Queering The Air

This show features recordings of Lauren Caulfield, Kirra Voller and Anthony Kelly at the Undercurrent Frameworks for Accountability Panel. Undercurrent focuses on education regarding healthy relationships, and transformative justice. You can find and support Undercurrent at www.undercurrentvic.com. You can listen to the entire archived panel here."Lauren CaulfieldLauren is a community organiser whose work focuses on interpersonal and state-based gender violence and community-based responses to violence. She has worked in the area of gendered and intimate partner violence in both community and agency settings for about 15 years, in community accountability responses and violence prevention, refuge and crisis support work and advocacy, and later in training and research. Her research centres on community-based interventions to violence, intersections between interpersonal and state-sanctioned violence (including the violence of the prison industrial complex) and the nexus of racialised and gendered violence. Lauren worked (with a collective of great humans) to establish the Melbourne Transformative Justice Network, and currently works on the Police Accountability Project (Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre) and with the Abolitionist and Transformative Justice Centre.Lauren will be talking about community-based frameworks for violence prevention, intervention and accountability, with a focus on supporting survivors of family violence and sexual assault.*Kirra Voller – Shut Youth Prisons MparntweKirra Voller is a proud Wirangu woman and musician. She lives in Mbantua raising her young family, and works advocating for young people and the abolition of youth prisons. She works alongside grandmothers who are traditional owners in central Australia advocating for aboriginal led alternatives to prison.Kirra will discuss alternatives to incarceration for young people and culturally appropriate responses for indigenous youth; including taking young people out to homelands.We are very excited and privileged to have Kirra in Narrm/Melbourne for this panel. https://www.facebook.com/KirraVoller/*Anthony Kelly – Flemington Kensington Legal and Police Accountability ProjectAnthony will discuss the police accountability project work. Within this project they predominately apply state, institutional or legal forms of accountability upon the police – Human Rights, legislative, rule of law, as well as apply ‘accountability’ via the civil courts. They also leverage various forms of moral, ethical and community based mechanisms in various ways. Anthony will also discuss Gay and lesbian / Queer Street Patrols, Aboriginal Night Patrols and community patrols / safety projects / police alternative projects."

Frankie reads poems by Aisyah Shah Idil: The Naming, Allison Gallagher: Parenthetical Bodies and Emily Crocker: Girls and Buoyant which are new chapbooks published through Sydney-run independent literary organisation Subbed In. Subbed In, based in Sydney, is an independent literary organisation which aims to provide support for new and underrepresented voices as well as help emerging writers to achieve publication or performance.  Lucille Bogan, “B.D. Woman Blues”, recorded in 1935.Janis Ian, "At Seventeen", 1975 album Between the Lines. Akihiro Miwa, "Song of the Black Lizard", written for the 1968 Fantasy/Thriller Black Lizard directed by Kinji Fukasaku.June Millington, "Right Time", 1981 album Heartsong.Arthur Russell, "Me For Real", 1994 album Another Thought.June Millington, "All That You Need",1983 album Running. Tracy Chapman, "Crossroads",1989 album of Crossroads.Kelela, "Take Me Apart", 2017 album Take Me Apart.

We hear from Bea, a member of Undercurrent. We have a wide ranging discussion about intimate violence which occurs in 1/3 of relationships in LGBTIQ+ communities: from 'love is love', the monster myth, beyond the necessity of consent, violence against women, to systems of oppression and prison abolition.*There is a mention of Reina Gosset on tbe extraction of black trans poor disabled life underpinning the creation of David France's 'fi'lm', The Life and Death of Marsha P Johnson.Events mentioned:Bahdoesa Tote TakeoverCocoa Butter ClubTwo steps on the water with boats launch

Dawn is a queer trans woman of Thai background, an illustration student and occasional poet. In her creative works and in studies she has been drawn to grapple with various feminisms, oppressions and identities salient to herself and her loved ones - among them transmisogyny, queerphobia, and racism. She dreams of building a career around creative and performance art outreach, education, therapy, and protest around the social justice issues closest to her. Dawn has been on the show before when Thanh Hằng was a host, and whose poetry (as Xen Nha) really helped Dawn find her own voice.We had a track from Yelris, who performed at TRANSTRVAGANZA organised by Myriad Collective last weekend. Yelris is a Queer Person of Colour - they are a genderfluid Electronic musician who performs instrumental and spoken word over music to explore their gender and cultural identity. Yelris is a child of asylum seekers stemming back from the Vietnam War, identifying as diasporic cantonese chinese. Hold the line is a song about resistance to oppressive institutions, they personally have experienced from Christian fundamentalist upbringing in an environment where speaking in tongues is the usual is the norm - it is also a piece about coming terms with their own voice and being able to speak up about the emotional and psychological warfare of having to justify their life and existence and human rights to folks who scaremonger and provoke 'heterenormative' sentiment to justify silencing those who are different.

We hear from Claire from PO PO MO CO (post post modern comedy), a 'debauched queer comedy troupe' about their show in Fringe. We then hear from Zakaria about TRANSTRAVAGANZA, involving 5 talented trans and gender diverse artists. We then hear Mary Tomsic, who co-wrote an article entitled 'Marriage Stinks' in Overland, discussing the need to be critical while supporting the 'yes campaign' for same gender marriage. There's also a shout out to the event Strength in Visions at Fringe.

Iris talks to Mama Alto about her upcoming performance, Exquisite, at the National Theatre, plus a few of her Fringe projects, Church, and Transcendent. The campaign for Justice for Elijah is foregrounded #JusticeforElijah. See details of where you can't donate here.Iris interviews Simona Castricum on ageism and exclusion in the queer community, and a discussion about trans women in sport.

Iris is joined in the studio by Zen who talks about the new Buffalo Gals club night, a QTIPOC run  femme and gnc-focused hip hop, old school rnb & trap! every thursday @ Hugs&Kisses.Iris then talks to Shane from Housing for the Aged Action Group who talks about the importance of understanding age and ageism in relation to queerness, class and more.Iris then reads from an action in the US, where the POC and Black led #NoJusticeNoPride group shut down WashingtonDC's Pride parade because its ties to corporate sponsors, police, racism and oppressive structures.

Iris interviews Chi Tran, a writer and artist, currently based in Narrm Melbourne. They produced a poetry / prosody work, entitled 'I occupy space, which is to say, i am always grieving'. You can find their publication at the Incedium Radical Library. We touch on what their work means to them, writing influences, and more. Also mentioned:https://www.facebook.com/alteritycollective/

We broadcast a conversation with Robbie Ahmed, author of "How I learned to Handle Boundaries and Found Self-Worth as a Queer South Asian Torn Between Cultures" on Gaylaxy Magazine.A brief intro: "Robbie Ahmed is a South Asian transman working as the Men's Sexual Health Coordinator at Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) where he runs support programs for queer South Asian men. He uses his experience growing up in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Toronto to help queer South Asians reconcile their queerness and cultural identity." (http://www.gaylaxymag.com/author/rahmed/)Our conversation touches on a few topics including themes of the West's universality recreating marginalisation & invisibility and living & being a queer person in South Asian cultures and places with contexts.We also read an excerpt from an article written by the Black trans woman artist Star Ah Mer Ah Su, who recently visited the occupied lands of Australia from the US. Article:https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/prescription-drugs-transphobia-grief-ah-mer-ah-su-takes-it-all-on-with-pop-music

Mikaila/Frankie talks queer friendships, with recordings from the Narrm Melbourne launch of graphic memoir Eyes Too Dry, speeches from co-creators Jessica Tavassoli and Alice Chipkin, as well as their editor Emma Jenson. We read a poem in Jess Hanman's name and also play tribute to him, as it was the 1st anniversary of his passing on April 2nd 2017. Thinking across the airwaves about brother-friends, lover-friends.Buy a copy of Eyes Too Dry here.Tunes:Arm Around You -- Arthur RussellBach's Prelude Yo-Yo -- Two Steps on the WaterYou and Me Both -- Arthur RussellHeld Apart -- Arca