices from the Caribbean to the lives of LGBT people in the United States and beyond. Welcomes by Quisqueyalies and PRISM. Commentary and talk back with Andrew Dowe (Phd Student, Af Am/ American Studies) and Ana-Maurine Lara (PhD Student, Af Am/Anthro). This showcase is part of the LGBTS Global Queer Cinema Series, with generous support from the Wallace Sexton Fund for LGBT Studies and the Bruce Cohen Fund. Co-sponsored by Quisqueyalies and PRISM.
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April 9, 2011 (2 - 3pm) 5th Annual National Dominican Student Conference Panel: Identidad Sexual y Dominicanidad Discrimination against the LGBTQ community is on the advent of institutionalization with the imminent ratification of the newest constitution banning same-sex marriage. At the interpersonal level, these communities are often discriminated against through the perpetuation of prejudiced views promoted by traditional beliefs of sexuality and vamped machismo in Latin America. Topics covered will not only be restricted to a conversation based within the Dominican Republic, but will also feature the importance of the Dominican activism in the United States. This panel seeks to first and foremost disseminate facts and to additionally promote thoughtful discourse in an effort to disband the stereotypes and taboos often present in such a conversation. Featuring: *Deyanira “Sargenta G” García, first Dominican publicly out rapper and peformer *Ana-Maurine Lara, nationally-acclaimed author and PhD Graduate Student (Yale - Af Am/Anthro) *Francisco Lazala, Founder of the Gay and Lesbian Dominican Empowerment Organization (GALDE) *Alicia Anabel Santos, Self-identified Latina lesbian writer, performance artist, producer, playwright and activist as well as the writer and co-producer of “Afrolatinos: the Untold Story” *Celiany Rivera-Velazquez, feminist educator and videographer, holds a PhD in Feminist Media Studies & Transnational Queer Cultural Production
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Monday April 11, 2011 (5.30 - 7pm) Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Colloquium Yale University, WLH 309 Ana-Maurine Lara (Anthropology and African-American Studies) “The Reconstitution of Black Atlantic Bodies and Memories in Sharon Bridgforth's Delta Dandi” and Tom Koenigs (English) “A fictitious story of one of his own sex”: Gender, Fictionality, and the Public Sphere in America, 1797-1808"
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Wednesday April 13 (4.30pm) Rainbow Writers Series Gathering Lounge, Livingston Student Center Rutgers University A presentation and discussion of Erzulie's Skirt with Ana-Maurine Lara and Cheryl Clarke
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Friday April 15 (10.30 - 1.30pm) Afro-Caribbean Women's Artistry as part of the 64 Days of Nonviolence Series Southern Connecticut State University Engleman Hall, Rm A120 Reading and discussion featuring: Ana-Maurine Lara, Marianela Medrano-Marra, Tanya Torres and other artists
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April 25, 2011 (4.00pm) University of Oregon Reading of Erzulie's Skirt. For more information contact Ana-Maurine via facebook.