GET EQUAL NOW! TOMORROW IS NOT PROMISED...

I want to talk about the future of GET EQUAL NOW. Michael Robinson and I are giving workshops on racial injustice within the LGBT community as well as direct action in the 21st century. So, check out GET EQUAL NOW.ORG to find out how to bring the workshops to your university, organization or pride celebration.

Below is a list of events where we have given the workshops or plan to give:

• Equality Across America Texas Conference: Unite and Fight - May 22, 2010
• Butch Voices Regional Conference - Dallas, TX - June 5, 2010
• Allgo - People of Color Retreat & Conference - July 9 - 11, 2010
• Texas Tech University - TBD - October 2010

I would also like to share that we will soon hold fundraisers for Youth First Texas and you can donate to the very worthwhile organization at youthfirsttexas.org. We will also hold fundraisers for our LGBT Youth Summit: Empowerment Conference, Music & Arts Festival. You can donate to the event at GetEqualNow.org. We want to teach young activist to empower their voices by using their gift whether it’s writing, music, comedy, art or filmmaking as a tool to fight for LGBT rights. Then we will plan a direct action with the young activists putting what they've learned into action. There are many ways to skin a cat and we should use all ways to fight against oppression. So, we will recruit from college campuses and organizations across the country to help create this venue to "empower the future to GET EQUAL NOW!" Join my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/CD-Kirven-LGBT-Activist-Author-Artist-Filmmaker/125751870782302

Here is one of my favorite poems written by Audre Lorde:

"I see protest as a genuine means of encouraging someone to feel the inconsistencies, the horror of the lives we are living. Social protest is saying that we do not have to live this way. If you feel deeply, and we encourage ourselves and others to feel deeply, we will find the germ of our answers to bring about change. Because once we recognize we can feel deeply, love deeply, can feel joy, then we will demand that all parts of our lives produce that kind of joy. And when they do not, we will ask, "Why don't they?" And is the asking that will lead us inevitably toward change.

So the question of social protest and art is inseparable for me. I can't say it is an either-or proposition. Art for art's sake doesn't really exist for me. What I saw was wrong, and I had to speak up! I loved poetry, and I love words. But what was beautiful had to serve the purpose of changing my life or I would have died. If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest."