Sumiko Saulson

So this.. just so you know I am still interviewing Irene McCalphin about this and this will be in the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper‘s January issue in the #WritingWhileBlack column. We will be talking about the Pantheacon POC Walkout. It happened and cancelling the convention doesn’t change that.

About Irene McCalphin

Queer| Fat|Black| Femme

writer, performance artist, model, witch , singer and eater of food in public

Irene McCalphin is one third of the diverse witchcraft ternion The Virgo Homo Thugs for the Revolution.  As co-founder and massage therapist of A Sovereign Embodiment Healing Collective and Board-member of the Body Political Irene blends magic with massage, storytelling and performance art to liberate, heal and reclaim space for marginalized community.  They’re currently working on a book and facilitating the creation a healing and retreat space for queer femmes in Grass Valley, Ca.

Here is their website: www.MammyIsDead.com

The Pantheacon blog says “That vision came true for many years, but as time passed it grew bigger and the viewpoints diverged. ” So to the yeah to the best of my knowledge. Some POCs asked people to stop culturally appropriating, so a bunch of white folks got mad and put curses and hexes on them, so the POCs walked out and a bunch o the queer community walked out with organizer Irene McCalpin who is Black and queer. So the “divergence” must be the part when butthurt white folks started hexing Irene.

Now they’re shutting Pantheacon down over the walk out, this will be the last year, and they are wording this in a way that creates further animosity. Considering that three different white Americans connected to Pantheacon referred to themselves as person of color while trying to try to shut me down. There seem to be a lot oppressed Italian Americans newly minted as POCs in defense of Pantheacon or some other problematic white dominated thing these days.

Posted in Everything Else

So, yesterday, I reposted this post on Mayor Libby Schaaf’s administration harassing the homeless:

And just after, I got this weird message from the Mayor’s Office offering me some Slayer tickets for club night at The Uptown I petitioned to remove its racist logo. It seemed like a troll but they were serious. Do I think this has to do with me reporting at the SFBayView? Yes I do.

My friend Blau, a local DJ in the car with me, laughed and said that Slayer was problematic as fuck due to their use of Nazi imagery and lyrics. Like they are as problematic as the shitty lynching logo. It seemed like they were trolling the mayor, the club, the venue, and me.

But I am a hood rat and used to this bullshit. I give zero fucks so I decided to get the fucking tickets and give them to the club, or another club, or perhaps hand them to some homeless folks to use or scalp. When I got there the Mayor’s aide was African American. I thought, this dude has to know I work for the SF BayView, I tagged the damned paper in the post!

So yeah, I get the inside joke now.

Kae Oz, the original poster, works at the Uptown, the Oakland venue for said club. Not a coincidence, in my opinion. Said club declined but I did accept on behalf of the Oakland venue and went to see what’s popping at the Mayor’s Office.

There were protesters there. I arranged to pick up the tickets like a good hood rat, and asked to get my parking validated. Then I handed out my business cards to the assembled and told them I work for the BayView. One of them told me this:

I am doing my best to get the inside scoop on this, so more later.

Posted in Everything Else

16.5% Funded After Just 2 Days!

Incredible Start! 16% funded in less than two days! But remember, with Kickstarter, it’s all or nothing. Please help us meet our goal of $1000 before the 20 days are over.

Why Wickedly Abled?

Tired of future worlds so-called utopias where disabled people have been erased by eugenic scientists? Dreaming of science-fiction that properly labels such depictions as dystopias for those of us who are physically and neurologically atypical? Are you sick of horror stories where mutation, mental illness, and deformity are signs of inherent evil? Are you interested in dissecting the way in which old tropes about disability informed the oldest of fairy tales and camp side stories? Do you want to demystify disabilities that have been considered by the able- bodied as signs of some sort of curse? Challenge the abliest and saneist realms which have plagued world-building in fantasy, horror, science-fiction and fairy tale mythologies since the dawn of mankind?

Wickedly Abled is a dark speculative fiction anthology challenging well-worn tropes depicting disabled persons in solely villain or victim roles by promoting darker themed works of fantasy, sci-fi and horror by authors with disabilities artists which feature disabled protagonists.

Wickedly Abled is the brainchild of Sumiko Saulson, the editor of and mind behind the best-selling horror anthology Black Magic Women, a showcase of eighteen different black female horror writers from the African Diaspora on Mocha Memoirs Press. The gorgeous cover artwork is by Lillian Rose Asterios.

We Have Come Too Far To Stop

Thank you all so much! Thanks to the kind people who pledged a little money to get advanced release PDFs, discounted or advance release eBooks and paperbacks and hardcovers, and signed author copies, we have $165 pledged of $1,000 goal by 9 backers with 20 days to go! 16.5% Funded After Just 2 Days! But Kickstarter is an all or nothing thing. We need to get $41.50 per day over the next 20 days to make this thing happen!

That’s one hardcover reward level pledge per day, or 3 paperbacks a day, or 21 eBooks. What will happens if we get all our pledges?Then the authors will get $25 instead of $10. That’s a lot for some of the authors because some are on social security.  Right now a few authors are tossing their $10 back into the kitty – they shouldn’t have to. 

If we get all of the pledge money, the editor & publisher can be in the position to try this again next year, as we have already gotten a half a dozen inquiries about similar project moving forward. We will be able to afford local and national promotion for the book. We will be able to actually pay proofreaders and editors and graphic artists something.This will be Sumiko’s third independently published anthology.

The first one, Scry of Lust, an anthology of kinky writing by and for kinky people, raised about $100 for a local AIDSWalk group Team #5105 SFGoth. It was put together with students from her kinky writing group, and she used it as a way to learn how to work with other authors and run a small press publishing style operation where the writers get individual royalties through Smashwords (for Kobo, iTune, Nook and Kindle through the iStore, Kobo and Barnes and Noble) and offers print books at or near cost (at cost plus a small handling fee and where applicable additional shipping costs) but the publisher collects the print and hardcover royalties and Amazon eBook royalties and uses them for marketing. For this first book, all profit went to SFGoth AIDSWalk and the publisher and funders covered many marketing and other costs.

Her second collection of writing by other authors handled as an independent publication, Black Celebration: Amazing Articles on African American Horror was composed of reprinted blog articles by African American Horror Authors about  Black Horror Cinema and Literature, was done similarly.Wickedly Abled is the first indie press anthology where she has paid authors out of pocket instead of having an established small press publisher print and pay the authors. (The previous updated misreported that it was her first indie anthology but that was written before Scry of Lust and not updated).

She will offer the authors the same royalty from Smashwords and at-to-near cost paperbacks and hardcovers with this book.

Please get the word out!

Posted in Everything Else

So yeah – I probably don’t need to comment on the recent controversies about small press publishers not paying people or not paying enough, but I can. so why not? Everyone knows I’m very opinionated and have edited by now, four anthologies or collections of writing by multiple authors. One is on a reputable small press publishing imprint let’s leave them out of this.

The other three – Scry of Lust, Black Celebration, & Wickedly Abled, are self-published with Iconoclast Productions – the non-profit that puts on the African American Multimedia Conference. My mom and I started Iconoclast, and it’s a grassroots community nonprofit. It runs on a shoestring budget. I could have crowd source funded the books but I did not. I am really poor and on Social Security. i am paying people $10 out of my SSDI check for Wickedly Abled.

I get free food from pantries and give zero fucks about your respectability politics. I don’t care about the awards you aren’t going to give me because there are still typos or because I am a hoodrat and some dumb shit transphobe I blocked for accusing the trans community of bullying Daphne Dorman to death in his convoluted defense of Dave Chappelle is dumb enough to try to get other black folk to come at me.

I see you, Tim. I thought you didn’t even believe in people publishing books of Black-only authors just to get Black writing in the world and thought I should do blind submissions to make sure my writers “deserve” publication instead of preferencing the marginalized.

People who have white, economic, and other kinds of privilege shouldn’t complain about me paying my broke ass fellow authors $0 to $10 and offering them a cut of the Smashwords royalties and some at-or-near cost paperbacks to hustle.

Instead, you should affirm your commitment to Black writers and Disabled authors by DMing me asking for the Paypals and Venmos of all my authors so you can go into your damned pocket and send them the $25 or $50 you think they deserve personally. Then I can list you as a sponsor. Maybe you should hire me a staff of proofreaders while you are at it. Consider it reparations.

Also go subscribe to the San Francisco BayView Newspaper. They need money, too.

Or alternatively, you should kiss my black ass.

Have a nice day.

Posted in Everything Else

Smiling Woman

IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11218374/
Synopsis: On a late night at an empty train station, a lone traveler is terrorized by a creepy smiling woman. 

CREW
Writer. Director. DP. Editor – Alex Magaña
1st AD. Sound Mixer. Grip – Jonathan Romero

CAST
Girl – Ariel Fullinwider
Smiling Woman – Merlynda Sol

Social Media Links:

facebook.com/acmofficial

instagram.com/acmofficial

twitter.com/acmofficial

youtube.com/acmofficial

Posted in Everything Else

*** Feel free to share far and wide ***

Please help support the San Francisco BayView

Amidst the calamitous chaos that has become the new normal in our world, heroes are emerging. While a few have money and privilege they are willing to use and share, the strongest were forged in the fires of poverty, oppression and exclusion.
You’ll meet those heroes among Bay View readers and writers; some of you will meet one every time you look in the mirror. Bold, brave, brilliant writers point the way to a future worth our struggle and sacrifice.
Unlike any other newspaper anywhere, the Bay View enables and inspires collective resolution of the problems that plague us even by those who are locked down tight, forbidden nearly all means of communication. Unlike any other newspaper anywhere, the Bay View functions as a network for freedom fighters.
Extraordinary journalism in a newspaper that functions as a network for freedom fighters is worth saving, both in print and online – don’t you agree? It’s a triumphant feeling for Dr. Ratcliff and me every time we put out a paper. We expect that in the November paper you’ll find words and pictures that quicken your mind, warm your heart and gird you for action.
But the paper you pick up for free costs a lot to produce, a whopping $7,000 each month just for printing, distribution and mailing. Why are we still printing the Bay View when many other papers have stopped printing and are publishing only online? Because our core readers live in the hood or in prison with little or no internet access.
Many of us are living at survival level with nothing at all to spare. Some folks on this list, though, may be willing and able to pitch in enough to add up to the $3,000 we need in the next few days to finish paying for the November paper.
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Please, everyone, stay on board so we can celebrate together when that day comes, when we can afford to hire a real staff and make big waves. And right now, to help us cover some outstanding checks, use the Donate button at https://sfbayview.com/donate/ or simply call 415-671-0789. Or send your check or money order to SF Bay View, 4917 Third St., San Francisco CA 94124-2309.
Volunteers needed: 1) An accountant or bookkeeper familiar with QuickBooks Online and 2) as many of you as possible promoting your favorite stories from https://sfbayview.com/ on your favorite social media platforms.
Indulge in some recent stories and discover new ones every day at sfbayview.com …
Diversity talk highlights anti-Blackness and Black erasure within the LGBTQIA+ community Denial of anti-Blackness is an everyday occupation in the LGBTQIA+ community and in San Francisco specifically, making this conversation long overdue.
The never-ending earthquake called Homelessness: Preparing for an emergency when your life is an ongoing emergency We are always getting prepared for the emergency we are already living in, and it’s made so much harder by this ongoing criminalization and violence called “sweeps.”
In Texas, environmental racism is in our FACE “The struggle to restore the soil and the struggle to create a just social order have up to now been carried on mostly as parallel political movements, without much mutual awareness.”
Holding San Francisco accountable on SFPD’s inadequate DOJ COPS progress and process “Despite three reports studying Black people in regard to racism in 55 years, Black San Franciscans are worse off than ever before.”
Activists across the world deliver South Carolina prisoners’ demands to United Nations South Carolina’s prison system has reached a breaking point, and right now it is breaking the minds, bodies and spirits of human beings.
The Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series presents Anna Mwalagho’s ‘Never Thought I Was Black Till I Came to America’ Immigration can be a form of erasure. The quicker the newcomer sheds her identity, the sooner she is accepted.
Donald in the Donbass, Biden in the crossfire “Zelensky is desperate to end the war. His electoral landslide was the result of this promise, and his anti-corruption theme, which is related. His presidency – even his life – depends on it,” says Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen. So why did Zelensky want another $400 million worth of military aid that could only escalate the war?
Presidential candidates engage with formerly incarcerated organizers at historic forum on criminal justice issues On Monday, Oct. 28, Democratic presidential candidates fielded questions from formerly incarcerated people for the first time during a nationally-broadcast forum.
Sam Jordan’s, San Francisco’s oldest Black-owned bar, to close after 60 years in business “The spaces the Black community had carved out, the restaurants we’d established, the communities we’d become a part of, were all fading out.”
Long live the greatest threat to the internal security of the US, the Black Panther Party! On this 50th anniversary of the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program, let us meditate on the incredible legacy of the original Black Panther Party. Although this is a plea for help and a call to action, this piece is also a dedication.
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Posted in Everything Else

I am very angry right now. People who act against marginalized people the way Dave Chappelle acted against transwomen, ask for a free fucking pass. Cops need a pass like a hug from Devonte Hart, a 12 year old child. Then your system lets him down and he ends up dead.

Now Daphe Dorman is dead.

She was an up-and-coming comedian who might have liked to make some progress in her own career. Instead, she became the punchline of a real-life Dave Chappelle joke when he outed her laughter at his transphobic routine. He made her life all about how other women and transfolk were overly sensitive.

Why do you keep hounding marginalized people and pressuring us to commit acts of self-denigration, against our own self-interest? Acts of minstrelsy and coonery? To debase and humiliate ourselves in front of our communities so you can be let off the hook for your bigotry? Why the hell are Judge Tammy Kemp and Botham Jean’s brother Brandt Jean hugging his killer, Amber Guyger?

Privileged people who should be HELPING the downtrodden instead use marginalized people for feel-good inspiration porn. These feel-good images are all about how marginalized people need to stop complaining and accept our role at the bottom of the totem pole, accepting crumbs of kindness from your table with a giant minstrel show little Black Sambo grin and shuck and jive for your damned approval.

Why do the privileged expect the marginalized to comfort them?

Why the hell did Dave Chappelle put Daphne Dorman on front street for laughing at this culturally tone-deaf, inciting, transphobic and dangerously insensitive comedy routine, knowing damned well it would put her in the same position as Devonte, Tammy Kemp and Brandt Jean of looking like a apologist sell-out to her community? What about his fragile assed ego makes it so he can’t check his fucking cishet male privilege while 20 Transwomen most of them Black were murdered this year? Why did he have to pressure this white transwoman into standing up for this transphobic Black ass until she became suicidal from all the shade she had to take because his chickenshit ass was hiding behind her?

If he wasn’t hiding behind her with his weak ass, she’s probably be alive right now.

Posted in Everything Else