Scene Report

Steven Powers is a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), who has written about getting locked up as a teenager in Texas. After cutting his teeth in the non-profit Close Rikers Campaign in New York City, but leaving that world due to stark ideological differences, Steven now organizes with the Kensington Party Unit of PSL in Philadelphia. There, he and his comrades work on a range of community issues, from schools to running the People Power Gym. When COVID-19 hit North Philly, in addition to working on Cancel The Rent protests around the city, they built on previous service to the people programs in establishing the Unity and Survival Program. In this work, PSL distributes free food and supplies to people in the neighborhood. "It's about how gentrification divides us, about how food apartheid divides us, and how class divides us," says Steven. "We want to keep our at-risk people, and our people who are struggling with layoffs, with greedy landlords, with all this bullshit, with debt, we want to keep them out of the grocery stores, we want to keep them safe in the house. And so we thought the best way to do that would be to form a comprehensive network of care that was focused on delivering food to people." Note: This episode was recorded before the police murder of George Floyd. Before the interview begins, Steven provides us with a brief update on PSL's work organizing protests for Black Lives Matter, where they've been at the center of some of the most heated protests in Philadelphia.

Cookie is a punk, zine maker, writer, podcaster, and restorative justice and trans support advocate based In Pittsburgh, PA. She is also my friend. I first met Cookie via their incredible fanzine about eating every slice of pizza in Manhattan, Slice Harvester, when I was a young punk living in New York City. In this episode we have different recollections of our first interaction, but either way, we've spent years collaborating and chilling since. Cookie was a member of the now-defunct Support New York, an anarchist collective that developed methods for facilitating community-based accountability processes around sexual violence. Cookie is now active with Trans Buddy Pittsburgh, a community peer-support organization that helps trans and non-binary people navigate healthcare. They continue their great work documenting the freakier side of the American punk scene, via their Life Harvester Radio podcast and Life Harvester newsletter. We discuss all of these projects and causes, as well as what it's like to transition genders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Note: this episode was recorded before the current Black Lives Matter protests erupted around the country following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. We thus do not discuss the movement, or specifically a world without police, but I think some of Cookie's work and insights could be useful for imagining one. Music by Jesse Crawford, editing by Chris Pickering, photo by Colin Hagendorf.

This special episode of Protest & Survive is coming live from the streets of New York, in their own words. Recorded on Saturday June 6, 2020 at The March for Stolen Lives and Looted Dreams, hosted by Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, including a performance by the Resistance Revival Chorus. The rally is followed by ambient field recordings from a march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Black Lives Matter. Justice for George, Breonna, Ahmaud, and all others who have died too soon. Change is coming.

It’s been over a year and ten episodes of Protest & Survive. In season one, we recounted fighting Proud Boys, learned what it takes to repeal a century-old racist law, saw the response to the Muslim Ban at JFK Airport, heard about the awful people effects of the drug war in the Philippines, reminisced on an Arabic-language punk band’s tour of Southeast Asia, and I got a tattoo. In Season 2, we’re going to keep talking to a lot of dedicated people that you’re probably not going to hear interviewed in too many other places. To all our listeners new and old, thanks for joining us so far, and stay tuned.

“This was the first time, and probably the last time this will ever happen. In Jakarta, the mic got taken from me, many f*****g times throughout the set," says Nader. "It gives me some hope to continue doing this. They took the mic and sang the songs in Arabic, and my heart was just melted. I couldn’t believe it.”

New York City Arabic-language punk band Haram went on tour in Southeast Asia and Japan last summer. It was the first time Nader, who grew up Muslim in Yonkers with Lebanese refugee parents, got the chance to play in Muslim-majority countries. The band, on Toxic State Records, was previously investigated by the NYPD/FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. We spoke with Nader the night before he left on tour about his hopes and anxieties, and follow up to break down the journey when he returned home.

Photo by Jerry Permana, music by Jesse Crawford.

Tamara Santibañez is a multidisciplinary artist, working in tattoos, visual arts, and publishing. We spoke to her on the last episode of P&S about her work with people in jail and prison. In this follow-up episode, we wanted to more explore an idea Tamara has been developing that we touched on in the last episode, her Trauma-Aware Philosophy of Tattooing. We figured the best way to do that was to record getting a tattoo from Tamara, and talk about how she applies this philosophy. You can find more about Tamara's work here, and view her tattoos here.

Tamara Santibañez is a multidisciplinary artist, working in tattoos, visual arts, and publishing. She also works with people in jail/prison and recently out, having taught drawing at Rikers Island and Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, working with a reentry program in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and giving free tattoo cover ups to women who were tattooed during their criminal justice involvement.  Tamara's tattoo work draws on West Coast Chicanx black and gray technique, while also incorporating the punk aesthetics of her life, resulting in a historic but deeply personal style. You can find more about her work here, and view her tattoos here.

Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli is a filmmaker. She recently wrote, directed and starred in a feature titled "So Pretty," which is, according to Jessie, "a narrative-ish film following four to six young gender deviants in New York City as they nap and f**k and try to get by as best they can." The film is an adaptation, and translation, of a novel by gay German writer Ronald M. Schernikau, which originally was set in 1980s West Berlin. The worlds of queer housing and rave scenes overlap with mass protest in "So Pretty," as staged and real settings blend. In this interview, which took place in Jessie's bedroom in Brooklyn, we discuss becoming an optimist through art, Donald Trump's effect on mobilization, transitioning while making a film, the community built when making a film, and the importance of Black Lives Matter, J20, and Occupy Wall Street. More information on upcoming screenings of "So Pretty" can be found here.

AJ Santos is a punk. He grew up in the Philippines, playing in punk bands, running in gangs, and using drugs. People referred to him and his friends as “scums of society.” In 2013, AJ immigrated to the United States, where he built a new life for himself. He started some punk bands in New York, called Namatay Sa Ingay and Material Support. He also started organizing with Migrante International, a migrant rights organization that is part of the National Democratic Movement of the Philippines. With Migrante, AJ and other Filipino immigrants lobby the U.S. government and raise awareness about the issues facing their friends and family back home. Since Rodrigo Duterte began his War on Drugs after becoming president of the Philippines in 2016, many of AJ’s friends have been killed, jailed, or forced into hiding. AJ was never planning on becoming an activist, but those circumstances changed that. “I need to do this because I have to. It’s not even a choice for me. I’m not trying to be edgy. I didn’t choose this life. I don’t even consider myself an activist. I’m just a punk rocker. I’m just a punk rocker who happened to be politicized.” We spoke with AJ at host Reed Dunlea’s home studio in Brooklyn, about growing up surrounded by poverty in the Philippines, punk as a sanctuary, his mom’s fight against the Marcos dictatorship, moving to the U.S. to find better opportunities, being a father, lyrics about “bourgie white girls,” mourning from afar, and how to f**k the police and the government.

Una Osato grew up in New York City in the 1980s, where art and protest were part of the fabric of daily life. Una found early success as a child performer, but her art later brought her outside of the mainstream, and into the world of radical burlesque. She’s a co-founder of brASS Burlesque (brown radical ass burlesque), a multi-disciplinary performance troupe from NYC. Una is active in the New York City chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, where she draws inspiration from the lineage of internationalist anti-Zionist Jews to fight for Palestinian human rights. Una uses her art to bring joy to political actions.

This episode of Protest & Survive was produced by Sophia Steinert-Evoy.