Shout Magic is wrapping up our 20-track full length album and playing our last show this Friday in West Philly.
Check out this amazing cover art from Alina Josan!
Shout Magic: Plenty
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Category Archives: philadelphia
Women More Likely to be Raped than Killed in U.S. Military
Don’t ask, don’t tell? Looks like it’s more than just abhorrent, hateful policy for our military.
John Leslie forwarded this piece from CNN:
‘My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military,’ said Harman, who has long sought better
protection of women in the military.‘Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since.
‘We have an epidemic here,’ she said. ‘Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.’
As of July 24, 100 women had died in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.
In 2007, Harman said, only 181 out of 2,212 reports of military sexual assaults, or 8 percent, were referred to courts martial. By comparison, she said, 40 percent of those arrested in the civilian world on such charges are prosecuted.
I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a soldier to report a rape. The culture of the military (PDF) resents weakness, and to report oneself as a victim presents an enormous challenge.
Speaking of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network was in Philly this summer to help push the movement to end this policy. Philly’s LGBQT community has been working for decades to help bring issues like this to light, which show us the inequities homosexuals face that are beyond marriage.
They still face an uphill battle.
Read more:
- The Rape of Latinas in the US Military – La Voz de Aztlan
- ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Turns 15 – TIME
- Stop Military Rape
- The Private War of Women Soldiers – Democracy Now!
Grubstake Goodies
In the week leading up to our CD release, Make An Animal Noise, Grubstake has had some fun!
This past Sunday, we played a live set and had an interview with Jake Rabid and John Viteese from Y-Rock. I’m working on getting an MP3 of the show up soon. Grubstake also played live on Sunjay’s Brekky Shift Monday afternoon radio show on WKDU.
I put the lay out for the CD to bed around 4am this morning. It is a pure pleasure, working for myself and setting my own schedule.
Pat also alerted me to a write-up for our CD Release show this Saturday in Philadelphia:
Grubstake
Sat., Aug. 2, 10pm. Free. With Dr. Tommy Thunder. Fergie’s, 1214 Sansom St. 215.928.8118. www.fergies.com Named for an arcane mining term, Grubstake have been hammering out mud-caked guitar-drum blues for about a decade now. Patrick McHugh led the band in Boston for much of that time before returning to his old stomping grounds in Philly and nabbing drummer/engineer Steve Bozzone to make a fifth album, Make an Animal Noise. It’s another gritty, ground-down outing, with McHugh hollering about TV dinners and other mundane miseries on “Delaware” and trafficking heavily in spite on “Sophisticated Whore.” Most garage-rock duos putter out when they cease to mix things up musically, but McHugh’s been around long enough to know when to throw a wrench into the works. (Doug Wallen) – Philadelphia Weekly
Grubstake has been a great experience, it’s been a good time working with Pat McHugh, playing random shows in Pittsburgh, Boston, Providence, NYC and Philly on weekends and putting together a CD. Come catch my last show with the grubbers this Saturday at Fergies!
Is There a Prayer for Camden?
After for working in Camden, NJ for the past year, I’ve had the experience of visiting an impoverished, third-world country right across the Delaware river. It is hard to describe it’s condition, but two recent local media pieces have tried:
From a recent Philadelphia City Paper article:
Most of Camden looks like the deadly Badlands of North Philadelphia during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and early ’90s — if not worse. While signs of rebirth sprout along the waterfront, whole swaths of North and South Camden are urban disasters reminiscent of Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Kingston. Countless open-air drug markets occupy rubble-ravaged corners like bargain circuses, the blaze-eyed dealers momentarily turning their heads toward the sky and scratching their goatees whenever a police cruiser drives past. Newly organized gangs furiously murder off independent drug dealers in a battle for limited turf. And then there are the more mundane, but equally deadly, street operas, like the one involving Jason Santos, which play out almost nightly. – Who Will Pray for Camden?
And from local filmmakers, Camden advocates, and friends Sean Dougherty and Father Michael Doyle:
Art & Music’s Contribution to Social Movement
I’ve been a big fan of graffiti and street art, since my time spent living in the Bronx. What impressed me the most were street installations that spoke to the masses. Often, they were laced with commentary on current struggles in our world. This is especially present in Europe, where political graffiti had remained notorious, even before the American style of throw-ups and production pieces became popular. These pieces ask us to consider our complicity in broken systems.
I met Swoon at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit and Bowling Green — she faciliated a workshop on stencilling and wheatpasting — it continues to be a personal reference on the realness of AMC. I didn’t find Swoon’s work to be explicitly political, until I had seen Portrait of Silvia Elena.
Swoon recently produced an installation regarding the ongoing mass rape and murder of women in Juarez, Mexico. It is located in a basement crawlspace, only accessible through a hole in the floor at Honeyspace, a radical arts space located in Chelsea, New York City.
The band At The Drive-In produced a music video based on the femicides in 2001.
I am a big proponent of using music and art for the process of healing, learning and justice. It is great when artists like Swoon and At The Drive-In have the ability to expose this injustice to the world. For emerging artists, art and music laden with political messages can be perceived as self-righteous, or a commercializaton of a ‘political rebel’ image.
In my own solo recordings, I try to explore themes I feel consciously while living in Philadelphia: murder, poverty, prisons and unending war. As an activist and artist, it is easy to become conflicted about where to put one’s energy. How does one focus in such a cluttered and broken world?
Murder in Philadelphia was my most serious concern for a time. The solutions are complex and involve attacking root causes of urban violence, which means we are a long way from relief. This is why folks in neighborhoods most affected by violent crime are looking for quick-fix solutions: police surveillance cameras and more arrests. These tools help one thing: catching criminals. This doesn’t change the mindset which causes someone to blow someone away over petty arguments. It is not preventative, it is not curative.
And it’s not drugs. Drugs do not beget violence as we’ve been programmed to believe. It is a symptom of the problem. Ihe drug economy is another resources for jobs, education, and mental relief when such resources are not provided otherwise. The ‘straight path’ provided by our broken schools and a severe lack of jobs do not cut it. Are we supposed to be surprised?
It is complicated. It is the perfect energy for creative voices.
How can a song prevent a teenager from catching a bullet during a basketball game? If you believe in “Each-one-Teach-one”, then our collective understanding is developed by changing one mind at a time. Then the question of audience. If I’m only reaching folks who already feel safe in their neighborhoods, who don’t live in Philadelphia — does it really matter? It feels like parachute activism. We can write letters, send donation checks, have a conversation over breakfast — somehow it all feels too passive.
Perhaps we are best involved in local struggles, where we can listen to and actually touch each other. Issues we can identify with. This is troubling for middle-class activists, or those who are labeled as such, based on skin color or other orientation.
I learned this often when working street-level in North Philly. There is increased hostility and skepticism towards someone with white skin says they want to help — and this cynicism is justified. There are many complex and deeply embedded reasons for this which are for another day. What I have experienced in my work in Philly and Camden has been powerful. The more open, innovative and sustained an effort is, the more it establishes its credibility. To be clear, it is not simply a race thing, it is a perception issue based on class, intent and historical context.
As a friend recently said, you have to avoid leading the charge, and find your role in how to best support a community concern. I have found a role facilitating youth and adults in this creative process, and feel blessed. I consider this to be central to much of my work; to give a voice to the voiceless. Onward.
Human Rights Activists House Seizure UPDATE
Latest update and new information regarding Police Critic Arrests and House Seizure :
On Tuesday, June 17th, at 1pm, the owners and residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue will hold a press conference on the western steps of City Hall to inform reporters and interested parties about the June 13th police action seizing their property and sealing off their home.Please read the release below for more details.
On the morning of Friday, June 13th, 2008, plainclothes detectives and a Ninth Precinct Police Captain entered a Ridge Avenue home without a warrant and arrested four Philadelphia community members – Daniel Moffat, Trevor Burgess, [redacted] and Jennifer Rock.These residents were pulled from their home at 1652 Ridge Avenue, arrested, and detained without charges at the Ninth Philadelphia police precinct for over twelve hours.Less than twenty four hours later, almost half a dozen other law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Housing Authority, had conducted a tour of the property, and the Department of Licensing and Inspections had closed and sealed the property.
While police claimed entry to the property under the pretext that it was an abandoned building, the residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue have owned and lived at the property for up to four years, while they worked on and improved their house.They have been active members of the Francisville neighborhood – partnering on community food distribution and community garden projects, among others.
On one of the hottest days of the year, these community members were locked into police cars, waiting to discover the nature of the criminal charges against them, as multiple officials searched their home. “They said it wasn’t an arrest,” says Mr. Moffat.“The police captain [Wilson] said he’d do me a favor, and put us in a cell because it was so hot outside.I asked, if we weren’t being arrested, why we were being sent to be processed in jail?He smiled at me in a joking manner, and said, “Call it a kidnapping.” That was my last word with Captain Wilson before later that night, when I was in jail.”Moffat and his housemates were never charged with a crime.
The residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue learned that night, while in jail, that the Department of Licensing and Inspections had written up their home for multiple code violations – and that they would have only a few hours the next day to retrieve personal possessions, before the house was sealed to them and all other nonofficial entrants.When the residents returned to their home the next day, they found that personal papers, books, and computers had been rifled through or confiscated.Trevor Burgess, who returned to his room Saturday morning under police escorts, noted, “The only thing I really noticed they messed with was my photographs.All my photographs were just, like, torn through and all over my room.[The policeman] kept asking me about the photographs.”
“When I was allowed to enter the building, to get stuff out, when I got to my room, my room had been thoroughly searched,” said Moffat.“My computer was gone.I was informed that the Department of State had taken my computer for evidence.I couldn’t find my phone list that was posted on the wall.I couldn’t find a notepad with a bunch of my notes in it.I couldn’t find this little book with a lot of phone numbers in it.”
Residents stress that this incident happened just a week after they had begun circulating petitions about police surveillance cameras that had been installed in the neighborhood.Francisville, which abuts the newly affluent areas of Fairmount and Spring Garden, has seen a rise in police presence and in residents being asked for identification in their own neighborhood and in front of their homes.“It’s clear to me that you don’t have to be doing something wrong in order to be targeted by the police,” said [redacted].“The fact that we were communicating with our neighbors about the presence of surveillance cameras was threatening enough.”
These residents have called on press to not only hear their story, but to deepen coverage of increased police presence in the city – and the ways in which the city is driving out residents who have lived there for generations. “I want to go home,” says Jennifer Rock. “But this is not an isolated incident.So many others are losing their homes or their freedom – and they can’t be here to speak today.”