Congratulations to Actor Slash Model, Marian Runk, and RAWR! for being
the July 2009 winners of The Critical Fierceness Grant!

About the Projects:

Actor Slash Model // Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Defiance in Music Performance (Documentary Film)

The Actor Slash Model film Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Defiance in Music Performance is committed to representing the whole lives of transgender and gender variant musicians, though a first-hand perspective of the intersections between gender performance and stage performance. http://actorslashmodel.com

Marian Runk // Best Friend (Mini-Comic)

A 24-panel story of the evolution and dissolution of a queer girl’s childhood best-friendship, referencing the lingering effect that early friendships, attachments, and losses can have on our adult selves. http://marianrunk.com

Jakob VanLammeren // RAWR! (Radical Awesome Writers Resisting!) (Creative Writing Group / Youth Workshop)

A youth-led creative writing program aimed at providing the tools, space, and support for LGBTQA youth and allies experiencing homelessness to feel empowered through writing, as it functions both as an art form and as an act of resistance against oppression. About the Broadway Youth Center, RAWR!’s home: http://www.howardbrown.org/hb_services.asp?id=50

“The Person on the Other Side” by Jasen Williams
excerpted from Together Beyond Body: An Anthology of Youth Writing,
edited by Jakob VanLammeren and Katy Howe

The Person on the Other Side

With my love,
my affection toward the feeling
that I first started with
never changed,
never seen,
never understood.
New doors,
new feeling,
new chances to change
the outlook on life.
Maybe a new person
can change me,
maybe I am fit for this person
that’s in front of me
staring into this reflection
in this place that has no entry
or exit, but only if I am the one
that can open or make doors.
Why I am weak to the spirit
and the soul, not the body?
The kindness of the spirit
that connects the body,
that attaches the soul
of the Almighty reflection
in the mirror that makes
the person that is not respected
by the healthiness of the spirit,
of this reflection.
Whom is this reflection
that you keep speaking of?
The one that is not respected
by the one he is talking about?
It’s me.

++Also check out this article on The Critical Fierceness Grant on the Think Pink Radio Blog

Thank you so much to all our applicants, who all deserve to be funded,
even if we are unable to at this time.
Thanks to all the folks who have come to Chances over the years.
Your continued support is what makes this grant possible.

Peace and Love
Aay, Ethan, Latham, Mel and Rita AKA Team Chances