SFWAR 2012: Please Support As I Walk Against Rape.

hello everyone. thanks for your readership and words. may this reach you doing well! i'm sure most of you are feeling the change in the air, in our personal lives, the earth, and social arenas. may the winds of change blow positive transformation and blessings your way.

and i've been riding the winds of change so religiously that i'm only getting around to promoting the San Francisco Walk Against Rape here a whole WEEK before it happens :P

last year my goal was $1500, and because of you incredible people who passionately believe in justice and healing, i was able to blow away that goal for a whopping **$1800**, and whoa... next thing i knew i was receiving an award for being the top individual fundraiser! not quite what i was planning for, but of course, a pleasant surprise and honor. wish all of you were there to accept it with me, cuz my contribution was $50, and Y'ALL handled the rest!!

giving how late i'm kicking this off, i'm not going to be as ambitious as asking to reach a goal of $1500, i'm going to split that in half and aim for $750. I'm at $285 now, i think this is definitely doable.

i'm aware that its fundraising season, and that we are all trying to make ends meet, just know that $60 = a one hour shift on the 24-hour rape crisis hotline, so even $10 could provide a crucial 10 minutes in someone's life. If you can spare more, $120 is the cost of a rape prevention presentation for teens. And when all is said and done *any* donation makes a difference. To support these and other services, and to help build healthy communities free of sexual assault, please click here to make a donation, or click on the widget to the right. 

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/richard-wright-1/7th-annual-walk-against-rape

and again, thanks for supporting me in my 5th year of walking for SFWAR! It has been transformational, and I am thankful to be a conduit to help create change with the help of my community members. Together we can help get survivors crucial services and help dismantle rape culture. Let the winds of change continue to bring healing, justice, and a more humane society for all of us.

blessings,
richard
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/richard-wright-1/7th-annual-walk-against-rape

PS: For more info about the walk, the movement, SFWAR's services and more, click here: http://www.sfwar.org/programs.html

Please Donate To The 6th Annual San Francisco Walk Against Rape, Even $5 - $10 Makes A Difference

Hello all!

Hope this reaches you doing well. On April 30th (two weeks away!) i will be proud to be doing my 4th year participating in the San Francisco Walk Against Rape, and i am thankful for all of the support to this cause so many of you have given. Rape impacts me through the lives of many people i love, so for me, this is an act of love, and one way i can contribute to dismantling patriarchy. Every year it is profoundly powerful and beautiful. I encourage others to walk, even if you don't fundraise.

This year, my goal is $1,500, and i would love your support helping me reach it. I'm asking for just $5 - $10 today, just so more people can be involved in supporting this. Know that $60 = a one hour shift on the 24-hour rape crisis hotline, so even $10 could provide a crucial 10 minutes in someone's life.

If you can give more than $5 - $10, please consider sponsoring a one hour hotline shift for $60, or donating $120 to sponsor a rape prevention/healthy dating presentation for teens (important work!).

To support these and other services, and to help build healthy communities free of sexual assault, please click here to make a donation.

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/richard-wright-1/6th-annual-walk-against-rape

For more info about the walk, the movement, SFWAR's services and more, click here: http://www.sfwar.org/

Together we can help get survivors crucial services and help dismantle rape culture. Thank you for your time.

blessings,
richard
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/richard-wright-1/6th-annual-walk-against-rape

On This Last Day Of Women's Herstory Month...

hello all! its been a minute. been the busiest i've maybe ever been, building, building, building. Its a good thing.

I kept coming across things i wanted to post, and i knew i wanted to post at least some of em before the month was over. Of course, awareness of gender continues throughout the year, but i wanted to share some thoughts and salutes... so here are several items of interest:

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Please Sponsor Me In The San Francisco Walk Against Rape!



This will be my 3rd year of walking the San Francisco Walk Against Rape, and each year folks have just floored me with how generous they are, and how passionate they are about this cause. I'm hoping that you can donate anything at all towards supporting essential services for survivors in San Francisco's only community run crisis center. Click here to go to my fundraising page. Click here for reports from previous walks. It has always been a powerful and beautiful experience. Thanks in advance for any support!



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Only The Congolese Will Initiate And Bring Change To The D.R. Congo

a sobering message from the women of DRC; a powerful stance on their humanity, and being tired of being seen as victims by the world, as opposed to being seen as some of the strongest and most resilient women in the world. They also state that if things are gonna change, its gonna have to be on their terms, not the terms of well intentioned people who are not from DRC. Real talk.

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The Crunk Feminist Collective: Where Crunk Meets Conscious And Feminism Meets Cool

Just wanted to shout out this hot new blog! Nuff props. If I may share some of their mission statement:

The Crunk Feminist Collective (CFC) will create a space of support and camaraderie for hip hop generation feminists of color, queer and straight, in the academy and without, by building a rhetorical community, in which we can discuss our ideas, express our crunk feminist selves, fellowship with one another, debate and challenge one another, and support each other, as we struggle together to articulate our feminist goals, ideas, visions, and dreams in ways that are both personally and professionally beneficial.

The CFC aims to articulate a crunk feminist consciousness for women and men of color, who came of age in the Hip Hop Generation, by creating a community of scholars-activists from varied professions, who share our intellectual work in online blog communities, at conferences, through activist organizations, and in print publications and who share our commitment to nurturing and sustaining one another through progressive feminist visions. This collective is a forum where we seek to speak our own truths, and to both magnify and encourage the feminist credos that shape and inform our lives and that we use to engage and transform our world. Crunk Feminism is the animating principle of our collective work together and derives from our commitment to feminist principles and politics, and also from our unapologetic embrace of those new cultural resources, which provide or offer the potential for resistance. Crunk(ness) is our mode of resistance that finds its particular expression in the rhetorical, cultural, and intellectual practices of a contemporary generation.

And then they go even deeper into the paradigm of "crunk(ness)" and how it relates to a revolutionary platform when combined with a feminist lens. It's off the hook. Peep the rest of the mission statement, the blog, and GET YOUR MIND RIGHT!

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Erykah Badu's "Window Seat" Video



***If video is removed, go to Erykah's official site to view!

Sooo... maybe if you've been busy spring cleaning under a rock lately, then perhaps you haven't heard about this new Erykah video that is making huge waves on the internets. People love it. People hate it. It's known as the video where Erykah gets nekkid at the site of JFK's assassination. I am one of the people who love it, and see this as a timeless, provocative, thought provoking work of art. If you haven't seen it, check it out and then read on....

A lot of people are not happy about the combination of nudity and the JFK thing. Or just the nudity. And why JFK, people might ask? Why not MLK, or X? Who knows... to broaden audience? To not ruffle the feathers of people in the black community who would already disapprove of the video? Simply because its a more scenic location? Or because its her home town? Who knows.

I will cut and paste what i said on The Root about this video, where images of Venus Hottentot and Aunt Jemima were raised, as well as seeing the liberation that Erykah is evoking:

i am definitely hearing all of the perceptions and views on this video. my feeling is that this may be the first video where a black woman's body is shown in a way that causes people to think about deep issues, our own shine, how much we may repress of ourselves so we don't get "assassinated" in literal or virtual ways. Those deep issues gave rise to this post and thread! In my opinion, this was a huge depart from just being another dime a dozen portrayal of the black woman's body as a hypersexualized object for mass consumption by men. I have not looked at those videos and thought of deep messages around liberation, evolution, body image, and more.

in truth, Erykah probably knows that a segment of our population will "assassinate" her for "revealing herself". I feel that she is clear that she is of divinity (as all of us are) and that her body is not something to be ashamed of. I thought this was a very meaningful video that resonated with even me as a black man, and how much psychological armor i must wear to walk through the world. I will never know the black female experience, but i imagine that she was speaking about disrobing of the black female version of that armor, and getting free, evolving.

There is also a good short commentary on this video on NPR.

Go on Erykah. I'll be picking up that album soon.

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...And One More Music Selection: Janet Jackson "Nasty", The Classic Dancefloor Filling Anti-Harassment Anthem



Do you remember when you first heard "Nasty" and it was the rawest, edgiest, crunkest beat you had ever heard? Wanted to close out with this 80's gem, where Janet was bringin the fierceness, making anti-harassment cool, asserting strong boundaries without apology, all while rockin the then groundbreaking Paula Abdul choreography (she is in the video too!). Enjoy the memories!
Her name ain't baby y'all....

...feels good to have finally made a post. May all the revolutionary seeds that people planted this month come to glorious fruition this spring! Heartful salute to all the moms, sistas, women and girls. Bless up

Reportback From the 2009 SFWAR Walk Against Rape.

don’t be scared, don’t be quiet
affected by rape? join the riot!

That was one of the many chants we shouted as we walked through the streets of San Francisco on April 25th. The vibe is becoming familiar, and I continue to be re-inspired to do this important walk, do fundraising, and be visible as a male ally and a brotha around these issues.

I am really so thankful for the people who supported my efforts by giving to the San Francisco Women Against Rape. Because of y’all, I suspect i must have been at least one of the top ten fundraisers for the event. Friends, family and people of conscience altogether donated $1312.00 (and counting, my fundraising page is open until September), nearly double what i raised last year. And this is during a recession too! Hats off to folks, for real. And it is good to know that all of that will be going towards helping women in crisis get the services they need.

Being a male ally of color went to a new level this time (finally). Last year, I put out the call to men of color to walk with me. Long story short, i walked alone. I put out the call again this year-- a friend nearly flew up from Jamaica!! But funds were not really flowing, so instead we are starting convos around creating something similar in Jamaica. But one man did respond to my call, Ramesh. I had never met Ramesh in person before, but we had been emailing each other and other men around forming men’s groups. Among other things, Ramesh does work with Narika, an organization that is a resource for South Asian women dealing with domestic violence and abuse.

The walk itself was powerful and beautiful, but the piece around connecting with other men of color in this context was the crux of this for me.

The Walk Against Rape was scheduled to meet at Justin Herman Plaza at 10am. I had anticipated a chilly San Francisco day, but it was sunny and beautiful, and i found myself stripping off layers within minutes of arriving at the check-in point. Ramesh and I didn’t have much trouble identifying each other that Saturday morning, two brown guys in their 30’s amongst mostly younger women. I was pleased to see a large Asian /Pacific Islander presence. The largest male presence was definitely East Asian youth. I saw several black men, and some of us smiled and did the brotha nod of acknowledgement. I found myself taking pictures of them later, wanting to document their presence. I saw various photographer lenses sway my direction as well.

Ramesh and I hit it off really well. I found myself smiling more and more as i realized i was looking into another brown male face and speaking about our lives, our passions, and feminist activism. Yay!!

Our first interesting exchange (one that challenged me) was when Ramesh suggested we talk to women of color to see what they wanted from male allies of color. I found myself hesitating, and some of it was shyness... but there was something else. I brought it up. One of my concerns around building a male ally presence at this rally, was about us even unconsciously taking up too much space. Ramesh nodded. He rehashed the approach and question for me, and though i forget how it was all modified, I felt more comfortable with it. It didn’t feel as much like it could be taken as “hi, educate us now!”, and definitely left the option for people not to respond if they weren’t feelin it.

I am glad we made that compromise.

We approached some young sistas wearing USF hoodies, politely introduced ourselves, and asked briefly if they had any thoughts they would like to share around what they would like to see male allies of color doing. The conversation started slowly, then built momentum. The young women said that they want men to be visible and present at events like this, like how we are. They also said that they want us to talk to other men about these issues. And we learned that there had recently been 4 rapes at USF by one man, and that the whole school was going through shock and trauma because of that. We talked about there needing to be more education around sexual assault, because college campuses have such horrible track records with rape, something that definitely isn’t advertised in the admissions office. One young woman said that since its a Jesuit school, there is more of a moralist approach to these issues, and not so much breaking it down into a need for education around these issues, or framing it as a violent manifestation of patriarchy. After maybe 10 minutes, we thanked them for their time and conversation, wished them a good day, and went on our way.

I started to think more about what being active meant, and how to find out what being a good ally meant without exhausting people... how to actually do the opposite, and give energy through active listening and acknowledgement. I’m still thinking about that.

4 other South Asian men from Narika, friends of Ramesh soon joined us. 5 brown dudes reppin at the SFWAR walk! Woo hoo! It felt good to finally be at this walk, talking to other men of color about anti-sexism work. We shook hands, and our eyes met in recognition of this reality.

Lisa Thomas-Odeyemo, the Director of Counseling of SFWAR stepped up to address the walkers with a bullhorn (pictured at the top). This has become a ritual that i look forward to. Not only does she facilitate us in grounding & stretching, to get in our bodies and feel powerful in our purpose, but she evokes the long lines of ancestors that are behind us all, leading us here to this space at this time. Grounding this in the spirit of ancestors is an important piece for me. Soooo many ancestors were dehumanized and raped during slavery, and so many others were raped in older patriarchal systems. By husbands. Fellow schoolmates. Policemen. Soldiers. Prison Guards. Gay Bashers. Relatives. Long legacies of sexual assault as a mechanism of control that are not only from older patriarchal systems, but are more than alive today. We acknowledge. And we make our bodies walking shrines of remembrance and resistance.

We take to the streets, with purposeful fire in our eyes, and chants in our throats. A truck drives with us, playing live samba drums, layers of polyrhythms bounce of the alleys made by the tall buildings of Downtown San Francisco. The sun is high, and people are smiling and chanting. It’s a gorgeous walk, and we stretch for maybe two blocks, easily fillling up one side of the street. Cars drive by on the other side, honking horns in support, which always raises a big roaring cheer from the crowd. Me and Ramesh joke that if you are having a bad day, you can just drive past the rally and beep, and then hundreds of people will cheer at you! But on the real, the love was in the air, and it was a revolutionary love to be shared.

Ramesh continued to engage other walkers on their thoughts around the rally. They were mostly male youth, and even a police officer. I took the opportunity to connect with the other Narika men.

When we reach Dolores Park, the finish line was apparent, an arch of balloons blowing in the wind. The energy of the walkers picked up, and the cheers got louder in call and response style for the final stretch:

Tell Me What Community Looks Like?!
THIS IS WHAT COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE!

Tell Me What An Activist Looks Like?!

THIS IS WHAT AN ACTIVIST LOOKS LIKE!

Tell Me What A Survivor Looks Like?!
THIS IS WHAT A SURVIVOR LOOKS LIKE!
Tell Me What An Ally Looks Like?!

THIS IS WHAT AN ALLY LOOKS LIKE!

Tell Me What Community Looks Like?!
THIS IS WHAT COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE!

We are received by a smiling, standing ovation of park goers, supporters and organizers. The sense of arrival and triumph is buzzing in the air. Some walkers are received with hugs and kisses. Me and the Narika men go to sit in a circle on the grass to brainstorm over ideas for future meetings.

Afterwards, we go looking for some food, and then i see my honey! Yay. I’m glad we can sit together and watch the upcoming performances. At some point, a female emcee steps up to the mic, and she shares heartbreaking stories of her own sexual abuse, and stories from her community. She also shared that a law was being introduced in Afghanistan that would legalize raping one’s wife under the law (which has since met much internal resistance, and will not pass). She went on to inform us about being in mutual alliance and support with Denim Day in Italy, a day that was created when a judge ruled that a woman could not have been raped because her jeans were too tight to come off without consent. Vomit. Also evoked was the disgusting case in the Philippines where US military officer Daniel Smith was arrested for raping a 22 year old Filipina, but then was whisked away by a US Embassy and acquitted. Outrageous. My pal Kiwi reports and blogs. Having illustrated the global impact of a rape culture, the emcee brought it back home and acknowledged the USF community for what they were going through, which inspired thankful cheers from the USF camp.

The featured acts were all very powerful, but a few really stood out to me. Imani’s Dream, a youth dance troupe from Oakland kicked it off, and brought magic. It was so good to see little black boys and girls in this space, dancing and embodying resistance to predatory masculinity and sexual assault- as well as have a real good time! They were beautiful. Oakland Represent!!

Staceyann Chin also read from her memoirs, her new book “The Other Side Of Paradise”. Wow. Staceyann is a powerful Jamaican lesbian spoken word artist, i blogged a great clip of her performing “Feminist Or Womanist” here around a year ago. It was great to see her again on the SFWAR stage. After some funny and facetious questioning of what’s up with the cold weather (she didn’t have a jacket! ahh! It was sunny but breezy for sure) she went into her fierce spoken word. And... she rocked it.

And on the real... her book is amazing. As a Jamaican, it consider it to be one of the most important works of literature to come from our own. It is well written, at times funny and shining with unmistakable Jamaican wit, but mostly just taking you on the challenging journey of a little girl from country who strove assert her humanity. It is a perspective that is important for all to read, dealing with gender, class, sexuality, and religion in ways that are rarely discussed in the larger Jamaican community. I wish it were prescribed reading in school. But I was more than pleased to see that it got good reviews in The Gleaner, Jamaica’s premiere newspaper! I don’t think I can really explain just how amazing that is.

So that is the reportback. Sorry it took so long to write it! And thank you again to everyone who supported in cash, words or spirit. And if you know some men of color who REALLY should be walking with me next year, well, let me know :) Bless up

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San Francisco Walk Against Rape This Saturday- and i'm $78 away from my fundraising goal of $1000!

Thank you everyone who has been sooooo generous to this cause. I also wanna give thanks and props to those who are doing the work with offenders, and those who mentor young men around non-violent ways to embody masculinity.

And I can't front, I am EXCITED!! I am just $78 away from my goal of $1000- AND my annual call for men of color to walk with me has been answered. Yay! Together, we plan to model that men of color ARE visible, active, caring allies to women, and not just people to be profiled as perpetrators.

I invite you to even contribute $5... every little bit helps a woman get crucial services at SF's only community run rape crisis center. If 8 people give $10, that's it, we are GOOD! Though if you click into the link and see that we busted the 1K, don't let that stop you either! :)

http://www.firstgiving.com/richardwright1

you can also just click the widget at the right.

Again, thanks for your support and readership, and thank you SFWAR. lets do this!!

have a great weekend :)

~richard

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Please Sponsor Me In The SFWAR Walk Against Rape.

Hey everyone!

Wassup, hope that spring is waking you up in good ways. On Saturday, April 25th, I am participating in the San Francisco Walk Against Rape, and would love your help in supporting San Francisco's only community based rape crisis center, SFWAR (San Francisco Women Against Rape).

As some of you know, i did this walk last year with the goal to raise $250 (i blogged the reportback here). Because of y'all, i raised $700!! So this year, i'm raising the bar accordingly- my new goal is $1000.

If 40 people on this list donate $25 each, or if you ask your workplace to collectively donate, i will definitely be able to reach my goal, and you would be helping women get crucial services. Of course, ANY donation is so appreciated. I have a fundraising website up, and it is really fast, easy and secure to donate through. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts. You can also track the progress of my fundraising there.

I am also putting a call out to men of color who will walk with me, and model that we are visible, actively caring men who care about women's lives. So many of us are profiled as being the perpetrators, not allies. I invite men of color to walk with me and defy this image together.

Please forward this to those who you think would want to help out. Thank you for your time and support! Bless up

~richard
(to donate, click here.)

ps for more details: http://www.sfwar.org/walk/theevent.html

Report Back From The SFWAR Walk Against Rape

Wow.

That was a powerful experience.

Of course.

Thanks and Money Raised
First of all, I have exponential gratitude to those of you who pledged, passed on the info, and supported in so many other ways. Because of you... I was able to blow away my goal of $250, and i raised :::$700::: y’all. That is going towards helping out the only community based rape crisis center in San Francisco, its something to feel really good about. so many of you were apologetic about “only” pledging $10 or so, but clearly, it added up! Almost 50 people donated to this cause. I was gonna list your names to big you up, but a) i handed in my forms and don’t have copies of them and b) its possible some of you would prefer to not have your name listed for some reason or the other. But it felt so good to walk up to the check in table at Embarcadero with a phattie phat envelope. And i glimpsed other funds that others raised, and got more of a perspective... I would say that the average amount that most people handed in was $75. The whole Walk made $35,000 (record breaking amount for the walk so far in its 3rd year!!) and a couple hundred people participated. So... THANK YOU for contributing such a sizable percentage to this cause!

Men and the Walk
I was pondering the place my maleness had in this, so many people gave me money based on their enthusiasm around a man doing this walk. It was pointed out to me that since I have such an awesome and loving community, and that i do organizing work, that those factors definitely make it add up too. But i am still pondering how to utilize my maleness to get real counter-patriarchal work done.

I did end up walking alone (ie, not a part of a team), which was a powerful experience. I would say that a couple hundred people walked, and i saw less than ten men. Middle school students walked too, and i would see young boys walking, but in terms of grown men, not many were to be seen. The fact that no other men walked with me intersects the personal and political in complex ways. Men definitely contributed to the cause financially, by forwarding my emails to other folks, and in other supportive ways. At least one male friend declined walking because he was actually already engaged in time consuming feminist work. Also, i had less than two weeks to mobilize folks, and sent out mass emails instead of being able to call and talk to people. Also, heads are busy, a lot already contributing to an array of good causes. But after seeing how much i can contribute to this cause as a man, and how not visible we are in this important issue that affects everyone, I take this as an indicator that i now have a whole year to mobilize men of color to show that we care about these issues, and break stereotypes that some of us are more likely to be perpetrators than activists.

I was definitely welcomed by many, curious women approached me and asked me questions. I was even interviewed with a DV camera and mic by SFWAR documentarian Amal Kouttab. I was a little flustered, gathering my thoughts at times around this intense subject as to “why i am doing this”, but what came out felt real, and was received well. I will definitely post a link to the SFWAR documentarians when they finish editing!

The Walk Against Rape
Before leaving my house, I did my morning meditations, prayers and honoring of my ancestors. It was in that meditation that I realized that I was walking for my ancestors/egungun, acknowledging the legacy of rape that was intrinsic to slavery. It deepened my purpose immensely. I left my house breathing deeply, and took BART (walking under the ground...) with this new drive in my consciousness pulling me towards this walk. I could feel them with me, and some of you know that i have already done walks for ancestors. A familar sense of intent and connection suffused me.

At the walk, the SFWAR director of counseling Lisa Thomas-Adeyemo (pictured above) started us off with more meditations and centering, and she too evoked the ancestors. I opened up my bottle of water, and poured a cooling and honoring libation on the ground. And then, we walked the 3 miles from Embarcadero to Dolores Park in the Mission, chanting “End The Silence, End The Violence, Walk Against Rape!” and “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Yes Means Yes and No Means No!” and many other chants, done in call and response form with a woman leading from a bullhorn. We even did chants in Spanish when we walked through the Mission.

Highlights:
~It was a GORGEOUS day. Not a cloud in the sky. So many of us felt really blessed by that.

~Intervening when construction workers couldn’t hear what we were saying, so i walked over and told them its a walk against *rape*. One commented in that “lets bond over misogyny” kinda smirky way that if there were more prostitutes on the street that there wouldn’t be any rape. It was said a lot more derogatorily than that. I kinda let it go through me, and said “but whatever the case, no still means no, right?” He looks at me, pauses and repeats back to me “No means No.” I said yes. I smiled and walked away- and then heard him start chanting NO MEANS NO! awesome.

~Another intervention where a pre-teen schoolboy put a pre-teen schoolgirl in a headlock *while in the flow of the walk*. It was clear that they were friends, though the girl was visibly in pain, and shouting for him to stop, and also saying “why do you think we are doing this walk stupid??” He smiled, enjoying his power over her. I walked over as he released her and simply said to them “Is everything ok over here?” The boy shot me an annoyed “don’t try to school me” look. I repeated, “Is everything ok over here?” The girl nodded and looked down. The boy looked away. I continued walking close to them, and saw the girls' mom pick her up at a gas station. I lost track of the boy.

~Loved the people who would wave from buses, fists out of windows, male and female, the bus drivers who honked with fists of solidarity, and all the other cars who honked... we would all cheer so loudly! felt good.

~Walking under the highway overpass, and having our shouts and cheers amplify and echo tenfold :)

~Running into my really cool neighbors during the walk. Also, running into people who only recognized me as dj fflood :)

~Reaching the finish line at Dolores Park. The shared sense of accomplishment was really beautiful and powerful. The park welcomed us with applause, and there was a finish line banner with balloons, and a dj pumping Kool and The Gangs “Celebration” :)

~Amazing testimonies and art was shared on a stage... what was really impactful for me, and remains one my more profound moments at this event, was when one woman shared that she was the product of a rape. She went into poetry sharing how her mom went into labor pains, experiencing joy and rage with each contraction. She then referenced her own survivorship. The layers were intense, almost too much to even hold. I salute that woman for sharing her story. Other acts included song, spoken word, dance, and closed out with Lisa Marie Rollins (you go girl!!) backed by Paul Edward Hunt Jr on guitar and Shark Marius on bass... and the crowd on handclaps! It was tight. They kicked it off with a cover of Nina Simone’s “Funkier Than A Mosquitos Tweeter” (peep some of the blazin' original here). man. Definitely the most fun i had at this walk. :)

In Closing
So yes, that is more or less my report back. Thanks for reading this far! And like I said, I am looking forward to doing this again next year, and galvanizing brothers around this too. I think it is important for all men to model to other boys that violence is not okay, that there are healthier ways to exhibit strength, and that no means no. There’s a lot of messages out there that we are competing with. Thank you all so much who sent me notes of love and support in the mail, with emails, and encouraging words. and thanks for the donations, the hugs, and the smiles. I feel really connected to this work, and I am thankful that my ancestors spoke to me about the depth of this issue. It became clearer. I was walking for the healing of survivors and perpetrators. I was walking to give more resources to those in crisis. I was walking because if i say i love women, then it must be more expansive than the realm of romance. And I was walking to honor my ancestors. Ashe’.

SFWAR: Walk Against Rape, Saturday April 26th, San Francisco

San Francisco Women Against Rape present the 3rd Annual Walk Against Rape. This Walk is an opportunity for the communities of San Francisco to come together and raise awareness around sexual assault. Statistics show that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 11 men will be raped in their lifetimes, and it is estimated that less than 20% of rapes are reported to the police. The silence and taboo around rape in our society cause survivors to feel isolated and unsupported. The goal of Walk Against Rape is to empower survivors, their friends, families and supporters, to break that silence by walking together on the streets against rape, and declare that San Francisco will not tolerate sexual violence.

Walk Against Rape is a 3.1 mile walk starting at Justin Herman Plaza at 10am and culminating in a rally at noon in Dolores Mission Park. Besides raising consciousness and visibilty around these issues, this Walk also aims to raise money for San Francisco's only community based rape crisis center.

so, who's walking with me? here's how to get involved.

http://www.sfwar.org/walk/index.html