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Desde la Logan presents March’s Las Monthly Ondas featuring: Art of Body : Body of Art – 6th Annual Día de la Mujer Exhibition at The Front

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By Brent E. Beltrán

Every March 8 throughout the world women and their male allies come together to celebrate International Women’s Day. For the sixth straight year the dedicated, hard working people at Casa Familiar’s The Front will organize an art exhibition and night of culture to honor and celebrate the artistic contributions of females in the San Diego/Tijuana border region.

As a member of the Red CalacArts Collective I had the honor of playing a minor role in The Front’s first women’s celebration. Now, as a writer, I am equally honored to help spread the word about this beautiful, annual event. Recently, I had the privilege to communicate with Leticia Gomez Franco, The Front’s Gallery and Exhibitions Director. She broke down the reason why art spaces like The Front are necessary, why it is important to celebrate día de la mujer internacional, what the local San Ysidro reaction to The Front’s work is and what makes their event so successful.   [Read more…]

In The Year 3013

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By Leo Lobbestael

To the people who come next,

This place is not what it seems like. I do not even know where to start … it’s all too confusing. But just understand that this place you have entered is not what it seems to be. I have been here a long time. I ate and dined here. I even had a family behind these walls.

I’m not sure how it consumed us like it did. Please do not let it do the same to you, traveler. please do not let it do the same to you! I am certain it could do it to anyone!

  [Read more…]

Bonny Russell, a Woman for our Times (December 23, 1943 – January 14, 2013)

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For Bonny Russell’s Celebration of Life on 2-17-13 at the Unitarian Universalist Church

Jan says about Bonny,
her wife, her love:

“She brought with her an open and loving heart,
the ability to listen deeply,
and a passion
for addressing injustice and inequality.”
…
Come Inside for the rest of Ernie’s beautiful poem…   [Read more…]

Book Review: “Revolutionary Brain – Essays & Quasi-Essays”

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Written by Harold Jaffe, Published December 2012

I met Dr. Jaffe several months ago and was intrigued by his writings and background.  He is the author of 20+  volumes of fiction, “docufiction” novels and essays.  His writings have been translated into numerous languages, and has been the recipient of several awards.  He is the editor of Fiction International” and is currently a Professor of  Literature and Creative Writing at San Diego State University.

Dr. Jaffe, in this book, explores the changes of millennial culture.  He deplores what is happening to earth in a variety of ways.  It is an intellectual and philosophical look at the changes technology is making – has made – today and how we are unable to “reconstruct ourselves”.   [Read more…]

My Bloody Valentine

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It’s the Monday before Valentine’s Day and merchants across America are happily preparing for our annual romance-driven consumer frenzy.  Indeed this schmaltzy commodification of love is worth around $14.7 billion dollars a year with much of it ending in the predictable disappointment that comes when we realize that our frantic, frequently anxious lives just don’t measure up to the prepackaged saccharine dreams we are sold.

Valentine’s Day is the sanctification of an empty, soul-killing romance narrative, a celebration of the notion that the most precious and intangible human emotion can be summoned by the magic of the sexless dollar.  In sum, as currently constituted, Valentine’s Day is where real love goes to die.

The roots of what we think of when we think about buying something to signify love are as American as apple pie, and we might trace the origins of the total commercialization of romance to 1913 when Hallmark began to mass market Valentine’s Day cards as we know them.  This commercial landmark was preceded by the work of Esther Howland who, in 1850, first started to produce and sell Valentines, starting the move away from exchanging personally crafted cards or even poems to trading commodities made by someone else.   [Read more…]

The Weight of Affluence

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By Leo Lobbestael

I never really came from money, so to speak.
I mean we always had enough to finance whatever was needed.

And needs back when I was younger was a pretty flexible intangible. 6 through 15: candy, sports equipment, and anything “cool” was equal to breathing, thinking and freedom of speech.

From 16 – 19 it was primarily cars and girls. Anything that increased my access to both of those was milk from natures breasts.   [Read more…]

Enero Zapatista

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Someone posted it on facebook, a picture of me silhouetted in a vision of rich colors, sharing a poem. I wanted to write about the experience when I first saw the striking image but didn’t know how to go about it right away.

Then it came to me as I was reading Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony,” a masterpiece about the Native American world, a brilliant tale about Tayo, an army veteran of mixed ancestry who returns to the reservation, scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.
  [Read more…]

47th Annual Local Authors Exhibit – Last to be Held at the “Old” San Diego Library

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By Mic Porte

Friday evening, February 1, 2013, the San Diego Library hosted its 47th annual Local Authors exhibit and reception, one of the last events to be held at the “old” downtown library on E and 9th St.

Four hundred new titles published by San Diego County residents in 2012, both hard copy and e-books, were on display, as proud authors, new and confirmed, accepted their medals and photo ops, shared a delicious buffet, and networked. Many were nostalgic about these old library walls, and the changing era of reading and books, many excited about the future of digital publishing.   [Read more…]

Undressing

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By Leo Lobbestael

… Looking down at his cigarette, he laughed.
He took another satiating inhalation,
a smile still pursed on his lips
and gazed at the kid across the street.
That kid identifies as male?
The kid with a microphone, earring and slim jeans?
This kid must be lost!

Kid looks up, and then beyond and past the blur.
With his slim jeans and rolled up flannel,
he couldn’t be bothered.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: Las Monthly Ondas February Edition featuring The HeART of Loteria

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If you’re of Mexican descent then at some point in your life you have probably played the ubiquitous game Loteria. For those who are not Mexican Loteria is somewhat similar to Bingo except you use numbered playing cards with iconic images on them such as La Calavera, El Borracho, El Catrín, La Luna, El Diablito, La Muerte and many others instead of numbered balls.

Ruben Torres, who I wrote about in a previous column called Love Thy Neighbor. It’s Not About Charity, It’s About Humanity, has teamed up with a collective of creative Southern Cali folks to curate a massive art exhibit, to be held at the Centro Cultural de la Raza, called The HeART of Loteria.

Ruben told me that “the opening reception is meant to celebrate a family tradition through art, performance, food and Loteria game play. It is meant to be an experience that is rich with Loteria inspired imagery and art. There will be about 200 art pieces that will be featured, created by artists from all walks of life. There will be two main experiences – inside and outside.   [Read more…]

Entreaty to Politico Spouses

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Entreaty to Politico Spouses

Please, please let your politico spouse

Do some decoration at the house!

Choose the new towels or buy kitchen tiles

Instead of re-development contractor files….

more inside…   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: January Happenings in Barrio Logan and Beyond

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Sometimes I take for granted the things that are happening in my barrio and the surrounding areas. I consider myself lucky to live in a community that cherishes culture in all it’s varied forms. I have Chicano Park, The Roots Factory, The Spot Barrio Logan and The Voz Alta Project all within two blocks of my apartment. My community is a living creature, alive and vibrant, with culture oozing out of it’s streets and alleys like sweat from a worker’s brow. For the most part I know what is going on around here.

Because I usually know the haps in Logan I sometimes fail to realize that others may not know what’s going on. Therefore as a service to not only my community but also the greater San Diego community at large I will regularly compile a list of cultural and activism related events that will be taking place. This list will not only feature events taking place in Barrio Logan and the rest of the Historic Barrio District but events elsewhere in San Diego that I think readers of this column and San Diego Free Press should consider attending. Most will be hosted by the places I normally frequent (and places I should frequent normally) and many will be related to Chicanismo, Native issues, lefty causes and other stuff that I’m down for. Please support these grassroots cultural happenings, spaces and organizations by attending their events and, if so inclined, throw a few bucks their way.   [Read more…]

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