So, a number of people have asked me to blog my experience in Africa. Okay, here it is:

http://teyinafrica.blogspot.com/

I have been thinking a lot about what safe space means lately, particularly as I seem to be encountering numerous opportunities for pretty deep and transformative conversations lately - with students, with mentors and with friends. I have thought a lot about how to cultivate an open classroom community where students can try to work though complex intellectual and moral issues, particularly when they hold unpopular views. In my mind, it's the only way we can ever move on an issue - if we have the opportunity to really explore it openly. Unsurprisingly, it feels easier to do this when I can wield "control" over the classroom. I wish I knew a way to do this among friends, in political conversations, but that seems to be more tricky.

On a sort of related point, I've been struggling with related issues of respect and openness with family a lot recently. I keep finding myself upset and at a loss in discussions with family (mine and my partner's) on queer stuff. For example, I had a discussion with my partner's brother-in-law about Don't Ask Don't Tell last weekend. He was trying to get me to justify my opinion that Clinton made the situation worse for gays in the military, and I was trying to explain why the outright witch hunts that preceded it were, if nothing else, more honest. DADT seems to shift the burden to gays and lesbians to hide their identities, making it a personal failure when they're "discovered," and not an awful, horrifying display of government censorship and oppression. I, as usual, got a little emotional, and then felt embarrassed for not being able maintain sufficient critical distance during his very lawyerly questioning of my position. I wish I was able to remain calm and to systematically and logically attack homophobia when I see it - but it still unnerves me and makes me sad and angry, particularly when it's coming from someone I care about. Sigh...

published Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Dancer Willi Ninja, whose skill in the gender-bending art of "voguing" influenced Madonna and was immortalized in the documentary film "Paris Is Burning," has died, friends and relatives said Tuesday.

Ninja died Saturday of AIDS-related illnesses at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, they said. He was 45.

Inspired by Fred Astaire, "Great Performances" on PBS, Asian culture and Olympic gymnasts, Ninja was a self-taught performer who stitched together a patchwork of a career that extended into the worlds of dance, fashion and music.

The critically acclaimed 1990 documentary, directed by Jennie Livingston, shed light on the subculture in which the cross-dressing participants, many of them black and Latino, displayed their costumes and styles at Manhattan balls.

Judges rated participants on the realness of their drag impersonations. On a deeper level, the balls became a colorful demonstration of serious issues of gender, class and race.

In its review of "Paris Is Burning," The New York Times called Ninja "a lithe, articulate young man who also happens to be a master in the art of 'voguing,' in which dancers attempt to top each other by using gymnastics and the gestures of high-fashion models."

Madonna used the style in 1990 in her No. 1 hit record and video "Vogue."

"He was a great cultural influence to me and hundreds of thousands of other people," she said through a spokeswoman.

Ninja -- born William Leake in 1961 -- said the drag-queen balls began in the 1960s, and over the years new varieties of performance, including voguing, evolved as more gays participated.

"I didn't find out about it until 1980. . . . I didn't know what this was about. I began learning from the experts, and I developed my own style," he told Associated Press in 1991.

His career boosted by the attention from "Paris Is Burning," he performed with dance companies, worked under noted choreographers and instructed models and socialites how to walk and pose with frisson.

Livingston said Ninja, a "supremely gifted dancer" who was dedicated to his craft, was "one of the main reasons" she made the film.

She recalled walking through Washington Square Park one summer and spotting young men voguing beneath a tree. She approached them to learn about this dance, which was new to her, and the young men told her to look up Ninja.

"Whenever you talk about vogue or voguing, Willi's name is there," Livingston said Tuesday. "Willi refined voguing. He really brought it to an amazing level."
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Dear New York Nightlife Friends and Family...
 
WE lost an icon this past weekend, our dear friend Willie Ninja.
 
For those of you did not know who he was...watch the movie/documentary "Paris is Burning".
 
I used to go to Escuelita back when I worked at  Palladium and Twilo. I spent most of the night outside talking to Willie (who was the doorman). The man was so interesting ,smart and of course ENTERTAINING. I saw him a lot when i worked at Splash also. He would bring some of the models from his agency for Happy Hour. The staff took care of him. He was always gracious.
I recently (finally) saw the movie "Paris is Burning".
Willie was one of the few people in that movie/documentary that was still alive.
 
One of my chelsea friends was showing me a video from a Fire Island "Barbie Party" yes barbie(the doll) He had thrown from like 1990. When the movie ended it went to a black and white Video of Willie teaching people how to vogue? Hilarious. Obviously some queen taped Willies video on the same video. I told Willie when i saw him. WE laughed our asses off. These Fire Island queens taping the "how to vogue video" LOL.
 
The Willie that I knew took very good care of himself. This was a shock for all BUT  I know I will see him in Heaven, free of pain and beautiful ( possibly teaching people how to vogue).
Rest in Peace Willie.  
 
The services will be held In Jamaica, Queens this Friday from 7pm until 9pm at The Gilmore Funeral Home 11902 Linden Blvd. I believe its near the F train. Refer to www.hotstop.com for subway info.

WE WILL MISS U.xoxoxoxoxo. 

In the last few months, I’ve watched with a combination of interest and horror at the number of blogs that have emerged from my friend group. People in my life who barely compose an email in sentence form are now posting mini-theses on issues as diverse as better breakfast choices and the dangers of biking in a city where cars interpret the “bike lane” symbol to mean “park here while you bring your groceries inside.” Blogging has now become somehow social. It’s not the self-indulgent medium I once thought it was- I actually read blogs to get info on things I want to know more about. I feed my fascination with the evolution of Brooklyn culture, celeb gossip, the whereabouts of high school classmates and much more on daily doses of the blogosphere. And I have to admit it, I’m intrigued by the prospect of exploring what I might contribute. And I feel a little left out. At the same time, I’m intimidated by this medium, as it invites a form of unpolished writing I scarcely allow myself in my own private note-taking, much less in a semi-published venue. But I will try to curb my obsessive-compulsive (read: self-conscious) nature long enough to see what this LJ thing is all about.