To Be Of Use

Most of my fantasies are of/ Making someone else come/ Most of my fantasies are of/ To be of use/ To be of some hard/ Simple/ Undeniable use

April 23, 2012 12:11 am
We never cease to be amazed with Swoon whose large-scale works we most often find hid­ing in obscure alley­ways and street-sides world­wide. The most recent series of work fea­tur­ing young Mex­i­can women are scat­tered all over the streets of San Fran­cisco. One piece in par­tic­u­lar, an instil­la­tion at the Yerba Buena Cen­ter for the Arts sits as a life size shrine, com­ment­ing on the dis­ap­pear­ance of young Mex­i­can women ages 16 – 24; whose dis­ap­pear­ances have not only been neglected, but dis­re­garded by Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment officials.  A sim­i­lar piece lives in the Mis­sion dis­trict of San Fran­cisco. Untouched and undis­turbed, this piece resides majes­ti­cally between 24th and Hamp­shire. Extremely detailed and thought­fully placed, the care­fully sten­ciled piece appears to be a large orb of light ema­nat­ing from a young woman. The girl’s eyes are inno­cent and ten­der, ner­vous and unsure, look­ing up from her tra­di­tional quincin­era attire sym­bol­iz­ing her recent ini­ti­a­tion into wom­an­hood and an age of coming. As the piece draws you in, one rec­og­nizes the elab­o­rately carved skulls hid­ing in the orb, a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of mor­tal­ity often seen in reli­gious art­work. There are many skulls, which may com­ment on the vast amount of girls who have gone miss­ing and whose fam­i­lies await the day they can put them to rest. Also hid­ing in the orb are monarch but­ter­flies and feath­ers, sym­bols of flight. Accord­ing to Mex­i­can folk­lore, the but­ter­flies are said to present them­selves as fam­ily mem­bers who have passed on. Swoon mod­estly states that it is her sales from pri­vate col­lec­tors that fund her pub­lic works which remain art the heart of her process. These pub­lic works are what made her pop­u­lar with urban art lovers across the globe. Her mis­sion in mak­ing art avail­able to the pub­lic sits at the heart of the Curbs & Stoops mis­sion and for this we are elated to share this piece with you.

We never cease to be amazed with Swoon whose large-scale works we most often find hid­ing in obscure alley­ways and street-sides world­wide. The most recent series of work fea­tur­ing young Mex­i­can women are scat­tered all over the streets of San Fran­cisco. One piece in par­tic­u­lar, an instil­la­tion at the Yerba Buena Cen­ter for the Arts sits as a life size shrine, com­ment­ing on the dis­ap­pear­ance of young Mex­i­can women ages 16 – 24; whose dis­ap­pear­ances have not only been neglected, but dis­re­garded by Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment officials. 

A sim­i­lar piece lives in the Mis­sion dis­trict of San Fran­cisco. Untouched and undis­turbed, this piece resides majes­ti­cally between 24th and Hamp­shire. Extremely detailed and thought­fully placed, the care­fully sten­ciled piece appears to be a large orb of light ema­nat­ing from a young woman. The girl’s eyes are inno­cent and ten­der, ner­vous and unsure, look­ing up from her tra­di­tional quincin­era attire sym­bol­iz­ing her recent ini­ti­a­tion into wom­an­hood and an age of coming.

As the piece draws you in, one rec­og­nizes the elab­o­rately carved skulls hid­ing in the orb, a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of mor­tal­ity often seen in reli­gious art­work. There are many skulls, which may com­ment on the vast amount of girls who have gone miss­ing and whose fam­i­lies await the day they can put them to rest. Also hid­ing in the orb are monarch but­ter­flies and feath­ers, sym­bols of flight. Accord­ing to Mex­i­can folk­lore, the but­ter­flies are said to present them­selves as fam­ily mem­bers who have passed on.

Swoon mod­estly states that it is her sales from pri­vate col­lec­tors that fund her pub­lic works which remain art the heart of her process. These pub­lic works are what made her pop­u­lar with urban art lovers across the globe. Her mis­sion in mak­ing art avail­able to the pub­lic sits at the heart of the Curbs & Stoops mis­sion and for this we are elated to share this piece with you.

12:07 am

my heart is always on the line

ive traveled all kinds of places

the song is always the same

got lonesome fuel for fire

April 3, 2012 3:33 am
Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online

thousands of songs and interviews recorded by alan lomax are now online and FREE for the first time. word.

3:31 am

nina simone on how it feels to be free.

October 1, 2011 1:22 pm
tupac shakur on inner-city education.

tupac shakur on inner-city education.

1:11 pm

tupac shakur on inner-city education

absorbed in inner-city street life by night and reading shakespeare with rich kids by day proved to be an uncomfortable balancing act.  tupac was bothered that the education system ignored real-life issues to focus on traditional subjects that he often found pointless.  he later said, “i think there should be a drug class.  a class on police brutality.  there should be a class on apartheid.  there should be a class on why poor people are hungry, but there are not.  there are classes on…gym.  physical education.  lets learn volleyball.”

September 30, 2011 12:58 pm
"if youre a latin american politician, take the train."

—

a dark quote from “apology of an economic hitman.”
9:30 am

from democracy now: Opening today, the new documentary “American Teacher” follows the lives of four teachers who struggle to remain in a profession they love, despite the heavy toll exacted on their lives by the grueling hours and low-salaries. The documentary is a rebuttal of sorts to pundits who portray public school educators as cushioned recipients of tax-payer supported benefits, extended summer vacations and low accountability. We speak with the film’s Academy Award-winning director, Vanessa Roth, and with Brooklyn first-grade public school teacher, Jamie Fidler, who is featured in the film.

September 22, 2011 12:25 am

georgia on my mind 

September 19, 2011 11:59 am

i am at my wits end.  i was shocked, then angry, and now really sad.  i keep thinking that this isnt fair.  we have a community that is grieving many losses right now; an amazing woman killed by a loved one and the suicide of a wonderful young girl are among some of the tragedies that this community is facing. people are of course asking the “why”s, the “how”s, and the like.

when someone has a mental illness, they need help.  they are not bad people.  they are struggling with issues that are beyong their control.  the young lady that took her life recently needed help.  she was not a bad  person and was also struggling with issues that were beyong her control.  

im exhausted from hearing the “good vs. bad” argument.  lets put that aside and use our brains to think about these issues we are having to deal with.  they are much more complex than that.  i understand that this way of thinking is part of some peoples grieving process; that it makes it easier for them to live in a world of absolutes but if we continue to think like that, then we will be facing these same problems over and over again instead of tackling them.  

do your part to be there for yourself and/or for a loved one.  become aware of and support mental health issues and suicide prevention.  i am begging.  i am asking for help; put aside the hate and let us grieve.  let yourself grieve.  we wont be able to heal with all this hate, ignorance, and retributive-style of thinking.  i am sorry for everyones loss.