text:
Tech in the suburbs: how innovation is shaking up towns and villages in Britain
As tech hotspots spring up everywhere from Newbury to Norwich, we take a look at how UK innovation is having an impact beyond the M25…
Digital suburbia
Digital innovation in the UK is not limited by city limits. With hotspots including Newbury, Aldershot, Stevenage, Slough and Burnley boasting higher than average levels of tech as a proportion of the wider economy, a report by Tech Nation shows the UK's 'digital suburbs' are alive, kicking, and driving up UK tech productivity. From world-class robotics in Devon to gaming and blockchain in Dundee, these tech hubs are lighting up the map as start-ups break away from London's Silicon Roundabout (the area between Shoreditch, Hoxton and Old Street) in smaller towns and cities around the country.
Challenging the conventional view that UK tech activity is based in large cities, areas like Guildford, Aldershot and Heathrow are now among the most digitally-dense locations in the UK, while the M4 corridor has been nicknamed in the Tech Nation report as the "productivity power path" or "high-tech highway". Calculated as a percentage of the local economy, these towns now have a significantly higher concentration of tech activity, employment and turnover than London. Down in the South-West, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro and Redruth are leading the tech revolution, with tech businesses generating £605 million each year. In Exeter, highlights include Exeter College's world-class robotics and engineering centre as well as the Impact Lab, formed by seven Devon-based organisations including the University of Exeter and the Met Office.
Shoreditch-on-Sea
As technology makes it easier to run businesses from virtually anywhere, this trend seems to spreading outwards as the industry's up-and-coming talent seek a change of pace. While historically seaside resorts have been associated with seasonal, tourism-based employment – today things are changing, and not just in Brighton. From newly-trendy artist's residence Margate to 'Silicon Beach' Bournemouth, many former retirement towns are reviving their local economies as hotbeds of art, culture, media and high-tech businesses. Small businesses outside of the tech sector are also feeling the benefits. Upgraded payment systems and mobile Point of Sale (POS) systems such as Barclaycard Anywhere, which connects smartphone or tablets to card machines using Bluetooth, are helping the UK sell and spend seamlessly. We're seeing more and more innovations originally intended to keep life moving in the capital being adopted around the country to meet the shifting needs of new generations of digital natives.
Transport, for example, has rapidly evolved to become more convenient, greener and better able to serve sprawling urban and suburban areas. Following on from the launch of the Oyster card by Transport for London back in 2003, similar systems have been implemented across the country. Passengers on Newcastle's Metro can flash their Pop cards as they commute and Nottingham's Robin Hood card lets passengers hop seamlessly between bus, tram and train operators without having to fumble for cash. Introduced by TfL in partnership with Barclays back in 2010, the cycle hire scheme was introduced following the success of a similar scheme in Portsmouth, encouraging commuters to ditch public transport, lessening the strain on the environment and helping people get healthy. The bikes have proven phenomenally popular, with cycle points popping up in towns from Brighton to Bristol. These were followed by lift-sharing and car-sharing apps, giving users easy access to fast, and affordable transport from wherever they happen to be in the UK. In London you're never too far from public transport, but in other towns getting from A to B can be trickier. Formerly restricted to big cities, services like Uber now can be found virtually everywhere, as consumers expect a more seamless travel experience.
With electric trams in Sheffield and hydrogen-powered vehicles being developed in Wales as part of an accelerator programme in partnership with Barclays, creating greener, more energy-efficient journeys is a key focus for innovators and local authorities alike. We're used to seeing drivers behind the wheel of electric cars and at charging points in towns across the UK – but what about cars with no drivers at all? In recent years, the UK's biggest trial of driverless cars has been rolled out, Milton Keynes. Currently reaching top speeds of 25mph, MK's 130 roundabouts make it the perfect location to trial autonomous vehicles – albeit with a human co-pilot to check everything is going smoothly.
Digital downtime
As the world of work advances in line with new digital trends, services, leisure and entertainment in smaller towns are becoming more advanced to appeal to all generations of consumers. We have UberEATS and Deliveroo to bring us whatever dishes our hearts desire, same-day delivery giving us all the perks of living in the city, and a thriving experience economy; where apps, seamless payments and sophisticated digital experiences rule. What next? In the US brands are trialling drone deliveries for online shopping and scooter-like robots that can deliver fresh-from-the-oven pizza in minutes. With invisible payments like Barclaycard Connect, offering restaurants integrated POS solutions, it would be fair to say that life in the UK's digital suburbs looks set to become virtually indistinguishable from city life in the months and years to come.


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Old Orchard Beach's laid back fine-dining restaurant & lounge now for the season . Brunch menu, dinner menu and bar menu.
Very small place in a seasonal town. Stopped in with wife for lunch after watching planes land on the beach Oct 1st (really great event). Weather was kinda cool/windy and only seat available was near door which was left open making it rather cool inside, but we were hungry and had heard their food was pretty good. Very limited menu with only one local craft beer to elect, but we ordered burgers which were the most reasonable priced items. They were very good, though not cooked exactly as ordered for doneness. The service was pretty poor. The place was not filled and there was only one waitress who should have been able to handle, but we witnessed her eating at the bar and also visiting with bartender. I had to get up and go to bar to get a glass she forgot to bring. When we finally got her attention to bring check, she didn't give us a pen. Small things but the waitress surely had her personal time rated above that of customers. Since the burgers and fries were very good, we'll maybe try again sometime. Rest of menu very pricey for a small seasonal place.
Five stars for their ice cream, or what is now called ice cream? The people who are rating this ice cream five stars, apparently have no conception of REAL ice cream. Real ice cream consists of cream, milk, sugar, natural flavor and egg yolk if making French vanilla. What they are selling here should be called frozen dessert. There are a multitude of additives including an over abundance of gum, that's right, guar gum, carob bean gum, carrageenan and the list goes on. Take a spoon of this and pull it away from the scoop and watch how it stretches like rubber. The, so called, ice cream is not icy cold as real ice cream is. It's almost a room temperature coolness to its substance. Bryers Ice Cream used to be a natural ice cream with only four ingredients, now they've gone the route of the stock holders and its now called frozen dessert, not ice cream. To the best of my knowledge the only real,ice cream left and that's been cheapened by over airation, is Haagen-Dazs. I am truly put out by Fielders Choice claim that they're selling "home made" ice cream. Sorry folks, but facts are facts. We will NEVER recommend this place nor stop again. Deception seems to be a way of life today.
Everyone raves about these fries so we thought we would give them a try. Overall they are wicked greasy (old oil is my guess).
I have never felt like writing a review earlier in facebook but I did it got Big Licks, that's my first ever review in FB and BL totally deserve it. My 3 year old is picky though she loves ice creams and we did some 8-10 different flavors and they were all great and delicious.
Ppl complaining about "cash only".. remember these guys are home made who are passionate about making good ice cream, its seasonal and making it cash is going to save them a few $$ for the card transactions. Unless you have a complaint about the ice cream, why complain about the cash if you don't understand how seasonal vacation spots work.
I am somewhat of a candy connosieur. I love a good candy jar and candy store. This place is right on the main drag in OOB, and would definitely light up a child's face upon entering.
There are animated jelly belly jelly beans dancing on the right and dots lighting up and flashing on some of the beams in the room. The left is full of classic candies sold by the pound. There are gummies over here and jelly beans and other awesome treats. In the middle upstairs is the chocolate section. Downstairs is the fudge section and you can also buy ice cream, candied nuts, and cotton candy and candy apples.
I looked at a box of nerds and they were $1.79. That's outrageous! They have some specialty candies here that you don't see in typical stores, but if you buy candy by the pound, or want to get a few treats, expect to hand over some significant dough.
Most customers are probably here on vacation with their kids and not worried about paying for the experience, but it is definitely very overpriced.
We were four family members for dinner, seeking a special evening out. Joseph's was listed in TripAdvisor as Old Orchard Beach's only 'fine dining' restaurant. The location is excellent, overlooking the beach, (although it was dark and we could see nothing - probably nice for lunch), and we appreciated the private car park. The menu was quite interesting (with a bias towards seafood), but for the price and the reputation as a fine dining establishment I have to say that we were underwhelmed - perhaps we just chose badly. The service was slightly offhand, and certainly slow. Disappointing.
You are smack dab in the middle of OOB and surrounded by fried food, the Dolce Crema Cafe is your haven for very reasonably price, fresh food. My favorite salad is the Asia West, its a bit spicy with the sauce on the grilled chicken, but the mandarin oranges help balance that. At $7.25, its a bargain too. On this trip we ate lunch there twice, second day I tried the Smoked Turkey Panini, it was pretty good. What I love about this place is that the food is fresh and prices are very reasonable, but they also offer gluten free options like a super yummy gluten free sub roll for a $2 surcharge and gluten free whoopie pies ($4.75). Each year we visit OOB, we always each a Dolce Crema at least once each trip.
Stopped here after an evening on the pier and at the Palace Playpark. The menu is a mix of Greek and Italian food. The Pasticio was good and had a lot of flavor. Husband said his Gyro was "fine". Kids menu had spaghetti, chicken fingers, and grilled cheese. Service was average at best. The waitress seemed annoyed and didn't pay much attention past bringing our food. I would go here again if we were in the area and wanted to avoid the fried and greasy boardwalk food again.
Rocco's Pizza is a family owned and operated pizza place located in the heart of Old Orchard Beach. We offer some of the finest New York style pizza right here in Maine. Our thin crust pizza is hand crafted to order and baked in a brick oven. We also offer calzones (baked daily), french fries, chicken tenders and fried dough topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon (or pizza sauce if you're from Connecticut).
Iffy service (slow and disinterested) but the pie is very good. Don't order by the slice - they just reheat. Get a pie and eat it on the beach. Funny thing about Old Orchard - they have special trashcans for pizza boxes. Must be a Canadian thing!


Buzz Kill Ramblings of Tim Louie: APPARENTLY, IT IS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!
Some might look at this story and think it's just silly, but the headline alone pulled me in and I think it's absolutely amazing! I'm just going to get right to it and you tell me what you think.
So, on Valentine's Day, two lovers, Michael and Diane Greening decided to visit three Disney theme parks in one day. Sounds impossible, right? Wrong! They did it! They started with the park in Tokyo then flew to Anaheim and finally ended up Orlando right before the park closed on Saturday. The trip was a 28 hour, 7,900-mile global jaunt to celebrate their love for one another at the "Happiest Place on Earth."
49-year-old Greening said, "It's completely insane and that's why we did it." Greening has been hooked on Disney since he and his wife, Diane, celebrated their first wedding anniversary at the California amusement park. The childless (which really makes no difference) San Diego couple returns to the Anaheim amusement park every year to mark their big day with Mickey and Minnie. With their 17th Anniversary approaching this past January 17th, the Greenings considered shaking things up this year, but couldn't decide whether to hit the Tokyo Disneyland or the Walt Disney World in Orlando. Then Michael proposed doing both the same day with a stop in Disneyland in between. Michael knew it could be done, but only on days when the Magic Kingdom in Orlando was open until midnight. That ruled out January 17, but Valentine's Day could work if the air-transport Gods played along.
The Greenings started at Tokyo Disneyland at 9:50 a.m. Saturday. They took a photo in front of the castle and got things in motion, catching a 10-hour flight to Los Angeles. Even though the plane was an hour late, the Greenings reached Disneyland just after noon, posed for a picture in front of the castle there (which seems to be under renovations) and raced to Orange County's John Wayne Airport. They got there just in time.....to miss their Orlando-bound flight. The air-transport Gods must have been watching because luckily for them, a U.S. Airways attendant booked them on another flight and they even made up 30 minutes of lost time. Greening said, "We were so lucky!"
The Greenings posed for their final photo at Disney World on Main Street with the castle in the distance at 11:40 p.m., 20 minutes before the park closed. Yeah, the total travel time was nearly 28 hours, but they technically visited three Disney parks on Valentine's Day, because Tokyo is 14 hours behind Florida. See? It really is a small world after all. The "physically brutal" trip isn't for the faint of heart, but it was surely a Valentine's Day to remember for the Greenings and it would be for anyone for that matter. Michael said, "The best thing was doing it with my wife and my best friend. Having her by my side for the whole thing made it special."
Disney officials did not comment on the stunt yet, but if I worked for Disney, I would be hooking this couple up with lifetime passes for any of their theme parks. Their story was amazing and their adventure can't be compared to anything else that I've heard in recent memory. Plus, who even thought it was even possible to do this? So? Stupid? Or pretty f'n amazing? I still choose the latter.


text:
Coordination of trivalent lanthanum and cerium, and tetraval...
Coordination of trivalent lanthanum and cerium, and tetravalent cerium and actinides (An = Th(iv), U(iv), Np(iv)) by a 4-phosphoryl 1H-pyrazol-5-olate ligand in solution and the solid state
Jianfeng Zhang - , Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry (Author)
Marco Wenzel - , Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry (Author)
Kathleen Schnaars - , Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry (Author)
Felix Hennersdorf - , Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry (Author)
Kai Schwedtmann - , Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry (Author)
Juliane März - (Author)
André Rossberg - (Author)
Peter Kaden - (Author)
Florian Kraus - (Author)
Thorsten Stumpf - , Chair of Radiochemistry/Radioecology (Author)
Jan J. Weigand - , Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry (Author)
Structural investigations of three actinide(iv) 4-phosphoryl 1H-pyrazol-5-olate complexes (An = Th(iv), U(iv), Np(iv)) and their cerium(iv) analogue display the same metal coordination in the solid state. The mononuclear complexes show the metal centre in a square antiprismatic coordination geometry composed by the two O-donor atoms of four deprotonated ligands. Detailed solid state analysis of the U(iv) complex shows that dependent on the solvent used altered arrangements are observable, resulting in a change in the coordination polyhedron of the U(iv) metal centre to bi-capped trigonal prismatic. Further, single crystal analyses of the La(iii) and Ce(iii) complexes show that the ligand can also act as a neutral ligand by protonation of the pyrazolyl moiety. All complexes were comprehensively characterized by NMR, IR and Raman spectroscopy. A single resonance in each of the 31P NMR spectra for the La(iii), Ce(iii), Ce(iv), Th(iv) and Np(iv) complex indicates the formation of highly symmetric complex species in solution. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) investigations provide evidence for the same local structure of the U(iv) and Np(iv) complex in toluene solution, confirming the observations made in the solid state.
Dalton Trans.
Library keywords
546 Inorganic chemistry
540 Chemistry and allied sciences
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1DT00365H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
.PHONY: all fetch unpack patch build install clean distclean

PREFIX?=/usr
ifeq ($(PREFIX),/usr)
SYSCONFDIR?=/etc
else
SYSCONFDIR?=$(PREFIX)/etc
endif
ifeq ($(PREFIX),/usr)
LOCALSTATEDIR?=/var
else
LOCALSTATEDIR?=$(PREFIX)/var
endif
DESTDIR?=
VERSION?=1.6.8
FETCH?=curl -L --retry 3

all: build

override __CONFIGURE_FLAGS := --prefix=$(PREFIX) --sysconfdir=$(SYSCONFDIR) \
	--localstatedir=$(LOCALSTATEDIR) $(CONFIGURE_FLAGS)

fetch: dbus-$(VERSION).tar.gz
unpack: | dbus-$(VERSION)/
patch: unpack
prepare: | dbus-$(VERSION)/
	mkdir build/
	@touch $@

configure: prepare
	cd build && ../dbus-$(VERSION)/configure $(__CONFIGURE_FLAGS)
	@touch $@

build: configure
	$(MAKE) -C build

install: build
	$(MAKE) -C build install DESTDIR=$(DESTDIR)

clean:
	$(RM) prepare configure
	$(RM) -r build/
	$(RM) -r dbus-$(VERSION)

distclean: clean
	$(RM) dbus-$(VERSION).tar.gz

dbus-$(VERSION).tar.gz:
	$(FETCH) http://dbus.freedesktop.org/releases/dbus/dbus-$(VERSION).tar.gz > $@

dbus-$(VERSION)/: dbus-$(VERSION).tar.gz
	tar xzf $<

.PHONY: Version
Version:
	@echo $(VERSION) > $@

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Lawmakers, health leaders to discuss uptick in youth vaping
By Shelby Lofton |
Posted: Mon 10:49 PM, Jan 13, 2020 |
Updated: Mon 11:28 PM, Jan 13, 2020
FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT)- Lawmakers, teenagers and health leaders are meeting to address the uptick in e-cigarette use by Kentucky youth at the capitol Tuesday.
Ben Chandler, with the Coalition for a Smoke-free Tomorrow, said the goal is to get folks "fired up" over what he calls the vaping epidemic.
This meeting comes after news of the state's first death potentially related to vaping on Friday.
In 2020, he hopes to get more money allocated to the State Public Health Department to help with prevention efforts. The coalition wants vaping products to be taxed too.
Chandler says part of the problem is many young users don't know the harmful side effects of the habit.
"We have seen the number of high-schoolers who vape every day more than quadruple in the last 2 years," he said.
Chandler said the same can be said for Kentucky middle school students, too. He says the coalition worked to get more school districts smoke-free in the last few months.
The Kentucky Castle is for sale
Propane tanker overturns in Lincoln County
Blue Grass Army Depot begins destroying stored nerve agent
911 hit by curious, confused calls after quake felt in Southern Kentucky
Lexington Mayor Gorton touts city's success in State of the City/County speech


Captain: "What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
Everything clicks, and it does communicate.
Such a masterful performance by Paul Newman and the rest of the cast. Newman does carry this film though, and he forces you to care, through sheer talent, about what is happening on screen.
First half is a good hangout movie, second half gets a little heavy-handed and actorly. I mean, let's be honest, the biggest star on that set was behind the lens.


text:
Q: Using async await with `useSelector` in React hooks I have a functional component that that has an input field where the user types a question and hits enter and I send the query to the backend.
Here is the simplified version of the functional component
UserQuery.js
import {postQuery} from '../actions/postQueryAction'

const UserQuery = () => {
    const [name, setName] = useState("")

    function sendMessage(userQuery) {
            postUserQuery(userQuery)
    }

   return (
       <>
            <input
                type="text"
                value={name}
                onChange={e => setName(e.target.value)}
                onKeyPress={sendMessage}
                id="userQuery"
            />
       </>
   )

}

export default UserQuery

As you can see I have a callback called postQuery which actually makes the axios request and posts the user query. Here is how it looks like
postQueryAction.js
export const postQuery = (userQuery) => async dispatch => {

    let userInfo = useSelector(state => state.userInfo.data)

    const username = userInfo.username
    const group = userInfo.group

    const headers = {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json;charset=UTF-8',
    }

    const params = {
        group: group,
        user: username,
        data: userQuery

    }

    await axios.post(`/postQuestion`,params, {headers}, {

    }).then(response => {
        console.log("response check", response.data);

    })
    .catch(err => {
        console.log("Error log", err);

    });

}

But I get Invalid hook call error. If I remove useSelector code, then it doesn't complain and the request goes through.
I could use the useSelector in original functional component (UserQuery.js) and pass the parameters accordingly. But I want the postQuery method to only accept the userQuery parameter and figure the other information from the redux state.
What should I do?

A: Hooks can only be called from react components or other hooks. Instead of using the hook inside the postQuery function you could call it in the component and pass the user info to postQuery
const UserQuery = () => {
  const [name, setName] = useState("");
  let userInfo = useSelector((state) => state.userInfo.data);
  function sendMessage(userQuery) {
    postUserQuery(userQuery, userInfo);
  }
...

export const postQuery = (userQuery, userInfo) => async (dispatch) => {
...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Heretic Issue
My Sobering Trip Home. Dan shares his feelings from going sober for a few weeks, and being hit with nostalgia when traveling home.
A hilarious and absurd web series about frenemies. Zhe Zhe is the perfect combination of glam rock and campy. Here's what you need to know before watching the season finale.
Illustration by Jenny Marks.
Over the past couple of weeks, I spoke with three young femme-identified artists: Suzy X, Khrys Jackson, and Luna Merbruja. These femmes hail from all over the country and are bringing forth an analysis that flips the script on much of the discourse on femmeness in creative and political scenes.
Neo-Femme Artists
maskmag.com/1zH3F6q
Femme is about pleasure, not about suffering. Femme is about healing.
Femme is about taking the time to be present with the body, to make time to care for your self. Femme is about quiet moments waiting for your nail polish to dry, the hair dye to develop, the moisturiser to soak in.
Femme is not needing to apologize.
Femme is about subjecthood, not objectification. Femme is about self-making, about magic. Femme is a little bit of a mess. Femmes don't give a shit if you can tell they didn't wake up looking like that, if their hair color isn't natural, if they have a run in their stockings.
Femme is about politics, about power, about play.
— "What is femme anyway?" BossyFemme.com
'Third wave' feminists of the late 80s and 90s rejected the gender binary and identity as natural. Kimberlé Crenshaw's articulation of intersectionality – which describes systems of oppression and domination as interlocking – continues to be the primary framework for exploring our feminisms. The third wave destabilized the concept of universal womanhood. In response to third wave discourse, trans activists advocated for the right to define their own identity. Throughout all of this activism and gender talk, there had been little exploration of femininity and femmeness outside of the cisgender butch/femme dichotomy of second wave lesbians. The queer femme remained in the shadows, taken for granted as shallow and subordinate.
Speaking to many of my femme friends, the overarching sentiment across difference seems to be that femmeness is still disregarded as vapid and that femmes are somehow more performative than our masculine and androgynous counterparts. And they're not the only ones. In the past decade, there's been a lot of theorizing about the femme away from the man and the butch. In 2008, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha penned the Femme Shark Manifesto– a poetic communiqué critiquing scarcity models in femme circles, and a vision for anti-capitalist femme solidarity centering disabled, trans, and femmes of color. Julia Serano's Whipping Girl critiqued second wave feminist prescriptions for women to become more androgynous, claiming that this continues to privilege cis and trans masculinity, and continues to marginalize femmes and trans women. Girl-on-girl blogs debated whether "femme privilege" exists a little, or whether it is rooted in misguided misogyny and doesn't exist at all. These texts and the communities that inspired them have worked to expand our conception of "femme".
Beyond these critiques of stereotypical notions of femmeness, I'm interested in how femme artists navigate the world. Not just femme, but femme artists, invokes multiple layers of performativity – whether projected onto us or self-prescribed. What does it mean to both identify as femme, and also mobilize femmeness as a form of performance that can be liberating?
Queer Artists Redefining Femme
In the living room of her Brooklyn apartment, Suzy X – front-singer for the feminist revengecore band Shady Hawkins, music writer for MTV Iggy, and comic artist for Rookie – spoke about being a hard femme at punk shows and in anarchist organizing spaces.
Late night after work, I reconnected with my old friend Khrys Jackson – who I met via statewide student organizing – over a fuzzy Google Hangout. Khrys is a musician and performance artist, and she discussed her role as a trans feminine person who mentors youth growing up in the fourth poorest city in the country: Buffalo, New York.
Skyping with me from rural California, Luna Merbruja – poet, organizer, sex worker, healer, and author of Trauma Queen – talked about the potential for a trans women art movement, her experience as a femme writer and emphasized femmeness as science, art, and magic.
Suzy X, Khrys Jackson, and Luna Merbruja are three people who find power in creating art grounded in alienation focused on femme experience.
Even though these interviews took place on three separate occasions, they turned out to very much be in dialogue with each other. Instead of generating three separate pieces, or turning this into a series, I wove their words together into one conversation in hopes of adding to and addressing some holes in existing discussions on femme culture.
What was your entry point into the work you're doing?
LUNA: I started doing organizing in high school at a really early age, when I was 13 years old. I had a lot of connections in activist communities on a national level. But I came into art later, in my college years, because that was when I really stopped doubting myself.
I've taken a step back from organizing recently. The last big thing I did was to help organize the International Trans Women of Color Network Gathering at the Allied Media Conference that took place this past summer. That was a huge accomplishment because we somehow managed to raise twenty thousand dollars. It was amazing! Five trans women put it together and it was all community groundwork. It was incredible to be able to cover people's flights, hotels, and registration for the AMC. We really were able to provide space for trans women of color. That was a huge deal for us.
Since then, I've stepped back from organizing and I've been focusing on doing interpersonal community work instead. So now when people need advice or emotional support I've been able to put myself out there, to be like: "Hey, if you need to talk about violence, I'm here for you." I'm like a community therapist that doesn't charge money for my time. This year, I've also been touring the country and doing different events with a group called Mangos With Chili.
KHRYS: My main art practice has tended towards music since I was young. Up until the time I started sixth grade, I studied vocals. So, for eight whole years, I was mostly into the classical choral opera realm which is a world away from the stuff I do now.
Since I came out as trans, I've been reorienting myself and pursuing my most recent incarnation. I've been experimenting with electronic music. I've been influenced by drag, and have engaged in that scene in the past. Most recently, I worked at the Pride Center in Buffalo and was treated terribly by my employer – I lost my health insurance which I relied on for my HRT and experienced horrible withdrawal from the hormones. As a response to that happening, I wrote several articles about my experience and posted a lot on Tumblr and Instagram featuring photos and graphics of all the empty HRT prescription bottles I had used up until that point. It was a really violent experience and basically forced me to de-transition – and it happened at the hands of an institution that claims to be for LGBT people in Buffalo!
Since then, I've been flirting with the idea of performance art as political activism. I'm most fascinated by performance that breaks down the relationship between audience and performer – that breaks the mold of classical stiff interaction between the two groups. I want to get away from classical performance – I want to do something where we start a conversation about Buffalo, where I live, which is the fourth poorest and one of the most racially segregated cities in the country. Young people in this city are tired and I want to make art that expresses that.
Khrys Jackson's electronic music project.
SUZY: I grew up in the boonies in Florida, surrounded by Republicans, but went to a private art school in New York City. I went through a really sad time in college at Parsons, where people were telling me that art and any kind of creative expression doesn't have the potential to be political or to mobilize anybody. I think there is a lot of "political art" that's specifically self-serving, or is a little bit vacuous depending on where you are coming from and who looks at it. But I also think there is a whole lot of art about solidarity, love, and friendship and things that I wish I could will into reality.
A lot of my art has always been about alienation and isolation. In some ways, it's actually made me feel less alienated to put it out there in that I always had people coming back and saying that my art about alienation made them feel a little less alienated, which is kind of funny!
I think art and culture that is specifically geared towards young women is almost always disregarded or disrespected because it is for young women. So, I consider the work I do a political intervention. The comics I started drawing when I was 18 encapsulated some of the anxieties I felt as somebody who wasn't white, and as a woman. The project I've been working on the longest is The Best Song Ever, which is a comic for Rookie. I draw a comic about four girls of color that play in a band. It's very simple. They are friends. Sometimes they piss one another off and have complicated relationships. That comic in particular was a political intervention.
My music is all about being angry and feeling alienated or completely repulsed by things or feeling sad and disappointed and being okay with that.
One of Suzy's illustrations in the latest Rookie yearbook.
How do you think your femmeness affects how people perceive your work and the work of other femmes?
KHRYS: People have a misconception of [trans women] as threatening, and violent. It's been weird for me to try to strip it of its colonial origins. What does femme mean in the context of this capitalist world, this world that is the child of imperialism and colonialism and all the issues that came from that history? It's something I wish to have as a conversation about with other femmes. Such conversations rarely happen in Buffalo amongst people within marginalized communities who identify as femme.
I've been trying to figure out for myself how to get rid of the shame attached to femmeness, and I've been fighting the internalization of this shame. Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out whether or not to claim femme identity. I'm still on the journey of figuring out what it means to me and right now it's whatever it means at the time. Because it's an identity that I've ascribed to myself, it's complex.
Everywhere we go, femmes are hated and killed. Part of the education work I do as a mentor for youth and the performance art I am starting to play around with is getting people to understand that this is a real thing. We see it everyday: a trans woman killed or a femme killed. I would argue that this kind of killing is caused by transmisogyny – a deep hatred for trans women. We need to figure out how to get back to existing within our communities and returning the love, because we need a lot of love.
SUZY: Art can be treated as a very threatening thing, especially when it comes from a femme of color like myself.
Femmeness is especially vilified because it's seen as being connected to decadence and class-privilege. I know this from experience: if you bring five bucks to the thrift store, you can walk out with a total gem and look really good. It takes a good eye but you cultivate that from being without, like I did. You have to cultivate that skill, and you earn it by being able to feel really confident. It's a problematic notion because it also allows men and masculine people to put on a working class aesthetic: "Look at the one flannel I wear over and over again!" This isn't seen as performance, it's seen as more authentic.
I experienced really fucked-up mean-girl dynamics in anarchist spaces, because there was a vying for social capital. There was really shitty and weird behavior. I'm more focused on surviving and creating a sustainable lifestyle that's not just me crying at the end of every meeting. People were emotionally terrorizing, and I don't think it's any coincidence that it happened to femme women more often. In political spaces, the Left demonizes femininity because it is associated with excess – as though all of these heterosexist men would listen to us if we came into meetings looking like shit. They wouldn't even hear us out if we didn't look fucking fierce.
LUNA: It took me a while to embrace myself as a writer and artist. Specifically, to start speaking about my writing as an art form. What constitutes creative writing isn't really centered on femmeness. On top of that, writing as an artform isn't really embraced so much – it's kind of seen as literature or English or academic, it's not coded as being creative. When people write about love or sex or write creatively about self-care – it's not viewed as art, it's viewed as self-indulgence or selfishness. But when men and masculine people write science fiction, all of a sudden it's the most creative thing ever. There's a double standard where what women and femmes write about isn't seen as valid art versus what is deemed masculine.
Luna Merbruja speaks about thriving as a trans woman of color and performs her poetry at MWC Oakland.
So many layers of performance come with inhabiting femmeness as an identity. How do you navigate this notion as someone whose art work involves performance – be it through performance art, playing in a band, or poetry?
SUZY: I didn't think femininity was very important or radical for most of my life. It wasn't until after college and after processing a lot of toxic shit that I took up femme with a lot more enthusiasm. But during school, I listened all too much to feminists I respected. They were antagonistic to particularly feminine women, telling us that we cater to the male gaze. Now, I'm thinking about it like: Do I put on make-up for men, though? Nope, never.
I very much identify as hard femme, but sometimes I'm just a lazy femme. Despite that, I question my role as white-passing, straight-passing cis woman claiming femmeness. Is this identity really important to me? Maybe it just makes my life easier.
When I go to a punk show, I put on make-up because it makes me feel more threatening. And I think that's the thing: weaponized femininity is real and great.
I like that I can put on make-up and feel more confident and powerful – just because I look so fucking good. Nobody better fuck with me right now because my eyeliner is on point.
I think it depends on the time and the place. On stage, I'm really scrappy; I'm not high-femme at all. When I'm in femme spaces where people are all about makeup and nails, I go back to the way I felt when I was in middle school. Then, I felt like I wasn't feminine enough because I was queer. In the same vein, I think my femmeness makes me more accessible as a queer artist.
There's also this other layer where, when my comics get passed around, my queerness gets erased from the equation a lot. People often approach my work like I've never had sex with women before. They approach my comics with a very sanitized, straight gaze. Especially because my female characters, even some of the queer ones, are feminine more often than not, and they may not all be sexually active. But just because I don't draw women getting it on all the time doesn't mean that my comics aren't queer. My comics are queer because I draw them. This reminds me why many femmes have to constantly affirm that we are queer enough, and by that I mean gay enough. I feel caught in the cross-fire.
Suzy X introduces the song "State of Emergency" during a Shady Hawkins show. from Mask Magazine on Vimeo.
LUNA: Femmeness is seen as performance – especially trans women's femmeness – but femmeness is not viewed as an artwork. For me, I started viewing make-up as a huge art-work. People paint their faces, do contouring. It is art, I mean, think about the way people do simple eyeliner and are so intentional, they are literally using brushes on their face. So, why isn't someone painting their face seen as being a legit artist? To me, that's my favorite art form because it changes every single day.
For real, though: femmes are the future. Recently, I went with my friend, Morgan Robyn Collado who is a trans Latina poet, to her nail artist. There was a moment when her nail artist was using all these tools on my fingernails.
As I was watching my hand become claws, I thought, we are in the future. They had fans and lightbulbs and all of these chemical formulas. It was like femme fucking science.
Luna sees make-up as art.
KHRYS: There's a question of where the line is drawn across our performances: as a femme, as a trans person, as an artist. My experience with drag made me realize that my femmeness was something more than this thing I took off downstairs at the show and put away in a backpack.
So, there's an idea: how do we live and exist – for those of us who are artists or performers or activists – in a world where our femininity and our existence is seen as performance?
When I think about how drag has sort of commodified femininity, it makes me feel as if drag has contributed more to the idea that femininity is a thing that can be performed. I found it devalued my own femininity. Based on my past experience doing drag, dealing with that idea of femininity as actual performance on stage – it's something that I knew I wanted to get away from. I wanted to celebrate my femininity but also explore and problematize femmeness in the context of capitalism.
Now, I want to do performance art that critiques ideas and institutions that devalue femmeness. I really want people in Buffalo to think about femme identity away from drag as well. Unfortunately, I live in an area where drag queens are more appreciated then actual trans women. That dynamic has made life – in the context of creating art – very, very challenging.
With so many femmes – specifically trans women of color – being criminalized and murdered, celebrating femme life and femme-centered work seems especially urgent. Pushing for a resurgence in conversations surrounding femmeness in the context of building movements and culture-making could be life-saving work. What do you think is next for us in terms of building femme solidarity across disciplines, identities and experiences?
LUNA: I think a new art movement could be created that really celebrates trans femininity. I've been thinking: what if I started something about trans women appreciating their penises, and viewing that as the epitome of femmeness. What if I started doing smegma art on canvas, and sold it for $5000 because you mother-f-ers can do it with your vagina blood. That transphobia and transmisogyny that stops us from embracing our bodies – what if we smashed it with art that allowed us to view our bodies as feminine and womanly?
I have been thinking about how to incorporate penises as feminine. Moving forward, that's going to be the next central point of my art work. Extravagant images of penises and scrotum, presenting them in feminine ways, taking something about trans women's bodies that people see as inherently masculine, reverting that and representing it as feminine.
SUZY: Ultimately, I would rather have a politics that was more defensive of all women – not just femme women. There are women – cis and trans – who are not very girly. Not just butch women but women who don't identify with the binary. I acknowledge the need for femme solidarity because feminine people get the shit end of the stick in a society that worships masculinity. I don't think femininity has anything to do with masculinity. I think it's masculine people that antagonize femmeness to affirm their masculinity, and I don't think it's the fault of feminine people. I want to be there for all women though – I wouldn't want anybody to feel less of woman because they don't wear make-up. I feel like a lot of femme and butch culture leaves out those who feel like they don't fit into those identities or roles. So, I have to wonder, how do we decide what femme is? How do femmes decide who we are in solidarity with?
Suzy X draws revolutionary femmespirations like Zapatista women, Angela Davis and Sylvia Rivera for her comic "Punk is not just for straight white guys."
I think there's also something to be said about the way some pre-teen and teenage girls don't want to be associated with girly things. I was one of them – girls who have an aversion to femininity because they don't want to be thrown under the bus. And then have a serious problem when people associate femininity with the people being thrown under the bus or with constantly being a victim, which is the reality. When Tumblr people say 'Stop Girl Hate', we aren't just talking about mean girls bullying one another in school. We are talking about a hatred of femininity that creates a world where people are killed because they are feminine and where that's justified.
When I see girls who hate feminine things, I think: you're just trying to survive. Eventually, I want a culture where we don't have to denounce femininity to survive.
KHRYS: @Tgirlinterruptd on Twitter says: "The makings of my gender are scattered across the Atlantic." Through my art, I've been trying to understand what my femmeness and my non-binary gender means in the context of decolonization, outside the confines of capitalism. For instance, what would it look like to be in a society where femmes are loved and revered?
To get there, we have to do the double work of convincing other people that we are worthy and convincing ourselves that we are worthy as well. Where do we go from here? Let's fix this shit. We will have to do it for us, by us – on our own terms.
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