My first trans, or, looking for love in all the right places

 It was 2001- just before 9/11. In Genova, Italy at the G8 summit where all the powerful leaders were meeting. The streets were filled with 1000’s and 1000’s of protesters: dancing, singing, chanting, smiling. The cops started to get rough. It turned into a battle zone: tear-gas, smashed heads, tears, fear and anger.

Then some news passed thru the streets.A young man had been killed- shot dead by a cop.

Everything changed: yes, anger but also sadness and a sense of hopelessness.

I had performed just hours before in a theater piece.

I was disgusted after the news of this senseless death.

I left the protest and wandered alone to the old city center- toward the neighborhood of prostitutes, junkies, homeless and hustlers. I always found myself in these places: found myself in these places.

From her doorway she called me over, invited me in.

Half-way through the blow job I realized that she was a he. A chick with a dick. Oh well- I thought.

Might as well go on. After I came in her she seemed to want to talk. I left. Later I felt guilty for not sticking around, talking. She was my first and only trans lover.

Note: i wrote out this story in Washington Square park where this guy collects stories. You only get one page to write your story on.

MAHLOUL, A Palestine Journey

Mahloul, A Palestine Journey
Voices from the front lines of the conflict in Israel and Palestine.

April 2009: The Living Theatre went to Palestine and Israel.
We visited refugee camps, social centers, woman centers, squats, villages and cities, city halls.
We did workshops and performances. Mostly we listened.

This documentary gives voice to the individuals and groups living on the front lines in this divided and suffering land. Featured are Israeli "Refusniks" and activists and artists in Tel Aviv and social workers, organizers and artists in Palestinian refugee camps. Heard also are the many voices and personal stories of the Palestinians and Israelis we met who express their hopes and fears in their daily struggle of survival and resistance.

Living Theatre actors also take their theatre into the streets of Tel Aviv and and East Jerusalem and the documentary follows the course of a political theatre workshop.






Maybe it’s a good thing, when a Victor Lierbermann, which is a really crazy, racist man will be elected foreign minister, and Netenyahu will be prime minister, then maybe all around the world, Obama, and especially European countries, will truly understand that we are such a racist country and we are acting in such a violent way to Palestinians living here in Israel, and also certainly to Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza, that they will boycott us, and eventually this thing will have to end. Just like South Africa.

Excerpt from a meeting with Israeli activists in Tel Aviv.

http://www.videoweekly.net/mahloul.html

If you see these paintings...

If you meet a Buddha on your path kill him! If you see one of these paintings steal it! And then write me at garybrackett@gmail.com. I left Boston in 1989 and all of my art work too. I never went back so besides a few works that I gave away ALL of my paintings are lost to the corners of this earth (Except for 2 or 3 I managed to take home to N.C.) So go to this link and let me hear what you think of them! Painting's of Gary Brackett PS Check back later on the link as have only uploaded about a third of the paintings (as of July 18 '08.)

Green Missing

(Italiano in seguito)

But I alone am drifting,
not knowing where I am.
Like a newborn babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.
Others have more than they need,
but I alone have nothing.
I am a fool. Oh, yes! I am confused.
Others are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Others are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.
Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea,
Without direction, like the restless wind.
Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the great mother.

Lao Tzu: "Tao Te Ching"


Download the video Green Missing at Videoweekly.net
Versione Italiano Videoweekly.net(Ital)
Viewing (lower quality) at Youtube
Italiano (meno qualita') Youtube

Sol io quanto son placido! tuttora senza presagio
come un pargolo che ancor non ha sorriso,
quanto son dimesso!
come chi non ha dove tornare.
Tutti gli uomini hanno d'avanzo
sol io sono come chi tutto ha abbandonato.
Oh, il mio cuore di stolto
quanto è confuso!
L'uomo comune è così brillante
sol io sono tutto ottenebrato,
l'uomo comune in tutto s'intromette,
solo io di tutto mi disinteresso,
agitato sono come il mare,
sballottato sono come chi non ha punto fermo.
Tutti gli uomini sono affaccendati
sol io sono ebete come villico.
Sol io mi differenzio dagli altri
e tengo in gran pregio la madre che nutre.

Apokatastasis:

Apokatastasis: from the demonic to the divine.

From war to peace.

From violence to empathy.

From cruelty to compassion.

Each war epoch (and all epochs seem to be colored by their war) each have their iconic image.
In Vietnam, General Luan in cold blood kills Nguyen Van Lem, a Vietnamese militant.
In Iraq in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, again an image is stamped on the public’s imagination.

War without end.

What force can turn it around and end this one great and cruel constant of humanity?
Apokatastasis: from Paradise Now of The Living Theatre (1968) this is a theatrical action used to bring the Vietnam war into the theatre; used again in 1973 in front of the Chilean Embassy in New York; and an action we continue to use to speak against violence in all its forms: to show the great transformative power of I-Thou, of the sacred hand, sacred sex, sacred EVERYTHING- to turn it around. The truth is found at this juncture: in the non-fictional here and now between actors- between artist and spectator...between beings.

Link to the video: Apokatastasis

PS: My 9/11 5th Anniversary video is now on VIDEOWEEKLY.NET in a higher quality version. Download it now!