Number 160 Winter 2015 $9.95 Differently Abled FolkIssue 161 / Spring 2015 REWILDING Submission Deadline: January 21, 2015 www.rfdmag.org/upload This is calling to Fae people who have life experience in Rewilding. What the fuck is rewilding? Please share your stories, personal lessons, art, poetry, recipes, and journals entries to empower and inspire the larger Radical Faerie community in this fundamental change and reclaiming of the way we relate, interact, and live on the earth. Our relationship with the earth that we have been told is a lie. Humans were meant to be a part of the earth, not apart from the earth. Civilization is all we have known, and it is a used-up path of death. We are recreating the ancient future for the beings of tomorrow. We hope to hear in these entries a concise communication of our understanding of what this is, and how this moves in us. The word Rewilding was coined in the Earth First organization as a term for reintroducing parts of an ecosystem that were important for that systems healthy continuance. The term has been taken up and passed about spawning inspiration for a movement of people returning to direct connection and symbiotic life ways with the earth. We are interested in how our radical freedom expressed in our sex experiences can be a call to rewilding our psyches, especially for those living in urban environments. We are curious between the links between inner sexual ecstasy matches the erotic abundance of Mother Earth herself in her promiscuous fecundity. How as a community can we engage with these primal forces in our inner joys that is expressed in outwork actions? This is a call for changing the way our community relates to humans ability to be with the earth in a symbiotic and nurturing way; changing the level of awareness of our impact on the environment, how our culture has taught us to interact with the earth, and the reality that we are a beneficial species when we are living in symbiotic relationship to the earth. RFD 160 Winter 2015 1 Rabbit’s Foot Doppelgänger Vol 41 No 2 #160 Winter 2015 In this issue we asked our readers to explore how living with a disability impacts their lives and influences how “ability” shifts over time. We were thrilled by the variety of responses and the diversity of the submissions. We hope you enjoy reading about how being differently abled impacts people within our GLBT community. We also have a number of interviews for you in this issue celebrating a range of topics from the influences of coming from a deaf family on a performer, shifts in an author’s perspective on rural life and how Bear culture is shaping poetry in a new anthology. As always we’re thankful to Franklin Abbott for the diverse range of people he chooses to interview for these pages. In our upcoming issue - we’re asking our readers about Re/Wilding the envi- ronment and how the environment and how we interact with it is returning us to a “wild” state, one less dependant on technology. We hope you will con- sider writing or sharing your artwork, as ever RFD is a work of our reader’s experiences and ideas. We are still negotiating the boxes in our storage unit and collating the back issues to have them scanned and we hope to have news about the scan project for the next issue. Meanwhile, we’ve embarked on a new endeavour to make some of our back issues available digitally. So we’re adding the back issues to a website where you can view RFD online, you can share the issue with friends or via social media. The website is at http://issuu.com/rfdmag. Some folks have written asking about Brothers Behind Bars and we want to let folks know the program is officially closed since Myrlin retired from shepherding the project for so many years. The collective in New England is not in a position to continue to project but we urge our readers to consider reaching out to our queer friends behind bars by exploring other projects— a great place to start is to look at Black and Pink’s website of resources for LGBT prisoners—http://www.blackandpink.org/resources-2/national-pris- oner-resource-list/. From a snowy to a slushy New England… —The RFD Collective Between the Lines2 RFD 160 Winter 2015 RFD is a reader-written journal for gay people which focuses on country living and encourages alternative lifestyles. We foster community building and networking, explore the diverse expressions of our sexuality, care for the environment, Radical Faerie consciousness, and nature-centered spirituality, and share experiences of our lives. RFD is produced by volun- teers. We welcome your participation. The business and general production are coordinated by a collective. Features and entire issues are prepared by different groups in various places. RFD (ISSN# 0149-709X) is published quarterly for $25 a year by RFD Press, P.O. Box 302, Hadley MA 01035-0302. Postmaster: Send address changes to RFD, P.O. Box 302, Hadley MA 01035- 0302 Non-profit tax exempt #62- 1723644, a function of RFD Press with office of registration at 231 Ten Penny Rd., Woodbury, TN 37190. RFD Cover Price: $9.95. A regular subscription is the least expensive way to receive it four times a year. Copyright © 2012 RFD Press. The records required by Title 18 U.S.D. Section 2257 and as- sociated with respect to this magazine (and all graphic material associated therewith on which this label appears) are kept by the custodian of records at the following location: RFD Press, 85 N Main St, Ste 200, White River Junc- tion, VT 05001. Mail for our Brothers Behind Bars project should be sent to P.O. Box 68, Liberty TN 37095. On the Covers Front and Back : Drawings by Josh Turk Production Managing Editor: Bambi Gauthier Art Director: Matt Bucy Interviews: Franklin Abbott Submission Deadlines Spring–January 21, 2015 Summer–April 21, 2015 See inside covers for themes and specifics. For advertising, subscriptions, back issues and other information visit www.rfdmag.org Artists in This Issue Josh Turk Covers, 2, 23, 30, 35, 36, 38, 43, 46, 59 Charles F. Gustina 4 artboydancing 5, 25, 32 Adam Marsnik 6 Wave 15, 16, 17 James Elmore 28 Drawing by Josh Turk. Josh Turk Josh’s drawings and artwork appear throughout. “The invention of photography challenged painters to move beyond what exists or could be captured on a two dimensional surface. Thusly, cubism and surrealism challenged their viewers to expand their limited perspectives. Today, technological advances have shifted the way we interact with people, and consequently the human form. In part due to Facebook, Instagram, text, email, and twitter---to name a few--our personal interac- tions have become two dimensional. It is with the theoretic perspective I create portraits that revisit ideas of cubism, seeking to capture the human form from multiple vantage points. These neocu- bist portraits challenge their viewer to navigate the blurred lines and distortion created in order to see the subject in their entirety.” w RFD 160 Winter 2015 3 CONTENTS Letters & Announcements ....................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Community Building ...........................Raymond Luczak (Finger) .........7 The Stygian Wolf Rape-Tape A Tanka Sequnce ...........................Richard Witherspoon ............14 The Fluidity of Wave ...........................Wave ...........................15 Deformed ....................................Jennifer Brooke ..................18 A Differently Abled Radical Faerie ...............Floral Pearl .....................20 Where You Are ................................Foudatz ........................21 Spiritual Emergence ...........................Hijinx Bandersnatch .............22 Diffabled: Reclamation ........................Kaš ............................24 Physical Healing by Swimming in the Psycho-Spiritual Ethers .....................Nova S. Dara ....................26 Munsters .....................................James Elmore ...................28 Love and Loss at a Mental Health Clinic ..........Justin Samuels ..................29 Fundamental ..................................Kanji ...........................31 Thoughts on Being Queer and Disabled ..........Mark Ellis ......................36 Framelight ....................................Michael Sano ...................39 Communes Funded by Aid to the Totally Disabled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Voyager ........................44 Interview with Brandon Kazen-Maddox .........Franklin Abbott .................47 Interview with Allan Gurganus .................Franklin Abbott .................51 Ron Suresha Interview .........................Franklin Abbott .................54 For Better or Worse ............................Donny Ingraham ................55 Opening Address to the Western North Carolina Pride Week ..........Gavin Geoffrey Dillard ...........58 Savages .......................................Finger ..........................60 Cocoa Mango .................................Angela Sterling ................. 61 The Leidenfrost Effect ..........................David George Demers ............62 17—from Wrestling Starting Position . . . . . . . . . . . . Winthrop Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634 RFD 160 Winter 2015 LETTERS & ANNOUNCEMENTS BC Radical Faerie Camp 2015 British Columbia Radical Faerie Camp will be held May 15-18 at the Evans lake Forest Camp, near Squamish, BC (about 75 km northwest of Vancou- ver). Details of the gathering, including the Call and registration form, can be found online at www.bcrad- fae.ca after Feb. 1. Registration is limited to 80, so folks are encouraged not to delay! Fifth Annual Philly Faerie Gatherette Yooo-hoooo. Save-the-Date!! January 29th through February 1st, 2015! These dates have been set for the 5th annual Philly Faerie Gatherette! Change your calendars—it’s later this time. The organizers-that-be have consented & agreed, that this year, we will celebrate Imbolc to- gether, and welcome the returning light & the ap- proach of Spring. And weave Faerie magic into Ev- ery-thing! www.facebook.com/groups/phillyfaeriegatherette/ Other Gatherings Happening Round the World Faeries Finding Financial Freedom, Saratoga Springs, CA, Jan 16-18, 2015 Asian Faerie Gathering, Thailand, Jan 29-Feb 8, 2015 Winter Breitenbush Gathering, Oregon, Feb 12-16, 2015 F7 Gathering at Amber Fox, Ontario, Canada, Feb 13-16, 2015 Featherstone Castle, Northumberland, UK, Mar 20-30, 2015 For more info on gatherings see www.radfae.org Billy Midwinter Visioning gathering. Held at Sarato- ga Springs, February 26 – March 1, 2015. Billys and Billy Kin welcome. http://thebillys.org/ Sister Soami’s Corrections From Issue #159 In my article for the 40th Anniversary of RFD is- sue the “Vera” I referred to on page 15 was not Dan Vera but Vera/Bob Fish, one of our dedicated editors back then. He and not Jan Nathan Long, as I wrongly surmised, was also the author of #76’s collective edi- torial. My article was far from comprehensive in cel- ebrating the many generous contributors and I was pleased to see our Facebook site received praise for art director Dwight DeLight who served RFD so well at both Running Water and Short Mountain until we lost him to AIDS. Another omission of the article was any men- tion of a stellar photographic contributor, Charles F. Gustina, whose images graced several numbers and the covers of two popular and now rare issues: #92 & #134 (below). —in sisterspirit all ways, Soami RFD cover photographs by Charles F. Gustina. RFD 160 Winter 2015 5 “Being Without” by artboydancing.6 RFD 160 Winter 2015 “My Many Faerie Name Signs”, by Adam Marsnik. RFD 160 Winter 2015 7 I hobble with my cane down the crooked forest path from the Love Canopy. I’ve candy-striped my cane with ribbons and topped it off with a carna- tion corsage. I wear an old wide-brimmed hat with a price tag that says FREE sewn on. I wear a paisley- print toga that I’ve made myself. Everyone says I look fabulous as Gaudy Gandhi, which is my faerie name for the week. But no one gropes me amidst the flash orgies in the Love Canopy. Radical faeries think they don’t discriminate. But they do. Oh, how they do! Most faeries who’ve come to this retreat are too young to remember Minnie Pearl, the comedienne who sported a hat that showed the price tag of $1.98. She always was something of a huckster with her hillbilly humor, especially when she was on the TV show Hee-Haw. The humor was thigh-slapping oh-gosh-golly as if these strange folks were meant to be misunderstood and shrugged off with a chuckle. But I do remember. I refuse to be called Pity Pearl. F or a long time I never wanted to be near freaks. Kids were shushed when they saw how the freaks gimped, rolled, and stuttered. Freaks were zoo animals let loose. They were all lumped together as a single species. Never mind the fact that each freak is never a generalization. Us freaks are to be avoided. After all, what little they’ve known of us comes from observing us at a very uncomfortable range. They can’t imagine living the way we do. The question of us is a very painful one to answer. Yet their superiority allows them to gawk at us. Sometimes we inspire them with Internet memes that get shared on Facebook and retweeted on Twitter and reposted on Tumblr. Do these memes make us feel any better? No. We have been reduced to sight-bites designed to make able-bodied people feel better about themselves. If an armless man can change a baby’s diapers, which seems like a miracle to anyone except to those who’ve adapted their toes as fingers, their own lives may not be so bad after all. We cripples are put on this planet to make everyone else feel better about themselves. We’ve seen too many people apologize for their unthink- ing behavior, and yet they rarely change. They figure they’ll never have to deal with us again. Even though I’ve got a perfectly functioning penis with plenty of love spooge for anybody who wants it, it’s as if we cripples are supposed to stay asexual. No one ever asks us how we can fuck if our bodies aren’t the same as theirs. No one asks if we want to date and have boyfriends. There are times when I’ve the urge to create a T-shirt that says, I CAN STILL WALK, with a cane below, and AND I CAN STILL COCK, with the same cane flipped upward like an erection. But I don’t have enough balls to wear such a shirt in public. It’s too incendiary, and I’m afraid of turning off a prospective boyfriend. I know why we are unpopular with the cool faer- ies, including the ones who claim to be very accept- ing of everyone. It’s too hard to bullshit with us. F aeries argue with me that there is no such thing as an A-list faerie. “Everyone’s different, but they’re all equal,” they say. “Really? Then why do I feel like a pariah? Can’t someone give me a little lovin’?” They stare at me as if I’ve suddenly become too selfish for my own good. I want to remind them of what they’d shared in our heart circles over the past few days: how they’d expressed doubts about their own physical attractiveness and their fears stemming from loneliness. But we cannot refer to what we’ve learned in the circle. What’s shared within the circle stays in the circle. The faeries with the more beautiful bodies are the ones who get more sex than anyone else. I should know. I’ve hung out in the Love Canopy and jacked off listlessly while I watched. Once in a while an older faerie will offer himself to me, and of course I’ll go down on him. But is it always recipro- cal? Rarely. I’m somehow too freakish for him. I’m a confirmed masturbator. It’s not what I want to be, but when you get told most insistently in so many ways that you are not desirable enough, you have to make do. I’ve thought about walking about completely naked and showing off my dick, but I think about the scars that sprawl all over my legs. They look like gnarly saplings with some skin. That’s why I wear leggings as part of my outfit. But here’s the thing. I don’t have a large dick and it doesn’t get big when it’s hard. I see other faeries Community Building by Raymond Luczak (Finger)Next >