Gagging on Plastic and Listening to Grindcore

Nicole Chatterson

Plastics? Yuck!

Plastic is so naughty. These days plastic products are being vilified because they:

are made from fossil fuels and release a bunch of greenhouse gases while being made.
end up everywhere (including our bodies) except in recycling and landfills
last for a very long time and then release even more greenhouse gases.

While I do a lot of work talking about mitigating and adapting to climate change, I haven’t spent that much time learning about plastic pollution. Thanks to Nicole Chatterson from the University of Hawaii and Dominic Scicchitano from Bucknell University, I know a lot more. Nicole has done research in the Pacific Ocean while Dominic looked into plastics in the Susquehanna River.

I wanted to include Dominic because I live on the banks of the Susquehanna, and I wanted a local perspective. They both appear in episode 35 of Citizens Climate Radio.

Dominic Scicchitano

They are both engaging speakers and told me a lot about micro-plastics, tiny plastics either designed that way for say skin care products, or broken down from larger pieces of plastic that did not get properly discarded. What I especially love is how they are looking at big solutions. Sure do what you can to use less single-use plastic in your own personal life, but they are looking for systems changes in packaging, production, and waste management.

The Art House

The other part of the show that came out really well is an interview with sustainability expert, Peter Buckland. He is a renaissance man–a poet, politician, musician, teacher, and more. He also loves heavy metal music. He told me all about Grindcore (which sounds like a new gay app or else a very gay workout regime) and Thrash Metal (which just sounds like it must be really loud.) These two sub-genres of metal take sources of negative energy, including greenhouse gas pollution.

For example there is the band Testament and their song, Greenhouse Effect.

If you want to learn about the world, there are many ways of doing it. One of my favorites is host a podcast. It forces me to engage with people and ideas that fall well ourself of my experience and even comfort zone.

Check out Ep 35 for yourself and please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

(Featured image: Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash)

How I connect conversion therapy & queer theology to climate change

No doubt I make strange connections in my head and on stage. The show I am currently touring, Everything is Connected–An Evening of Stories, Most Weird, Many True, (video below) makes some pretty weird connections. Last year for HowlRound I wrote an article outlining what I attempt to do in the performance art piece.

“What you are about to see is a performance lecture in three acts. These acts may seem unconnected. l will talk as myself and also perform in character.” I don’t tell them this type of presentation rose out of the tensions I feel being an artist, an activist, and an academic. These roles pull at each other, competing to take a prominent place. My shows attempt to give them each equal pull, like the cords that enable a tent to hold its shape.

I then describe the three acts. I begin with my own story:

Act One
The first act of Everything is Connected includes me talking about my weird coming out experience coupled with a scene from my one-person play Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House. The play comically exposes the dangerous world of gay conversion therapy—programs promising to “cure” LGBTQ people. As someone who survived seventeen years of this before coming out as gay, I want to highlight both the foolishness and the destructiveness of these “straight camps.”

Then I take an unexpected turn into the world of queer theology:

Performing gender normative behavior as Esau in upcoming film version of Transfigurations

Act Two
I talk about discrimination within the LGBTQ community—racism, sexism, and transphobia. I perform a scene from Transfigurations—Transgressing Gender in the Bible about Joseph and his famous dream coat; I suggest it might actually be a princess dress. I narrate the scene as Joseph’s butch, gender-normative Uncle Esau. Scornful of Joseph, he never once makes eye contact with the audience until the final line. There is a pause and deep breath as Esau lifts his head and in a husky whisper admits, “He saved us all.”

Finally I take the various strands I have been throwing out to audience members and weave them together.

Peterson as Tony Buffusio

Act Three
Tony, a working-class, bisexual, Italian-American from New York City, pokes fun at polar bears, explaining coffee is also an endangered species. He jokes how he came out bisexual and vegan at the same time; his family struggles more with his diet than his sexual orientation.

Talking about queer responses to climate change, Tony revisits the Joseph story as a climate narrative, reveals how early responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis serve as a model for climate advocates today, and stresses climate change is about justice and human rights, “We’re all in the same boat together—just not on the same deck.”

What comes next is explosive, unexpected, and shockingly hopeful. The final line of the play is an essential question for the audience.

Peterson with the LeClair Family

Earlier this year I performed Everything is Connected at Bentley University. The performance was especially moving because it was in honor of a former student, David LeClair. Amanda King, Executive Director of the Office of Sustainability shared how David, a gay young man was also very concerned about the environment. After he graduated and began working, he died in a bike accident during a fund raiser. David’s parents and sister have set up a memorial fund.

The LeClairs have made Peterson’s visit to Bentley possible through the David LeClair Memorial Fund. [COUGH] David LeClaire was a remarkable member of our Bentley community, and a student leader who held multiple E-board and member positions in many student organizations, including Pride and the Greek Society. David was one of the first people who I met when I arrived on campus in 2009, at the time, he was president of the Green Society.

Bentley University recorded the performance and has made it public. They also include closed captioning and a full transcript. Enjoy making the connections!

J Mase III on being fired, grief, and much more

J Mase III

How thrilling J Mase III has just released his book, And Then I Got Fired:One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment & Inappropriate Jokes About Death.

It’s been well over a decade when we first met, and I have been consistently moved, inspired, and challenged by J Mase III, his message, and the creative ways he uses language. As a slam poet, activist, speaker, and writer, J Mase III explores (and explodes) patriarchy, white supremacy, justice, and injustices. He also has a wicked sense of humor and excellent taste in cocktails.

Back in 2014/2015 we worked on Queer Responses to Climate Change and we have had a creative dialogue about gender non-conforming Bible characters. If you want to deepen your understanding of LGBTQ+ issues, privilege, the Bible, and justice I highly recommend you follow J Mase III and get his book.

About the new book:

Feel free to scream directly into this book if you need to. It won’t judge you, promise! This book gets grief. The good, the bad and the snotty noses. Through a healthy mix of poems, personal testimony, bad jokes and choose-your-own-journey workbook style, “And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment & Inappropriate Jokes About Death”, is an unexpected and lively conversation between the author and reader on grief, Black Trans survival and the arts. Whether you are currently moving through grief mode, love a good poem, or just want some tools to deal with painful experiences, this book is for you. More importantly, this book is for all of us who deserve a place to be honest when things get hard.

Get your own copy today! And Then I Got Fired:One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief

Indiana Jones and the Communication Crusade

Writing for Forbes, Solitaire Townsend recounts hearing Harrison Ford speak about climate change in a very unconventional way,

“Let’s kick this monster’s ass!” roared Harrison Ford at the Global Climate Action Summit yesterday.

Now, as a girl, Indiana Jones and Han Solo got me hooked on storytelling, character and yes, fighting monsters. So, the idea of climate change as a monster story hooked my imagination.

But there’s a problem.

Because if you review most climate messages in the media, then this story actually has two acts: man makes monster, then monster destroys man.

It’s a grand morality tale which neatly fits a primordial structure in our subconscious. This plot sings to something deep within us, a tale we’ve told since we sat around fires weaving myths in the dark.

She goes on to explain,

Climate change isn’t presented to the public as plucky rebels against the empire. Instead climate is told as a Frankenstein story: that with our avarice and vanity, we have created the horror that will ultimately defeat us.

The narrative necessity of this climate story is hard to escape. Throughout this summer of ‘hothouse earth,’ and the decades leading up to it, this human hubris story has been the basic blueprint of climate change messaging.

via GIPHY

If you want to be a better climate communicator, I urge you to read the rest of the article. I find it thought-provoking and helpful.

The Epic Story of Solving Climate Change

Quakers and the Arts — A Rich and Complex History

The Friends Journal, a North American Quaker publication, dedicated its June/July 2018 edition to the topic of Creativity and the Arts. Various Quakers (or Friends) weighed in about the art they do and how they do it as a Quaker and for Quakers.

Joey Hartman-Dow, who collaborated with me for The Amazing Adventures of the Afterbirth of Jesus, writes about being a visual artist. In addition to creating deliciously whimsical characters based on shapes found in maps, Joey recently started a comic book series for the Quaker organization, FCNL. Joey’s piece, Art That Works, looks at the questions that come up for this Quaker artist: What do you want to be? and How am I going to make enough money to survive, in the same weird world I’m trying to change? Included in Joey’s reflections are samples of the gorgeous and stimulating art.
Arthur Fink writes about dance, not something that one imagines happens much in a quiet, still Quaker meeting for worship. Applying the practices of freedom of expression and of being self-aware that Arthur experiences in Quaker meeting for worship, Arthur worked with dancers in a studio and photographed them as they moved without choreography. Instead the dancers created their own movements that emanated from within. Arthur’s piece is The Dance Studio is my Other Quaker Meetinghouse.
Maggie Nelson writes about an intergenerational Art Camp. Like Joey, Maggie raises important questions: “Creative Friends and spiritual folk are everywhere, but are we recognizing the interconnectedness of our art and faith? What are we missing when we don’t worship with all of our senses? And what does it mean for the Quaker community when its members start experimenting with art and worship?”

I contributed my own piece, A Reluctant Minister. I write about the weird tension I feel from competing roles of artist, activist, and academic. Added to these are the pulls that come from presenting to Friends. Early on a member of the Hartford Meeting referred to me as having a “prophetic ministry.” My reaction to this statement surprised my support committee and has given me something to consider even now in my 15th year of public performing.

I suddenly felt cornered. I explained I had attended Pentecostal and Evangelical churches for nearly 20 years. The words “ministry” and “prophetic” stirred up trauma for me. The “ministry” I had received attempted to “de-gay” me and destroy much of my personality. The prophecies, at times literally yelled in my face, served to undermine my sense of self. Bill nodded and listened. His tone softened as he assured me, “I am talking about something different. You are speaking truth to a generation that needs to hear a message about justice and equality. You are pointing out wrongs in the world and showing people a different, better way. Your prophetic ministry gives light for straight people like me who need to see the world in a fresh, new way.”

As I considered this, I relaxed back into my seat; my fists unclenched. His description of prophetic ministry was getting closer to what I sought to do with my play Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House, but still, something unsettled me. After a period of silence I spoke, “I hear what you are saying, but it is hard for me to accept that position. It sounds like you see me as a preacher, but I am not; I am a performance artist.”

Check out the many pieces in the current Friends Journal.

Pulling Back the Curtain on my Performance Art

Whenever someone asks me to describe my performance work, I often fail at explaining it. It’s like having to explain a joke to someone. The whole thing can flatten out. What helps is when I instead detail my aims and influences. Then hopefully they will see the work for themselves, and it will make sense to them.

This week HowlRound, a free and open on-line platform for theatre makers, published my article, Queer Climate Performance Art in the Most Unlikely Places. In addition to recreating for the page my performance piece, Everything is Connected, I reveal sources of inspiration and some of my objectives in the piece.

The solo stage work of Whoopi Goldberg, John Leguizamo, and Lily Tomlin taught me marginalized people can use comic storytelling and character acting to communicate personal and political messages. These comic actors shape-shifted and embodied multiple personalities as they developed immediate and intimate relationships with their audiences. Unlike a traditional play with multiple actors interacting while the audience observes, the one-person comedy turns the audience into a character. We speak directly to them, casting them in roles.

–snip–

I seek to use my skills as a playwright and actor to take on LGBTQ issues, justice, privilege, and climate change while revealing the interconnectedness of these issues. I also throw in a Bible story. Within these different frames, I repeat core concepts knowing audience members will begin to see patterns emerge. In first performing my own very personal story, then an ancient Bible story, and finally the unfolding global story of climate change, I lead them to a synthesis of abstract ideas as outlined in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning.

Special thanks to Chantal Bilodeau for inviting me to write the piece and to JD Stokely at Emerson College office of the Arts for assistance with editing.

Read the entire article including the description of the Three Acts in Everything is Connected: Queer Climate Performance Art in the Most Unlikely Places

An Oklahoma Oil Town Embraces Wind Energy

Grant Samms

Who doesn’t like a good story about how a town filled with a long Conservative history is offered something new and they run with it? When Grant Samms told me about his time in Woodward, OK, I knew I needed to interview him for my monthly show. He’s a brilliant storyteller with a great story to tell.

He explains how this Western Oklahoma town, which was founded because of oil extraction, found a way to add wind energy to their portfolio. Grant expected to find conflict between the established oil folks and outsiders pushing liberal green renewable energy. Instead he found that the identity of the citizens and their sense of place opened the door for them to try something different. To them it was an extension of who they are as energy produces and providers.

Click below for a short clip of Grant explaining what he discovered

Chantal Bilodeau

In the show I also chat with playwright, Chantal Bilodeau. She adores the Arctic, and how she describes its vast openness and raw beauty, I imagine she draws lots of her audiences to consider this distant, cold world. She told me about the need for good art in talking about climate change. It’s not about debate, but about understanding the problem and our possible responses. She also works hard to connect artists doing climate work with each other.

Click below to hear Chantal share insights about theater and art.

Every month I produce an episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio. It is not your typical climate change podcast. I also include an artist, like Chantal, and we focus on stories and solutions. Have a listen to the full interviews with Grant and Chantal.

The power and importance of LGBTQ Film Festivals

Have you ever attended an LGBTQ film festival? They were once a rare treat, but lately there are festivals all over the world.

Starting in California in the late 1970’s, in part because mainstream film industry ignored LGBTQ themed movies, film lovers and LGBTQ activists began to organize film festivals. Today there are over 100 LGBTQ film festivals in many parts the world. The USA has over 20 LGBTQ film festivals, and new festivals have recently been inaugurated in Myanmar, China, and Belarus. You can find a partial list of international film festivals here.

After coming out gay when I lived in Memphis, TN and then in Hartford, CT, I saw as many movies as possible at these festivals. Many of these films about transgender, gender non-binary, queer, bisexual, lesbian, and gay characters and issues were almost impossible to see any other way. Even now with all of the options for streaming, some of these movies are rarely seen. To watch them with other LGBTQ people in the same safe space has felt particularly empowering, comforting, and affirming.

Lately I have been looking closely at the various LGBTQ film festivals as I promote my own film, Transfigurations–Transgressing Gender in the Bible. It has been selected for the San Antonio, TX LGBTQ International Film Festival and is in consideration for a few other festivals (stay tuned!)

In my search of film festivals I was thrilled to learn about the Second Annual LGBTIQ film festival in Uganda. The Queer Kampala International Film Festival will be held December 8-10, 2017. Here is a little of their story:

QUEER KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (QKIFF) is the first queer film festival to be held in Uganda. QUEERKIFF celebrates the diversity of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersex and Queer communities by providing spaces where Queer films are screened, discussed and celebrated.

Audience at first ever LGBTIQ film festival in Uganda

For the first time in homophobic Uganda, a festival celebrating and reinforcing the right to be LGBTQI was held. Against all odds, the creative Queer KIFF team laid strategies to beat the stern security and anti homo communities. The inaugural Queer Kampala International Film Festival was held
9th – 11th, December 2016 at different venues in the country’s capital, Kampala.

Measures included security screening of attendees, keeping the venues secret and mobile daily. The attendants had to go to a different venue in the morning and afternoon. Venues were announced within hours to the event. Encouragingly, the LGBTIQ community, supporters and sympathizers hung in there and religiously followed us to the different venues attracting a turn up of 800 visitors with in a space of three days.

We are excited to announce the second edition scheduled for the 8th – 10th, December 2017. We are already accepting film submissions and be sure it will happen as our think tank is laying strategies to mitigate associated risks.
Together, we can end victimization of the LGBTIQ community using social justice film-making, a tested and proven effective tool in changing hearts, minds, and laws!!

The have ambition goals to bring real lasting change to their county and see that film has a role to play.

You can be part of this important history. They need money to put this festival together and they are not going to get it from their government or most businesses. Today in the USA for many (not all) going to an LGBTQ film festival is a pleasant diversion and opportunity to be affirmed and learn. For the audience members in Uganda, this film festival is an practically a fantasy island in the midst of social and legal oppression. Please consider joining me and recent audience members in donating to Uganda’s only LGBIQ film festival, and hopefully the first of many.

The Need to Transgress the Bible

In his review of my new film, Transfigurations–Transgressing Gender in the Bible, Erik Hanson writes about his own need to transgress the Bible when he was in high school.

For some reason, our regular Sunday School classroom at the Evangelical Covenant Church was unavailable, so our high school class was meeting in the sanctuary, usually seen as a place too special and sacred for a high school class. In our best Sunday clothes, we awkwardly tried to form a circle, some of us facing backward in the immobile pews as we went through the day’s curriculum. We had been asked to read from our favorite chapter in the Bible. Others read Psalm 23, “For Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” or I Corinthians 13, “love is patient, love is kind.” But I claimed as my favorite, and read, Leviticus 18: “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.” I had no strong opinions on these commandments. I just thought it was funny to be able to read about gay sex and bestiality in the sanctuary. And no one could stop me, because, hey, it’s in the Bible.

In the piece he raises important questions: But what does it mean to transgress? To transgress with, in, for, or against the Bible?

Then he dives in to the Bible for some answers. I am happy with his positive review of the film, but I am equally thrilled with his personal reflections that you can read for yourself over at Killing the Buddha site. Read: TransBible by Erik Hanson

Making Movies about the Bible–Midrashic and Morally Meaningful?

In an interview with Erika Funke on NPR WIVA’s ArtScene program, we talked about theology. Most importantly we highlighted how theology is not simply a means of understanding ancient texts in their time, but theology and Bible scholarship can help us better frame our own values and concerns for our modern time. In the interview Erika weaves in music from the film The Ten Commandments and begins the segment with a series of excellent quotes about appropriation and when it is appropriate.

Film, theology, midrash work well together to help us better understand ourselves. We spoke about the new film, Transfigurations–Transgressing Gender in the Bible and the need for such a work in the world today. The full interview is below. Definitely listen to the first part as Erika shares the quotes about Bible interpretation and film.

Official Trailer Transfigurations-Transgressing Gender in the Bible from Peterson Thomas Toscano on Vimeo.

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Tag: media

Plastics? Yuck!

The Art House

How thrilling J Mase III has just released his book, And Then I Got Fired:One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment & Inappropriate Jokes About Death.

Get your own copy today! And Then I Got Fired:One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief

Read the entire article including the description of the Three Acts in Everything is Connected: Queer Climate Performance Art in the Most Unlikely Places