KZine Vol. 1, Issue 6 - The Urgency of Empathy and Equality Issue

KZine July 2014

Vol. 1, Issue 6

The URGENCY OF and

Issue

KZine May 2014

Vol. 1, Issue 6

The URGENCY OF and

Issue

Kris Hartley

Submissions: send an email to khartley76@yahoo.com or visit www. facebook.com/kzine4 for more details.

Subscriptions: $20.00 for one year (6 issues). Send payment to khartley76@yahoo.com via PayPal or email me at kzine4@gmail.com for other payment methods.

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PHOTOGRAPHY • GRAPHIC DESIGN

Publication

Hello, my friends and loyal readers! I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be on the SIXTH regular issue of KZine.

This issue is very important to me, and I hope it will prove to be to you, as well.

This issue’s theme, discrimination, is also a very relevant topic in today’s society. Most of us have experienced the pain of discrimination at some point in our lives, and we all know how much damage it does. I’m hoping this issue of KZine will help in spreading awareness of just how much it harms another when we are careless with our words and get a laugh at another’s expense. I am training myself to treat everyone with respect and as an equal human being, unless they prove themselves otherwise. Most of the time, the target of our jokes is going through a situation about which we have no idea, and we assume that they are just “freaks” or “weird.” Instead of making jokes, we MUST train our hearts to engage empathy and realize that people are going through very tough times and need to be lifted up rather than pushed down further.

If the pieces in this issue help you, please share it with anyone that may need it, and feel free to share your stories with me, as I will definitely do another issue like this if there is a big response.

I love you all and always will, Kris

Discrimination [dih-skrim-uh-ney-shuhn] Treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.

Bully [bool-ee] a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.

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Equality [ih-kwol-i-tee] the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability.

Acceptance [ak-sep-tuhns] favorable reception; approval; favor.

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Annora Nin

www.facebook.com/annora.nin hermitesss@yahoo.com

Confession: I hate yellow school buses.

EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY is useless relief to a miserably silent girl volleying spit balls off the back of her head.

A tinderbox on wheels waiting for the match strike.

Gasoline poured in a taunt that is the shortest distance between two points; the tormentors lips and the victims ears.

I am still shamed by, still can not put enough distance between myself and the words, 3

“Hey beaver!

How many cherry trees did you chop down today?”

Bullied children have their own Wall from which the names of their tormentors can never be scrubbed.

And 40 years later, I’m still finding emergency exits are useless.

Kris Hartley

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Ginny Law Love Poem 2-8-12 February 7, 2012 at 10:05pm I don’t always feel comfortable in my skin, but I’ve grown weary of trying to fit in.

Yes, I jiggle when I walk and I’m aware that you giggle and talk about me like I can’t hear your wicked, ugly words Or see the look on your face when you dismiss me, finding me unworthy.

It’s ok-- I find myself worthy.

I accept myself, flaws and all and I am learning to love me.

Your looks and words only show your lack of acceptance of who you are and how you see yourself.

Fear and insecurity are the seeds of judgement and discontentment.

I will not let those seeds take root in my consciousness any longer.

I have a beautiful soulDeserving of respect, acceptance, and dare I say it-- LOVE. We ALL are!

So in case on one has told you today: You are special You are worthy You are LOVED.

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Kendy Paxia www.missmuffcake.com

Sometimes I wish my brain would not be so full of thoughts, numbers, irrational concerns. Constantly thinking, second guessing my actions, the actions of others, the path that would make me most comfortable.

I suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or as the cool kids say OCD. I have had OCD since I was a kid. No my home is not tidy, my floors are not so clean that you can lick off them (eewww!!!) and depending on the day, the person and my own boundaries you can/can’t touch me or find me washing my hands, counting numbers in my head.

I never really talked about what it’s like having OCD till my twenties, now I am in my 30 and I kinda want to be one of the people that put a face with the disorder. I wear all black, wear designer shades, have a massive blond streak in my dark hair, eat vegan food, have a lot of tattoos. People look at me and think I have my shit together. Some days I do, some days I dred getting out bed and to face my fears...The germs, the numbers, getting things perfect. I write my zines, do my art/crafts, do tarot readings on the side: to connect with people and try to make some money to get by. I cannot work a regular job because of my “problems”, I am fortunate that I get help. People judge me for getting help from my parents - “34 years old and mommy and daddy help her...what a bitch” or “how pathetic”...I might be reading into some of this way to much, my analyzing brain on overdrive, thoughts - thoughts - thoughts. However I know of times, when I received a look or a blunt comment that made me feel like I suck.

Getting up, going to work, interacting with people: most people do that ever day. I see my boyfriend off to work Monday through Friday with a packed lunch and a kiss. I can’t do that, I tried so hard in the past and it wore me out. Sometimes I think my boyfriend resents me, that I stay home and on my tired days I nap...I want to say I am sorry, sometimes a part of me wants to die. Then I remind myself, that I am a good person, I help people and we are all different.

As the late great Tupac said “Keep ya head up....”

Kendy aka MissMuffcake

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Marianne Evans-Lombe www.bodydrawings.org

Recognition Recognition is a performance installation about wearing the veil.

Upon entering the space, viewers are asked to take a piece of cardboard with a set of instructions on them. The instructions are as follows: ‘Sometime during the viewing of Recognition hold the cardboard up to your face and look at the show through the cutout figure. My hope is that because you will experience a shift in physical perspective by looking through the cardboard, you will also experience a shift in perspective about women who wear the veil.’ The installation space includes the table holding the cardboard cutouts, a series of small silhouettes of veiled women making a frieze around the space, several paintings, a projection of a poem by Judy Kahn, and a life-size paper figure on the floor. I am also present during select times in a silent performance in which I wear an abaya from Saudi Arabia.

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An overhead projector is needed to project the poem.

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Marianne Evans-Lombe (cont’d) “Recognition” www.bodydrawings.org

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Heather Anne Steiger facebook.com/punkrockpixie • hsteiger@gmail.com

Anthropology With nothing left Memories Become my companions Remembrances of beauty Of happiness Of useful life Never to return Dead Forever Resurrection Exhumation Digging up Forgotten relics Dead and gone Accompanied By the forgotten Corpse Of a life long dead

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Is it?

Is it like this for you?

Feeling Unwelcome Unhappy Unwanted Is this it?

My need answers your prayers Gives you what you need Am I That old That tired That much of a waste of your time Are you Sick of me Don’t answer I know

Shushed hushed crushed.

Why am I the only one who hears me when I talk?

When you scratch it when you pick at it when you MAKE IT BLEED YOU AND i both know you wish you could run

STUMBLING BLOCK When the business of business causes busy-ness, I am the pebble in your shoe I am the part of you that you hate I am the anchor pulling you under I become heavier the farther you sink when you stumble I am the reason when you fall I am the reason you don’t care about getting up any more.

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Heather Anne Steiger (cont’d) I’ll teach you a lesson (2001) Fire & fury Wrath & rage Are the gifts I give you now I will not be satisfied Until I break you I will make you feel just good enough That it will hurt worse when I Tear you down once again I will take what’s dearest to you & replace it with me I am the solution to your problems The answer to your prayers I am your undoing I am what makes you a loser I see your faults & show them to the world I laugh at your misfortune I will take your humanity & replace it with me I am your best friend, your worst enemy, your lover, your betrayal I will make you into me You will never see me until it’s too late Even though I stand in front of you I break your bones & your spirit I am your devil, your picture of hell, and in the same, I am your heaven Because you lie to yourself every morning And tell yourself I love you When, in fact, what I love is that you love me enough to deny yourself You will learn that happy isn’t always good & need is never good I will make you pay I laugh at your attempts to free yourself & reward you for your wasted efforts with another shackle to bear

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By the time you figure out who I am, I will have found another delighted victim I will devour their soul like I did yours And all of the ones before you I am the rotten center of you & when I am gone You will have nothing but loss to prove I was there I know what you want & I will make you believe you have it Until I need amusement Then I will show you your illusions & laugh as you realize You learned your lesson

Vainglory You have changed I remain unchanged Still a burden A story you tell To appear the hero The rest of them The fan club The supportive lot Would find Nothing But anger Ugliness Hate If the veneer Were to be scratched The gold plating On the armor Of the conservator Tarnished The hero Nothing more Than an image Pulp fiction A paper tiger They don’t see What I see

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Speech Communication Tips: Volume 6 This section is dedicated to the invaluable information I received in my speech communication class back in the summer of 2009. This was the class that I most dreaded in my college career. It turned out to be the most useful, not only in the area of giving speeches, but also in the areas of listening and communicating with others.

Principles of Non-verbal Communication, Part 2 (part 1 was featured in Issue #2, The Red Felt Issue) • Occurs naturally • Multi-channeled, complicated, and constantly changing; we receive messages through all of our senses • Ambiguous, often unclear • Depends on context and culture

-More believed (not necessarily more

believable) than verbal due to spontaneity and unintentional

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Kris Hartley

Kris Hartley

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Kris Hartley

Um, yeah. You already know me.

Edge of my foot hangs over this edge; The carbon-copy of me, Safely back inland…

Erase the judgment And I’ll retreat…

The golden bracelets of the renowned And the platinum simulation of the alleged secure— Neither compare to the view of this blaze I’ve obtained by sitting here, Night after night dreaming— I’ve unraveled, I’ve flown…

I’ve kept my eyes on the night, I’ve promised not to look away Until the last of the stars has safely Taken its place in the sapphire encasing.

But I’m still here— Enjoying the pleasures of a life entrapped, Of a life imprisoned by errors…

Horizons aren’t as clear as they used to be; Oceans are far from sight and reveling without me.

One moment has sent a glance my way Before moving on to someone who was prepared…

-feb 17, 2005 11:07pm

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the sunlight distracts and unnerves me.

Kris Hartley

its thoughtless rays cut through everything, thinking nothing of burning my skin.

i am less intimidated by the clouds and overcast skies; they offer more of a postponing of cares while the clarity leaves no time to regroup.

Kris Hartley

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Kris Hartley (cont’d) I called you, And it was only because I needed reassurance…

I had my hands on that guitar, But it just wouldn’t play for me…

Seems I haven’t looked to the clouds in some time— How could I have forsaken?

I never know what I’m saying anymore— Nothing has much depth to it.

I’ve exited the highway that led to incentive And started down the road With nothing on each side And goes on for endless miles.

I find myself in a state of automatic; I have no genuine responses To the heartfelt questions posed to me.

-march 28, 2005 10:15pm

Measure a person’s value by their contribution to society rather than your first impression.

Why do we automatically judge by appearance?

Let’s stop the cycle and train ourselves to look first at who they are on the inside.

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Kris Hartley

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Kris Hartley

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