Honeysuckle Magazine 4/20/21

TABLE OF CONTENTS Queen of Kush: Emily Eizen 6 Sustainable Oral Care: Terra & Co 10 Hudson Hemp and Treaty 11 Luxury CBD 12 Chemdog: A Cannabis Legend at 30 14 The Benefits of Delta-8 THC 18 I'm a Business, Man: Lil Wayne 20 Gaspar Noe: An Exclusive 28 Vision: Robert Hayman 36 Over the Rainbow 42 King Noire: Decolonizing Porn 46 NYC Legalizes 52 The Cure-Rater 54 Silent Cry: Post Traumatic Prison Disorder 57 2020: A Look Back 64 Green New Deal 65 Empathy and Dismantling Identity 66 Abolish Not Reform 68 Myth of the Model Minority 72 Trans New York 76 Elegance 80 Eye of the Storm: Feathers Wise 82 French Smut 86 Tarot by Theresa Reed The Tarot Lady 89

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Dear Reader, It’s 2021. Which means, in many ways, we are almost Over The Rainbow. We have a new political administration, COVID vaccinations are increasingly distributed across the US; and just a couple of weeks ago, New York State legalized adult-use cannabis, paving the way for equitable solutions across the US. Honeysuckle has been at the intersection of it all - exploring Porn, Politics & Pot - this issue a prismic reflection of all of the aforemetioned with Lil Wayne for the 50th anniversary of 420!

The long-awaited passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act (MRTA) occurred in New York State Senate late on the night of March 30th, and was signed by Governor Cuomo mere hours afterward early on the morning of the 31st. Cannabis advocates in every sector are celebrating the victory. Some experts are calling it the most social equity-centered cannabis bill in the country.

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who sponsored the legislation with Senator Liz Krueger, said, “This social justice initiative will provide equity to positively transform disenfranchised communities of color for the better. I believe this bill can serve as a blueprint for future states seeking inclusive cannabis legalization.”

For the Honeysuckle community, this is a victory years in the making. As the first cultural publication to cover MJBIZCon, the world’s largest cannabis industry conference, and the first to put cannabis and hemp brands in Times Square billboards in 2018 - and this year too, with an epic 420 billboard campaign with our brand partners and Rolling Stone! Honeysuckle has been following and amplifying the work of many figures in the cannabis space who paved the way for the MRTA’s success. We were fortunate enough to be introduced to the cannabis space at a time when it was not only bursting into legal legitimacy on a large scale, but changing its very fibers even for those who had been prophets of the plant from the beginning. Up-close and personal, we saw groundbreaking challenges to the Controlled Substances Act in state and federal court. We watched hemp transform the agricultural sector and learned its 50,000+ potentialities.

We cheered as Canada became the first G7 nation to legalize adultuse cannabis, and Israel to publish research that forced experts everywhere to accept that cannabis does indeed have medical benefits.

We had intimate meetings in our homes with New York and New Jersey activists who schooled us on all things medicinal. trauma related, the complex societal impact of War on Drugs and on race. We have been on the front lines recording it, from our first cannabis print issue with actori Alan Cumming’s cover in February 2018 to this edition’s feature story on Lil Wayne.

This issue celebrates all of the aforementioned and more.

Our cover story on Lil Wayne looks at how the legendary rapper’s new cannabis line is making strides for social equity. Greg “Chemdog” Krzanowski, father of the eponymous epic strain, opens up about the Chemdog legacy as his curation turns 30. Queer multimedia artist Emily Eizen speaks out on the cannabis industry’s reckoning with diversity.

Meanwhile, art, sex, and discourse on our turbulent world swirls in the Oz of our pages. Famously secretive avant-garde filmmaker Gaspar Noé grants us an exclusive interview on the language of movies that no cinephile should miss.

Adult entertainment performer and sex educator King Noire explains issues of consent and the effort to “decolonize porn.”

Big ideas for the future of our society and very Earth are investigated. Should we abolish the police? How does the Black Lives Matter movement affect other racial groups’ identity politics? And with the world ideologically and literally on fire, what can we possibly do to combat climate change and save the planet? While Robert Hayman’s colorful photo spread celebrates LGBTQIA+ community and the Over The Rainbow symbolism for us all.

Reader, in opening these pages you have put on the ruby slippers and started down the yellow brick road. Do you wish, like us, “If I only had an impact?”

It’s clear from the features within this issue that each individual person has an impact on the collective whole, and it is by truly listening to each other and seeking to understand global events that we bring about change. We’ve had the courage all along.

We’re not in Kansas anymore - we’re way up high, loving every second.

Love, Ronit Pinto, Publisher; Jaime Lubin, Editor-At-Large & Executive Team

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EDITOR'S LETTER

Editor - At - Large Jaime Lubin Managing Editor Neha Mulay Creative Director/Photographer Samuel C. Long Cover Design Billie Haas Contributing Editor Soleil Nathwani Contributors Mehka King Michael Morris Dan McCarthy Cathleen Luo Taylor Custis Brooke Arezzi Elka Roderick Shawanna Vaughn Rina Lokaj Obadiah Willimans McBride Deborah Johnson Social Justice James Litkett Shawanna Vaughn Arthur Rambert Special thanks to Our Board & Our Interns David & Cindy Pinto Rolling Stone Magazine Cover Image © Baqi Kopelman Founder/Publisher Ronit Pinto New York, NY 646-632-7711 honey@honeysucklemag.com @honeysucklemagazine 5

Queen of by: Neha Mulay Lush, decadent, surreal, and interminably sensual, Emily Eizen’s artwork is a veritable cosmic wonderland.

Eizen seamlessly blends various mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, modeling, and interior design to create her bold, surreal, and vibrant artworks.

The queer, multimedia artist has become an icon, both within and beyond the cannabis world. Cannabis culture is a key aspect of Eizen’s aesthetic; her works often incorporate quintessential tones of 60s psychedelic transmutational iconography. The origin point of Eizen’s creativity and her artistic process are linked to the spirituality of the plant and the dimensions it enables her to access.

“Using cannabis makes me feel like I am not restricted to one medium. Cannabis turns my artistic process into play—it enables me to channel my natural instincts. I often start with a painting or a photoshoot and blend them together.

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Self portrait of the artist

Eizen’s commitment to activism is a pioneering force that manifests itself both in her work and in her life. The queer artist initially struggled to find a space that allowed her to express her values of justice and freedom.

“I grew up in Los Angeles, and I went to school in Washington DC for political science because I was really interested in activism, feminism and social justice. However, when I moved to DC, I was overcome with this feeling of depression. The campus culture was really conservative and conformist.

The vibe just didn’t resonate with me.”

Eizen eventually left campus and returned to Los Angeles in order to pave her own path. Cannabis helped her come to terms with the decision, while also reigniting her creativity. She began bud-tending at dispensaries. As she began to explore the world of cannabis, she was astounded and enlivened by its medicinal potential and environmental possibilities.

“Cannabis is medicine; I personally have used cannabis as medicine for anxiety for depression as well as creativity. As a budtender, I witnessed the benefits cannabis can bring to people with conditions like PTSD, pain, cancer, and other ailments.

What’s clear is that cannabis is a healing plant.

The uses of hemp in terms of materials and sustainability are also immense.”

Eizen holds a deep, esoteric connection with the plant. While bud-tending, she felt that the heart and vitality of the movement had been lost in the processes of legalization and commodiciation.

As it turned out, Eizen possessed the creative serum that the cannabis industry needed. While bud-tending, she began managing the social media platform of the dispensary, acting as creative director and visionary, breathing life back into the landscape.

Eizen focused on showcasing cannabis and cultivating a sophisticated and gorgeously feminine online presence. Soon after, Eizen became sought after and began freelancing for other dispensaries and cannabis brands, while also creating her own art.

The psychedelic aspects of my work express a certain kind of freedom, but my work is also about presence. When I paint, I go into a stream of consciousness mode. I defocus my eyes and let the flow take over. Cannabis helps his process.”

Today, through her tenacity and the sheer force of her creative vision, Eizen is highly successful, working with multiple different brands. Ever conscientious, Eizen remains committed to using her success and her platform to assist minorities and marginalized folks looking to break into the cannabis scene.

For Eizen, her passion for cannabis extends beyond just usage and aesthetic, she is a strong plant medicine advocate who believes in the boundless potential and healing properties of marijuana. Eizen is also deeply committed to promulgating social justice and equity, especially for LGBTQ individuals and people of color.

“I feel like I’ve reached a place in my career where I can incorporate social justice and activism; The creative energy we bring to these projects should be combined with a justice-oriented ethic.”

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been working on my own artistic projects, lately, my focus has been political.

I think the cannabis industry has its own reckoning. It is predominantly white male-owned, there are very few Black or POC people who have licenses, especially in California.”

The cannabis industry has pervasive and well-documented issues with representation and diversity. According to a 2018 study by Marijuana Business Daily, more than 80% of Marijuana business owners and founders are white.

Marijuana licensing costs are exponentially high and act as a prohibitive factor for minorities, particularly for Black communities adversely affected by prohibition.

As legalization takes off in several different states and the stigma associated with the plant is slowly dismantled, there is a dire need for combining the profitability of the industry with redistribution of wealth. Without enacting measures that foster social equity, there is a danger that legalization will only reinforce existing racial socioeconomic and racial disparities.

this surge. In Los Angeles, the Social Equity Owners & Workers Association has argued that the program contains too many loopholes and is ineffective in achieving its aims.

“In Los Angeles, our social equity program for cannabis is an absolute disaster. There is an issue of capitalists coming and trying to buy Social Equity Licenses from people who don’t have the funds to start their own ventures because the entry costs are so high.”

Eizen emphasizes that cannabis companies and brands need to do more.

“The best thing companies can do is open their purses and get budgets to people who are queer or Black. They have the capital to buy these licenses, and they really need to be giving back to the community. It’s not just about posting on social media or hiring diverse models; it is about who is sitting on these boards and who owns these companies.”

“I applaud New York for stalling cannabis legalization the first time because it didn’t do enough for social justice.”

Eizen is conscious of the deadly triage formed by the prohibition of cannabis, war on drugs, and the system of incarceration that perpetuated the oppression of communities of color, especially Black communities.

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“The war on drugs has adversely affected mostly Black and brown cannabis users and literally upheld modern slavery in this country through the prison industrial complex. We really need to repair the years of oppression that we are now profiting from.”

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Eizen, like so many others across the nation, has been horrified by instances of police brutality and the blatant institutional disregard for Black lives.

“I’ve been working with the city council of my predominantly white Los Angeles neighborhood. They are so out of touch with [issues of police brutality]. I got them to pass a motion to have a community Forum about you know with our town’s police department and their practices and talk about budgets. While I have

“The fact is, we wouldn’t have medical cannabis if it wasn’t for the LGBTQ community. We need to remember that Black trans women are the backbone of the movement. ” Eizen encourages queer artists and other entrepreneurs interested in the industry to approach it with compassion and passion, rather than for monetary gain.

“Keep putting yourself out there, you know, there’s always a lane for everybody. Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons—don’t approach the space with greed.

Focus on building a foundation and connecting with the community.”

Kaleidoscopic, swanky, progressive, and tinged with the esoteric, Eizen’s art captivates because it arises from a place of awareness and compassion. With work that exhibits infinite dimensions and hues of color and softness, Eizen is both a creative dynamo and an ardent advocate, our very own lush and just queen of kush.

For cannabis especially, unless redistributed, the capital obtained from these ventures will be built upon years of racial oppression. In 2019, a legalization measure New York failed because it did not affect issues of social equity.

Model: MauriJuice OG by Emily Eizen

Performative activism remains an issue in the industry, especially when Black Lives Matter and Pride are co-opted for commodified ends but are not backed by real action. The LGBTQ community was instrumental in the legalization movement and, as a queer artist herself, Eizen emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this.

In contrast, as California has charged ahead with legalization, there have been controversies and criticisms surrounding the social equity programs that have accompanied

Emily Eizen by Rhianna Cooper

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Sustainable Oral Care: With Azra Hajdarevic of Terra & Co

The philosophy of Treaty is tied closely to its name, which the Dobson sisters explained came from, “the idea of the cannabis plant as a ‘tree’ of life and as a giving plant that we can learn and receive so many gifts from.

The word ‘tea’ came to us as the idea of ritual and ceremony that is tied to cannabis from its earliest understanding of its historical relevance. Then the word ‘treaty’ came together in its boldness as a peace offering and a recognition of the tumultuous past and present of cannabis, acknowledging the real work that needs to be done to undo the years of harm that the War on Drugs caused for so many communities.”

By Taylor Custis

We spoke with Terra &Co co-founder Azra Hajdarevic on their line of products, the power of small businesses, the impacts of pollution and the day to day actions we can all take to help reverse climate change.

I recently took a class on environmental studies and it was eye-opening and sobering. In terms of your business, what strategies are you using to fight climate change and promote sustainability?

Our idea was to create sustainable everyday use products.

There was a gap in the oral care industry in terms of sustainability. Because oral products are used by everyone the potential was immense. Most people use disposable toothbrushes and most toothpastes are filled with harmful chemicals.

I’m a make-up artist in New York who’s passionate about sustainability and my sister comes from the skin care industry, so we put our forces together. We found people were interested in charcoal toothpaste so we started there. We wanted to use plain ingredients and sustainable packaging.

Our tubes are made with sugar cane plastic; bioplastic is still a plastic but we are working on materials that use less transportation and water as well as fewer plastics.

Then we added our toothbrush which is made from bamboo and is biodegradable. Now we’re thinking about using materials that are already in the land, recycling and making toothbrushes that way.

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We’ve built this business over the past three years and now, we are hiring people and expanding. We’re businesswomen but we are also highly passionate about the cause--our customers understand that. We’re not about hopping onto the next trend, we’re here to disrupt and change oral care with sustainability as our main focus. https://www.terraandco.com

Hudson Hemp and Treaty By: Elka Roderick

Sister Love

Terra & Co’s line of sustainable, clean and ergonomic products are making waves, not only for their earth-friendly characteristics but also for the quality and “eco-luxe” aesthetic of their products. Terra & Co. has won the Men’s Health award for the best dental floss in 2020 as well as bagged Elle Magazine’s Green Beauty Award in 2020. As Bosnian refugees, the sister duo is dedicated to social justice and aid.

Proceeds from purchases go back to organizations like the Los Angeles Downtown Women’s Center.

Creating mouthwash without chemicals and preservatives presented a challenge. Ayurvedic remedies have been using oil and coal for thousands of years for oral health, digestive health, and detox. So, we decided to go with oil pulling. The product is one of our best sellers, one sip kills bacteria and viruses in your mouth, which is important, especially in terms of Covid. Regular dental floss ends up in landfills and oceans and could harm marine animals. Our floss is made of bamboo fibers and activated charcoal. It is completely biodegradable.

Sister Love

The COVID-19 pandemic has largely pulled our attention from another global crisis with equally devastating effects: climate change.

Azra Hajdarevic and her sister Amra are small business owners who have made it their mission to raise awareness about and innovate solutions to climate change.

With their company Terra & Co. the businesswomen create and sell oral care products that are sustainable and simple from the ingredients to the packaging.

For the Dobson siblings and founders of Hudson Hemp and Treaty, regenerative agriculture means leaving the soil better than they found it.

“When we say regenerative, we mean agriculture that supports the soil and creates ecosystems that are self-reliant...our goal is to always be replenishing our resources rather than diminishing them. That is reflected down to the product in the bottle and in all stages of our process.” These practices include a crop rotation plan mapped out seven years ahead at all times, increased biodiversity, ceasing the use of chemical fertilizers, and a key focus on the health of the soil.

Before 2017, these farms largely grew heritage grains; however, once hemp opened up to farmers in New York, the Dobson family jumped at the opportunity to make use of the benefits afforded to them.

Not only is Hudson Hemp oriented towards healing communities and individuals, initiatives the sisters spearhead with their brother Ben, it is also actively working towards the healing of the planet through the reversal of climate change.

For more info visit www.hudsonhemp.com and www.ourtreaty.com.

In 2013, Old Mud Creek Farm and Stone House Farm, located in the Hudson Valley, transitioned from conventional to organic-regenerative farming practices.

They say it will be women who save the planet. Here, we feature two sets of sisters, doing their best to give back to the planet by creating sustainable good.

“Hemp became a really obvious addition to the crop rotation of grain and feed because it offers itself as a raw input to so many industries” VP of Brand Development, Melany Dobson says. On top of which Hemp is a star player when it comes to soil health, she adds, “Hemp can really help minimize our carbon footprint, it is known to be a bioremediator and can pull heavy metals and toxins from the soil.”

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As the cannabis space matures and becomes a natural part of our consumer landscape I do believe people are going to want to experience all levels of products. Luxury is one that many are experimenting with. Whether it’s clothing, smoking products, literature, body care, nutritional care - all of those have the ability to target the luxury market. When those products are able to be sourced at high-end stores like Barney’s or Saks, I think people like the association with Mother Nature and her plants and wealthy people will pay more for that experience.

Deborah Johnson, Director of Business Development MCA Accounting Solution

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LUXURY

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CBD

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Black Dahlia

House of Gro

Malin + Goetz

The Nature of Things.

Few brands know how to evoke sensuality, mystery and luxury all at once. As soon as we came across Black Dahlia at the Luxury Meets Cannabis Conference in NYC, 2019 we were hooked. Everything from their decadent branding, to their aromatic products and lush scents.

The company is committed to groundbreaking science, ethically-sourced botanicals and conscientious craftsmanship. Through collaborations with leading scientists, artisans and makers, their inspired CBD products deliver quality, efficacy and serenity.

Black Dahlia CBD oils and creams use a patented technology that results in a highly refined organic product. This, combined with natural flavors, results in an ingredient perfect for cocktails, added to foods or as a direct, sublingual spray. Black Dahlia leans toward its indica genetics and delivers strong body effects suitable for insomnia and pain relief.

Irina Gottesman and her brother Sam Kandhorov have building brands together for decades. First fashion, then food, and now wellness, their true passion with their latest endeavor House of Gro. Woke, one of their favorite holiday picks, is a “luxuriously rich face, neck and chest oil that feels incredibly silky,” says Gottesman. An enhancement to their moisturizer After Dark, but also perfect for hydrating skin on its own; leaving it looking visibly “woke”. It works under and over make up and is proven to balance the microbiome. In a sea of CBD, Irina says one of the ingredients that makes House of Gro unique is their sourcing of only organic CBD, which has “a challenge and priority for us. What makes our organic CBD ingredient even more unique is how we combine it with Chaga mushroom wild harvested in Maine. Chaga is a super antioxidant which strengthens skin resiliency,” she said.

is one of the world’s most fascinating luxury beauty brands, renowned as a long runner that was also among the first to incorporate aromatherapy into skincare. Founding partners Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz, together in business and life for over 35 years, opened their flagship store in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood in 2004. Stylized as a “modern apothecary,” the Malin + Goetz aesthetic combines high-quality natural ingredients with advanced technology for clean, sustainably-sourced products that work beautifully on all skin types, especially people with sensitive skin. The company now has retail locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and Hong Kong in addition to their New York shops; each apothecary is intricately architected to reflect its unique surroundings. In recent years, Malin + Goetz has taken greater risks in plant-based beauty sources, being an early adopter of adding cannabis to their skincare products. At presentations for the exclusive Luxury Meets Cannabis Conference, Goetz has proudly spoken about the importance of maintaining a “crossover brand” – a mainstream luxury brand that continues to innovate and engage niche markets to make the best ingredients accessible to all consumers. Bravo!

Luxury to me is really all about rarity. I view self care more as a necessity these days than a luxury.

We, as humans, are learning that we need to take care of ourselves first in order to truly take care of the people and the natural world around us. That’s why making the extra investment on products that are truly purposeful, crafted from the highest quality ingredients and are thoughtful about their entire footprint is really important. We wanted to distinguish ourselves from products that people mindlessly pump out and dump down the drain. Every moment with our products is like partaking in a ritual, the customer is more deliberate and present in opening, applying and luxuriating in our offerings.

My favorite gifts to give are all about ultimate relaxation and pampering for the recipient. This year, I’m gifting our bath immersions, Restorative Floral Bath or Fortifying Magnesium Soak, along with our newly launched Skin-Smoothing Stones, so that my family and friends can soak up the benefits while gently massaging and exfoliating their skin

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CHEM

BY DAN McCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF Photos c Canna Provisions The 30th Anniversary of the Chemdog strain’s Black-market legacy in US cannabis is being celebrated with rebirth in the legal scene of Western Massachusetts.

Chemdog. Not Chemdawg. Chemdog. D-O-G. Seems trivial, but that swap has been responsible for more mislabeled strains and shoutouts to the great Greg “Chemdog” Krzanowski’s legend in America’s cultivation scene since 1991.

As the story goes, Chem was at a Grateful Dead show where he purchased some stellar flower which he not only loved, but was nice enough to yield a handful of seeds.

“When I got the flower originally, some called it Chemweed, others said Dogbud (they called it that because after consuming it, it made you want to roll around on the ground like a dog),” says Krzanowski. “I combined those two words for those first seeds, taking Chem and Dog and naming the strain I cultivated as Chemdog. No one made that term and name up but me.”

Fast forward a few cycles and cultivation moxie, and the ethereal Chem 91 dropped in 1991, changing strain dynamics and the cannabis lexicon along the way with its various offspring and relatives. That’s right. The Chem 91.

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...And it just turned 30.

Chemdog says of the strain, “It was just real special, and it had such a great flavor, probably the most unique flavor that was available in the 1990s at that point, and it was very potent. I’ve had a few people underestimate it over the years.”

Krzanowski now works completely in the legal space and serves as Director of Cultivation for the dispensary group Canna Provisions - its locations in Holyoke and Lee in Western Massachusetts will be the exclusive stores to land his flower. With a new direction in the industry, rising out of the shadows of the Black market and partnering with a crew carrying more industry experience at the retail and cultivation level than anyone in East Coast Cannabis, things are undoubtedly looking up for the legendary grower, who is also a highly sought-after glass artist and has blown solo pieces and collaborated with a variety of top glass artists.

Oh sure, one can ask him what his choice strains are in his private stash right now (“Chem D, Josh D OG Karma 99 Cross, Zkittles, Las Vegas Purple Kush,” he says without hesitation), such a moment in cannabis cultural history feels like it it needs the great shimmering boon of stonecold hard facts to get right to the heart of the matter, and introduce the uninitiated to the legend of Chemdog, as well as remind the other OGs in the scene who’s back, and better than ever.

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Behold! A highly numerical and cheery rundown involving nothing but Highly Scientific Super Duper Good Data Because Science. Relish in the intel!

Chemdog's age when starting his cultivation journey: 16 Strains launching at Canna Provisions in Lee and Holyoke: 15 Amount of Chemdog lineages in the first wide release strain "3 Dog Giesel": 3 Amount of "duh" responses that last one probably got: At least 1 long one Year Chemdog was arrested for growing a plant in Massachusetts: 2011 How many plants he had: 98 Amount in personal finance he had to forfeit due to the War on Drugs: $350,000 Chemdog's age when he became a legal, badged cultivator in MA: 47 Years later he is back in the game and on top form: 10 Weeks it took him as a former cannabis felon to be 100% legal in his home state of Massachusetts via Canna Provisions: 3-4 Breeders Chemdog has on speed dial: 10+ Speed-dial breeders who are award winners in cannabis: All 10 [This is probably where I would move the "years back on top" stat to] Year he began blowing his famous glass hammers, bubblers, solo pieces and more: 1993 Most expensive solo piece sold (a 20-inch bong): $2000 Grateful Dead shows Chemdog has personally attended: 211 Of those with Jerry Garcia still with the band: 211 Phish shows Chemdog has attended and been a fixture on the scene at: 300+ Number of DMs he has exchanged with Chemdog strain fan Seth Rogen between 2019-2020: 5 Stardawg cuts (a different phenotype of the strain) Chemdog is working with at Canna Provisions cultivation in the Berkshires: 4Amount that are the coveted Corey Haim cut (the most potent of the phenotypes): 1 Number of original Chem 91 cuts: 1 Clones from original cut currently in rotation at Canna Provisions: 60+ Estimated pounds of cannabis Chemdog has consumed over the years: 2,000 Confirmed strains tried: 100+ Strains in his head stash at home: 30 How much THC testing percentage results influence how Chemdog sees, views, reviews, and considers a great strain: 0 Percentage that'wwll trigger THC percentage heads every time: 100 Speaking on the matter of his first product drop, where he will be the first to buy any, Chemdog doesn’t hold back: “It’ll be exciting and emotional,” he says. “To be able to purchase my own pot that I grew 10 years after losing everything, and now I’m buying my first batch of legal marijuana in the market in my home state, it’s a full circle moment that’s hard to put into words. I just hope everyone loves my flower as much as I do.”

Now that you’ve gotten the key information, there’s only one thing left to do: Grab some flower. Be it pressing for some solventless hash, or infusing into delicious foodthings, or just a well-rolled joint, there’s no better way to experience Chemdog than through the sheer beauty of the plant itself.

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The Benefits of Delta-8 THC: A Product Review of Concentrated Concepts

By Brooke Arezzi Delta-8 THC is the latest trend in the consumption of legal cannabis. Below you will find an explanation of the benefits of Delta-8 THC and a review of Delta-8 products from Concentrated Concepts.

Many cannabis users are patiently awaiting consistent cannabis legalization and decriminalization across all states. While cannabis legalization is a growing movement in the United States, progress is often slow. While CBD provides a safe and legal alternative to cannabis, it often leaves consumers craving something stronger. This is where Delta-8 THC comes in.

What is Delta-8 THC? Delta-9 THC is the usual form of cannabis which is still technically illegal at the federal level. Delta-8 THC is “an analog of Delta-9-THC, a molecule with a similar structure, but some notable differences. While the two share many similar properties, such as reportedly stimulating appetite, reducing nausea, and soothing pain, Delta-8-THC tends to exhibit a lower psychotropic potency than Delta-9-THC.” These differences in chemical makeup lead to a mellower high with many considering Delta-8 “diet weed.” The high is far more relaxing than regular cannabis but takes you a step further than CBD. For those new to cannabis, caution is advised as the product still has a psychoactive effect.

But if it’s THC then it’s not legal, right?

Wrong, the amazing aspect of Delta-8 THC is that it is completely legal within most states.

Here is a list of states that do not allow purchase and consumption of Delta-8 THC:

Alaska Arizona Arkansas Colorado Delaware Idaho Iowa Mississippi Montana Rhode Island Utah

Drug Testing The unfortunate fact about Delta 8 is that it will still appear on drug tests. Drug testing only searches for THC within the body.

Tests are unable to detect the form in which THC is consumed. Therefore, even though it is legal to consume Delta 8 THC, depending on how much consumed it still might show up on a drug test.

The Benefits Of Delta-8 Delta-8 provides a psychoactive effect minus the paranoia. Because of this, Delta-8 can be better for people who use cannabis for its medicinal properties.

A 1974 study found that both Delta-8 and Delta-9 inhibited the growth of cancerous tumors. Since then, numerous studies have established the benefits of Delta-8 for cancer patients in both alleviating side effects of treatment (such as vomiting) and successfully stopping tumor growth.

How You Can Get Your Hands On Delta-8 Delta-8 THC can be found at most CBD shops but the selection available can be limited. Companies such as Concentrated Concepts sell Delta-8 THC in a range of forms, from edibles to vape cartridges, oils, and even flower.

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LIL WAYNE I’m A Business, Man: Lil Wayne Lights Up His Own Lane

By Mehka King Photos Baqi Kopelman W E E Z Y F. B A B Y + “ F ” S TA N D S F O R F O R E V E R

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Since 1995, Duane Carter, better known to the world as rapper Lil Wayne, has become the definition of growth. Starting with his days as part of the Hip-Hop group Hot Boyz and eventually going solo, Wayne would go on to become known as one of the most creative, influential lyricists of the past 20+ years. Few acts have been able to grow their music and style and have it translate to new audiences over and over again like Wayne has. From rap and R&B to rock, Wayne has set trends. Alongside T-Pain, he helped pioneer the use of auto-tune in rap. Minus Wayne, names like Drake and Nicki Minaj might still be indie fan favorites rather than the megastars they are now.

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Even as an early emcee, veterans in the industry were already taking notice of his talent.

“Wayne is the golden child,” said former No Limit recording artist Mia X. “I watched and listened to him for almost 3 decades.

First heard him on B.G.’z True Story. By the time the Hot Boyz released their debut album, I told Slim Williams, co-founder of Cash Money Records], ‘Lil Wayne is going to be the rock star of this group.’ He is original, honest and truly talented.”

would’ve been a danger. Launched in 2019 in California, Wayne’s GKUA ultra premium cannabis line is a reflection of the artist himself. Like his lyrics, GKUA works with the best growers to create strains that are very potent and very limited.

Wayne is one of the many rappers that are finding their place in the cannabis space. It’s only right. Hip-hop and cannabis go hand-in-hand.

Two decades later, Wayne can boast three number one singles, 24 Top Ten singles and 163 Billboard Top 100 entries. Add to that 62 gold and platinum certifications to date.

Often controversial, Weezy has never been one to hold back his tongue.

Whether it was speaking about Black Lives Matters, his support for Trump or even his exit from his first label Cash Money Records, Wayne has never ducked controversy or the chance to stand-out from the crowd.

“Weezy can be considered one of rap’s first unapologetic rock stars,” said cultural critic Candace McDuffie, author of 50 Rappers Who Changed the World. “We see what younger hip hop artists are doing now—the face tattoos, the crazy, colorful dreads, the skater wardrobe; Lil Wayne pioneered that entire image.

When he made his ‘rock’ album Rebirth back in 2010, the world literally didn’t know what to do with it. He consistently values artistry and creativity above loyalty to genres. Wayne has always been his authentic self despite criticism from the music industry—that’s what I most admire about him.”

Being a cannabis connoisseur, GKUA is really like a dream come true for Wayne.

“I love everything GKUA…some of these hybrid strains are insane.

The beauty is, each strain is different, every time you think you have a favorite, bam a new one drops and you gotta check that out too and feel that experience. I know our growers are working on new strains, doing what they do.”

The early success of the brand is largely due to Wayne’s influence. Having launched successfully in California, Michigan, and Colorado, GKUA next plans on planting their flag in Oklahoma. GKUA Ultra Premium entered Oklahoma on March 23, hot on the heels of their Colorado debut, and comes to the state just as it’s evolving into a hotbed for new business.

So, it really should be no shock that as Lil Wayne gets deeper in age, the “greatest rapper alive” found new ways to adapt to an ever-changing world without compromising his voice.

Oklahoma residents voted in 2020 for recreational legalization. In the Sooner state, 1 out of 13 Oklahoma residents have a medical marijuana card and more than 2200 licensed dispensaries sell cannabis products, one can expect GKUA to do well in its latest locale.

His latest evolution involves bringing his style and voice to an industry that, in many ways, was built on the backs of people like him. For decades, Black and Brown people have been part of a government smear campaign to criminalize the plant. Even terms like marijuana were created to make cannabis seem like something, “un-American.”

“We just dropped GKUA Kush in Oklahoma, a strain developed locally that hits all the key points for ultra premium flower,” Wayne declared.

GKUA’s co-founder and president Beau Golob went on to affirm Wayne’s statements about the great quality and attention to detail the brand takes with

Today, Wayne and many others can now capitalize off what once

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“Music and cannabis have always gone together,” he says. “Does one influence the other? Of course, both are part of life. Does rap make cannabis more acceptable? To who[m]?

It’s all personal…everyone has their own feelings and way of living. Rap is not about acceptable, it’s an expression, its art. Yeah, maybe for some people, the music has changed the way they think about cannabis…and that’s a good thing.”

© Erik Montoya

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© Natalia Kopelman

their products: “We partner with teams in each state we launch, to ensure that our ultra premium products are produced with the highest standards and meet the level of quality, purity and potency that is GKUA Ultra Premium.

It is an intense process, working with our local growers and manufactures to replicate the level of products we deliver to our customers in each market. We take the time to source the highest quality flower from the most experienced growers, in each state. It has to be right and meet not just our standards but the standards of the ultimate cannabis connoisseur, Wayne himself. We mean it when we say Best High of Your Life, that’s truly what we want you to enjoy!”

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stoned and be high if you’re white; if you’re Black you are met with dangerous stereotypes that essentially imply that you’re a criminal or a drug addict. Weezy’s blatant use of marijuana (how many times have we heard him spark a blunt before he starts his verse on a track?) eradicates these biases and is ultimately another extension of his authentic self.”

What a great world we live in. Cannabis is legal in various states across the country, approval ratings for adult-cannabis use is up to 68 percent of all Americans surveyed (the highest it’s been in the nation’s history), and the stigma over being a cannabis user is starting to die down. Too bad that’s not the case for many.

And with that in mind, Wayne is putting his cannabis line to extend yet another facet of himself, seeking to help his fellow man. With many Black faces still locked behind bars due to possession or sale of the plant, GKUA has decided to do their part to help bring awareness. They’ve teamed up with The Last Prisoner Project (LPP), a nonprofit founded by veteran activists Steve and Andrew DeAngelo that aids in repairing the damage done to marginalized communities by cannabis criminalization, including working to free cannabis prisoners and provide resources for formerly incarcerated citizens. Together LPP and GKUA have created a “Share the Love” monthly social media campaign to directly fund LPP’s ongoing initiatives to bring restorative justice to those who have suffered under cannabis criminalization.

While the business of bud seems like all fun and games, we all know that it’s not that way for everybody. Last year, the ACLU conducted a study showing that Black people are still 3.64 times more likely than White people to be arrested for cannabis possession despite similar usage rates.

The collaboration kicked off in February with a “Share the Love” fundraiser and social media campaign tied to Valentine’s Day. In March, the campaign highlighted women making a difference in the cannabis community and industry in honor of Women’s History Month.

“The use of cannabis and how it is perceived changes based on your race,” said McDuffie. “It’s ok[ay] to get

Some, like McDuffie, react to this development with healthy skepticism. “Despite my love of Lil Wayne, he is not above reproach,” she stated. “I was disheartened when he remarked

that he didn’t feel connected to the Black Lives Matter movement back in 2016. I was also upset when he showed public support for Trump in the 2020 presidential election. However, Trump pardoned Weezy of all the criminal charges he faced before he left office (he pardoned Kodak Black as well). These two instances show the power of capitalism, the benefits of being aligned with power despite still coming from a marginalized group. I challenge Lil Wayne fans to explore how his political affiliations are part of a larger narrative—especially when it comes to how Black folks are treated in America on a daily basis.”

To that end, we should all understand that there’s more to do when it comes to bringing real restorative justice to those who have been imprisoned over years for cannabis. That starts with those in Washington.

Even Wayne himself emphasizes that our society has a major problem with legalization of and access to the plant, which particularly impacts people of color. “To all those who don’t understand, this foolishness needs to end…cannabis should be legal period. Having it legal in some places and not in others makes no sense. Everyone deserves access and no one should be going to prison for it. I think soon it won’t be an issue.”

Just this month, GKUA, announced a monumental exclusive agreement with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for all 4/20 events, for years to come. As part of the new partnership, GKUA will host experiential and interactive parties, performances and additional festivities for in-person and streaming audiences.

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The debut event, UPROAR, VIP Party and Performances, at The Torch at the LA Memorial Coliseum, featuring Lil Wayne, Young Money and Friends, will take place on August 13, 2021 and is set to be a grand opening of the nearly century-old Coliseum after a multi-million renovation. The Los Angeles civic institution is known as “The Greatest Stadium in the World” thanks to a legacy that includes playing host to two Summer Olympics, appearances by six U.S. presidents, and concerts by music icons ranging from the Rolling Stones to U2 to Bruce Springsteen.

In-person tickets for the August 13th UPROAR at The Torch at the LA Memorial Coliseum, will go on sale Tuesday, April 20 at Ticketmaster.com. Along with the legendary Lil Wayne himself, fans can expect an epic line-up reflecting years of Lil Wayne’s iconic collaborations and relationships in the hip-hop world, along with interactive experiences for in-person attendees and worldwide streaming audiences.

“We are creating an experience that will allow you to party with some of the greatest hip-hop artists of our times and all your best friends,” said GKUA Creative Director Baqi Kopelman.

“Whether you are able to attend in-person and be part of the

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celebration or you are viewing the event at home, this will be an intimate party and show in a fully immersive environment that will provide direct interaction with the artists and the designed experiences at the venue.”

UPROAR will include all-access environments and additional VIP areas and experiences, both in-person and virtual. From the VIP club area to the dance floor and backstage areas, to the vendor tents and club-like spaces, this event will offer attendees a chance to party with their favorite artists.

“GKUA is about feeling inspired,” said Lil Wayne. “I’m looking forward to sharing that GKUA inspiration from the LA Coliseum. It is time to celebrate with friends.”

Coinciding with this milestone event, GKUA has signed a multiyear agreement to host in-person and worldwide streaming events at The Torch at LA Memorial Coliseum every April 20 aka 4/20 beginning 2022. GKUA will also celebrate 4/20 across the country by producing GKUA VIP Parties and Performances in other major cities and for in-person and virtual audiences.

“GKUA’s multi-year agreement with the LA Memorial Coliseum is historic; it epitomizes the intersection between hip-hop and the nightlife culture that defines LA,” said GKUA Co-founder and President Beau Golob. “GKUA aims to curate immersive activations that go above and beyond to celebrate 4/20 lifestyles.

UPROAR at The Torch will be truly experiential; it will be like going to the world’s largest nightclub, where you dance and party with your friends, not sit in a seat. And this is just the beginning of GKUA parties across America.”

The future is certainly bright for Wayne. Despite not netting a Grammy nod in 2020, his last album Funeral was met with rave reviews from critics and fans; outside of music, GKUA is set to make even more moves.

UPROAR at The Torch will follow all recommended health and safety guidelines put forth by officials.

“We are dropping new products, launching new states and getting ready to throw some parties,” the artist exclaimed. “So, when you ask, what am I looking forward to, I say everything!”

GKUA and Young Money fans who are unable to attend the debut party in person this August will have a chance to experience the interactive festivities virtually – stay tuned for more details on that front.

There are plans for the brand to enter Nevada. And as the country continues to open up, GKUA will be presenting live, exclusive VIP activation performances by Lil Wayne, Young Money & Friends.

To RSVP for early access ticketing, and for additional information and updates about UPROAR at The Torch on August 13, 2021 visit UPROAR420.com.

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“The first monster that an audience has to be scared of is the filmmaker. They have to feel in the presence of someone not confined by the normal rules of propriety and decency.”

Horror-master, Wes Craven.

Gaspar Noé does not make horror films per se, but… some sequences are like cutting off your eyelids and packing the sockets with salt. The filmmaker Just. Does not. Cut. The camera is not going to pan away. No one is holding your hand. You are just going to have to sit and watch the horrors of life: rape, murder, psychedelic trips gone wrong (and the eventual end of the Vincent Cassel/Monica Bellucci marriage).

Beyond story, the camera sometimes seems like it’s glued to a broken car-assembling robot. There’s the movie told backwards (Irréversible). There’s the movie shot on two cameras at once (Lux Æterna). How about a movie, told from a ghost’s POV, where the character gets reincarnated, or not, depending on the cut you see?

GASPAR NOÉ INTERVIEW: RONIT PINTO

WORDS AND IMAGES: SAMUEL CLEMENS LONG Gaspar represents that pinnacle of filmmaking: you just sit down, buckle your seatbelt and give up. You are not in control, there is a mad man at the wheel. A real leary psychopath.

So when Honeysuckle flew to Paris, what could we possibly expect for our interview, only confirmed at 10pm the night before?

Gaspar... total fucking sweetheart.

Maybe it was the themed “LA MORT N’OUVRE AUCUNE PORTE” shirts we had made for the trip. Maybe it’s that Ronit and I are also total cinephiles. Gaspar was literally skipping out on pre-production for his next film, a companion piece to Lux Æterna. Very pressed for time. But once we sat down we chopped cheese; for hours.

Our only regret was when he asked us for the inside scoop into contemporary American films, we admitted we don’t really watch them. Actually, we watch a lot of French films.

Gaspar, notorious filmmaker, secret sweetheart, sat down with us for the following interview on life, movies and his early creative life: (The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

RONIT PINTO: The first movie you ever saw was in New York?

GASPAR NOÉ: Yes, because my parents moved to New York when I was a few months old. I don’t remember the first movie I saw in the theater, but I know that the first memory I have is watching 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was six… Certainly I had seen other movies before, but I don’t remember. The problem with memory, it’s very selective. It’s like a hard drive. You have to empty [it] every week, every year because you can’t keep all

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the useless memories. They say that the memories you have from your childhood are the ones that have xbeen reactivated every three or four years. If you stop reactivating a memory, it disappears.

RONIT: How do you reactivate it?

GASPAR: Each time you think of the past and you talk about it, you rearrange it, so after many years, the memory of you talking about something creates memories. The past is very blurry unless you have photos… If one day you were in an amusement park and you had a toy and you were photographed with [it], many years later when you see the photos [you go], “Oh yeah, I had that toy.” But you had certainly forgotten the toy.

RONIT: Did growing up with an artistic father influence you?

GASPAR: Yeah, of course. Actually, when you have a father who’s a painter or who’s bringing you as a kid to all these exhibitions, openings, etc and everybody’s happy and they’re drinking… He had all these books of art [and] he was also teaching painting to younger painters at my home… I was watching all the time.

I think my visual education comes from my father, but the real cinema buff in the family was my mother. She was bringing me to see [the films of Rainier Werner] Fassbinder when I was nine, because she wouldn’t want to leave me alone at the house…

That’s how I learned what lesbians were, [from the movie] The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. I was probably nine… [My mother is] the one who brought me to see [Pier Paolo] Pasolini’s Salo when I was eighteen. She’s the one who brought me to see 2001. She loved literature, she loved movies.

Also, we had a cinematheque three blocks away from my house.

My father met the guy who was selling tickets. Then we became friends… I would go almost every two days to see what was going on in there. If the movie was forbidden [to kids under 18], the guy would still let me go in.

SAM: That’s awesome.

GASPAR: Yeah, movies are addictive. We’re all addicted to something. Some people are addicted to food, alcohol, social working. I got addicted to cinema very early. I was also addicted to comic books, but then I said, “No.” Probably because it’s closer to life, I switched to movies.

RONIT: Why do you think you were addicted?

GASPAR: It’s like dreaming. A movie’s a conducted dream.

Then you choose your channels.

RONIT: Do you have a favorite part of filmmaking?

GASPAR: I like showing the movie. I don’t like the pre-production. I like shooting. I like editing, but the problem with editing is that when you get there, you already have some pressure for delivering the movie… You have the material and you can’t relax and do it at your own pace because they say… “You have to deliver the movie before Cannes.” They were psychotic about that.

Also, when you make a movie and you’re broke, when you get your salary, you’re so happy. You go to eBay and buy all the movie posters on the planet and then you’re broke again. (Laughs)

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RONIT: What about the idea, the inception?

GASPAR: I don’t really believe in inspiration. You’re inspired by other people’s words, by drama in your own life [and] your friends’ lives. Sometimes you go, “Well, I have to do a movie” because you have to pay your rent… Also, because people say, “You’re good, so you should do another movie.” You say, “Well, I’m going to get again into a tunnel of work.”

Mostly, you know what you don’t want to do for a whole year. People say to you, “Why don’t you do a bad, crappy movie?” I say, “No way, I’d rather stay at home watching DVDs and eating sandwiches than do a bad, crappy movie…” You exclude all those things you don’t like and because you’re a filmgoer and a DVD addict, you end up finding scenes in some movies and say, “I really like this moment in this movie. One day, I should put something similar in my own movie.” Or you just open the newspaper and there’s a drama that you have never seen onscreen and you say, “Why has no one ever done a movie about [this]?”

Nowadays, I’m more fascinated by documentaries than by feature films, probably because I’m a filmmaker myself, so you see all the tricks. You see the people acting; you can even sometimes feel the makeup. There’s so many elements that seem fake to your eyes… Movies are flat. It’s not like being with people or doing psychedelics that blow you away. You are in front of a big screen or a small screen, but it’s just a flat screen with people pretending to do scenes that you know are fake. At least when you watch a documentary, you know that the point of view of the director is always fake, but what is portrayed mostly is not.

RONIT: What happens if you are in a situation where you don’t want to do it, but you have to?

GASPAR: Why? When do you have to do things that you don’t want to do?

RONIT: You don’t. But just for work, or something like you were saying.

GASPAR: The good thing about shooting movies in France is that legally, the director has the final cut. There’s always tension with the distributors. There’s always someone who comes from a business school who tells you how you can make your movie better and more successful, but you just don’t listen to them and they get angry and say, “I have the final cut. Shut up…” That’s why I feel safe making movies with French production companies, is that you have the law on your side.

In which situations can you cut? Sometimes if the financiers don’t raise enough money to do a movie the way you want it, they ask you to cut a quarter of your script. Then you have to make the decision: “Should I cut a quarter of my script or not do the movie?” Of course, you cut a quarter of your script, but it’s not about censoring… You have less toys, but sometimes it gets better.

SAM: I think my favorite edit of all time is when you just cut a whole reel out of Enter the Void for the theatrical showing.

GASPAR: There are moments you say, “Well, I’m inspired.”

They were putting me [under] so much pressure when Enter the Void was released because the movie… The original cut was two hours and thirty-five minutes. Nowadays, it would be distributed later because of all these TV series and also because of some blockbusters that were three hours long – people considered that a movie that’s two and a half hours can be successful – but the movie was so weird as a product when it was shown at Cannes…

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SAM: But what I enjoy about the movie with the different reels is that it does become another movie, like Possession.

RONIT: Why do you think that’s important to you as a filmmaker to bring that out, highlight it?

RONIT: Like completely… How do you get into the psychology of your characters?

GASPAR: You know which movies touch you, which things in life touch you. Then there are things that don’t touch you. I don’t like filming dialogues, for example… I think it’s boring to film dialogues. If on the set, you don’t feel you’re filming dialogues, it’s just people that are being, then you edit whatever is good, whatever is bad. You can tell, for example in Enter the Void, most dialogues are useless. I think literature is great for dialogues. But then it’s just how people portray the situation… but the body language is more important than the words.

Pasolini was saying the audience isn’t stupid. You can ask any actor to say anything where people watch a movie, or as they do in real life, they consider people for their acts, not their words.

So someone can say, “I’m going to save you.” If he looks tricky, if he’s a greedy character, he can talk about the Bible, but life is the same. Some people talk about the future of this planet. They can be vegan, they can be humanist, whatever, but you know behind that, they [can be] just as evil as the worst cop of the town…

I like movies like [Carl Theodor Dreyer’s] Day of Wrath.

It’s a movie about inquisition… There are many characters involved in the story and there’s drama. You can understand the psychology that it’s not made of white or Black. There’s always gray and brown of all the characters and how they fight for their own survival and drama appears. Mostly people behave in a way because of their traumas, because of their education, but they’re all part of the same humankind [regardless of] color, gender, etc.

American cinema is far more… How do you say?

GASPAR: You just pick up people [who] have the charisma needed to portray a character, but then you let them by themselves inside their own characters. I’m not pushy with actors. Just people that I think are funny, talented, whether they’re professional or non-professional. It’s just some people grab your eyes and your brain in a particular way, but it’s always better to make movies with people you really like even if they’re very different from you. Then let them find their own words.

It was not fully completed, by the way. It was a first mix, first edit; I was still working on everything when it was show at Cannes.

I had so many film critics hating me since I’m born that the first thing that would come was “This movie is too long.” At that moment, I was showing an unfinished version in Cannes. So then the financiers said, “Oh, you have to cut the movie down.”

In my contract, I had the final cut for the French version, but it was written in [that] if the movie was above two hours and thirty minutes and the foreign distributor asked for a [shorter] copy, you have to deliver a copy of two hours and twenty minutes maximum.

They didn’t know how to cut because also at that time, the movie was probably the last I had printed on 35mm. It was the first year that I discovered the existence of DCPs and all the digital projection. So I said, “If I cut the movie, I’ll never see my cut anywhere because the negative is going to be cut.” They said, “Well, you have to listen to us. You signed the contract.” I said, “No, I signed the contract for the foreign release, but in France I can do two hours and forty minutes.”

Finally [I found] probably one of the solutions that I’m most proud of in my whole career. I [reconstructed] the whole movie. On film cans, the maximum is twenty minutes. The movie… was made of nine cans. Then I checked how I could cut the cans, and I compressed some. Some of them were twelve minutes… In order to say, “Okay, we print the nine cans, but if you want to pull out reel number seven, you can screen the movie without one reel… But you have to deliver my whole movie to everybody.”

It worked. It’s very weird, but I couldn’t believe that it would work so well. In Japan, they released it with eight reels.

In America, they initially released it with eight reels… then two weeks later they said, “And now we have the director’s cut!” They already had the reel in their projection room, but – SAM: They weren’t playing it.

GASPAR: Yeah. Sometimes even on the DVD, you have the short version and the long version. It’s just that there is a seventeen-minute cut.

RONIT: That changes the entire film – that scene.

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SAM: That’s like in the old Westerns. The person wearing the white hat was the good guy, the person wearing the Black hat was the bad guy. You just had to look at the color of your hat.

GASPAR: Then even in the storyline, for example, in a Hollywood movie, you know that anybody who misbehaves will have bad luck at the end of the movie… In real life, the people who survive are the strongest ones or the most manipulative ones, but people don’t want to see that in a movie theater. In America, and in the rest of the world… people will go to the movies to relax.

If you want to learn about life, you watch a documentary, but sometimes people want to forget. They don’t want to learn.

RONIT: Well, I don’t [want to forget], and that’s why I’m extremely engaged when I watch your movies because it’s like I’m there. Are you nervous your audience won’t get it because you’re not selling them? Do you assume they’re intelligent, or you don’t even care?

GASPAR: Most people understand it. I don’t know if they’re intelligent or not. I don’t think I’m intelligent, but I see many stupid people around all the time. It’s just like you don’t do a movie for an audience. You do it for your friends, for yourself…

In my case, I have one obsession. When I make a movie, I think, “I’m going to show it to Scorsese [and] Cronenberg.” Show it to your idols. I don’t have an edit complex besides with the film directors that I admire, even if they’re younger… It’s not an art, but you are kind of professionally or humanly competing and sharing with people who do the same kind of things that you’re doing. But for me, the ultimate spectator of my movie is not a film critic. It’s probably, of course, the people who are close to you and then the directors you admire.

SAM: Have you had any feedback from directors who have seen your work?

GASPAR: Yes, I’m not good at names, but my favorite liked my last movie, so…

RONIT / SAM: (In unison) That’s awesome.

Even if I wrote some film scripts that were long, like for I Stand Alone, Irreversible or Enter the Void, I never wanted to give the screenplay to the actors. I was refusing. I said, “No, you’re going to learn the lines. Those lines, I wrote them, and I don’t have your language, so please once you read the script, give it back to me.” I seriously didn’t want anybody to learn any lines because I like scenes happening on the set because it’s fresher. You’re not doing a documentary, but you create the scenes with a group of people that you selected.

RONIT: But in terms of the characters, the inner dynamics and psychology – do you intend it to be so subtle? I don’t know if you intend it, but sometimes it’s almost like a statement. Irreversible was all about different kinds of men, like male toxicity, I thought.

And it landed on one woman, but it’s different versions of male – GASPAR: Monsters. Yeah. In my movies, the male characters are mostly more stupid than the women. At least, you can tell that they’re driven by their hormones in a more predictable way.

SAM: And definitely love.

GASPAR: No, but the… Then you ask people who know how to portray the characters.

RONIT: Binary.

SAM: Black or white.

GASPAR: Oh mon Dieu, since the first scene, you know who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. Mostly in commercial movies, you know that the bad guy is going to be destroyed, so people come out happy.

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GASPAR: When I see a movie with someone that I know or I don’t know, immediately I want to call the person or send him a message even if I don’t know him. Just to go, “Congratulations.

You surprised me…” It’s good to compete in a happy way, a non-dominant way.

GASPAR: No, because I live in France. I make my way, but the planet is becoming more Victorian or religious or this or that. There’s so many ways of controlling people, of mass controlling… Demonization. Demonization of sexuality. It’s so weird. It’s the source of life.

RONIT: Do you relate to the movement Cinema of the Body, the French Extremists?

RONIT: What’s next for you?

GASPAR: I don’t know what that is. I know that some critics… invented a genre called the New Extremity. Let’s just say that in France, the production system gave more freedom to directors than the TV channels were giving or that some American producers were giving to their own cinema. So some scenes happen in the French cinema because you could go with a project like Irreversible… French people are more selfish, not in a financial way, but in a mental way. Everybody in France thinks he’s one of a kind and that his movie has to be different from all the others. It’s not a commercial issue; it’s more like an ego issue.

Not pretentious, because pretensions [can] fail, but that’s also why artists like coming to France, because it’s about developing your own identity. People don’t want to be part of a group… Most of the people here want to be just the king of themselves.

RONIT: Do you ever know?

GASPAR: Probably an atomic bomb. (Laughs)

GASPAR: You don’t have sex every day.

SAM: To do it?

SAM: I wish.

GASPAR: To get the cross again and carry it on my shoulder and go to the cornfield.

RONIT: They lost the art.

GASPAR: [On the other side], if a girl puts a nipple on Instagram, she gets banned. I can’t believe that nipples are banned nowadays. You see nudity in every part and you see pornography in the old Indian temples, and nowadays, nudity is the representation of evil. We’re getting back to an old way of thinking.

RONIT: Do you think that will affect film?

GASPAR: Of course.

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RONIT: But if you could do anything, your dream.

RONIT: I have to ask about the sex. That’s a big part of your movies. Is it just part of everyday life that you’re exploring?

GASPAR: Sometimes yes, by periods. But I don’t see why things that are essential in everybody’s life should not be portrayed.

There are things that you don’t want to portray for legal reasons or emotional reasons. The good things in life, why would you prevent yourself from showing them, giving to other people? I loved erotic cinema when I was a kid…

I have memories of watching naked couples or naked women. I think that’s missing now. The fact that even Playboy Magazine now puts bras on every girl. I say, “What the fuck?”

It’s like they’re demonizing something that made my childhood and my adolescence happy. I would masturbate a lot, but I felt better after masturbation. When you masturbate, you release serotonin, endorphins. I know nowadays teenagers masturbate on a cell phone or watching gangbangs on YouPorn – what I experienced in the 70s and 80s was far more rewarding and fresher.

TV

GASPAR: I don’t know.

GASPAR: One thing is the scenes you want to see… The projects that you can think you’re strong enough to do them. Like for example, Enter the Void took me such a long time that I don’t want to get into a process of two years of pre-production, one year of shooting, the effects, then one year of promotion. I didn’t know at the time that it would take me six years, but I like things that are short because I want to be free to move around. Nowadays I’m doing short films, or feature films, but in a short time because I don’t want to get stuck for two and a half years on a project. The ones I dream of seeing, they’re complicated so probably I have one day to –

(All laugh)

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RONIT: Does that make you angry?

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VISION Robert Hayman Finds His Muse in Art & Cannabis

By Jaime Lubin Photos: Robert Hayman Robert Hayman has been described as an “everything artist,” and it shows not only in his work but in his entire being.

The Renaissance man, best known for his wildly imaginative collaborations with RuPaul’s Drag Race star Laganja Estranja (one of America’s most powerful drag queens), is a visionary of the highest order. Even in conversation he encompasses themes of variety, pondering past, present, and future as he discusses Los Angeles versus New York, the Roaring Twenties, science fiction, finding love, and so much more.

Fans now have a direct connection to Hayman’s genius through the YouTube series Muse Me, which shows behind-thescenes footage of his weekly photo shoots with Laganja from concept to staging to final images. In the first season alone, their collaborations have included an Atlantis-like orgy of water and jewels, a rainbow celebration of nonbinary beauty, a Marilyn Monroe-inspired light symphony, an edgy futuristic space witch, and an homage to the 1978 film noir Eyes of Laura Mars.

“My purpose in life has always been, ever since I can remember, to be an artist,” says Hayman. “And the reason why I think I choose to be an artist is to make people feel… The best [photographers], when you turn the page of a magazine and you see their photograph, it arrests you instantly. It stops you for a second… Life is a challenge. So when I make art, I want to bring people out of that. Even if it’s for six seconds with a photo, or five minutes with a music video, or two hours with a theatrical production or a movie, I want to be able to escape this world and have some sort of transcendent experience where they just suspend their disbelief and transport to another place.”

Muse Me empowers viewers to do that very well, though Hayman has been creating fantasies his entire life. First trained as a ballet dancer from age eight, he turned to acting as a pre-teen and was auditioning for Broadway in his twenties. A career shift came when Hayman moved to Paris, initially shopping his work as a fashion photographer but getting noticed by agencies for his outstanding makeup artistry. Soon he was being booked for major fashion shows with brands such as Yves St. Laurent, Chanel, and Jean-Paul Gautier.

“I’m a one-man show,” Hayman states of his work now.

“I do the makeup and the styling, and I art-direct the shoot.” Admittedly, the DIY aspect makes it hard to find the correct support.

Robert confesses that he’s had trouble acquiring representation

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Model: Michelle Cameron

as such a multimedia artist: “I’m a painter, I’m an actor, I’m a writer, I’m a director. I direct music videos. I am a photographer, a makeup artist, a stylist. And agents say, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t know how to market you. You have to pick.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t want to pick.’ I’d rather do it all myself. I know exactly what I want. That’s my art.”

This approach helps inform the magic of Muse Me. Theatre, as both actor and director, remains a mainstay of Hayman’s career – one could call the performative art and photography Robert creates with Laganja (also known as Jay Jackson) a cinematic cabaret. Both self-aware and willing to adapt to new environments in search of an exciting narrative, they combine emotional force, curiosity, and visual teleportation in every shoot. What results is true innovation “I don’t want to call it a work ethic because [we’re not making money from this], so I will call it artistic energy,” Hayman explains. “[Jay] happens to be an artist, which is why we connected so well… And [Muse Me] makes it interesting how I can redefine, reinterpret, reinvent this one person who can be both man and woman.”

According to Hayman, Jackson is his first nonbinary muse. They play with gender and androgyny constantly in their work and throughout Muse Me, though Laganja does have an absolutely perfect face for women’s styling.

“Being a gay man, my friends often ask me, ‘You shoot beautiful women. Why don’t you shoot men?’” Robert notes. “I love shooting men, but there’s something about women. I think it’s probably because I’m a makeup artist and the whole transformation process with the face is interesting to me… I [do makeup on a drag queen] the way I would do a woman’s face… You know, so many photographers out there shoot beautiful women and they just want to get them naked, and it becomes exploitative. I may use nudity in my work, but when I take pictures of women, I want them to be goddesses. I want to raise them up.”

That sense of divinity permeates Hayman’s every creation. He speaks often about his belief in “manifesting” ideas that he wants to come true (he claims his collaboration with Laganja as an example), and an otherworldly quality marks his work. From supernatural beings front and center – models dressed as fairies or mermaids – to softly spiritual experiments with light and nature, the element of something beyond human is ever present.

“I’ve been accused of creating dark work,” Hayman comments. “But I think I also create a lot of light work. I think the better way to describe that is fantasy. Because again, I want my pictures to pop, I want [them] to be arresting. Sometimes you’re doing a shoot and you’re clicking and clicking, and it’s not popping up… I won’t stop shooting a look until I know I have gotten something where I went, ‘Oh, that’s so cool. That moment, there it is.’ [In storyboard] I can give you an idea of what the picture’s

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"I smoke grass every day for the most part,"

Left, Right, Next Pages: Laganja EstranjaEstranja

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RAINBOW TRIBE

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Photo: Robert Hayman

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Photographer Robert Hayman asks models from his Rainbow Tribe their thoughts on LGBTQIA+ and inclusivity: Jean Paul Acocella (Model/Actor) Be kind to each other. I'd like to see more people operate from a place of empathy rather than hate--celebrate the differences rather than look for commonalities. We need to accept people rather than judging them for their differences. I am a member of the LGBTQ community as well as an ally. It is the reason I am here today.

Lindsey Compton (Singer/Songwriter) Listening to and accepting others allows you to do the same for yourself.

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Cadance Cane (Variety Entertainer) I represent the B in LGBTQ. It seems like a basic concept to treat each other with kindness regardless of gender, genitalia or sexual preference.

JOSIE (JARROD VAN GOSEN)...STYLIST / COSTUME DESIGNER Ive experienced a lot of different gay communities and scenes around the world... Most of my friends are heterosexual because they accept me for how I am instead of what I have to offer them. Sexually I'm resented because I can be more feminine. Physically I'm idolized for my confidence I exude, and the freedom I have with my gender fluidity and style.

Hector Flores III (Artist) Walk with your head held high. Spread hope, love and laughter.

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I R E King Noire On Decolonizing Porn & His Love Of Cannabis

By Michael Morris Adult films have a long history. Some sordid, some a lot of fun. In this ever-changing industry, actors often find themselves in difficult situations where their bodily autonomy is threatened, in a variety of ways, including race play, age-play and fetishes that are degrading. Agents may agree to things without prior consent from the performers themselves, creating dynamics where performers must defend themselves, and forgo a paycheck. In response, a group of adult performers formed The BIPOC Adult Industry Collective as a resource for education and support services to make the adult entertainment industry a safe space for everyone who chooses this labor.

King Noire, a performer, producer, sex educator and member of the BIPOC Collective, uses his past experiences to educate and assist those encountering similar issues. He is one of several performers who has spoken publicly about the stigmatization of BIPOC in the adult industry, the pay gap between white performers and performers of color, the racist marketing techniques that many companies employ, and the larger problems surrounding the selection and rejection of specific roles.

For example, as a performer with two teenage daughters, he is uncomfortable with age-play. One day on set, he found that his agent booked him for a scene where his scene partner was dressed in a schoolgirl outfit.

“I was uncomfortable, but it was such a big company and opportunity.” It was a chance to break into a major production studio, which would mean bigger checks. He knew that if he walked away he’d have to pay a kill fee (a payment by the performer to the porn company for refusing to participate and forcing the company to find a replacement) and his reputation as a performer would likely be damaged, meaning other companies might not want to work with him. With several elements of coercion at play, King Noire did not consent, and ended up walking away.

Consent is a widespread issue within the adult film community, particularly concerning agreements to honor performers’ discomforts.

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Performers Mickey Mod, BlakSyn, and Wolf Hudson explain that when discussing consent, issues of race come into play. Raceplay scenes that include racial expletives have become more common in porn. According to Mod, a self-identified “kinky brown person,” when it comes to shooting porn, “consent is the cornerstone of equality and inclusion.” Sinnamon Love, founder of the BIPOC Adult Industry Collective, urges fans to join her “journey to decolonize porn.”

BlakSyn has ended up in non-consensual race-play scenarios where they were called derogatory names. Most common, however, are attention-grabbing video titles that fetishize Black and brown performers. Mickey Mod was disappointed after he’d shot a scene that had been completely consensual because he later found out that the video title fetishized him as a Black man. In Mickey’s view, his consent was required for the entire project, including any words used to describe him. He never consented to the racial title.

Another example is if a male performer performs a sexual act called a “facial” that he knows his scene-partner has not agreed to, this constitutes an assault.

BlakSyn believes open and honest communication is essential in combating consent violations. They suggest detailed discussions and lists that meticulously explain what is and what is not okay before shooting a scene. BlakSyn thinks consent is more complicated than a simple yes or no, and that it can be revoked at any time. Things like body language, pitch of voice, or a general hesitancy should be taken just as seriously as a verbal, out-loud “no.”

Sometimes violations of consent occur because of lack of communication, but other times they occur because someone is a predator. According to King Noire, some predators are drawn to the porn industry because they know performers might be desperate for cash or unlikely to speak up. “When someone is a predator, they should be held accountable,” King says. “If companies continue to hire people who are predatory, then performers should refuse to work with that company.” He pointed out that if justice cannot be achieved through the legal system, then it is up to the adult film community to ostracize known predators.

King Noire and his partner, Jet Setting Jasmine, are working to create a safe and ethical space for BIPOC performers through their adult entertainment production company, Royal Fetish Films. Royal Fetish Films offers a vision of Black intimacy and eroticism inspired by what Black audiences actually want to see.

Subscribers will find a rich collection of different vibes, kinks, and fantasies, all of which center the sexual diversity of people of color.

He goes on to explain that he has been consuming cannabis since approximately age 11, and used to make infused tea “for my asthma, because marijuana relaxes the capillaries in your lungs that make it easier for you to breathe when you’re having an asthma attack. But you don’t particularly want to take a blunt to the face when you have an asthma attack, so [you’d take] edibles…

Marijuana has been a part of my life for more than it hasn’t.”

Unsurprisingly, King’s favorite element of appreciating the plant is the ritual aspect of it, “like sitting and rolling up, or packing it into a bong or whatever, a pipe… It very much keeps me calm and mellow most of the time… I think it’s just the vibe I get from it, the feeling I get from it that I enjoy. I can’t even think of extra words to put to it. I just fuck with it. It’s been a part of my life for health reasons, for spiritual reasons, pleasurable reasons, and that’s why I fuck with it.”

As a self-described “sensual dom,” it’s understandable that King Noire would be able to find all the pleasure cannabis offers. His favorite strains? Blue Dream, Purple Candy, Gelato was always a favorite of mine, and I really enjoy people I know that might grow, and they create it the old- fashioned way. They might not even have a strain, but will be like, “Yo, this some stuff that I’m growing right now.” I like that aspect of it, so it’s just like you get that love from them. You know? Edibles all day for me. I prefer body highs more than heady highs, and definitely lean more towards Indica-dominant hybrids.”

And as he and Jet Setting Jasmine actively challenge the adult entertainment industry to be more ethical and inclusive for BIPOC, while exploring all life has to offer sexually, romantically, and sensually, it seems King Noire is truly riding high in the effort to improve lifecreate safer spaces for people of color. The decolonization battle may be far from over, but we are most ready to cheer:

“Long live the King.”

“We wanted to encompass the whole thing,” King noted, “and just show how beautiful Black folk are, show that our sex has no limits and bounds.”

In liberating himself from stereotypes, King Noire also educates his community, encouraging people to pursue whichever connections and experiences feel good to them. From polyamory and kink to cannabis, there are no constraints when it comes to living an unbridled life.

“I think cannabis and sex go well together,” he says. “I don’t think that cannabis has the same effect that liquor does, where liquor can turn people a lot of different directions. Cannabis is more like a background, relaxing-type substance that, for some people, it enhances their experience; for other people it relaxes them. There’s some real good THC lubes out there that help you even more... I think that it’s a natural herb, it’s a natural plant, so involving it in natural activities is only natural.”

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Performers: Xerlina & King Noire

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“All the weed that’s fit to smoke.”

NYC Legalizes

Vladimir Bautista smoked his first joint back in the ‘90s at age 12. He was playing hooky with his older friends who were about 15 at the time. It made him happy, put him in a good mood. Laughs, giggles, munchies. It was a peaceful escape from the rough, urban environment of 139th and Broadway in the upper Manhattan area of New York City.

As he entered his late teens, Bautista found himself confronted by police and arrested more than 20 times simply for consuming cannabis. It happened so much around the neighborhood that Bautista and his friends thought it was normal. You’d get picked up for smoking on the street and spend 24 hours in jail.

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By Michael Morris

Late Edition

Today, morning clouds of haze giving way to sunny chronic.Tommorow, dabs to the dome. Happy munkey.

bill automatically expunged all cannabis-related convictions and will divert 40 percent of its revenue toward marginalized communities in the form of grants.

The bill originally proposed by Cuomo, the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act (CRTA), was met with distaste from activists. Many believed a provision requiring jail time for those caught selling cannabis to minors was too punitive, that a de facto bidding war for cannabis licenses disadvantaged underground sellers who wanted to jump into the legal market, and that the bill as a whole did not do enough to address the social inequities created by the War on Drugs.

“People like myself that grew up in urban, violent areas have their own version of PTSD,” said Bautista.

“Cannabis helps Vladamir Bautista you deal with those things, but I would’ve never thought [legalization] was possible. Now you can have three ounces on you, you can have five pounds in your house, you can smoke anywhere where you smoke cigarettes. It’s like a dream come true.”

“[CRTA] had no social consumption licenses,” said Bautista. “The social consumption piece is so important because in New York we live on top of each other. When you have a [concentration] of [public housing] and apartments that are mostly co-ops, when you have these two components and you don’t give people a reasonable place to smoke, you’re putting them in danger of losing their homes.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) into law this March, immediately legalizing adult use of recreational cannabis throughout the state.

Advocates for equitable cannabis legislation like Bautista consider this a landmark victory, as the

Social consumption licenses are important to Bautista because social consumption is what helped build his business, Happy Munkey. What has become a podcast, a blog, and a weed paraphernalia shop started as a smoker’s lounge in New York.

Dawson is the bestselling author of How to Succeed in the Cannabis Industry and creator of The WeedHead™ & Company, a blogturned-education company that seeks to teach any and everyone about the cannabis industry. In 2020, Dawson became the third Black woman in the United States to become a cannabis officiator for a city government.

She believes that due to her race, she brings an essential perspective to cannabis regulation.

In 2017, Bautista held his first Happy Munkey event, what some called the “Studio 54 of Cannabis.” No alcohol, just weed.

“Us being some of the first people to create the consumption lounge in New York really was an advocacy on its own because we brought people together from all walks of life,” said Bautista.

“It was the first time that professionals smoked publicly and were in the same room with people from the culture and saw them smoking publicly, which had a major impact on taking away the stigma of cannabis here in New York.”

Dasheeda Dawson

Social consumption licenses, delivery licenses, and homegrow of certain cannabis plants are among the distinctive provisions included in MRTA. “[MRTA] is the most equity-centered legislation that has passed with full legalization,” said Dasheeda Dawson, Cannabis Supervisor for Portland’s Office of Civic Life. “It goes so far as to include multiple types of licenses, including micro-licenses and delivery licenses, which in a lot of adult-use markets were left out, and have the best opportunity for legacy or underground market operators to transition through those points. The addition of automatic expungement was also an important one.

It was something that was really missing in the CRTA, which missed the mark in making sure that people who have previously dealt with incarceration or any collateral damage as a result of criminalization get that undone.”

“The war on cannabis was really a war on people,” said Dawson. “The arrests were due to cannabis possession, not distribution, and the lies that were told around that were just not the reality. Black and Indigenous and Latinx individuals were the ones that were targeted and overpoliced through racially biased enforcement. It is almost impossible in my opinion to not take to regulation a policy with that lens, and as a Black woman, that’s what I understand first and foremost.”

Bautista has emphasized diversity at Happy Munkey and involved people of all walks of life in his vision. He believes that cannabis could be the remedy to our intense divisions in the United States.

“We are so divided on so many issues, and I think cannabis is the great equalizer,” he said. “It brings out the best people of moral principles and the goodhearted people of every race, every sexuality.

People need to see that there are still some things like cannabis that can unify us all for a greater good.”

Leo Bridgewater

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Do you think it’s possible to truly heal as a Black community in a society that is fundamentally rooted in our oppression?

How have the many instances of police brutality within the recent years affected your mental health and possibly affected your art?

I’m imbalanced with that because the more I grow through life it seems far-fetched. Right now I’ve been reading the Bible more and doing some spiritual searching. In reading the Bible, I’m seeing how centuries ago violence existed amongst our own people. In today’s society, even when you have leaders that try to inspire Black culture to do what they feel is best for us to move forward and create unity, they end up being killed. America knows that if we get in tune with our higher frequencies and vibrations, what we can do is endless. So they keep us on low vibrations and got us to a point right now where we’re doing the work for America by killing ourselves and killing each other.

To me that’s a systematic way [of] oppressing our people.

It definitely stems back to the overseers on the plantations.

In the streets where police brutality is happening in these communities, it’s mainly happening to Black people. It affects me tremendously because you feel unsafe once you walk outside your household. I’ve experienced police brutality myself, detectives and police just randomly wanting to harass me, and it plays out in my art today. In the Bed Stuy Landmark mural that I created on the corner of my block, there’s the letter T. [Across the top of the] T there’s a word in Igbo, a Southeastern Nigerian language, the word kwusi. It means to stop or abolish. Down the shaft of the T [we] have different terms that we say we want to see stopped and abolished in our society: systemic oppression, gang violence, gun violence, and racism. I put that there before a lot of the stuff that we recently saw with George Floyd.

What I can say is I’m healing myself. I definitely want to thank God for the direction and allowing me to be the vessel to do his work. I’m hoping that what I’m doing for myself and the actions that I’m taking inspires one or two people. Then those people go on to inspire more people exponentially.

By Obadiah Williams-McBride Vaughn Jefferson is a Black artist known as “The CureRater” from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, whose many different avenues of expression include music, acting, writing and murals. We connected to discuss how his murals impact his local community, the reality of Black men in America, and artistic expression. Read on for his wisest words, particularly for the Black community and those looking to engage in the medium of murals.

HONEYSUCKLE MAGAZINE: As a Black man, how do you think that we reach a space in the community where Black men are more comfortable speaking about their mental health?

VAUGHN JEFFERSON: I think it starts with being able to look ourselves in the mirror and forgive. Forgive ourselves as individuals, then to forgive ourselves as Black men whether you felt you’ve been done wrong by any male figures before you. You have to understand that each person has a story that impacts you as an individual and be in a space to forgive them for any hardships or decisions that they made that impacted you. You have to come to a point of loving and accepting yourself for who you are, flaws and all. No one is perfect but I think that we as Black men should get to a space of living life righteously and living life righteously is not necessarily being perfect. We need to be able to look at ourselves as a whole and say “I would like help. I would like to make some transformations in my life to become a greater individual.”

I started my self care journey in 2017 and I recently learned to love myself [at age 40].

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How does the repression of emotions in Black males affect the Black community as a whole?

The repression of emotions is very detrimental to our health because that leads to not being vocal about what you’re feeling, thinking or whatever you have going on internally. That leads to stress and the build-up of illness that can start showing externally. As young men especially in the Black community, we’re raised to be tough and not tap into our emotions. When you cry or show any signs of what they perceive as weakness, they try to steer you away from that because they feel it’s not masculine. Being vocal about what you’re feeling is a huge part of communication and being human. If you can’t express what you’re feeling, no one knows what you’re dealing with or how to even support you in any way. When you hold back these things that you’re dealing with at a young age and you carry it on into adulthood, you get to that boiling point it explodes because you didn’t know how to express it. Now it comes out as anger, as violence, and that’s your active way of expressing it. If you had a conversation along the way about certain things that you were feeling and addressed it with the particular individual that you had a situation with, you could overcome the situation.

Holding things back and not expressing yourself is not good for us as a culture. [It leads] to mental issues like depression, anxiety and other terms that fall under that umbrella... You don’t know how to explain and you don’t feel comfortable to come to one of your closest friends or family and say “I’m hurt” or “What you did made me feel this way, and I don’t like it.” That dialogue is extremely important. I would love for us as a culture to get to the point of facing some of these things that we have been burying. We need to establish a space to communicate issues. That’s why the term “the Cure-Rater” is what it is because you have to try to cure yourself. If you’ve been holding something for many years let’s look at that.

As far as a collective whole I still have hope, but I don’t look at it as a peaceful thing. Life is about roller coasters, ups and downs, and how you handle the imbalances.

Those imbalances actually strengthen you as individuals and collectively. So at a point we will get tired of the oppression and killing each other like that. Until that point, it’s not going to change.

There has to be a spark, a seed being planted. It may not be my generation. However, these seeds that are being planted will trickle down to some form of healing and things will get to a balanced place.I have faith that yes, we will become healed as a collective.

What does it take to find peace as a Black man?

I want Black men to be okay with crying because you have to release what you’re holding, whatever demons, whatever pain, whatever emotions, you got to let that out.

Tears [and] sweating [are ways] of cleansing... I was very uncomfortable with crying. I felt so weak. I felt less of a man to cry. I’m okay with it now. If I become emotional about something and it hits me,I can sit in whatever emotion or whatever feelings that I’m having at that moment.

I watched Malcolm X many times growing up, but as an adult, the scene where they killed him, it was weird for me that I had no control over my emotions and the tears started to flow. I realize that that’s a part of my depression because I’ve been dealing with death for many years. I’ve seen people die at the hands of someone that looks just like me, so to see that movie as an adult, it registered differently. If crying is one of the true ways of releasing whatever is overcoming me, I don’t fight it no more. I don’t hold it back because I want to seem tough. I’m okay with it and I think that other people should become okay with it because you’re human.

Scenes from Vaughn's upcoming documentary: The Cure-Rater I exemplified that in my art because it is subtly in their face, but you have to actually read it to see why this is beautiful.

I’ve been dealing with police brutality [from] a young age. The first time, in 1999, I had come from taking my SATs in the 12th grade. I had to go to the store for my grandmother and I stopped by a dice game on the corner of my block. I didn’t touch the dice, [but] the Paddy wagon came rolling by. Everybody scattered, but with me being so tall, I stood out and the officer was following me.

Then I realized, I didn’t do anything wrong, so instead of me running, I just turned around with my hands up like, “Okay, what’s the issue?” and he automatically got very aggressive. In return I got aggressive back and there was a scuffle. I had just turned 18. That definitely changed the trajectory of my life, because I didn’t get a high enough [SAT] score to get into Howard University for journalism, broadcasting and communication. I got arrested that March, then that July I got arrested again for hanging in

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the park with my friends. We were smoking; the irony is that the blunt didn’t even get to me. However, detectives came to the park and said that they saw me smoking so I got arrested. That was two times in one year. After that I decided I can’t be on the street and I ended up going to a community college.

Seeing how police brutality affected other friends and people in the neighborhood when I was a kid and watching it now in mainstream media is very depressing. It’s very traumatic to watch this and know that there’s a history of it. To know that America has killed our leaders as a systematic way of keeping us down. . Police brutality is just the surface; underneath that is so many things: the racism, the oppression that America is subjecting our people to.

What do you want people to take from your murals?

At first glance, I want people to just observe the colors, the shapes and the message. Don’t even try to decipher what you’re looking at, just observe the beauty within it. Then when you actually read the message process and internalize it. How does it apply to you? How does it impact you?

How can I inspire you to go along your journey in life? .

Everything may not impress you but there’s something there that you can take a piece of.

I wanted to inspire hope, especially with the Big Daddy Kane and Frank Mickens murals. Those are people from the community that have walked these streets. When people see them,I want them to feel inspired by the fact that these people come from where I’m from. I want them to feel that they can do great things as well. Frank Mickens has passed away and Big Daddy Kane is still living outside the neighborhood, but I want them to understand the ideas of people from this community and that there’s a culture here.

One of the reasons I did the Big Daddy Kane mural is because in our communities murals were usually painted when someone passed away and I wanted to give flowers while people are still alive. To do the mural in the building that Big Daddy Kane was raised in, then for him to actually come and see the mural, appreciate it and sign the gate where we did the mural, that’s huge for me because he was here to witness it. I intend to do more murals in the neighborhood and I intend to do more than just celebrities because there are people doing groundwork that impacts the community. Those people need to get acknowledged while they’re still here.

Does the government’s past treatment of Black businesses and events like Black Wall Street discourage you in trying to rebuild the community?

I am still actively moving towards what I intend to do. The narrative that all Black people can’t work together was very prominent, but I don’t believe that. I do think it’s possible to get back to where Black Wall Street was. It’s happening, but it may not look the way that it looked with Black Wall Street. I deal with a lot of graphic designers, fashion designers, construction people, accountants, and bankers who are doing it with the experience that they have as individuals.

It’s going to take a group with the same mindset to fulfill this vision. Everybody cannot be rappers [or] athletes. We have to raise these kids to tap into their God-given abilities and teach them how they can utilize that to gain financial freedom.Teach them how to turn that into a business where they can employ people. We have to support their visions.

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Where do you think you would be today if you didn’t find art and music as your passions?

Dead, jail or just aimlessly existing. In the nineties I would always hang at my friends’ houses, including Art-1 who airbrushed my murals, and it was like a safe haven for me.

We would go there, smoke, hang out, write music, and Art-1 would be airbrushing clothes. From hanging around them as opposed to my other friends [who] would commit crimes, put me on a path to tap into my talents. Initially it was music [and] creative writing. Art has definitely saved me as an outlet of creativity as opposed to being drawn to the street. Art-1 [and I are still] here today doing murals in the community. He actually did the Jam Master Jay mural in Queens. He’s a celebrity airbrush artist. You’ll see him in The Cure Rater docuseries and he’ll be involved with a lot more murals.

I think that the more we do these murals that are meant to impact people, you will carry people further in their journey. If you wake up in the morning on the wrong side of the bed and you’re traveling to wherever you go, then you see something that inspires you, I think it can alter your mood. Art can shift your emotions and change your thought process. So that’s what I intend to do within the process of preserving the culture and beautifying the neighborhood.

Post Traumatic Prison Disorder and Shawanna W76337 by Shawanna Vaughn Thick metal bars. They sit on the inside and outside of the windows in Shawanna Vaughn’s apartment in the Lincoln Houses public housing unit in Harlem, NY. They are supposed to provide protection, but protection from what?

“These bring me right back to those years” Ms. Vaughn says, wrapping her fingers around the cool metal of the bars. “Everyday I’m reminded of my five years in a cage. Everyday I feel anxiety from the memories rising in my chest. I can hear the screams, feel the pain of the sleepless nights. I have to constantly remind myself that I’m not there anymore, I’m out.” Free, but somehow still confined.

There are currently 2.3 million people behind bars in the United States. While incarcerated individuals remain highly stigmatized and disenfranchised, protest calls for prison abolition and the explosion of COVID-19 cases in prisons and jails, have helped to bring the collateral consequences of incarceration to the mainstream. But even with increased public and government attention questioning the inhumanity of U.S. carceral systems, the psychological damages caused by prolonged incarceration, faced by both currently incarcerated individuals and the 19.8 million formerly incarcerated people, remains unaddressed in policy. This leaves millions of Americans struggling with re-entry, forced to navigate their trauma in silence -- creating a cycle of depression, drug use, re-incarceration, and death.

Ms. Vaughn refers to these carceral induced psychological damages as Post Traumatic Prison Disorder (PTPD). Also known as Post Incarceration Syndrome, PTPD is a subset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent reexperiencing of trauma, avoidance, hyper arousal and emotional numbing. Through a bill entitled PTPD Shawanna W76337, she is working to bring attention to this condition, speaking not only to the ills of prison, but also the mental-emotional destabilization individuals face before and after incarceration.

“Prison is the place where trauma culminates and time stops; it is the new plantation, present day enslavement,” Ms. Vaughn says, “many of us were ignored before, but once you go to prison, you are forgotten. I will never be the same, I will never forget, but I will not be forgotten.”

SILENT CRY

Pre-carceral Trauma and Incarceration At 17 years old, Ms. Vaughn was sentenced to five years for robbery. But this was not her first time in confinement; Ms. Vaughn was born into confinement. On April 5, 1978, Ms. Vaughn’s mother, who was at the time incarcerated at the Corona State Prison for Women in California, was forced to give birth to her daughter while handcuffed to a gurney.

To this day, most correctional facilities do not have on-site obstetric care. Additionally, the majority of individuals who give birth while incarcerated are almost immediately separated from their child post delivery. Shackling and Separation: Motherhood in Prison, a report published in the AMA Journal of Ethics, explains that such separation can have a devastating effect on the wellbeing of both the mother and infant.

Ms. Vauggn entered her second experience with incarceration already traumatized.

“Prisons and jails have become America’s “new asylums”: The number of individuals with serious mental illness in prisons and jails now exceeds the number in state psychiatric hospitals tenfold” states a report by the National Institute of Corrections.

In referring to the unique experience of incarcerated individuals, Post Traumatic Prison Disorder (PTPD) must be defined and treated as a separate entity from PTSD or other mental health disorders. As Dr. Coralanne Griffith-Hunte, a Human, Industrial & Trauma Psychologist, explained: “We (society) incarcerate a behavior or an act, but being a psychologist I know that behavior is a language, behavior is not the reason that someone commits a crime. So we have to look at what causes it, so we have to look at the ACEs or adverse childhood/community experiences. 67% of individuals in our communities experience some form of ACEs and it relates to trauma; whether it’s substance abuse, homelessness, incarceration, emotional and sexual abuse, race discrimination or poverty, we have to look at that.”

Nationally, 45% of children have experienced some form of the ACEs; That percentage jumps to 61% among Black children. This results in Black people, who make up 38.3% of the incarcerated population (but only 13% of the U.S. population), entering the carceral system already suffering from some form of PTSD or similar trauma. Such psychological degradation is only exacerbated during confinement, the devastating conditions, vi-

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olence, leading to behaviors of internalized subordination, trouble with decision making, sensory disorientation, and social alienation during and post incarceration.

tences, as in the case of Ms. Vaughn’s mother. As prisons began doubling as unintended psychiatric institutions, pharmaceutical companies pinpointed a new consumer base.

According to a report by the Vera Institute of Justice, approximately 14.5% of men and 31% of women in jails have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder, compared to 3.2% and 4.9%, in the general population. 72% of incarcerated people with a serious mental illness also have a substance use disorder.

A 2019 article in The Atlantic found that big pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, Gilead, AbbVie, pay physicians to promote their products during criminal justice conferences (even to sheriffs without health certification), give free samples to detention facilities, hold luncheons, etc., touting their products effectiveness in treating carceral mental instability. Such psychiatric drugs are said to “help inmates” making them easier to handle. And because of the Supreme Court rule in Washington V. Harper, that “the Due Process Clause does not require a judicial hearing before the State may treat a mentally ill prisoner with antipsychotic drugs against his will,” there are no protections for incarcerated people against unwanted medicine.

But instead of dealing with such trauma, the carceral system has relied on pharmaceutical “solutions” and stigmatization.

When Ms. Vaughn entered state prison, she was given an orange jumpsuit, showed her cell and then told to go to the medicine line. “I was so confused,” Vaughn recalls, “at that time, I had never taken pills in my life...

Yet somehow I was told I would need a pill to go to sleep and a separate one to function throughout the day. I wasn’t given a choice.”

Many individuals are first exposed to and forced onto medication during incarceration and then left to navigate substance abuse following release.

This trend dates back to the 1980s, where state and federal cuts to social safety-net programs coincided with massive increases in War on Drugs spending. Such shifts in government priorities resulted in a large mentally ill, houseless populace vulnerable to incarceration and unprecedented numbers of people serving long drug offense sen-

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Forcing test medication on disempowered individuals, often without proper diagnosis, further diminishes an individual’s agency and control over their own bodies. Nearly 68 percent of people in jail have a diagnosable substance use disorder (compared to 9 percent of the general population), a trend exacerbated by repeated trauma and over prescribing. “No one is talking about the biggest drug dealer in the world, the whiteness of the dealer, and the harm it causes to the Black community” Vaughn discussed, alluding to the presence of pharmaceuticals in prison.

Even more so, a 2018 study found that women leaving prison have high rates of mortality from overdose of opioids, antidepressants, and other substances such as cocaine. While the study was unable to determine whether the medications were prescribed or diverted, several studies have linked the exposure to traumatic experiences, occurring in childhood and during incarceration, to substance use disorders (SUDs), including abuse and dependence.

SUDs also coincide with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mood-related psychopathology. The presence of pharma in prisons and the lack of prisoner’s rights, combined with a population navigating preand during incarceration trauma, are catalysts for individual susceptibility to forced medication and post-release dependence.

Navigating Trauma and Re-Entry Following her incarceration, Ms.Vaughn felt lost, unsure of where to go, especially as she realized the world had moved forward without her.

Mass incarceration created rapid increases in prison populations that resulted in the abandonment of notions of rehabilitation previously touted as the argument for incarceration. Larger carceral populations along with shortages in staffing and other resources, undermined opportunities for protective norms against cruelty toward prisoners, creating an environment of heightened danger and fear. Many returning citizens experience mental deterioration and apathy, endure personality changes, and become

uncertain about their identities. Panic attacks, depression, and paranoia are common following release, with individuals often finding social (re) adjustment and social integration difficult.

As Mika’il DeVeaux explains in The Trauma of the Incarceration Experience, incarceration breeds tangible and easily identifiable forms of punishment, coupled with emotional and psychological punishment; causing individuals to navigate loss of liberty, material impoverishment, personal inadequacy, and loss of autonomy and personal security. This breeds a new form of trauma; added to what was experienced before incarceration, returning citizens now face the trauma of incarceration, and the trauma of inadequate support post release, making it challenging to hold jobs, secure housing, utilize public transportation and navigate the demands of parole.

Ms. Vaughn watched as many other returning citizens ended up back in prison or succumbed to addiction. Navigating her own struggles coupled with what she witnessed from other previously incarcerated people, led Ms. Vaughn to create Silent Cry Inc., an organization which aims to provide resources to those dealing with trauma and loss due to gang violence and police brutality, in addition to aiding women recently released from jail with counseling services. Her goal is to deal with trauma before incarceration, hindering the pipeline of traumatized children and young adults, like herself, into prison.

But Ms. Vaughn kept returning to the notion of Post Traumatic Prison

Disorder. “I am constantly battling depression, I am still suffering. I struggle with going to the doctor and taking medication. In a crowd of people I’m nervous and my anxiety becomes all consuming. When I am nervous or worried, I walk the length of a prison cell.”

Ms. Vaughn is part of the 16% (4.8 million) of Black people who report having a mental illness; more people than the population of Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston combined. 22.4% of this population (1.1 million people) reported having a serious mental illness over the past year.

For all Americans ages 18 and older, 26% (approx.

1 in 4 adults) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year.

Even with such high rates of mental instability among Black Americans, treatment is rare. In 2018, 58.2% of Blacks aged 1825 and 50.1% aged 26-49 with serious mental illness did not receive treatment.

Such disparity is in part due to the in-accessibility of mental health service; Ms. Vaughn receives medicare, unlike the 11.5 percent of Black Americans (and 7.5 percent of white Americans) who are uninsured, but her insurance does not cover therapy.

Stigma and judgment also prevents Black people from seeking treatment. As study by Ward, Wiltshire, Detry, and Brown found that Black American’s hold negative beliefs related to stigma, psychological openness, and help-seeking, which decreases their likelihood of acknowledging psychological struggles (although participants showed an openness to seeking mental health

care). An additional study found that Blacks believe that mild depression or anxiety would be considered “crazy” in their social circles and mental health is not an inappropriate discussion topic among family. But with 37% of the prison population and 44% of the jail population maintaining diagnosed mental health issues, it should come as no surprise that mental health instability is often conflated with criminalization. Society frames incarceration as the fault of the individual. In the U.S, being mentally unstable and Black, is a crime.

Solving Black Mental Health Instability During and After Incarceration In order to mitigate such mental health disparities, both during incarceration and following release, Ms. Vaughn created PTPD Shawanna W76337. The bill requires the Department of Corrections to create individualized “transitional accountability plans,” that hone in on the mental health needs and rehabilitation of every incarcerated person.

These plans include mental health re-entry services, with screening, assessment and the clinical intervention of Post Traumatic Prision Disorder (PTPD). Individuals diagnosed with PTPD will receive specialized health plans, therapeutic services, family counseling, job placement, housing information, and money management assistance.

The legislation speaks to the overlapping and neglected needs of America’s Black population and those navigating the carceral system. As a Black, previously incarcerated women, Ms. Vaughn is attempting to not only call attention to the needs of previously incarcerated people, in

a society where 71% of elected officials are men, 90% are white, and 65% are white men and less than 2% of American Psychological Association members are Black, but have legislation created by and for incarcerated people. Ms. Vaughn is currently pushing the bill before members of congress nationally.

Currently, The U.S. Department of Justice reports that more than two thirds (68%) of persons released from prison will be rearrested within the first three years of release, and 83% will be returned to the criminal justice system within nine years of release. This rate is especially high for those struggling with untreated mental health conditions.

Considering that taxpayers already spend approximately $270 billion annually on the criminal justice system, according to the Council of Economic Advisers to the President, the economic toll of recidivism is extremely high. Accounting for total societal costs of incarceration—lost earnings, adverse health effects, and the damage to the families and communities of the incarcerated—the Washington University in St. Louis estimates indirect costs of incarceration, up to three times higher than the direct costs, bringing the total burden of our criminal justice system to $1.2 trillion.

And effectiveness of services similar to what Ms. Vaughn proposes have been documented. Studies show that routine outpatient treatment and consistent access to care, reduce the likelihood of arrest among persons with mental illness. Some states have even begun

utilizing Mental Health Courts, which maintain therapeutic goals and attempt to break patterns of incarceration. While little research has been done to thoroughly evaluate their impact and effectiveness, early studies show a positive impact of such intervention methods in reducing incarceration.

Overall, it has been documented globally that mental health interventions are paramount to reducing the involvement of individuals with mental health disorders in the criminal legal system, but also in ensuring individuals’ true rehabilitation.

Ms. Vaughn’s bill provides a reconciliation of racialized policies and practices that have led to Black populations’ experiencing cycles of trauma. It provides a way for the U.S. to divest from carceral punishment and invest in community wellbeing (such as education, food programs, employment).

It gives governmental officials and society the opportunity to actively reduce harm on incredibly marginalized and vulnerable populations, allowing them services that have historically been denied, and establishing a culture of care and justice over violence and punishment.

It provides a path forward that allows so many formerly incarcerated people a chance to live dignified, autonomous lives.

As Ms. Vaughn asserted in a discussion about the bill at a recent community event: “We need holistic, comprehensive mental health services now, to reduce recidivism, to allow me to function as a mother, as a community member; to allow me to be present. I don’t want to just be here, I want to be present.”

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Models: @jortiii @jamesmercadante

Bong by CHill: Pink Glitterbomb Rainbow Glitterbomb Tank: Laganja from Honeysuckle

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Goddess: @h.eclectic__

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2020: A Look Back

I

n the summer of 2017, Patricia Bosworth wel-

comed Team Honeysuckle into her home. The award-winning journalist and author, known for her biographies of artists such as Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and photographer Diane Arbus, always had a passion for teaching young creatives. But that night in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, she built a bridge between the New Journalism of the 1960s and 70s and a burgeoning innovative approach to the craft being taken on by a hopeful, intuitive magazine staff. As we pored over old issues of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Viva (a women’s erotic magazine from the 70s for which Bosworth was executive editor, recruiting such luminaries as Molly Haskell, Joyce Carol Oates and Norman Mailer), inspiration took hold. Honeysuckle could carry the artistic torch of previous generations into the twenty-first century, uniting the past, present, and future in our content.

Bosworth, who died on April 2, 2020 due to complications from COVID-19, was an exceptionally vibrant woman of innumerable talents. Outside of her acclaimed biographies, she built a storied journalism career – over 30 years as a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair, groundbreaking work for the New York Times, New York Magazine, Mirabella, and more. Before moving to writing, she was a successful actress, appearing in several Broadway shows and alongside Audrey Hepburn in the classic film The Nun’s Story (1959). A lifetime member of The Actors Studio, Bosworth served on the organization’s board for many years and ran its Playwrights-Directors Unit. She wrote two mesmerizing memoirs, Anything Your Little Heart Desires (about her father Bartley Crum, a noted attorney Blacklisted for representing the Hollywood Ten in the McCarthy era), and The Men in My Life (her coming-of-age evolution from actress to journalist). Additionally, she documented the work of her late husband, photographer Tom Palumbo, in a book entitled Dreamer With a Thousand Thrills.

At the time of her passing, she was beginning the manuscript for her next major project Protest Song, a book about the impact of Black icon Paul Robeson on the Civil Rights movement.

Known for her inimitable compassion and enduring friendships, her boundless energy, and impressive skills as a raconteur that made every encounter with her magical, Bosworth truly changed the lives of all those around her. She taught students at Barnard College and Columbia University’s School of Journalism, volunteered at the nonprofit Girls Write Now, and took every opportunity to speak up for the causes she believed in (women’s rights, diversity representation, and more widespread access to healthcare chief among them). As a Consulting Editor to Team Honeysuckle and years-long mentor to our own Jaime Lubin, Bosworth’s imprint on our publication looms large. Of all her lessons, she emphasized that the most important thing humans can do is to care about each other. We are proud to follow her example and help bring more care globally through the stories we share. This issue is dedicated to Patricia Bosworth and every individual lost to COVID-19 – 1,000,000 worldwide and counting.

We love you, Patti.

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GREEN NEW DEAL

own land and by practices of colonialism; now, the sanctity of our nation is forced upon the backs of essential workers, tasked with keeping countries alive in the midst of a pandemic. At the core of this discussion, a looming question rivals the presumptive comfort of our contemporary world: amidst distinctions of work, ethnicity, and now immunity, is a class apartheid forming? As the speakers suggest, it very well might be.

BY RINA LOKAJ

“A crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change,” Milton Friedman.

A decades-old quote, yet stunningly provocative in this year’s rendition of the Global Green New Deal. Moderated by Asad Rehman, executive director of the War on Want, the event marked the beginning of a radical new dialogue: one by which we can transform the world while leaving behind the systemic inequalities defining our present moment. In the panel discussion, award-winning author Arundhati Roy and journalist Naomi Klein coupled their support for climate change activism alongside a generous campaign of human rights. In this Global Green New Deal, environmental justice paves the way to lasting social reform.

To begin, Rehman described our current reality, one in which multiple crises fail to be resolved. In his mind, it is clear that we need a “system change”; what is a system change, and how, then, do we go about it?

Both Roy and Klein agreed that systemic violence begins with capitalism: a corrupted foundation that dictates the large majority of our problems. The emergence of COVID-19 has not only intensified existing crises, but has pushed them to the point that we may no longer deny that these problems exist.

According to the speakers, capitalism forces us into a competitive framework, an “us versus them” mentality. This primary classification seeks to define our presiding problems, with each placed in their respective boxes; for example, racism is separate from sexism, which is separate from the environment, which is separate from human rights violations, and so on. In this way, existing crises do not pertain to one another and are viewed as separate issues altogether. In the Global Green New Deal, each societal issue is not only related to, but intricately intertwined with, the next. A capitalist understanding, antithetical to this approach, forces us to constantly be at odds with one another, halting any measure of consensus, and barring any signs of progress.

Capitalism works further to classify those around us. This we have put a name to in our current time: ‘essential workers,’ and those who are able to work from home. In conversation, Roy and Klein reveled at the fact that this world, and especially this country, has been built upon those who are simultaneously essential and sacrificial. Needless to say, these practices began centuries ago, as African American slaves and indigenous peoples were subjected to their

Like tuberculosis in India, and myriad diseases in other developing countries, COVID-19 is bound to become, if not already, the disease of the poor. In our country, only the poor will have to learn to deal with it. The rich, sent back for fear of infection, can afford not to go to work; most of the time, they will keep getting paid, even if from home. They can afford health care, potential treatment, and the time off. When it is only the poor that are suffering and dying, we are somehow able to look away.

So, when problems like this seem too large to be solved, what can we do? According to Roy and Klein, we must first go about changing our imagination. Thinking outside of capitalism requires a sense of uncomfortability, as in doing so, we think outside of global ideology. We are so used to the idea of capitalism that we refuse to change it, even if it is failing us. Our lives are so ingrained into its fabric that we ignore the fact that this system induces the same things it tries to fight. The failures of capitalism which led the Great Depression in the 1930s simultaneously prompted a form of socialism in Roosevelt’s New Deal.

To start, we must stand with workers, not with capital. We must stand with those who are making our present lives possible -- the essential workers heralded as heroes, but stuck within a system which leads to their demise. To stand opposed, we could begin by boycotting companies that treat their workers poorly. A common thread within the gig economy, large corporations have covered up employee complaints and mismanaged working conditions. To combat this, we must do our part in not only supporting the efficacy of these complaints but fighting for the rights of these workers. Proposals that reach all citizens, including universal health care and a basic standard income, are the stepping stones to socioeconomic stability. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed our system to its edge, and arguably, its tipping point; how can we re-envision a system which serves us all?

Both Roy and Klein inquire: were our lives fulfilling or comfortable? How can we, now, create a better system that works to benefit all people and further both public and environmental health? Looking forward, how can we put institutions in place to address epistemic threats to our world, including future pandemics and climate change, and how can we ensure these systems work to perform on a global scale? As we turn to embrace a realistic rendering of our shared future -- one riddled with natural disasters, bio-weaponization, rising oceans, and food insecurity -- we begin to understand this event, one which has spawned global collaboration and individual action on an unprecedented scale, not as singular, but as a test run. We must realize that our future, both immediate and long-term, is predicated upon our ability both as a nation and as a world, to work together. As we reconstitute the pillars of societal values, the time for bold, radical ideas is now.

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Empathy = Dismantling Identity

By Neha Mulay Rife with polarization and partisan in-fighting, this country seems to be swallowing itself whole. The deep division we are witnessing has perhaps always existed, but instead of consolidating itself, the chasm has only deepened. The urban-rural divide, coupled with socioeconomic and educational disparities, along with issues surrounding identification—particularly as they relate to race, gender and sexuality—have left this nation in a bitter, spangled with the corrosion of its own undoing.

We have formed various camps that we staunchly defend and fortify with the blockades of our own opinions. No matter what the issue or the location and political spectrum in question, people accumulate into groups and stand holding their positions staunch and unmoving. The trenches in between the lines of fire are lined with artillery shells of opinions that travel in straight lines and are unwavering.

The result of such confrontations is almost always combustion.

If there is one thing I have learned about the American political landscape, it is that it isn’t conducive to dialogue.

Social media is indicative of this as well as a direct exacerbator of this issue. The rampant differences in opinion coupled with social media, make our online lives seem like

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modern-day gladiator rings, with ideological shit storms unfolding like bloody battles as the audiences cheer on through intrigue or rage, all unsure about whether the match is fixed or if it is the construction of some cackling troll or sponsored bot.

Disagreement itself has become a sport, a game provoked by those who thrive on dissident and perpetuated by those who cling to the tenets of their political engagement and try to engage in constructive dialogue only to have it crumble before their eyes.

We all have vastly different experiences and identities. If we agree with the premise that humans are, at least partially, products of their experiences, we can somewhat begin to understand how, in a nation as vast and diverse as America, we have trouble relating to each other. At what point do social conditioning and moral responsibility intersect, if at all? More importantly, what is the antidote to our rage and bickering, to our consistent vilification of the other side?

Empathy is a buzzword these days. We all agree that it may be the solution to our divisiveness, yet, we are unsure of what it is, how to manifest it or even how it operates. It is true that this political landscape is sorely lacking in empathy but empathy itself, as an operational reality, is complex.

The authors of an APSR study write, “Polarization is not a consequence of a lack of empathy among the public, but a product of the biased ways in which we experience empathy.” They are pointing out that empathy in practice, as a social practice, emotion and, particularly as a biological imperative, is limited to a specific group for many people. Biologically, we are geared to protect ours and what we perceive as our own, in the interests of survival. The survival principle, which gears us to ensure our continued proliferation, is catastrophic when applied to the political landscape.

I am not suggesting that people’s identities have no value or should be abandoned. What I am suggesting is that there is a line when something to be celebrated becomes a limiting factor and a hollow altar. Yes, identity is comforting. It is easy to believe in our set principles, wake daily to the echo chambers of our social media feeds and respective sources of news and media outlets. It is more difficult to question, to doubt. Americans need to shift the focus of their doubt, away from governments, institutions and each other and instead doubt their own thought patterns.

The study indicates that empathy, on its own, is not enough. Scott Barry Kaufman writes, While the issues themselves haven’t necessarily become more polarized, our identities have become more tied to our politics. This has resulted in “a nation that agrees on many things but is bitterly divided nonetheless.”

The dismantling of the identity is the wellspring that will manifest true empathy. The issue we are facing may be a practical one but perhaps the answer is a philosophical one. Of course, the ways in which one approaches this may be myriad.

This is the crux of the issue, it isn’t our lack of empathy, it is the misdirection of it. Taking this a step further, the issue isn’t our different experiences and political beliefs, it is the extent of our identification with these beliefs.

We cling to our identities fiercely, like they are the shipwrecks of our existential angst. This can provide us with certainty, it can even be noble and comforting, but what it also does is strip us of the ability to look outside ourselves and our own experiences.

Much has been written about the pitfalls of identity politics. Our allegiance to our specific religions and ideologies is rooted in belief. And unwavering belief is perhaps the biggest threat we face—the kind of dogmatic belief that makes our opinions inseparable from our identities. At the same time, a dogmatic belief in something is always accompanied by disbelief in the struggles of a specific group or the concept of this nation as a wider entity capable of housing distinct individuals. Picking up one mantle means abandoning or overlooking another.

Empathy for the other is important, but it can be difficult to wrangle, particularly at a time when many of us are saturating in grief and loss. Rather than making empathy our focus, which is a big ask, I suggest we move towards a reconceptualization of identity.

Think about your particular identity. Think about its construction. If you cling to it, think about what that means for your life and most importantly, think about who this serves. The fact is that identity politics thrives on a system of divide and conquer. This is not by any means a new idea, but if we abandon the idealism of empathy momentarily, and we land upon the self-interest of every individual, asking these questions makes it clear that identity politics serve the individual wielding them even less than they serve the survival of this nation.

Furthermore, we need to recreate a sense of joy and communitarianism not grounded in commonalities or any specific principles, a radical joy and sense of togetherness that isn’t classist or elitist, that manages to transcend identity. However, compassion and empathy will only arise through true dedication and commitment to self improvement, both on an individual level and through community initiatives.

Meditation, connecting with nature, engaging with quantum physics and string theory and many more. Perhaps schools should incorporate notions of mindfulness and philosophy. Rather than teaching and accepting what is being taught, schools should encourage students to question themselves first and foremost.

Of course, all of these implementations require the conscious acceptance of the fact that identity is a prison and violence, physical, social or emotional, facilitated by weapons or words, is a grotesque manifestation of identity and belief.

If we can teach individuals to truly see this for themselves, then empathy and unity will follow.

What society desperately needs is the creation of an alternative philosophy, one that isn’t based in institutionalized religion that preaches at people or a corporate, capitalist hegemony that advocates that personal value is directly linked to the creation of financial capital. What we need is a spirituality that is not prescriptive, that allows everyone to find their own path towards love, compassion, and joy. And while this may sound overly idealistic, before America is suffering from divisiveness and partisanship, it is suffering from a lack of joy, care, and empathy.

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The term “Defund the Police” is a recognition that a heavy police presence does not equal safety, but means danger.

According to the ACLU, 14 million students across the US are in schools with police but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker. 3.5 times as many arrests occur in schools with police than in schools with no police presence. These officers disproportionately arrest students of color, and most often arrest Black students. Black girls are 4 times as likely to be arrested while at school than white girls. It hardly seems logical that the best way to support children is to force them into the criminal justice system. When activists say “Defund the Police” they mean that there are alternatives to community safety that are less traumatic for minority communities. They argue these alternatives, such as teams of well-trained social workers and mental health professionals should receive more funding from local governments, and police forces should receive significantly less.

In this climate, as people of all races come to the realization that police in the United States are much more violent and much more likely to arrest citizens than police forces in other developed nations, demands to defund the police have stepped out from the realm of the hypothetical and into our lived reality.

After weeks of protests and demonstrations outside his home, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has vowed to cut at least $100 million from the proposed 2020-2021 police budget, and has promised to invest $250 million in healthcare and education in Black communities, though his administration has remained vague about further details.

Abolish NOT Reform

By Michael Morris

In past years, defunding or abolishing the police has been a fringe, left-wing ideal. But in the wake of the undeniably violent and unjustifiable murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, there has been a sharp shift in public opinion and local policy concerning the police. A Washington Post-Schar School poll released on June 7 found that 69 percent of respondents felt the Floyd slaying was part of a broader police issue, while 29 percent felt it was an isolated incident. In 2014 and 2016, similar polls concerning the killings of Black men by police officers showed 43 percent and 60 percent of respondents found incidents to be systemic and not isolated. Recognition of a broader policing problem has built up over the past few years and has now flooded into the mainstream. As tens of thousands of protesters (across not only the United States, but the world) face off against rubber bullets, tear gas, and rampant police misconduct, they recite chants and hold up signs that read “Defund the Police”.

In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed has rolled out several reforms. According to the city’s website, “This reform effort will focus on reducing the need for police to be first responders for non-criminal situations, and changing the Police Department’s hiring, promotional, training, and disciplinary systems to better reflect that the department’s fundamental mission is to protect and defend all life. ” The mayor’s four-pronged approach includes demilitarizing the police, meaning police use of military-grade weapons on civilians (including the use of tear gas) will be banned; and ending the use of police as a response to non-criminal activity, instead Breed envisions specialized crisis response teams that are unarmed and equipped to handle mental health crises and non-criminal situations involving homeless people, for example. Third, Breed aims to lower instances of police bias by using several screening systems that attempt to identify potential for abuse of force and patterns of violence within the department.

Lastly, Breed has pledged to pull an undisclosed amount of funding from the San Francisco Police Department and reallocate it to “programs and organizations that serve communities that have been systematically harmed by past City policies.”

Unlike Mayor Garcetti, Ms. Breed intends to limit interaction between civilians and police. She recognizes that American police are violent - in 2018, an average of 31 per 10 million Americans were killed by police. That same year, Germany had an average of 1 per 10 million people killed by police, and in the United Kingdom that average

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was less than one person per 10 million. She has embraced calls to defund the police in a broader manner, choosing to reimagine how police interact with the community rather than simply announcing budget cuts.

Minneapolis’ city council has taken calls for police reform a step further, announcing that they will formally disband the Minneapolis Police Department. Their resolution states that “decades of police reform efforts have not created equitable public safety in our community, and our efforts to achieve transformative public safety will not be deterred by the inertia of existing institutions, contracts, and legislation.” While the city is not sure what their future community safety body will look like, they have put together a working group to research a new model that centers on a “public health” and “holistic” approach to community safety.

It is precisely decades of failed police reform that have pushed the city of Minneapolis to abandon the American conception of policing completely. The city has recognized its police force as failed and ungovernable. As prominent Democrats, both Black and white, and holding both national and local positions propose moderate reforms, the precise mechanisms that allow police officers to murder Black people with impunity loom large.

Atlanta has seen horrifying scenes of police violence since the death of George Floyd. On May 30, two Black college students, Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young were sitting in a car in downtown Atlanta. Bodycam footage from several officers shows police abruptly surround the car, break the windows, and tase the two students before taking them into custody. 24 hours later Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fired the officers and called the bodycam footage “deeply disturbing on so many levels.” Mayor Bottoms did not suggest police reform, but instead pushed for an investigation into those individual officers.

Rayshard Brooks, a young Black man, was gunned down

by Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe on June 12. The police were called because he was sleeping in his car in a Wendy’s parking lot. After a calm conversation with officers, and a failed breathalyzer test, bodycam footage shows Brooks asking if he can leave his car and walk to his sister’s house. The officers instead decide to arrest Mr. Brooks, which escalates into a struggle in which Rayshard ends up on the ground, and at one point begins to run away while brandishing an officer’s taser. After attempting to tase one of the officers, Mr. Brooks is shot three times in the back while running away.

In response, Mayor Bottoms promptly announced several executive orders. They include requiring de-escalation techniques for officers interacting with suspects, mandating that other officers on the scene must intervene if they witness excessive force, and requiring that all use of deadly force be reported to Atlanta’s citizen review board. Worthy of note is that Ms. Bottoms has refused calls by activists to defund Atlanta police, and in fact plans to raise the police budget.

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It seems unlikely that these measures would have saved Rayshard Brooks’ life, as some experts argue that the killing was completely legal. What is clear is that Rayshard would still be with his family today if police had not been called to deal with a non-criminal issue.

In all recent cases of police violence, from Atlanta to Minneapolis, the issue was not that officer’s could not de-escalate situations, the issue was that officers should not have been present at all.

What does it say about our society that we resolve non-violent issues with state-sanctioned murder?

This is not a time for moderate reform. As politicians drag their feet and struggle to put together coherent solutions, whole communities lay on the ground just like Mr. Floyd, with the police state’s knee on their neck. To quote decades-long activist Dr. Angela Davis, “The prison therefore functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers.

This is the ideological work that the prison performs - it relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism.”

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years, Black customers complained that Korean merchants treated them with rudeness and contempt, and that Koreans

“1) ignores the role that selective recruitment of highly edu-

found it hard to resolve conflicts because of a language barrier.

cated Asian immigrants has played in Asian American success

Tensions were well-known to those who lived in the neighbor-

followed by 2) making a flawed comparison between Asian

hood. And when the courts let Du off the hook for Harlin’s

Americans and other groups, particularly Black Americans, to

murder, it was obvious that Asian-Americans were preferred

argue that racism, including more than two centuries of Black

in the eyes of the white law.

enslavement, can be overcome by hard work and strong family values.”

The tensions between African Americans and Asian Americans in LA were not unexpected, though. Their resentment

Why did America suddenly change its perspective on Asian

did not just exist in the bubble of LA, but was planted there

Americans? Just two decades before the birth of the Model Mi-

on purpose. The white conservative media had been pitting

nority Myth, in the midst of the Cold War, the media portrayed

the Asian American community against the Black community

Asians as dirty, sleazy, and immoral, nicknaming the xenopho-

for decades.

bia towards Asians as “Yellow Peril.” Yet starting in the early 60s, the media switched to praising them for their success.

By Cathleen Luo A video captured Los Angeles police brutally beating a Black man, Rodney King in 1992. 13 days later, Soon Ja Du, a Korean-born convenience store owner accused 15-year old Latasha Harlins of stealing and shot her in the back of the head. Later, police concluded that there was “no attempt at shoplifting.” Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced

This was a strategic move to discredit the growing Civil Rights

gist William Pettersen in an article he published in the New

movement. Holding up Asian Americans as an ideal minority

York Times entitled “Success story: Japanese American Style.”

allowed the United States to boast itself as a “racial democ-

It applauded Asian American culture for its two-parent family

racy,” turning its stories of Asian American success into pro-

structure and work ethic that allowed them to “overcome” dis-

paganda. After years of selective immigration from Asia and

crimination in America. Success, in this case, is defined by av-

reinforcing the myth, many Asian Americans have internalized

erage income: Asian Americans made about the same amount

this message and aligned themselves with the anti-Black ideas

or even more than whites since 1970. The “Model Minority”

they were fed. Unfortunately, no matter how “white-washed”

stereotypes and praises Asian Americans for their quiet, hard-

Asian Americans try to make themselves, the white suprema-

working, and undisruptive “nature” which juxtaposes stereo-

cist sentiment is never going to see them as fully “white.” Asian

types about African-Americans.

Americans may be in closer “proximity to power” to white peo-

with only a $500 fine and community service, an unjustly light

The real reason for the “success” of Asian Americans lies

sentence for the murder of an innocent young Black girl.

in immigration patterns,

The long-brewing tensions between the Korean-American and African-American community came to surface at a time where people were outraged by the death of Rodney King. Frustrated over systemic racial violence against Black people by the Los Angeles Police Department, and further enraged by the racial tensions between Korean-American and Black communities in LA, protests and riots erupted in April of 1992. Looting disproportionately affected Koreatown, as 2,000 Korean-owned businesses were damaged or destroyed. Many Korean-Americans defended their businesses with rifles from their rooftops as police were overwhelmed.

The LA riots have been labeled as “race riots” between the Black and white binary, Black citizens against the white police system.

But inter-minority racial tensions between the Korean-Americans and the Black community also surfaced. Korean-Americans owned a large portion of the convenience stores, liquor stores, and businesses in Koreatown that served Black customers. For

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The term “model minority” was coined in 1966 by sociolo-

rather than any changes in the

Asian-American population itself. In 1965, after finally repeating all immigration bans on Asian immigration, large numbers of selectively college-educated immigrants were let into the country. These Asian immigrants were more likely to be

ple than Black Americans, but by aligning themselves with the white majority and adopting their anti-Black sentiments, they are just reinforcing racist sentiments while still being oppressed for being non-white. All this has done is create divisions between minority groups which directly benefits the white majority and no one else.

educated than those who did not immigrate from their country

Even though Asian Americans have not suffered as much as

of origin. According to Jennifer Lee, a sociology professor at

Black Americans, who live under the legacy of slavery followed

Columbia University, Chinese immigrants to the United States

by a century and a half of systemic racism, all people of color

are 12 times as likely to have graduated from college than Chi-

are still living in a society built to serve the white majority. Asian

nese who did not immigrate. With their degrees, it was easier

Americans suffer from stereotypes of being “boring, obedient,

for them to get high paying jobs, therefore reinforcing the ideas

and bland,” which prevents them from getting job promotions

of Asian American success.

and makes it harder for them to get into selective colleges like

Unlike the Black community, Asian immigrants chose and were chosen by the American government to be let into the country. Their success was curated. Though Asians in America do suffer from racism and discrimination, it is not at the same

Harvard. Most recently, as the coronavirus pandemic reveals America’s quiet but dangerous anti-Asian sentiments, the number of assaults, harassment, and hate crimes against Asian Americans has risen at a concerning rate.

systemic level as it is for Black Americans. As Janelle Wong, the

While this kind of racism is on a lesser scale than of generation-

director of Asian American Studies at the University of Mary-

al poverty and racial profiling by police, the Asian American

land, College Park, says the Model Minority Myth:

community needs to see past the curated myth of the Model

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Minority and support the fight against the white supremacy led by Black activists. Asian Americans benefited from the Civil Rights Movement led by Black activists and it is time to address and end anti-Blackness in both the Asian American community and on a larger scale.

As riots in LA today protesting the death of Geroge Floyd remind LA residents of the traumas of 1992, they acknowledge the progress that has been made between the Korean and Black communities in LA. It is important especially now, for all people—not just Black people, but all people of color and allies—to speak up against the white supremacy that terrorizes all our minority communities, and to reject the narratives that have been projected onto us to protect those in power. Asian Americans aren’t exempt from racism; and it is important especially now, for our community to support the Black community and speak up against an oppressive white system that hurts everyone in the long run.

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TRANS NEW YORK

By Taylor Custis, Images Peter Bussian Trans NY, a Work of Visibility and Conversation Peter Bussian is an award winning visual artist who specializes in documentary photography. He has worked internationally, documenting people in areas of conflict in order to foster empathy, bring understanding, and illuminate previously obscured issues. In his latest project, Trans New York: Photos and Stories of Transgender New Yorkers, Bussian photographs fifty different New Yorkers who identify as transgender or nonbinary.

Peter discussed with Honeysuckle Magazine the process of constructing this project, the wisdom he gained from his research into the trans community, and the importance of visibility and conversation to foster understanding and acceptance.

I loved your book Trans New York. I thought it was such an incredible work of allyship. You allowed yourself to be the mirror for these individuals to tell their stories and you also didn’t distort the stories or the vision with your personal gaze. What were the challenges and requirements that came with maintaining this balance and examining your personal privilege while constructing this project?

P: When I started this project, my intention was to create a showcase for trans people. I wanted them to tell their own stories.

As you mentioned, it would be very presumptuous of me, as a non-trans person to forget for a moment that I’m a middle-aged white male.

I think it was an advantage for me not to be from that community and in fact not to even be from the LGBT community. So I was sort of like an alien who could come in and I didn’t have to deal with the internal politics. There was some resistance for sure, particularly in the beginning.

I’m very lucky and fortunate that I was embraced by a lot of people in that community and that community has ended up really supporting me.

I’m primarily a photographer so it’s very important to me to get the photographs. They were all NY photographs, where you have [the people] but you also have the locations and

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@honeysucklemagazine 77

that combination, which was what I was going for. But I wanted it to be something that a grandmother in Iowa can read and have it reach her heart and say, look these stories are just real stories from real people and ultimately that’s what I think is going to lead to greater acceptance for the trans community.

T: It was really striking to me that a lot of the answers to your last question--which was, what would you like people to know about yourself as a transgender person that might be very different from people’s ideas of trans people?--It was really striking to me that several individuals advocated for their basic humanity, their basic right to love and have a free and equal life. It was very evident that our heteronormative and binary society is failing them. I wonder if this struck you as a common answer: basic humanity. Or were there other commonalities that you found in the answers that you received?

P: Yeah, well there was a variation in the answers, but I think you hit it on the head there.. One of the quotes is, “You don’t have to understand us, but you have to respect us.”

And that really stuck with me Many religious people interpret their religion to be against trans people, I completely and totally disagree and many religious scholars I’ve spoken with disagree with that because it’s not in any of the Great Books. It’s not in the Bible, it’s not in the Qur’an, it’s not in Judaism, as Abby Stein wrote in the introduction; she used to be a rabbi.

But the liberal progressive people who pay lip service to being supportive of trans people--I think it’s important that they pay lip service, but I think it’s also important that they look deeper into their own personal acceptance of that.

Maybe the biggest challenge of the trans movement right now is to integrate into that part of the progressive culture.

There are movies coming out and tv shows and this and that and it’s in the media. But it hasn’t quite reached the acceptance that it needs to reach.

T: Right. Absolutely. That leads into my other question. I wonder going into this project if you felt like this collaboration with this amount of trans people would be complicated or insurmountable because of your lack of connection with this community? After reading this it just seems like a major solution to the lack of social acceptance of trans individuals just lies in visibility and conversation which is what happened in this project. Then it just seems incredibly simple.

It’s just appealing to these people’s humanity and having conversations.

P: I approached it from a very direct, simple point of view as you mentioned. I was not by any means an expert on the trans community. I had to go out and discover it and find these influencers in the community and then realize that really they are so connected. They are connected but they are also disconnected.

By the way there were other trans people who were working on their own projects. And what I want to make very clear is that I do not consider this a definitive work on the trans community in any way. I approached it at the beginning like an objective journalist. They have these amazing stories from Iran and Mexico little towns in America and of course, New York I became a trans advocate by getting to know trans people and developing friendships Are there any specific connections that you found between the trans experience and the human condition in general that you feel like we all could relate to?

P: For one thing, I was also interested in the project because of the whole question of gender. Gender, like many things, is a spectrum. People are on all kinds of places on that spectrum and one of the more interesting aspects was the non-binary people that I interviewed. They were not trans women or trans men, who were defining themselves somewhere on that spectrum. My own thinking about gender has evolved while doing this project.

I think that this narrative of men and women, which is to some degree biological for procreating our species, is a narrative that has largely been driven by the same forces that have created much of the other inequities and injustices that we’ve experienced. It’s the same thing that has suppressed women and Black people. It’s this hierarchy that has existed for a long time. So the trans [experience] in particular is sort of the perfect pinnacle of the triangle of all these other issues. And those issues are worldwide; it’s one of the reasons that the world is so screwed up right now. So it’s about liberation of not just trans people but people of color, women, even men! Liberating men from this box of what they’re supposed to do and be. Liberating human beings to just be free to be who they are.

T:Yea, I completely agree.You could definitely see the intersections of all of these different issues that you mentioned based on the diversity of the trans individuals that you were interviewing; people from all over having several different experiences that all still amounted to some discrimination that they faced and then having to liberate themselves whether it was by their gender or sexual identity.

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T R A N S N EW YO R K PETER BUSSIAN F O R E W O R D B Y A B B Y C H AVA S T E I N

P: Yes, I think we have to single out trans women of color, who are, you know, persecuted and murdered left and right.

T: Right, absolutely. And then there’s the unfortunate irony of how it was trans women of color who led the way for a lot of the LGBTQ+ advancements in our society. Even in New York City. Unfortunately, even today, the statistics aren’t looking much better. But hopefully there’s more visibility in the media like you said, more influencers, and more people who can have careers and be openly trans and who can have free lives. But there still is a lot of vulnerability.

This is a big question but I wonder what did this entire process teach you as an artist, as a photographer, and as a human? And what do you hope to leave with people who get to experience your project?

P: Well, specifically to the trans issue, some of those I think I already discussed. In general, I will tell you right now, I’m actually designing a photography course at the moment based on how this project unfolded and what I would say is to people--photographers, writers, filmmakers, whatever it is, we live in consequential times. What you do right now is really important, much more important than it was ten years ago because we, in this country, we are experiencing a conflict and essentially a civil war. I have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan and all over Africa and many countries where these kinds of things were going on ten or twenty years ago, but it’s going on here now.

And I think the stories here for people who are living here, are the most relevant thing they can do. For me, I encourage people to go out and find something, an issue, that you’re passionate about and that you believe can bring about whatever type of social change is in your heart and use whatever tools you have and do it. And I’m not even coming from any particular point of view. I’m not saying it should be politically any which way but whatever is in your heart, go out and create something using the tools that you have and the talents that you have and tell the stories.

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ELEGANCE

By Michael Morris Before his first feature documentary, Pier Kids, premiered at Outfest 2019 in Los Angeles, Elegance Bratton was a homeless kid in New York City trying to find himself.

Bratton’s mother had been suspicious of his sexuality for some time, and in his teenage years she kicked him out of the house. So he took the PATH from New Jersey to Manhattan, and started hanging out by Christopher Street Pier, the hangout spot that would become the focus of his documentary decades later.

Bratton had been to New York before. He and his mom would often visit family friends in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and on these trips they’d drive by Times Square.

This was in the 90s, when it was still full of strip shows and porn theaters like Peep Land and The Playpen. It was also home to a community of sex workers, queer people, and others deemed undesirable by society.

“I remember looking out the window and seeing people and feeling like I had something in common with them, but being so young I didn’t know what it was,” said Elegance. “And then I’d get smacked upside the head, or my mom would say ‘Roll that window up’, or ‘Don’t look at them.’ I do think my whole life [me being gay] was something she was aware of and trying to stop from happening.”

When he was a pier kid, it was trans women who made sure he had what he needed to survive. Every night at the pier a trans woman would ask him questions like, “Have you eaten? Do you have somewhere to sleep? Do you have condoms? What house are you in? Can you Vogue? Have you ever walked face?”

“When I was younger, that was really healing for me because it gave me space to feel like I was mothered, and gave me access to people that I had something in common with,” said Bratton.

Elegance spoke at length about 20th century German sociologist Max Weber’s notion of civic neglect. The idea that there are institutions meant to support people in Western society and yet there are still people in Western society for whom those institutions do not work. In response, the underprivileged develop alternatives to the norm in order to survive. They develop parallel institutions. But because these institutions are starting out of neglect and in paral-

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lel, they always fail at connecting the dots they’ve been invented to connect.

“The ballroom scene is a really great example of Max Weber’s notion of parallel institutions in contemporary Black queer life,” he said. “I think there were definitely people who knew that on Christopher Street there would be kids who were hungry, kids who were lost, kids who lacked parental supervision, and more importantly kids who needed to be loved and feel like they belonged somewhere. I’m eternally grateful for the support I received.

At the same time, I think it’s highly unfair that people who have so little are under such pressure to fill such large gaps that our government and other systems really should be prioritizing.”

Elegance was exposed to the ball scene as a teenager, back when he spent most of his time at the pier. He calls it an “open air ballroom”. Even today if you stick around the pier for long enough someone will start voguing, and someone else will start judging, and soon there will be a whole group of young performers waiting for their moment.

But Bratton witnessed his first ball years earlier, on television. Paris Is Burning is one of his favorite films.

“I was the type of kid who would stay up way too late when I could, and try to watch the grown folks stuff so I knew what was going on in the world,” said Elegance. “I stayed up and saw Paris Is Burning, and I was like ‘What is this?’ I would figure out when it was screening on TV, I would try to get all my homework done and listen to make sure my mother was asleep. Eventually I got my own television and cable box so I could watch it. I still know the movie like the back of my hand.”

In his 20s Bratton joined the Marines, becoming a combat filmmaker. Eventually he found himself in college at Columbia University. When his first semester ended, the campus was full of parents, signs, stuffed animals, and pets. The other undergraduate students were going home - back to their families. It made Elegance ask himself, what is home for me? Who is eagerly anticipating my return like this?

“I was in a class doing mathematical sociology and I had an assignment to depict living, breathing social networks.

The first thing I thought of was the pier.

Because I went there, I socialized, I networked into places to stay, I networked into food, I networked into clubs. So I was on the pier doing that research while I was wistfully thinking of what home was.

And then I took a look around and realized that home is the place where you’re most deeply understood. And the pier has always been that place for me. As I looked around I saw other queer people, people of color, other African Americans in that space. I realized that for them this was also true. And I set about making Pier Kids from there.”

“Out of the 2 million homeless people in America, 40 to 60 percent of them are LGBTQ. And up to half of them are Black and brown kids. If you’re from BedStuy or Harlem, or any of the five boroughs that were traditionally Black neighborhoods, you know that in those neighborhoods now the rents are skyrocketing. Black people are being squeezed out of those neighborhoods. Poor people are being squeezed out of those neighborhoods. So then what do you do? You go and have some fun on the pier, where those property values are also skyrocketing.

And then those kids are squeezed off the streets. Where do they end up? You watch Pier Kids and you see what happens to Casper. This young man lost his life skateboarding on Eastern Parkway to go see his trans lover at two in the morning. That’s what happens. Your life is inherently more risky, because all systems seem to be organized around eliminating you. “

There were certain challenges to making Pier Kids. Having been a pier kid himself, it was difficult for Elegance to stay on the sidelines when he felt someone needed his help.

In his film, Bratton forces viewers to feel this sense of elimination. The viewer is not simply a neutral observer, they become a pier kid themselves. They experience what it’s like to be squeezed out - to be outside all the time, to feel danger.

“When you’re in it and it’s emotional, you don’t see it logically, you only see it with your heart,” said Bratton. “And there were many times where I just wanted to throw the camera down and say ‘Come on.’ And a couple times I did.”

The biggest obstacles Black queer youth face, according to Elegance, are white supremacy and unchecked greed.

“Gentrification is where both of these concepts marry,” he said. “Gentrification is about property. Police are in a paradigm in which they are paid to protect property not people. So if you are a person that is viewed as demeaning the value of property, then you are not welcome. And it’s wild that public space - a park, a street corner - that these things now become off limits to Black youth just because they don’t have the money to participate at the level that gentrification demands so that the wealthy feel safe. Christopher Street is safer because there’s a Rag and Bone there. Pretty soon you can start to see who can’t afford to be there. I call it temporal segregation. It’s time based. During the day the restaurants are the ones providing the economic infusion to the street.

At night it’s the bars. At all times of day, these young people become even more hypervisible to police because they’re not able to participate economically, and thus the area is gentrified.”

When I ask Feathers how she is doing, she says. “My brother is doing pretty well and so am I,” she pauses, smiles, then frowns and says, “What kind of demon am I that I’m thriving in this hellscape?”

Otherworldly, powerful, and always perceptive, Feathers Wise is a transgender singer-sonwriter. Hailing from California, she has found and made her home in Brooklyn.

Feathers demonstrated talent at an early age; “I started writing music very young. It was super space natural. I took piano lessons early on, and wrote hundreds of songs growing up.

She has released two alluring, painfully political, and viscerally raw albums; “Let the Chaos Feed My Evolution” and “I am not Afraid.” Her latest single, “Your Love is Giving Me Life” was released. The single, along with the music video, has a futuristic, energy cannibalistic vibe to it.

“I wanted to take a combination approach and meld science fiction and fantasy. I was influenced by David Bowie and Alison Goldfrapp’s ‘Alive,’” she says, her green eyeshadow sparkling.

“I’ve been in sex work for a long time, you know, and I do feel like there is an energy exchange that happens. Ideally it is feeding both people but when it doesn’t it trips into horror and I think that it is fun to talk about in terms of science fiction and in terms of draining toxic masculinity, spcifically targeting out these archetypes that traumatized us as queer people in our youth. Things like Letterman and Jock dudes.

We wanted to take that ideal/aesthetic and satirize it.”

I asked Feathers, does that sentiment feel particularly relevant right now? I’ve noticed that much of your music has a defiant and electric element to it. There is definitely an anger to her music but an evolutionary kind of it--it feels like music for internal empowerment as well as a new political birth.

“That song is really a kind of rage...it was almost like a magic spell I was casting in my head. I wanted to say something about how I felt about the current moment. I was feeling all this rage about the world and this zeitgeist bullshit bubbling up in me.

As Trans women we put estrogen pills underneath our tongue and let them dissolve. I suppose it’s a summation of femme torture, which we all do to ourselves at various levels.

EYE OF THE STORM

By Neha Mulay

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, Feathers Wise appears on my screen for our interview.

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I met her at the Poetry Brothel in Brooklyn earlier this year, a time that now feels like a strange, alternate reality of boundless freedom. I remember standing on the balcony with Feathers, feeling the waves of her warm, fae-esque compassion and energy and immersing myself in the troves of her wisdom.

Everything I’m doing to look a certain way is really painful.

It ties into transition too because there is a body hacking transhumanism element to transitioning into whatever you want to be. I’m trying to talk about this in a way that doesn’t bring in tropes of male to female or stereotypes of trans women...trying to detach myself from the binary language system.

Second verse is about the world -- “I see the sharks circling the boats. I see the rats are coming.” It is a cathartic swarm.

I feel like we are watching the old world burn down.”

Her words feel particularly relevant right now. We talked about upheaval and the terror we’ve been facing lately and the current divisiveness of human consciousness in this country.

“I think recognizing sameness in the people around us is a critical life skill and that’s one of the things with people we have issues with, they don’t understand that. I don’t want to talk too much shit about small town America because I love it.

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However, you could say that the urban-rural divide is based on different ways of seeing reality. It’s not the difference itself, it’s our inability to face each other’s differences and some people’s individual inability to believe in growth and change, these are all contributing to the culture wars.”

We begin talking about racism and transphobia and Feathers grows emotional.

“Transpanic is when people get involved with us, claim to not kno we are trans and then they go to court and use the gay panic defence. Call Her Ganda is a documentary about a killing in the Philippines. An American officer was convicted over there and recently pardoned to please Trump.

Trans people are frequently rejected by their families, which conflates all these issues.

“I actually feel like the crisis points in my life have actually been some of the strongest and beautiful times of growth,” says Feathers.

I went through a divorce a few years ago. I ran away from my ex husband and into the welcoming arms of Brooklyn and that was one of the best things that happened to me.

Coming from a lot of other rural places...I felt like the diversity was one of the most awesome things about it. It was magical. It seemed like home.”

We talk about our shared love of Brooklyn and reminisce about the Poetry Brothel. Feathers mentions she was at a poetry camp in the Catskills with the poetry brothel crowd.

As an keen writer of poetry herself, Feather is deeply attuned to the craft--unsurprisingly our talk turned spiritual.

Everything I talk about is double for trans women of color.

Being a person of color negatively impacts how much money they make as sex workers. Trans women of color are the most endangered community in the country. It’s eye opening walking the streets with a Black trans woman. They are harassed all the time. Practically every week this summer, a new POC trans woman is killed. It is important to protect them.

I have a brother who will dream entire days and wake up and realize he was dreaming. He is very intellectual and skeptical but then he will have these dreams where he sees his entire life in a spectrum of the time scale.

Cover gender affirming surgeries and treatments. It is life-changing for us. How much they have lessen my day to day physical experience of dysphoria. It needs to be recognized as a medical connection as not just dismissed as an aesthetic thing.

“Yeah. That was a revelation for me via quantum physics that past, present and future exist simultaneously.”

Think about when you catch an ugly glance on a reflective surface. It lasts momentarily but being Trans is feeling that way all the time. It’s crippling, existential, physical nausea.

In every conversation I’ve had lately, the election looms, this one stranger, with inconceivably higher stakes.

“There is a claiming of the land and people taking place here and not only is it not a legitimate claim, it’s highly individualistic strain.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that. The weird aspect of individualism is that it asserts the right to freedom but also invalidates the freedom and needs of others. It’s ultimately illusory, we cannot escape the fact that we are linked and our actions do impact one another as a society. This is such a strange moment for us collectively. A detached but simultaneously painful one.”

I say, “At the risk of mentioning quantum physics too many times, I think they’ve proven that reality is a concept and if so then what is to say that dreaming is any less real.”

“There is no linear time.”

Feathers begins to talk about Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, particularly the comic Promethea.

Promethea is the story of a poet woman who transforms into a magical goddess by writing poems about her. The book posits that if you have an experience of the divine, it doesn’t matter if it is real or not because the effect it has on you is real.”

I begin thinking about spirit guides and our interior lives. I ask Feathers what David Bowie means to her. I can feel the magnitude of her reverence and joy upon his mention.

“David Bowie is my father. Bowie and Prince were the first people I saw challenging gender. And Grace Jones.”

She says Bowie means so much to her that she has viscerally felt his presence from time to time. Conversing in the terrifying stillness, we have somehow begun speaking about the divine.

“It feels like the eye of the storm,” says Feathers.

“Terrifying stillness,” I say. Luckily, Feathers keeps her blend of astute observation and wit coming.

This, to me, feels like a spontaneous confirmation of our collective oneness. I think of Rilke and say to Feathers, “It’s the beauty and the terror.”

“I am hopeful that we will turn around some kind of corner and some kind of earthy point of view shift. Planet gets hit with the empathy gun in the movie version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Scenario of my dreams.”

Feather laughs. I move through the day emergent from the sleep of my self into our collective consciousness.

I tell her it’s my dream too. And I wonder aloud why we talk about empathy so frequently and yet are unable to muster it. I think it occurs to us both that the change requires a crisis.

"There is no linear time."

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FRENCH SMUT

HONEYSUCKLE MAGAZINE CATCHES UP WITH MODEL, ACTOR AND SOUTHERN BELLE LIVING IN FRANCE, FOR A TALK ABOUT SEXUALITY AND HER UPCOMING CAMEO IN RIDLEY SCOTT'S NEW FILM.

éGALITé SEXUELLE:

MODERN PORN:

PUBIC HAIR:

EXPLORATION:

That's why I moved to Paris. Huge part is because I was always under the impression as an American, a woman growing up that that was like the land of liberation and love, you know, for all the sexes. And, um, sadly it's probably worse there than it is [in US].

The longer it takes to have that first encounter or that sexual experience, the more freaked out, I think guys get. Because it just builds. It just builds a tension and expectation that, I mean, it just, it's not, it's not natural. I hate to sound like such an old bitty about it, but yeah. Yeah. It's so bad.

It's just like the ideal woman that's portrayed by society is prepubescent. They're extremely, almost too thin. They have not a stitch of hair anywhere on their body. So it is far from, again, going back to the sixties and the seventies, the Sophia Lorens. Just the right to choice and men not being afraid. Really to help men not be afraid of what a real woman looks like.

That's another thing that society is fucked up is they have come in and said that this is wrong, or this is gross, or this is sassy, or this is deviant and it's left, especially women and not just the ones that were raised in the South and this conservative traditional way is women of all backgrounds, who are the ones that end up, I think suffering the most as far as not being able to explore completely what they're into sexually.

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TAROT:

Radical Tarot by: @four.rabbit

Lindsay Loo wants to do your hair!

By Theresa The Tarot Lady The Magician - You have the power and resources to make a miracle happen this month. No matter how great the odds, you can succeed. Set your sights on your goals, remain focused on the outcome you want, and then go for it with all your heart! Success is yours for the taking and the making.

Believe in yourself - and your ability to pull off great feats. You’ve got this!

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If you want to grow a particular skill, there is no better time than this month to dive in. Gather your tools, connect with a teacher, and PRACTICE. The more effort you put in, the more progress you’ll make. And remember: even when you’ve got it down, you never really stop learning.

Lastly, if you’re not happy with the way the world is turning, step up and speak up. Use your power for good. If everyone is willing to do their part, real change can happen. @ thetarotlady

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