Words & Tricks

California Judges Say “Go Get Gay Married!”

Pictured below: John Lewis, left, and Stuart Gaffney

reacted to the court’s decision in San Francisco.

Uploaded to Flicker on May 15, 2008 by Gay Weddings

The California Supreme Court today ruled that gay and lesbian Californians have a constitutional right to marry. Despite a robust domestic partnership status in California, the Court ruled that denying gays and lesbians the right to call their unions a marriage impinges on our constitutional rights.

After the jump is an excerpt from the conclusion of the ruling. I bolded quite a bit because I’m happy.

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Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• WT Update: Selection of Chris Pommier’s freelance clips online (0)
• New German monument to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust (0)
• Interview: Jane Levin shares insight on poetry, surviving cancer and self-publishing [with Video] (0)
• Freelance Clips (0)
• About Chris Pommier (1)

Tags: California, californians, constitutional right, dignity, Gay, gays and lesbians, institution of marriage, law, legal framework, lesbian, ruling, same sex couples

Interview: Jane Levin shares insight on poetry, surviving cancer and self-publishing [with Video]

I’ve been lucky to know Jane Levin for over a year now. She and I were awarded a Mentorship by SASE/Intermedia Arts, a local arts organization, and the Jerome Foundation in 2006. With several other local poets we met regularly to workshop and support each other under the watchful eye of Sun Yung Shin, our mentor.

Since then, Jane has worked hard and met with a lot of success in publishing her poetry in both online and print journals. Last week she performed as a featured reader for the SASE/Intermedia Arts GLBT Reading Series. Award-winning writers Andrea Jenkins and John Medeiros curate this long-running reading series.

Part reading, and part book release party, Jane triumphantly held up the gem-green book that she had labored to publish over the previous months. Legacy is a slim volume packed with lyrical, wry and moving accounts of the author’s experience dealing with the fear and pain of cancer, and celebrating the triumph of health, family, friends and her lover Judy.

In her own words, Jane says:

My poems, especially those in my chapbook Legacy, explore universal issues that arise from living as a Jew, a cancer-survivor and a member of the LGBT community. My hope is that my poems will also heal.

I used my digital camera (a Cannon PowerShot A95 for you poetry-loving gadget-geeks out there) to record some short video clips during Jane’s reading. You can watch three of those clips edited together here.

In this 4:42 minute video, Jane thanks her supporters and reads “Atoll” and “Passover” from her book, Legacy.

To order the book, you can send an email to moonflowerpress [at] gmail.com. Each copy is only $8.00 USD. Legacy is also available at the following Twin Cities independent bookstores: Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Birchbark Books, Brochin’s, Elijah’s Cup and Micawbers.

Read the full interview with Jane Levin after the jump, and below the video.

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Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• New German monument to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust (0)
• WT Update: Selection of Chris Pommier’s freelance clips online (0)
• Poetry Press Release: SASE at Intermedia Arts (1)
• Freelance Clips (0)
• All you Literature Lovers:Exclusively Available Here for a Limited TimeFree Poetry! Come and Get It Please (1)

Tags: Andrea Jenkins, book, cancer, cancer survivor, cannon powershot a95, chapbook, community, Gay, glbt, Intermedia Arts, jane levin, John Medeiros, lesbian, lgbt, Mary Logue, poems, poet, poetry, reading, SASE, video

WT Update: Selection of Chris Pommier’s freelance clips online

I wrote for Lavender Magazine, a local gay/lesbian/queer focused print magazine in 2006-2007. However, in February 2007, they rolled out a new draconian contract for freelancers that would have forced me to give up all future rights to my work, and would have held me liable for future litigation against the magazine.  I refused to sign it because of that, so they couldn’t give me any more work.

I really enjoyed working for them, and their wonderful editor at that time, Michael Moeglin. Though the magazine is rightfully critiqued as a glorified advertising pamphlet within the community, it does support good work, and some wonderful talent. Unfortunately, for some reason the publisher of Lavender has never archived the magazine’s content online. So, for about a year now, I’ve had physical clips sitting in my file drawer waiting to be released online to prospective editors and employers.

I finally made the time to scan, and place, those clips as pdfs on this blog. It took most of Saturday morning, but it was worth it.

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Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• Freelance Clips (0)
• About Chris Pommier (1)
• New German monument to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust (0)
• Interview: Jane Levin shares insight on poetry, surviving cancer and self-publishing [with Video] (0)
• Deep Thoughts, by Jonah Lenetsky
  Or, How He Spent his Summer Vacation (0)

Tags: brother mfc 440cn, clip, clips, community, freelance, Gay, lavender magazine, lesbian, local, paperport 9, PDF, portfolio, queer, tools

Freelance Clips

Here you can find links to nonfiction and journalism clips including features, news, interviews, arts pieces and profiles published in community newspapers and online news sites by Chris Pommier.

1. Theater note: People Sittin’ Around Doin’ Shakespeare
   April 23, 2008 TC Daily Planet By Chris Pommier, After watching the play Hamlet II this weekend at the Lowry Lab in St. Paul, may I suggest a change of name for the company that produced it? Rather than People Sittin’ Around Doin’ Theatre, perhaps a more apt name would be People With a Huge Amount of Energy and Commitment to Emerging Artists Jumping Around Stage Doin’ Theatre. Of course, that may be a bit long for a marquee.
2. Watchdoggin’: Top notch reporters & editors share investigative journalism tips for ethnic media
   April 14, 2008, TC Daily Planet By: Chris Pommier, Article Body: This weekend the nonprofit Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc., a grassroots organization devoted to improving the quality of investigative journalism, brought professional journalists from the New York Times, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Wisconsin State Journal to Minneapolis for a two-day conference and workshop. With partners New American Media the Twin Cities Daily Planet and the Twin Cities Media Alliance, IRE provided workshops and networking sessions focused on strengthening watchdog journalism, and building coalitions, among local ethnic media. (Note: this article was originally published on my blog, here.)
3. Bluegrass concert to benefit American Indian women in recovery
   Feb 6 2008, TC Daily Planet By: Christopher Pommier Article Body: Roots music is the name of the game this Saturday night at the Cabooze, a bar and music venue on the Hiawatha Line in South Minneapolis, as the Duluth bluegrass string-based band Trampled by Turtles headlines a benefit concert. The concert will raise money for Kateri Residence, a safe and sober space for American Indian women in recovery.
4. Native American composer Louis Ballard to be spotlighted in benefit concert
   Jan 3 2008, TC Daily Planet By: Christopher Pommier Article Body: In 1988 a group of Native American gay and lesbian people from across North America hosted an event called The Basket and the Bow at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. This summer the event, now called the International Two-Spirit Gathering, will return to Minneapolis to celebrate its 20th year.
5. Theater note: Ballet of the Dolls cracks one tough nut
   Dec 26 2007, TC Daily Planet By: Christopher Pommier Article Body: ‘Tis the season when interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker abound. Dance companies dust off that old chestnut and try to fill seats, and their coffers, by giving it new life in any way they can. Classical ballet? Check. Modern dance? Check. Post-modern performance pastiche? Check, check, and check. However, if your childhood memories of The Nutcracker include nodding off to sleep as the Sugar Plum Fairy took the stage, I suggest you redeem your faith at the hot pink altar of the local dance company Ballet of the Dolls.
6. Flaming film festival lights up Bedlam Theater this weekend
   Nov 13 2007, TC Daily Planet By: Chris Pommier Article Body: Entering Patrick’s Cabaret last Saturday night for the 7th annual Flaming Film Festival’s preview show, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Festival is the brainchild of local rocker, artist, director, activist, mentor, and community volunteer Lisa Ganser. Since 1999 she has been encouraging and supporting independent Queer filmmakers from Minnesota and beyond to push boundaries and blur contemporary understandings of “gay” and “lesbian.”
7. Mending Senses (link to pdf LARGE FILE)
   Jan 5, 2007, Lavender Magazine By Chris Pommier “Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.” - Ovid, Roman Poet (43 BCE-17 CE). Somehow, while growing up, most of us were told that our heath is the most valuable thing we posses. Perhaps we don’t recall precisely who told us, but nevertheless the sentiment became intrinsic to our understanding of the way the world works. After bankruptcy, foreclosure, or a bad breakup, friends their heads and say, “Well, at least he has his health.” When that health is threatened, though, where do we turn? Our primary physician? An alternative healer? God?
8. Out of the Woods (link to pdf LARGE FILE)
   Jan 5, 2007, Lavender Magazine By Chris Pommier It’s winter. Get outside and make some friends. No snow? That’s no excuse. Just because you can’t cut across the face of a mountain with a pair of K2 Apache Recons strapped to your feet, or mangle a pristine meadow under the treads of your Arctic Cat doesn’t mean you have to stay indoors surrounded by the detritus of the holidays as your ass widens and you watch your TiVoed reruns of Desperate Housewives.
9. On a Winge and a Prayer [ Kevin Winge ] Lavender 2006 Person of the Year (link to pdf LARGE FILE)
   Dec 22, 2006, Lavender Magazine By Chris Pommier In a snowstorm in upstate New York in 1983, a young Kevin Winge recently out of college, began a new life for himself far from friends and family in Minnesota. What seemed like a whimsical choice made by a single guy in his early 20s would lead Winge into the vibrant gay scene of New York City, and to new friends and new experiences. It would change the path of his life forever, and, after little more than a decade, would lead him back to Minnesota and eventually to South Africa.
10. 2006 Lavender Fab 50 Awards (link to pdf LARGE FILE)
    Oct 27, 2006, Lavender Magazine By Chris Pommier These are short (approx 150 words) reviews of venues, people, places and things around Minneapolis and the U.S. that made Lavender Magazines top 50 list for 2006. I have highlighted my contributions in yellow. From the description of this year’s awards: “In a download-able, sound bite happy world, instant gratification simply takes too long. But there’s more to life than increasing its speed. So, Lavender’s annual survey of all things fabulous will help you take a few minutes to appreciate the queer and queer-friendly people, places, organizations, and events that make the Twin Cities our kind of town-and yours.”
11. Leaders by Example: The Ann Bancroft Awards (link to pdf LARGE FILE)
    Sept 15 2006, Lavender Magazine By Christopher Pommier Article Body: What do a retied Supreme Court Justice, a South Minneapolis High School student, and a professor have in common? For one thing they are all women who have shown a great deal of vision and the determination to see that vision through. For another, they, along with Perspectives, Inc. - an organization that helps homeless and drug addicted women and their families turn their lives around - are winners of this year’s 10th Annual Ann Bancroft Awards.

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• About Chris Pommier (1)
• WT Update: Selection of Chris Pommier’s freelance clips online (0)
• Watchdoggin’: Top notch reporters & editors share investigative journalism tips for ethnic media (0)
• New German monument to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust (0)
• Minneapolis Star Tribune wins multimedia journalism award (0)

Tags: arts, clip, clips, community, ethnic media, features, freelance, Gay, health, holiday, journalism, lesbian, local, magazines, Media, Minneapolis, Minnesota, music, News, nonfiction, PDF, performance, portfolio, queer, snow, Writing

New German monument to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust

As reported in the New York Times today:

On Monday, Germany’s minister of culture, Bernd Neumann, announced that construction could begin in Berlin on two monuments: one near the Reichstag, to the murdered Gypsies, known here as the Sinti and the Roma; and another not far from the Brandenburg Gate, to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust.

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• Interview: Jane Levin shares insight on poetry, surviving cancer and self-publishing [with Video] (0)
• Freelance Clips (0)
• About Chris Pommier (1)
• WT Update: Selection of Chris Pommier’s freelance clips online (0)
• Deep Thoughts, by Jonah Lenetsky
  Or, How He Spent his Summer Vacation (0)

Tags: Gay, Germany, glbt, Holocaust, lesbian, lgbt, News, queer