penamerican:

Jean-Euphele Milcé (Haiti), Emmélie Prophete (Haiti), Siphiwo Mahala (South African), and Deji Olukotun (USA / PEN American Center) at the PEN Literary Gala at the Museum of Natural History.

photo © Beowulf Sheehan / PEN American Center

qbits:

hagereseb:

NYPD Profiling and Targeting LGBTQ People of Color

Here is a vignette from March 2013: A 24-year-old gay man named Yhatzine Lafontain is leaving a restaurant late at night with a friend on Roosevelt Avenue and 95th Street in Queens. Both are dressed as women, Mr. Lafontain in a jacket, short dress and heels. Exchanging goodbyes outside, they are approached by a man who tells them they look good.

In Mr. Lafontain’s account, they chatted briefly to avoid seeming rude and the man departed. Within a few minutes, an undercover police officer approached Mr. Lafontain and his friend and arrested them, suspecting them of prostitution. “We were surprised,” Mr. Lafontain told me, “because we had never talked to anyone about sex or money.”

I met Mr. Lafontain last week in Jackson Heights, not far from where his arrest had taken place, at the offices of Make the Road New York, a community-organizing group that works primarily with Latino immigrants. It has tried, along with various anti-violence projects in the city, to call attention to the perverse specifics of stop-and-frisk policing — a practice currently on trial in federal court in Lower Manhattan — as it applies to gay, lesbian and transgender New Yorkers who are Black and Latino. Last fall, the group issued a report on policing in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood with a vibrant gay and transgender community and attendant club scene (and also a prostitution problem), and found in its survey of more than 300 residents that while 28 percent of straight respondents reported having been stopped by the police, 54 percent of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender respondents reported this kind of treatment.

(Read More)

By the way, I changed the title of the article because I felt that the original title (“Arrests by The Fashion Police”) created by the people at the New York Times was mocking the severity of the issues being discussed in the article.

“Both are dressed as women, Mr. Lafontain in a jacket, short dress and heels.” There are so many things wrong with this article, this line being but one example. Glad you changed the title and provided the original.

bookriot:

This subway library has posters of books and scannable barcodes—zap ‘em with your phone to get a 10-page preview while you ride!

penamerican:

image on CC license by Darren Johnson

NCAC Teams with CBLDF For 50 Shades of Banned: A Celebration of Erotic Literature

9/25/2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Acacia O’Connor (212) 807-6222, acacia@ncac.org

On October 2, celebrate Banned Books Week with an evening of stirring readings from erotic classics at Fifty Shades of Banned: A Celebration of Erotic Literature.  The event starts at 8 PM at the Village Pourhouse on 64 3rd Ave (11th Street Entrance, across from Webster Hall) and benefits New York free speech charities National Coalition Against Censorship and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

If one thing attracts the attention of the would-be censor, it’s sex. Depictions of sexuality in books, comics, art and film have drawn the eager attentions of Vice Squads and Morality Police since long before the days of Anthony Comstock.  Those censorship challenges continue to this day, and are fought by the important work of NCAC and CBLDF.

Fifty Shades of Banned will take place at the Village Pourhouse on 3rd Avenue in the East Village on Tuesday, October 2 at 8 p.m. The event will feature dramatic readings from censored lit including The Story of O, Joe Blow, Howl, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Fifty Shades of Grey by sexologist and author Dr. Logan Levkoff, erotica author Rachel Kramer Bussel, comedy group MURDERFIST and more. 

Come for the classic smut, stay for a chance to win a signed copy of Fifty Shades or other exciting raffle prizes courtesy of Babeland. All door donations and raffle proceeds will go to benefit free speech defenders NCAC and CBLDF and therefore ensure that we all have access to stimulating lit for years to come.

Who:         The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund & the National Coalition Against Censorship, includes raffle ticket

Where:     The Village Pourhouse, 64 3rd Ave in the East Village
                 $10 suggested door donation

When:       Tuesday, Oct. 2, 8 p.m., doors open at 7:30

Featuring:   Banned Books, 2 for 1 Abita Beers
                   $5 Fat Tuesday menu of hurricanes, hand grenades, po’ boys and jambalaya.

For more information, visit Blogging Censorship, www.cbldf.org, or visit us on Facebook and invite everyone but your mother.

nickturse:

Wanted “Drone” Poster Artist Discusses How He Punked the NYPD

“That first night I couldn’t sleep at all,” Essam recalls. “My heart was pumping and I kept waking up in a cold sweat. Bloomberg, Kelly and his cronies are not going to take this lightly if I get caught.”

typeworship:

Double-edged saws

New York based design studio, Vault49, has created these hand-painted saws as part of a statement project about international budget cuts, called “(SUB)PRIME-CUTS” 

In their own words:

“Budgets are being butchered all around the world, and even worse it’s been done in such bad taste. These finely crafted financial tools should trim the fat nicely. Sink your teeth into these viciously hand-crafted beauties.”

typeverything: Typeverything.com

(via typeworship)

penamerican:

photo © Beowulf Sheehan

with

Baratunde Thurston

Katie Halper 

John Fugelsang

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

7:00pm until 10:00pm in EDT

PEN will treat Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend crowds to an unexpected evening of literature and laughs. Enjoy a night of political comedy and commentary, as New York’s top progressive performers joke, jab, rant, vent, prod, provoke and revel in their right to express themselves at a one-night comedy event celebrating freedom of expression. 

Who says freedom of expression has to be serious? For the first time ever, PEN will partner with Laughing Liberally, whose performers have appeared on Comedy Central, HBO, MSNBC, a national tour, and in the pages of The Onion, The Nation, and The Huffington Post. No topic is off-limits, no politician safe, and no time can be better than this election season to laugh loudly and laugh liberally.

Galapagos Art Space: 16 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Wednesday, September 19

Tickets: $15 ($10 for PEN Members)

https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/916814

This is a ticketed event and RSVP-ing over Facebook does not guarantee you a seat. Use the link above to purchase your tickets in advance, or buy at the door. 

aiweiweineversorry: