La Otra Boston

It has been too long. I don't even know where to begin. I did another leg of a tour with MSN. Canek and Coco came to town and we did talks on connections between immigration and organizing in the U.S. and in Mexico, otra style. Canek talked about his personal history, he's from D.F. but his family has a long connection with living in both sides- his grandmother is buried in California... and then we looked at how The Other Campaign worked and made connections between roots of recent immigration and organizing for justice based on "from below and to the left" ideals. We had such a varied and rich response from all of the folks we spoke to.

From M.I.T to a middle school in rural New Hampshire.... the best parts, of course, are the conversations we have after the presentation. Here is a link to a radio show we did during the tour with some great students from M.I.T who do a weekly focus on Latin American based issues... In terms of the tour, the people we spoke to seemed to really reflect the venue sometimes... my top two favorites venues were with the middle schoolers, we had a really interactive presentation and that age, as usual, really get what injustice feels like and is about and is not feeling hopeless yet... and then we met with a bunch of people who are in the movement, activists and folks in solidarity at the Lucy Parsons Center, a radical collectively run bookstore. That was a great introduction back to Boston too, because there was that strong feeling of not being alone- with my political ideology, with my vision of change, with creative movement- that I really appreciate. I've decided to become part of the collective there and so far it's been exciting for me to meet people who are on the same political wavelength.. and the books! the books! I'm in the middle of The Revolution Will Not Be Funded and it's really interesting to get some concrete ideas and reasons behind why non-profits are just as fucked and part of the status quo as for-profit orgs... the role of non-profits in a capitalist society (how they're funded, their roles of providing service).. just more support to the idea of autonomy in my point of view.

I'm still in a bit of a searching mode myself: working for a kind of dull, service non-profit that isn't sustainable (or particularly interesting) and working with very nice, fun folks who are very much into the liberal status quo mode. I feel like I can't really be "out" with my politics at work, everyone kind of feels good for doing what we do (we provide volunteers who go in like once a week for an hour to read to kids or help them with math in the public school, feel-good bullshit basically) so I try and stay on the social side of things, which works for me, mostly.

I'm glad I have the outlet of Lucy Parsons and I'm building an ESL project for some moms at a local school with two of my friends who are in it.... really excited about popular education and community building... I do want to go back to teaching, finally. I miss it.

Other good things: I've learned how to knit so I can finally begin to make my Muffin Toppers (like belly scarves you can wear for low-rise jeans or when your shirt rides up on your bike in the winter), I'm trying desperately to learn how to be a b-girl (emphasis on 'desperate') and not excercizing nearly enough. I'm slowly making friends though, and trying not to get bogged down in wanting a boyfriend.

I've been on a few semi-humiliating dates in the past few months and although the Guy With The Screws In His Head, The 21 Year Old Who Texted Me 10x a Day, The Guy Who Sweated Profusely For The Entire Date and the One Who Actually Lasted Almost A Month- were all great guys in their own way- I'm not having any substantial luck. Perhaps the timing is a bit off. I do seem to get lost once politics comes into the story. One guy said "Not everything is political, you know." and I just don't agree. My grandmother seems to think I'm too picky... and it's kind of a drag dating at this age, because I really have some sense of what I want/what I don't/ what I'm willing to put up with/ what not and you start kind of checking these off right away when you meet someone and that just sucks. Whatever happened to open minds and hearts and figuring people out as you go along, etc. etc? In anycase, let me focus on what is important (which right now is biking in slush, banh-mi, meeting up with folks to talk about the Sexta tonight, and metallic thread) and let it be.