A.V.A.T.A.R. (Anglos Valiantly Aiding Tragic Awe-inspiring Races) is a fast‐paced media mashup that highlights the overplayed racial tropes of Hollywood cinema using James Cameron’s multimillion‐dollar epic Avatar as its visual anchor. This project is a collaboration between myself and Craig Saddlemire and was submitted to the Washington Project for the Arts’ Experimental Media Series CFP. The Experimental Media Series will be curated by DJ Spooking and we should be hearing back any day now…
The Against Equality Collective has published their first book, Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage, which I edited. The book includes written work by some of today’s foremost and emerging queer voices: Kate Bornstein, Eric Stanley, Dean Spade, Craig Willse, Kenyon Farrow, Kate Raphael, Deeg, John D’Emilio, Ryan Conrad, Yasmin Nair, Martha Jane Kaufman, Katie Miles, and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. The book also includes a set of postcards from our series designed by Beth Slutzky, Liz Kinnamon and Chris Vargas (who also designed our book’s fabulous cover). Since the book’s release in mid-September it has shipped to four continents (north america, europe, africa and australia) and has nearly gone out of print!
To support the release of Against Equality’s book, I will be touring down the east-coast from Maine to Virginia and then onward to the mid-west starting in Chicago. The Marriage = Death Tour will include potlucks, panel discussions on alternatives to marriage, debates between for/against gay marriage advocates and public lectures. Touring will continue in Canada and the west-coast this winter and spring.
The College Art Association‘s Queer Caucus for Art will be hosting a panel themed “Creating in the Queer Diaspora” at the CAA’s annual conference in February 2011 in New York. I will be presenting with Yasmin Nair on behalf of the Against Equality Collective.