After the Carnival

HOME FROM PITTSBURGH, and another multi-day, exhausting, energy-packed, hotel and airport stuffed trip is over. I don’t know that I have a ton of time or energy at the moment to unpack it all. While I traveled to the event on an America’s Voice Immigration Scholarship, you know how these trips go. You come back in the hole and in the red and so I’ve got to get to work trying to level things out again.

Firstly, I do want to thank America’s Voice for the grant. Obviously it’s no small ticket from the West coast to the East, and for four days at a hotel, plus registration. The events are sort of a class barrier, and that’s why, I think, a large part of the blogosphere resents these conventions. They feel left out, they are left out, as I am for events like AMC—which, in truth, I’d attend over these ones but for the fact that the money doesn’t flow thru AMC, the big blogs aren’t there, the sponsors aren’t there, and so grants aren’t there as they are (and more and more) for events like this. And yet the philosophies of AMC are much more community based, and shaped around things that genuinely excite me. But I couldn’t attend that one. Yet, these big plasticky conventions are important for the fact that they are a commonly understood nexus of media makers and DC types and so you can have some meaty talks and networking moments, should fate provide.

Or see films like 9500 Liberty. (Short Clip above, Trailer below)

I met up with the makers of this film later on in the day, and we had a good talk. They are Annabel Park and Eric Byler, a woman and a man team (she of Korean descent, he of Chinese/mixed descent), who happen to be smart and friendly people. Eric and I spoke a bit about immigration, about filmmaking, and about bridging the Asian and Latino communities, and exchanged info for possible future purposes.

They also happened to be at the Si Se Puede 2.0 panel [clips below]. Eric appreciated my comments about a need to publicly draw out the connections between the criminal justice system/Prison Industrial complex and ICE’s growing influence and behavior. There’s a lot to say here, but I’ve got to run to the dentist soon, so I’ll have to wait to lay out what I feel are those ties. But I really do think these larger connections need to be made, and honestly it can be hard for “white” progressives to do so in some cases. I’ve noted some built-in blind spots that sometimes prevent them from seeing the way the prison system and police operate, which is for the most part racist. (If you dig stats, just check the stats on who gets locked up and shot more, and by whom/cops of what races.) Now, I don’t of course mean to imply that “white” progressives cannot draw these connections…they can and should. It’s just that often they seem to have more invested in not “going there.”

My comment is not in the clips below, as I rarely think of videotaping myself while I engage people at scenes like this.

But forget la feria. What I mostly appreciated from America’s Voice is how they approached me. We had a discussion on how to work together possibly, and while the details aren’t really important, I will say it was the first time I ever felt approached not as a “heel nipping blogger” or a “bomb-throwing fire starter” or with any sort of defensive, adversarial or condescending vibe by DC org people. But more as a partner in media and en la lucha. So I look forward to seeing how that relationship flourishes. I know we will still be coming from our different places, but the two people I spoke to at least seemed to understand for once where us fiery bloggers are coming from. I mean, in case it needs underlining: bloggers on a cause feel as deeply as any beltway employee about the things we speak on (arguably more in some cases). And we don’t even get a paycheck for it! Really. Think about that. Because that is saying a lot if you think about how much energy and words we put into this.

The image at top is me doing a hula hoop. Some excited people on the street had a scavenger hunt and when I walked by, they asked if I would hula hoop for their cameras. I like that. I jumped right in. To me, the more Fellini-esque a moment becomes, the happier I feel about life. After all, la vida es un carnavál, qué no? Yeah, it is. So baila!

More later.