TOM BOY Digital Culture Magazine
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EDITOR/CREATIVE DIRECTOR WRITING CONTRIBUTORS
ABI LAMBERT SOPHIA JAMILLE ANDREW ROBISON JAY MORRIS ALANNA GARDNER NABHANYU CHILUVERU
PHOTO & ART CONTRIBUTORS
PANDA TURNER @PND.E NABHANYU CHILUVERU XENIA AIMS JEHMAK
www.tomboytomcat.com www.facebook.com/tomboytomcat
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EMPATHLIT DIGITAL STORIES OF SURVIVAL STORY / JAY MORRIS
ART / XENIA AIMS
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t is a hallmark of the human experience to be able to communicate with other people openly and freely. The pervasive influence of this basic need to be understood can be seen in the development of language and literature in our global history. Writing in particular has allowed communication to flourish not only as a tool for communication, but also as an art form to express the inner workings of the mind and soul to unify and edify our common humanity through stories of love, friendship, betrayal, and abuse. Literary movements arise out of a response to the myriad forms of expression that writing allows, and living in an increasingly digital culture, we are able to see the rise and fall of these literary movements in real time. The creation of the Empathetic Literature (more popularly known as Empathlit) by Alexandra Naughton and D. Dragonetti was made possible by revelations of sexual assault and abuse perpetrated against women by male writers such as Tao Lin, Stephen Tully Dierks, and Stephen Trull, who pioneered the now-defunct Alternative Literature (Alt Lit) movement. Empathlit is revolutionary because it exists as an extension of the feminist-driven dialogues about abuse survivorship, rape, and consent that are being raised primarily in college campuses all over the country. Tao Lin was accused of statutory rape by ER Kennedy, a transgendered male who was in a relationship with Lin when he was 16 and Tao Lin was 22. At this time, Kennedy identified as a cis-female (or a person that identifies with the gender asssigned to them at birth) and was named Ellen. Through a series of tweets, ER Kennedy accused Lin of emotionally abusing
and raping him during their relationship. In addition, Stephen Tully Dierks, a prominent Alt Lit figure and curator of the online Alt Lit magazine Pop Serial, was accused by two women of sexually abusing them by using his status within the Alt Lit community to pressure women into having sex with him before allowing their work to be published in Alt Lit magazines and blogs. After these allegations were brought forth for Lin and Dierks respectively, other women began to come forward with their stories of abuse, and how they were encouraged to be silent by members of the Alt Lit movement who did not want to disrupt the status quo. As more and more women shared their stories, they were able to expose the culture of abuse that silenced and blamed survivors for their abuse. Many writers began to split from the Alt Lit movement to form their own blogs, magazines, and other independent publications. This laid the framework for Empathlit to arise from the ashes of Alt Lit. I was able to exchange emails with Alexandra Naughton and D. Dragonetti, the two individuals who created Empathlit by curating literature predominantly from marginalized writers such as trans individuals, women, queer individuals or people of color to use as a platform for survivors of abuse from the Alt Lit movement and beyond to be heard and tell their stories. I was able to have a brief email exchange with Naughton and Dragonetti, who provided some insight into the process of forming Empathlit, “As far as the brief history: we started Empathlit namely because of our own experiences with being silenced, both implicit (e.g. Alt Lit empowering abusers over victims and, more generally, reproducing the canonical
“All literary movements have their opposition.�
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voice) and explicit. We started this because we saw an incredible dearth in forums for survivor expression and conversation.” And these conversations are so desperately needed for us to begin to form solutions to the problems of sexism, victim blaming, silencing, and complicity that intersect to form the ugly rape culture that pervades our present society. Unfortunately, all literary movements have their opposition. Naughton and Dragonetti state: “Though we have had some support in this pursuit, and have tried our hardest to remain positive and on an even keel, we have also received considerable derision and dismissal (if you’ve followed Alt Lit, you may be aware of this)--but we feel that the fact that a survivor lit curation is being attacked (in ways that invoke many of the touchstones of rape culture, to boot) only serves to demonstrate how necessary it is.” It’s not hard to imagine the kind of derision and dismissal Naughton and Dragonetti have
had to experience. The conversations happening on college campuses all over the United States to challenge the traditional definitions of rape and consent can attest to that. Indeed, the historic opposition to feminism and its efforts to dismantle the sexist and misogynistic systems that protect rapists can be paralleled to the rise of Empathlit as it attempts to help survivors find closure, validation, and safety. While started in opposition to the Alt Lit movement and its treatment of abuse survivors, Empathlit still shares some of the stylistic features of its predecessor. Many of the poems are set in social media spaces such as Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter, or reference memes popularized by the Internet such as “the manic pixie dream girl.” Also, many of the poems are written with a laconic diction and detached, nonchalant tone to perhaps mimic the emotional distance we try to maintain when talking about disturbing topics such as abuse, trauma, and erasure of identity.
The seminal post by Alexandra Naughton that would inspire other survivors to come forward with their own stories.
Samples of Empathliterature: “In Fear of a Trans Planet: 2 Sonnets and a Poem” by Dianna Dragonetti “Sad Story #5” by Alexandra Naughton “Selections From Juliet” by Sarah Certa
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ART / NABHANYU CHILUVERu
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PHOTOGRAPHY / PANDA TURNER @pnd.e Model / Joseph PRIoleau
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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY / NABHANYU CHILUVERu
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1) Whats the first techno record you remember
hearing ? before i got into Basic Channel but after i heard Cybotron - Clear ... It was probably freak by LFO ? i dont remember cause i was in high school but those two trax were really early on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWKz7TTBPbQ and this whole fuckin mix was on loop
2)
Sonny Digital or Metro Boomin ? idk theyre both techno as hell i choose zaytoven
3) Are you into net art and aesthetic
at all and do you think it’s important to electronic music nowadays even if you don’t care about it personally ? net art is like from 2008 i think i like 3d giantess pictures as much as the next guy but i think first and foremost the trax need to sound amazing theres a lot of amazing music out that just says the song title on the record and comes in a white sleeve and theres a lot of bullshit music out that comes with fantastic grafxx and sounds like the producer just heard Square One i just think the whole aesthetic has to be wrapped up tight as hell so no1 can touch you
4) What burgeoning Atlanta rapper do people
lil silk houdinne yakki divioshi every1 on awful records idk what else to be honest
5) Any upcoming releases u can talk about just yet ? i have a lot of shit on my hard drive. like a lot.
6) As a well traveled young DJ, what do you think
the general perception of America is, are we too gassed on how much of an impact we think American culture has ? american culture has a lot of impact because we’re a fucked up imperialist brand machine that likes to swing our dick around internationally ... its not that cute except when it comes to techno and house , everyone in europe forgot we invented that shit , yall damn heathens
7) Where do you see the state of music in a few
years ? Do you think good rappers and producers will just gravitate towards each other without reaching out though tropes like ‘EDM’. no matter how stupid other shit is, cool shit always finds a way to happen plus , i like edm edm is tight
need to know about ? daaamn i woulda said makonnen earlier this year but i guess:
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THE FUTURE IS NOW™ STORY / ANDREW ROBISON
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D
oes the oppression of the corporate machine have you down? Have aesthetics always played an important role in your life? Do you secretly run Windows 98 on your MacBook? Then the world of vaporwave is for you. The virtual plaza welcomes you. But what is it really? Reddit (/r/vaporwave) defines the genre as being characterized by “appropriation, imitation and recontextualization of pop culture artifacts from the 80s and 90s.” Personally I much prefer definitions like “corporate smooth jazz Windows 95 pop” or “a reflection of soulless techno-corporatism.” However you choose to define it, one can generally agree that the genre, both musically and artistically, exhibits an interpretation of 80s and 90s consumer culture by deconstructing images and music associated with corporatism, mass consumption, and globalization from beginning of the .com era. Vaporwave’s origins are generally traced back to the early 2010’s, most notably associated with the release of collections such as Chuck Person’s “Eccojams Vol. 1” and James Ferraro’s “Far Side Virtual.” One of
vaporwave’s top-selling works and a staple within many facets of net art associated with the genre is the album “Floral Shoppe” by MACINTOSH PLUS. Released back in 2011, the design featured on the album cover often appears in vaporwave memes and net art, and serves as an introduction to the genre for many first-time listeners. The sample-based nature of the album, however,
“Do you secretly run Windows 98 on your MacBook?” coud make listeners feel alienated, leaving them asking questions like, “Isn’t this just Diana Ross slowed down?” So after taking those “corporate smooth jazz” samples and applying an almost Houston-style lean-fueled chopped and screwed twist to them, where does that leave you? Is this music? Is this anything? The effectiveness of vaporwave directly lies in its ability to provoke nostalgia; your memories of a distant but not-so-long-ago past. The first time I ever heard Floral Shoppe, my mind wandered to memories of shopping malls, and one store in particular
called “Sav-on-Plants” that I used to frequent in the late 90s and early 2000s when I was deep in the Pokémon game. This store carried the weirdest assortment of shit, and epitomized vaporwave aesthetics to a T. “Sav-on-Plants” carried Japanese import products, fake plants, and other gifts and household aesthetics, all of which was sold to the soundtrack of music you’ve heard all your life but have never really noticed. Herein lies the true power of vaporwave’s sampling. The triggering of these memories really speaks to the efficacy of the genre as a whole, and helps set it apart from other internet-based art genres. The fact that a few samples, put together, edited, and chopped and screwed, could elicit such a latent but strong memory really demonstrates the power vaporwave and the subgenres that have developed out of it can have on those who can connect on a personal level. But maybe I should take a step back. Am I reaching for some validity into my appreciation of remixed corporate jazz by attaching my childhood memories? Am I actually full of shit? I’ll let you be the judge of that, but through the power of vaporwave, I feel I have entered an alternate world...The virtual plaza welcomes you.
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Word of
( Water ) Mouth STORY / Sophia Jamille Photography / JehMak
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From the moment I entered the home of Jo- ing of seasons, despite its summertime debut. “I seph Mosby, I could tell that doing music wanted to create something that would utilize all wasn’t just a hobby he picked up to pass the of the things I learned at CRAS but still keep that time. It could have been due to the fact that different sound I’ve always gone for”. With his he has transformed his home in East Atlanta into a collective Menace IV Society comprised mostly of recording space, equipped with a surplus of pricey friends from high school, it’s easy to see how the instruments and editing equipment. It also could influence of old friends and memories of Mosby’s have been due to the fact it’s not a hobby at all, but personal life translates to his music and the “nosa dream that’s transforming into his reality with talgic” sound he strives to achieve. “It’s basically each passing day. An Atlanta native, Mosby, who a creative collective that myself, Ron Shaw (whom goes by the stage name COMMAND (an entity that produces for the likes of Curtis Williams of the Atis a culmination and “commandlanta rap collective TWO-9 and er” of all of his artistic facets), has Key!, respectively) and a few oth“I can play my ers began in high school,” Mosby been creating music since his early childhood. Being an active memmusic at a trap explained “It’s comprised of artber in his church choir gave Mosists, that are all flawed in some house and at a way, but we try to help each other by the initial thrust onto the music scene that would be a catalyst into show at a local through those flaws and find some many more musical endeavors. meaning in them. It’s almost like bar and get the being a rebel in the name of Soci“I started making my own music when I was like, 15 with my band ety; we’re trying to do some good, same positive The Electives,” Mosby recollected, it isn’t about the money to us.” response.” “That was when I really began to From featuring fellow Menace IV understand writing and producSociety artists such as Sage Guilloing. I wrote and produced all of our music”. While ry, whom is featured on the EP and responsible for response to The Electives’ fledgling music wasn’t the visuals of WM, to cross promoting other fellow well-received by his peers, Mosby knew he was on Menace artists, being surrounded by creative inthe cusp of something bigger, “We were booed off fluences would eventually land COMMAND with stage on our first show. It was a house party and an ideal platform to share his music with the massthey wanted that Atlanta twerk music, and that es. wasn’t the kind of sound we were producing. Our “Menace IV Society and I put together a two day sound was too different than everything that was listening day party for Water Mouth over the Sumout at the time and people couldn’t vibe to it”. mer,” Mosby recollected, “Trevon Williams, who is After parting ways with his band mate, Mosby a part of Raury’s [who is an up-and-coming Atlanwent solo with the intention of maintaining a sound ta rapper that just opened up for Outkast during that was different and all his own. Drawing inspira- their ATLast tour last month] management team, tion from artists such as Toro y Moi, Stereolab, and came through to the event and really enjoyed it. He Mac Demarco, Mosby has described his music as got together with my manager James Supreme and being diverse and extremely nostalgic. “I wanted just kinda put me on the bill for the A3C Hip-Hop to take my abilities to the next level, so I moved to Music Festival”. The five-day hip-hop festival that Arizona where I attended the Conservatory of Re- spans many venues throughout the city has been a cording Arts and Sciences where I was exposed to catapult for many local artists. “I’m excited. This is a lot of punk and alternative music.” Mosby said, happening right up the street from where I live! It’s “I didn’t have a car out there, so I was kinda forced my community you know? I’m honored to be doto work on music.” While Mosby was able to learn ing what I love after so much preparation.” Mosby different approaches to creating music, he divulged exclaimed. that the curation process became tedious, “It took With plans of touring the UK and Western Eume a lot longer to put everything together,” Mosby rope next year Mosby explained that his goals for admitted, “I’d learned about all of these detailed as- COMMAND are simple, yet far from attained, “I pects of music that I wanted to include in my own”. hope to put out music that people enjoy. I think its This keen ear is exactly what makes COM- dope that I can play my music at a trap house and MAND’s most recent release a smash. With his lat- at a show at a local bar and get the same positive est EP entitled Water Mouth, COMMAND gives us response. I started my own record label called Free an easy listening compilation of songs that melod- Food records and I have many more things in the ically maintain their relevance through the chang- works. This isn’t me in my full form.” @CMMDMUSIC www.CMMDMUSIC.com
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Narrative / aLANNA gARDNER “How do you feel?” The question rings in my mind, a silver pin dropping in an all white room. It cuts through the motionless air and I can hear it land on the floor, whirring in anticipation. Even the smallest matter holds weight when presenting itself to emptiness, clangs when presenting itself to silence. I’m drawing a blank. “Busy. I feel busy” I don’t feel anything but busy. Day to day I’m not granted enough human emotion to feel anxious, overwhelmed or even weary. In fact, I’m not granted the luxury of human emotion at all. I’m just too damn busy. And when I finally get a chance to catch my breath, I gasp in a panic wondering how long I haven’t been breathing. I’m wondering how long I haven’t been feeling. I’m wondering how long I haven’t been living. I don’t wake up, I turn on. I don’t rest, only power down. Every morning the sun beams or the birds chirp and my eyelids draw back like shutters. I can feel myself booting up. Every movement is delayed to start, but with every passing second I begin to operate more efficiently. This machine can handle the day, this machine can handle anything. I’m an automaton on the move. Multiple schedules are cross referenced with physiological needs. There’s just enough time to work, there’s just enough time to eat. There’s just enough to do so that you never have to do more than make it through the motions. That’s your purpose. Wake up, operate, consume. Do all of the things you are supposed to do, simply because you are supposed to do them. Meet all of the people you were told to meet, simply because you were told to meet them. I do this, and I am not happy, but perhaps I am
pleased. I am pleased that my little machine completed its daily chores. It went all day long, the same way it always does without malfunction. My little machine, like any good machine did what it was told to do. But would anyone else be pleased with my little machine? Would anyone envy it? Is it working like everyone else’s? Is it slower, is it faster? Does it have all the bells and whistles? Have I painted it the right color? How else am I to know if my little machine is of any value at all? How am I to know if what I’m doing has any value at all? And at that thought I’m human, back in the white room - disconnected. This isn’t the overwritten Millennial disconnect that is allegedly pulling ‘20-somethings’ like myself out of society, or the relaxing quiet of a weekly ‘unplug’. This is pure anomie full of alienation and distress. This is the kind of hopelessness that leaves us stranded and panicked. All of this time spent building my little machine and I’m not sure if it has any purpose at all. I’m not sure what I built it for or who I built it for. If I built it for me would it be anything like this? This is what we have been avoiding the entire time. But no meeting, job, class, extra-curricular or yoga class could have saved us from this moment. Despite all of our incessant scheduling and over committing in an effort to fill every tick on the clock, we slipped up. You missed a slot because you are not a little machine. I am not a little machine. I have to think, I have to question. I have to find time for life, I have to find time for purpose. Spinning around a cycle will always leave us afloat. Because every time we power up, only leaving room for thought by error, we leave room for terror; we leave room for loneliness. We leave room for anomie.
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TOM CAT Digital Culture Magazine
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