rustbeltjessie reblogged
rustbeltjessie reblogged
rustbeltjessie reblogged
rustbeltjessie reblogged
Hey guys, I have a priority fundraiser rotation for you:
Fadi & Shahed: 5,885 USD out of 62.5k
Sana'a & Sujood: 15,049 £ out of 50k
Mahmoud Qassas: 12,466$ out of 200k
Ezzideen Shehab: 11,075€ out of 32.5k.
Hussam Aburamadan: 17,657€ out of 148k.
Hamdi Hijazi: 6,614$ out of 25k.
Suheir Hojok: 17,557 AUD out of 70k.
Madleen Abu Jayyab: 33,808$ out of 70k.
Hani Al-Hajjar: 2,536€ out of 50k.
Little Yusuf: 664€ out of 85k.
Nael Helles: 255$ out of 50k.
Alia's family: 516€ out of 30k.
Hala's family: 350 CAD out of 50k.
Mohammed Al Shaer: 150£ out of 50k
Mona Abu Hamda: 75k out of 150k.
Sahar El Tibi: 15€ out of 30k.
I have personally verified every one of these campaigns listed here.
The invasion of Rafah grows nearer everyday. Please understand the urgency of this campaign.
Version date: April 29th 2024.
rustbeltjessie reblogged
The Iranian Regime is going to execute rapper Toomaj Salehi for supporting protests of Jina Amini’s murder by the regime in his songs.
Iranian activist Elica Le Bon says, “Iranians in the diaspora picked up on the fact that the regime tends not to execute people who become known to the international community. We have seen many examples of prisoners that were either released on bail or had their sentences commuted through our “say their names to save their lives” campaign on social media, using hashtags to garner attention for their causes, and even before social media existed, through getting the stories of political prisoners to international media outlets. Once reported on, and once the eyes shift to the regime and the reality of its pending brutality, realizing that the action is not worth the repercussions, we have seen them back down and not execute. For that reason, this is part of an urgent campaign for readers to talk about Toomaj as much as you can, using the hashtag #FreeToomaj or #ToomajSalehi. Every comment makes a difference, and if we were wrong, what did we lose by trying?”
LET'S SPREAD THIS LIKE WILDFIRE
It is very rare that posting actually is activism.
But in this case, getting this man's name trending on multiple platforms could literally save his life.
Exactly this ^^^
This is one of the very rare cases where the only thing we are being asked to do is make something go viral.
rustbeltjessie reblogged
I'm (finally) moving
My life for the past six months has been a series of cascading disasters, culminating in the need to find a new home seeing as how the house I've lived in for the last twenty years is almost uninhabitable, both literally and figuratively.
back in February, my close friend Jack moved across the country to stay with me in order to escape a dangerous family situation. since that move, he and I have been threatened with eviction by my landlord repeatedly. he and I have decided to rent a house with our mutual friend @caputvulpinum in northeast texas.
with a new home, I'll be teaching the both of them blacksmithing, and I'll be able to focus more on my art without worrying about my home or my family collapsing around me. I need to raise $2k for my share of the deposit and moving expenses, so please share this post everywhere you can. my gfm will be linked here and in my bio
I'm a quarter of the way to my goal! the sooner I reach 2k, the sooner me, @caputvulpinum, and our friend Jack can get a place for ourselves
rustbeltjessie reblogged
Please help save our home
So, uhh, yeah. Things have gone to shit and stayed there. I'm not super stoked about having my name in full here, but whatever. Things are desperate.
rustbeltjessie reblogged
rustbeltjessie reblogged
Milestone Monday
May 6th marks the first full week of May and with it, Great Lakes Awareness Day. Established in 2014, Great Lakes Awareness Day celebrates lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario and draws attention to water conservation and preservation efforts. In celebration of the day, we’re sharing artist Laura Brown’s (b. 1981) The Great Lakes of North America published in 2012 by Women’s Studio Workshop.
Women’s Studio Workshop describes The Great Lakes of North America as “. . . a visual examination of the Great Lakes region. Using layers of color reminiscent of a 1960’s school textbook, maps of the Lakes are rearranged and layered with routes traveled by French explorers, freight ships, and the artist’s own family.” The resulting double-pamphlet stitch is a vibrant record of the Great Lakes’ shoreline replete with noted natural landmarks like Pictured Rocks and Indiana Dunes.
Brown’s book was made in a limited edition of 50 copies signed by the artist during a residency at the Women’s Studio Workshop utilizing screen print, letterpress, wood block, and polymer relief printing.
Read other Milestone Monday posts here!
– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern
Chicago Noise (Love Letter to Steve Albini) by Jarret Keene
How many boys want to be whipped by Steve Albini’s guitar? -Sonic Youth bassist/singer Kim Gordon
Woke up this morning, as usual, hungry for white-boy noise and black coffee. Popped in – what else? – Big Black’s Songs About *!?king and blasted it at full volume on the home stereo so I could feel every
drum-machine wallop in my molars, every lacerating riff against my face, those places where noise really hits me when its good and loud. Steve, there’s something about your band Big Black
in the morning that helps me to more effectively hate birds outside my window as they chirp ridiculous tunes about nothing to no one, something in the serrated edges of the song “Pavement Saw” and
the slaughterhouse fury of “Colombian Necktie” that transports me to the Loop, jostling around inside a metal tube across an ice-cold, urban-Midwest landscape of old, bombed-out meatpacking plants.
Like it’s a clear day in March and I’m taking it all in – the canyons of LaSalle, the cliffs of Michigan Avenue, the public artworks – and there’s this satanic chainsaw behind my ears, eager to sink
its teeth into my skull, turning my lights out and then everyone else’s. This noise is dirty and yet so pure that I can’t help feeling even more comfortable in my alienation, even happier in hostile
territory. I imagine myself lying down like a lamb at the paws of a lion guarding the stairs of the Art Institute. I picture myself walking into a Wicker Park record shop (a real record shop that
actually sells, you know, vinyl) and asking the skinny, unfriendly employees there if they might sell me another Big Black LP. And when they scowl at me with an expression that says “Why don’t
you already own that record, poser?” all I can say to my fellow rock snobs is leave me alone, because I’m armed and dangerous, and about to vaporize Cloud Gate in Millenium Park, to rip
the girders from Calder’s red-orange flamingo-looking thing perched in front of the Federal Center with my incisors before flame-broiling it oh-so-slowly with an acetylene torch until the steel is tender enough
to eat with a plastic spork, to challenge the next thrash band to play the Double Door to a demolition derby-style mosh pit involving broken beer bottles and our bare chests and bags of salt.
And if anyone asks about the point of this tsunami of sucking nihilism, this whole tortured carnival ride, let me say that it’s my chance to ignore the terrifying silence at the end of this caffeinated daydream.
Anyhow, Steve, just thought I’d write you a quick letter letting you know how much your anti-corporate band gets me dreaming of Chicago and prepares me for another gray and greasy day
of corporate enslavement, chained to my cubicle, hoping for a moment to shut down my computer and loosen my tie, straining to hear a measure, the merest note, of the sweet music of birds.
rustbeltjessie reblogged
Gary Floyd, leader of the groundbreaking Austin hardcore punk band Dicks, died today. Forming the band in 1980, Floyd flaunted the fact that he was both a gay man and communist, frequently performing in drag, barking open threats of murder to police and the rich in tracks like Bourgeois Fascist Pig, Pigs Run Wild, and their most famous song, an anti-police anthem Dicks Hate The Police. The music created by Dicks was one of the single most influential factors to the shape of punk rock to come, and is often mentioned as a primary inspiration by many influential artists to follow in the late 80s through the 90s. Listen to their 1983 album Kill From The Heart and really think about how they were doing this in fucking Texas, in the early 80s.
rustbeltjessie reblogged
To what purpose, April, do you return again? (or: finally, a pinned post for April)
Hi all. I'm Jessie Lynn McMains, aka Rust Belt Jessie. I'm an Xennial/Elder Millenial (please don't call me a Geriatric Millenial, thank you) writer/artist/zine-maker/etc. (I wear many hats.) I'm queer and nonbinary/genderfluid, and as far as pronouns go, I’m okay with any human pronoun (they and she are my most-used, but I like he, too, and I especially like it when people switch up the pronouns they use for me). I’m disabled and neurodivergent.
I live with my partner and our two kiddos, both of whom are also neurodivergent, and right now I’m supporting all of us on whatever money I earn. I do freelance copywriting and editing as my main thing, but I also make a decent chunk of my income from selling my zines and books and pins and whatever else I make, so the more I sell, the better able I am to pay bills and take care of my family.
Through my Ko-fi, you can buy my zines and books (I have both poetry and prose available) and pins, as well as commission me to make you a music-inspired mini-collage or hire me to edit your own writing. Or also just throw me a few bucks if you appreciate the content I make available for free.
If you live outside the US (I can only ship within the US via Ko-fi, because setting up shipping for multiple countries is a pain the butt), or just prefer to purchase something or donate via a different platform, I also have PayPal and Venmo (@ JessieLynnMcMains).
I also have a Substack newsletter. I try to send something out at least once a month. Sometimes it's a longer piece about music and nostalgia (I recently started a series called These Fucking Songs, for just that purpose), sometimes it's just updates on what I'm up to, sometimes it's something else. I'm currently working on one about poetry, and my writing process, and revision.
As if that weren't enough, this month I'm doing a 30/30 on the Tupelo Press site, which not only means I have to write a poem every day to be posted the next day, but I am also fundraising for Tupelo Press. My goal is to raise $350 by the end of the month. You can follow along with my daily poems here (the newest is always at the top; scroll down to read previous days), and the fundraising page is here. (I'm also offering some cool incentives for people who donate; more info about all that is available on the fundraising page.)
I'm pro-trans, pro-vaccine, pro-sex worker, pro-abortion, pro-Black Lives Matter. I'm for harm reduction for any drug user or addict, meaning I want them to be able to use drugs as safely as possible, rather than forcing them into rehab or incarcerating them. I'm anti-censorship and anti-fascist. I believe everyone, everyone, should have a safe place to sleep and enough to eat without having to earn it. I consider myself an anarcho-socialist, basically, but I do vote. I'm telling you all that because if you are vehemently against any of those things, we'll probably not get along.
I'm a forever-goth/punk who loves all kinds of music. (Things on heavy rotation for me as I write this are: The Replacements, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Oliver Nelson.) I'm femme but I'm a disaster femme; when I use nailpolish it's always sloppy and/or chipped, when I wear eyeliner it's always crooked and/or smeared, and I am incapable of not ripping a hole or two in every pair of tights and stockings I own. I love art and film and theater and literature and music. I'm a Shakespeare stan, I love growing my own vegetables, I collect souvenir pennies and stick and poke tattoos. I'm always a slut in theory, even when not always in practice. I'm perpetually nostalgic, melancholy, and restless. I spend all my free time posting pictures of myself on the internet and trying to prove I'm punk to anyone that'll listen.
Want more Jessie content? There's my website (still under construction, but it exists). Or you could try searching the my writing, my art, Jessie Lynn McMains, or Rust Belt Jessie tags on this blog. I also have a side blog, where I tend to post more frequently than I do on this blog. If you ask nice, I'll probably give you the URL.
On that note, my DMs and asks are open, and, as of right now, anon is on.
I think that's it! As always, whether you can send any $$ my way (or to my fundraiser) currently or not, keeping this post circulating helps. Thanks much. 🖤
Still haven't made a new pinned yet, so reblogging this one again. I still need contributions to my fundraiser. I do understand that there are a lot of more pressing fundraisers to be giving money to right now, but Tupelo Press needs the money to keep the program going, and it is an incredibly valuable experience as a poet. And seriously, if I just got like 150 people to donate $2 each, I could meet my goal and then some.
I have also changed the perks/incentives up a bit since I initially started the fundraiser:
- For any donation $10-$35, I will send you a postcard featuring an original tanka (written by me) + my original artwork.
- For any donation $36-50, you will receive the postcard + I will send you a mini-zine/chapbook featuring a selection of my poems from throughout the month.
- For any donation $51 and above, you will receive the postcard, the mini-chap, and you can choose between either having me give feedback on a poem of yours, or writing a poem about a topic of your choice for yourself or a loved one.
I'm almost done with the mini-zine (which will include five of my poems from April, plus original artwork that goes with each poem), so if you want to get in the first mailing, you can do so by donating $36+ by the end of this week.
As always, reblogging helps, too.
rustbeltjessie reblogged
URGENT
KOSA is now being discussed to go into the FAA Reauthorization Bill so I BEG you guys to MAKE A LOT OF NOISE ABOUT KOSA TO SHOW THAT WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT HOW BAD THESE BILLS ARE. THE CHANCES ARE NOT 0 SO BE LOUD
https://www.stopkosa.com/ Sarah from Fight for the future has updated the call tool in the site above with a better call script, so that you can take 5 minutes of your time TODAY to please call Jeffries, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Johnson, and Frank Pallone (they are all set up on the call tool) and stress that KOSA must NOT be attached to must pass legislation. Please also take the tim to contact Blumenthal or Blackburn office as they are attempting to attach it to must pass legislation. Remain polite and civil. PLEASE REBLOG !
rustbeltjessie reblogged
May 5 is the Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. (Also known as Red Dress Day.)
Show your support and pass on your strength by wearing red on May 5, and raising awareness. And if you have never read the Reclaiming Power and Place report, you can do so here.
Additionally, while the day is typically centred in Turtle Island, let us also not forget our international cousins, especially in Palestine and Sudan.