Today we’re mourning the people murdered by an anti-Asian racist in Atlanta, Georgia and talking about new limits on the right to assemble in Britain. On the bright side, we’re interviewing Axmed Maxamad about a new anti-racist, progressive party in the Netherlands (Bij1) and his work to shed light on Somali Queer stories. Hosted by Diana Arce (she/her), Tina Lee (she/her), and Miriam Aced (she/her). Brought to you by Artists Without a Cause, Wählen Gegen Rechts and Migration Voter.
PROGRAM NOTES:
- International Roundup
-Denmark limits the number of “non-Westerners” per neighborhood in their latest experiment in state-sponsored racist urban planning : https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/30964/denmark-30-limit-on-non-westeners-in-neighboorhoods-proposed
-Britain’s terrible, bad, no good anti-protest legislation https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/14/new-anti-protest-bill-raises-profound-concern-human-rights-groups-say
-Organizers should have listened to Sisters Uncut: https://gal-dem.com/reclaim-the-nights-girl-boss-feminism-sisters-uncut/
- Interview with Axmed Maxamad
Axmed Maxamed is a Queer Diasporic Somali activist, organizer and music nerd. Axmed was born in Xamar, Somalia where he spent his early years until his family had to flee during the civil war and ended up in the Netherlands. He spent his formative years in Breda in the south of the Netherlands until he moved to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam Axmed co-founded Dance with Pride, a queer initiative which aims to re-unify dance music with its queer roots and has been raisning money for and awareness around grass roots queer initiatives, with the fund-raiser parties and sales of the Dance with Pride T-shirts. He co-curated the music compilation Place: The Netherlands which raises funds for and awareness around LGBTQIA+ refugees in the Netherlands. Axmed also co-organises the first Somali LGBTQIA+ gatherings in the Netherlands. In addition to that Axmed is involved in other queer initiatives, with focus on QTBPOC. And together with Ladan Maandeeq, Axmed started working on ‘Queer Somali Pasts and Presents: A Storytelling and Archival Research’ which will focus on the lives of Queer Somalis in the diaspora and Somalia, both in the present day and the past. Axmed addresses systemic inequalities in Dutch society and in the underground dance music scene, which pave the way for harmful practices such as cultural appropriation and the white washing of Black music.
-Here’s Axmed’s article about BIJ1 : No More Compromises
-You can read plenty more of his work here: https://linktr.ee/axmed
-And we had a much longer conversation with Axmed that will drop on our Patreon as a deep dive this week: Patreon.com/LikeItIs
3) US/North America
We were still learning the names of the Atlanta shooting victims at the time of the recordings, you can read more about the incident here:
-https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/atlanta-spa-shootings-victims
-https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-17/atlanta-spa-shooting-asians-fear
4) Tips and Upcoming Stuff
-White Guilt Clean Up Online Book Club continues in 2021 Sign up directly for Book Club and our newsletter today to join!
Playlist:
-Karen O & Danger Mouse - Woman - 2:55
-Dengue Fever - Sni Bong - 4:26
-Kero Kero Bonito - Sick Beat - 2:59
-Jay Som - Baybee - 3:44
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Email: [email protected]