Vigil For Transgender Victims of Police Shooting August 26, 2011. Image provided by Washington Blade.
Violence against gays, lesbians, and especially transgender women has been a problem in the District–and the nation–for as long as I can remember. The development of a Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit within the DC Police Department is meant to address the problem, but has it done any good? Last week, WPFW’s Latino Media Collective (Wednesdays from 7:00pm-8:00pm WPFW 89.3 FM) posed the following questions on their weekly program:
What has been going on recently in DC? Based upon the Metropolitan Police Department’s statistics, anti-trans bias crimes make up about 14% of all hate crimes each year. People who identified as transgender or people of color were 2 times more likely to experience hate violence involving assault or discrimination as non-transgender white individuals. This data also shows that being both transgender and a person of color increases the risk of violence and of murder. Is there a pattern in neighborhoods where these crimes are occurring the most?
The audio interview the Latino Media Collective conducted of DC Trans Coalition member Sadie Vashti suggests that the DC Police Department does not treat violence against transgender individuals as seriously as it does others. Listen to the audio interview of Sadie Vashti which aired on WPFW’s Latino Media Collective, Wednesday August 24, 2011.
Last week’s shooting of two transgender women by an off-duty DC police officer tells us that the police are not only less likely to take violent crimes against transgender individuals seriously, they are actually contributing to the problem.
Emergency Rally in response to Transphobic Police Violence
From DC Trans Coalition: “Today, we were notified by the Metropolitan Police Department of a shooting involving transgender individuals in the area of First and Pierce Streets NW around 5:30 AM this morning. We are still attempting to gather information, but preliminary accounts indicate two vehicles collided at the site, one driven by an off-duty MPD officer, and the other containing five people, two of whom are trans. The off-duty officer fired his service weapon at the three people in the other car, hitting one victim three times, and one victim one time. Community activists have visited the two trans women in the hospital, where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries. We have learned that the shooter and at least one victim may have known each other previously, and had an altercation at a nearby store before the shooting, but we do not yet know the nature of their relationship.
We are gathering at 6PM at the site of the incident to demand accountability and transparency from MPD on the clear trend of transphobic and homophobic actions coming from its officers. This incident is just another in a long line of systemic violence that trans women, and particularly trans women of color, face on a daily basis.Many members of our community have noted that this summer has been particularly violent. MPD reports at least eight violent crimes against trans people this year, but service organizations have collected information about many more. This is also the second violent attack involving an off-duty MPD officer in the past ten months. Tonight we hope to draw attention to the police department’s complicity in the ongoing violence that our communities must confront. Please spread the word and join us at First and Pierce NW. This violence must not go unacknowledged.”
The following is coverage of Friday’s vigil as per the Washington Blade:
About 70 people turned out for a 6:30 p.m. rally at the site of the shooting, which was organized by T.H.E. and DCTC. Among those who spoke at the rally were D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and Groomes, who said she was appearing on behalf of Police Chief Cathy Lanier.
DCTC member Elijah Edelman told the gathering that Friday’s shooting of at least two transgender women by an off-duty police officer was one of many attacks and assaults against trans women that have occurred in the past few months in D.C. “So I think it’s fair to say a lot of us are really pissed off,” he said. “It’s very, very frustrating. We had conversations with Chief Lanier over the past several weeks, over the past several years, and nothing changes – nothing changes,” Edelman said. “So this is a moment in which we can finally say enough – we’re not going to keep doing this.”
Two Latino transgender women who spoke at the rally gave personal accounts of attacks against them in the city. Both women spoke in Spanish, with Corado translating their remarks in English. One told of how she was beaten and raped two weeks ago by an ex-boyfriend. The other women told of how she was attacked inside Dupont Circle by a male assailant who she is certain targeted her because of her status as a transgender woman.
“We wanted them to come here so we can put a human face on the statistics of so many of these cases that continue to happen,” Corado said. Others speaking at the rally included A.J. Singletary of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), Cindy Clay of Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), and Sadie Vashti of D.C. Trans Coalition.
The Allied Media Conference (AMC) http://alliedmedia.org/ was held in Detroit Michigan at the McGregor Conference Center at Wayne State University from June 23 – 26, 2011.
Allied Media Conference, June 23-26, 2011
The AMC was founded in 1999 to cultivate strategies for a more just and creative world using both traditional and new forms of media to communicate more effectively. There were representatives of grassroots media organizations from all over the US and Canada, poets, artists, singers, dancers, rappers, actors, burlesque dancers, clowns, farmers, computers techies and Dee Jays. This broad range of people made for a marvelous display of fashion, hairstyles, piercings and tattoos which were as memorable as the sessions themselves.
The AMC had over 120 caucuses and seminars here are a few examples:
Video Blogging to Expand Your Message detailed the steps needed to reach a wider audience through your blog by using comedy, surprise and even shocking pictures to get your point across.
Cooking as a Form of Media was a seminar for using food as a media tool, where the facilitator shared recipes for pickling different things to give participants ideas about media making with food.
There was a seminar called Text Messaging for Activists which detailed how to contact a large number of people and to formulate your message to get the most out of your message with as few words as possible.
Bypassing Internet Censorship was a seminar on by-passing the Internet using a Program called TOR http://www.torproject.org/ which enables a user to hide their Internet footprints.
The Cyberskills for Elders seminar was a basic how-to for people over 40 to learn how to utilize digitized and computerized media to continue to organize and advocate their causes and share their insights in inter-generational communities The classrooms had both MACs and PCs.
The Seminar This Ain’t a Peep Show taught participants techniques to involve the audience in their presentations.
There was a discussion on Generations of Black Lesbian Brillance, this discussion specifically highlighted generations of black lesbian media makers in Detroit and their contributions to the furtherance of media in Detroit.
There was a seminar called Narrative Campaigns, Storybanking and the Restoration Campaign that asked the question, what if artists, community activists, former and current prisoners, family members and justice groups worked together using cutting edge web tools and street smart organizing. Click on the link to see – http://www.kitescampaigns.org/campaign/community-restoration-campaign/
The common theme of the Digital Justice coalition http://detroitdjc.org/ is to put people back into the center of any discussion involving digital technology, innovative strategies involving digital literacy people centered policies and community ownership.
This conference was a great place for activists, advocates, artists, farmers, and computer techies to get together and brainstorm ways to use media to make the world a better and more peaceful place. Hope to see you there in 2012!
Zami DC is a free summer creative writing workshop taught by local artists Be Steadwell and Taylor Johnson for lgbtq youth in the DC area. The workshop consists of poetry and songwriting classes, weekly features with local artists, discussions on continuing education, art in the community, and career options. The program ends with a final performance allowing students to take the stage.
The workshop will be held four blocks from Dupont Metro, and scheduling is still open.
Zami DC is featured on “This Light: Sounds for Social Change”, a radio series featuring young artists/activists who use their art to incite progressive social change. Each episode features two segments: 1) dynamic interviews with artists about their work and its relation to activism; and 2) (re)mix of artistic work (music, poetry, soundscape, etc.).
Episode 1a features Be Steadwell and Taylor Johnson, founders of Zami DC.
According to Wikipedia, Ivy City is a small Washington, DC neighborhood located on a triangular strip of land in the central part of DC’s Northeast quadrant. It’s bounded by New York Avenue to the northwest, West Virginia Avenue to the east, and Mt. Olivet Road to the south. The neighborhood is surrounded on all sides by significant landmarks: Gallaudet University (across Mt. Olivet Rd.), Mt. Olivet Cemetery (across West Virginia Ave.), and Amtrak’s Ivy City yard (across New York Ave.).
Better Days in Ivy City
I give you all this information because unlike Columbia Heights or Anacostia, Ivy City is not well-known. It has long been a tight-knit, working-class, African-American community with a proud history. But as the economy changed–the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad went away, warehouses closed down–what was once a thriving neighborhood became blighted.
This of course is not uncommon. Many of the District’s neighborhoods have their own histories of decline, but for some revitalization or outright gentrification has turned things around. While U Street, Georgia Avenue and even the long-neglected H Street corridor have seen major changes, revitalization projects in Ivy City have been proposed, promised and abandoned.
Those who look closely at revitalization in neighborhoods like Columbia Heights and Shaw may consider the residents of Ivy City fortunate. Relatively few native or even long-term residents have been able to remain in those other neighborhoods. Ivy City may not have the amenities that come with gentrification but it has not had the displacement either. Question is, will that last. The city is again planning projects that would promise revitalization, but will it come without displacement?
That is the question first time filmmaker Sean Furmage is preparing to answer in a documentary about Ivy City that he’s recently begun working on through the Grassroots Media Project. The project will be a part of his course work as a PhD candidate at American University. An introduction to the project is posted here. In it Furmage focuses on two recently proposed Ivy City redevelopment projects. The first, the Adaptive Reuse of Alexander Crummell School was scheduled to begin last summer, but it looks now like the city is trying to surplus the school instead. The other is the Ivy City Special Demonstration Project which will bring 58 units of “affordable” housing to the community, but it is unclear how many of those units will ultimately be awarded to current community members.
Furmage’s documentary will look at the struggles between local residents and the city council, developers and non-profits and their contrasting visions for the future of Ivy City. What’s posted here gives you a flavor of the finished documentary, which we hope will be complete by this fall.
Empower DC is currently seeking out residents of Ivy City to join the campaign to save the historic Alexander Crummell School from for-profit developers. As is clear from the video, Ivy City residents who have the time and inclination to be active want to keep Crummell as PUBLIC property, for use by the community and residents city-wide – to RESTORE the school for uses that benefit the community, serve community needs and preserve the history of the school and community. For more information, and particularly if you know anyone from Ivy City, join the Facebook campaign to save Crummell School.
The Grassroots DC offers digital storytelling workshops to community-based social change organizations. Here’s one that was produced by Skytrinia Berkeley, a member of Different Avenues.
Hi, my name is Skytrinia Berkeley. I volunteer at Different Avenues, where our mission is to build and share leadership skills as well as to organize to make change and improve and protect the health, rights and safety of women and girls in this region and thus nationally. One of the ways we do this is by making digital stories.
This digital story that I created helped me to come to terms and grasp with who I am as an individual. I believe it’s important for all people including youth to be allowed to come into terms and in touch with themselves. Even if they’re not ready to face themselves, I would hope that my story will give them an insight into a person who also was not able to face themselves, but now is ready. This story may impact you in ways that you may not be aware of. So please take the time to take a look at it and come into touch with yourself. I hope my shared experience will allow you to do that.
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