HIM

With only eight students, our Literatures class always looked empty. It was “indicative of this country’s disinterest in reading and lack of critical thinking,” our teacher, Miss Redmayne, always ranted.

At full complement, the class comprised six girls and two boys. When I arrived the other seven were already seated and discussing Don Birnham’s character flaws—we were reading The Lost Weekend.

Redmayne dismissed my excuse for tardiness with a flash of the hand, followed by, “Quickly, quickly, have a seat.” I took the one closest to the only other male in the classroom, my best friend, Christian.

Five minutes hadn’t passed before Christian asked, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. What do you mean? Did you hear something?” I was panicked.

“You look like shit. Like your body forgot what sleep is,” he whispered.

I barely opened my mouth to respond before Redmayne looked over at us.

“Pay attention” she said, pointing at both of us. She was too gentle a soul to be intimidating. We continued our conversation through text:

Sympathy Knows No Sexual Orientation …aka End The Complicated Sadness and Simply be Sad for the Loss of Human Life

Here are the names and ages of 49 people. 49 people who have had their lives taken away from them because of hate.

• Stanley Almodovar III, 23
• Amanda Alvear, 25
• Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26
• Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33
• Antonio Davon Brown, 29
• Darryl Roman Burt II, 29
• Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28
• Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25
• Luis Daniel Conde, 39
• Cory James Connell, 21
• Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25
• Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32
• Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31
• Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25
• Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26
• Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22
• Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22
• Paul Terrell Henry, 41
• Frank Hernandez, 27
• Miguel Angel Honorato, 30
• Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40
• Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19
• Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30
• Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25
• Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32
• Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21
• Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49
• Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25
• Kimberly Morris, 37
• Akyra Monet Murray, 18
• Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20
• Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25
• Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36
• Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32
• Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35
• Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25
• Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27
• Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35
• Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24
• Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24
• Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34
• Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33
• Martin Benitez Torres, 33
• Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24
• Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37
• Luis S. Vielma, 22
• Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50
• Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37
• Jerald Arthur Wright, 31

#SheIsNotWrong: Do You Get It Now? …aka Rants About Feminism and Gender-Based Violence

Recently, a friend of mine showed me a video on Facebook that has been circulating the internet of a young lady being recorded for Snapchat while being abused by her boyfriend. (I dare not honour the boyfriend’s wishes of embarrassing this young lady by posting a link to the video here.) The video and the subsequent reactions in the Facebook comments section (It’s always the comments section! Why is it always the comments section?!) upset me and inspired a rather teary-eyed rant in one of my WhatsApp groups.

I’ve decided to edit the rant just for grammatical errors and post it here. Hopefully it will be of some benefit to those of us whose default reaction to Gender-Based Violence is “What she doing with that man?” and not “Why is he so abusive? What he is doing is wrong?”

Under The Colonial Baggage Lies The True Jamaica …aka Many Musings on Race, Class, Gender and Everything Unequal About Jamaica

“Yesterday, I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I’m changing myself.”

– Jalal Ad-din Muhammad Rumi.

 

by Guest Writer: Chevaun Manning

Long has the effects of the plantation era hovered above our heads. The upper class resides on the long mountain tops and are friends with Beverly, who owns her own hill. Long have our ancestors fought for this elusive right to be treated not necessarily equally, but just simply as the human beings that they are.

The social structure has always been the factor in the rebellion of our people as we struggle to find social consciousness. While this collective consciousness, which we still fight for, may be an inevitability – something that will just come with time – there is a risk of the most vulnerable becoming lost while we wait.

Sex[16]teen

He waits for the magic number,

she grapples with curiosity.

He waits for the magic number,

she dodges his words, his smile, his look of knowingness.

He waits for the magic number,

she battles need, after need, after need.

Acceptance is a Tricky Thing …aka Where are the 1,810 Intersex Jamaicans?

Acceptance is a tricky thing.

If I may digress from intended topic to share with you a personal story. My acceptance of the transgender community was an uphill struggle. I had accepted the “Born Male – Born Female” binary so wholeheartedly, that my brain could not compute anything that could didn’t fit in either box. It took years of undoing that mis-education for me to be able to begin accepting transgender individuals.

Though, I must confess that there are holes in this professed acceptance. It’s still currently difficult for me to fathom teens (real anyone below 18) getting gender affirming surgeries or preteens undergoing hormone replacement therapy to prevent the changes that occur at puberty. But that’s my personal baggage and, notwithstanding, journey of acceptance continues with love and respect for all my transgender Jamaican brother and sisters. Some research and a few more videos from YouTuber Skylar Kergil will surely get me where I need to be.

Now to the topic at hand. My acceptance of Intersex individuals was a much smoother ascendance in comparison and took me just under 2 weeks. I went from “What does Intersex mean?” to “How can I become an Intersex ally?” in that short period of time and it all started with this photo here:

A lady reading Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin on an MRT (train) in Singapore. Photo Credit: JM Wang

Orange Bay Inventor …aka He Made A Functional Cart From Scrap?: A Personal Story

My main motivation for making this cart was to prove to my older brother that I could do it. Now that I have completed that I see where I could turn this experience into an entrepreneurial opportunity. I am Roxroy Hutchinson, I am 23 and from the community of Orange Bay in Hanover. I’m not formally trained in this field. I’m a self-taught visual artist (I do paintings) and I’m also an inventor. I also work part-time as a fitness instructor.

The Theory of Bully-ism aka Words Can Kill: A Shorter-Than-Short Short Story

to a dear friend. may your spirit of defiant otherliness never cease to inspire.

 

written by: Jason Abreu

edited by Elton Johnson

 

Another routine week at Hilton Memorial High School had come to a close on Friday with the almost ceremonial ringing of the 3:00 p.m. bell. Naturally, all school corridors were replete with excitement for the impending weekend. Probably the most excited for the coming weekend was Helen Page. The weekend was her solace; her only escape from the self-inflicted torture she found herself wrapped in as she “voluntarily” made her way to torture dungeon called school day by day. Self-harm and alcoholism were her only coping mechanisms; taking a bit of her arm and liver with each use. All this for one mistake.

Sometimes we wish we could have learnt the lesson, but leave behind the memories. Her beauty was her demise. The store-bought bronze streaks in her hair were not the only things burning with temporary and showy passion. She had been the recipient of flattering advances from male classmates before but never with the consistency and desire of Jonathan. Jonathan who had a girlfriend at the time I might add. She knew she was wrong – that she had been weak – the very moment it ended. She was remorseful, but who ever wants to hear the whore’s side of the story anyway?

DEAF NOT DUMB …aka Time For Jamaica’s Deaf Community To Join The Conversation

“My experience with the Jamaican education system as a Deaf Jamaican has not been a good one,” notes Shana-Kay Goodman. She is an outspoken colleague of mine. We work alongside each other as part of a youth core of over 20 youth advocates known as Y-KLICK, an initiative sponsored by Respect Jamaica and UNICEF.

Through Y-KLICK, the 21-year-old from Old Harbour, St Catherine advocates on behalf of Deaf Jamaicans across the country. Part of the challenge she personally strives to overcome as a Deaf Jamaican are issues with the education system and its inability to meet the growing needs of the Jamaicans within the deaf community.

Shana-Kay leads discussion during Y-KLICK Development Retreat 2015

Here, she tells Yuh Zeen her personal story of hardship.

Pearls Among Stones …aka A Young Poet’s Triumph over Jamaica’s Normalized Classism

Her name is Christena AV Williams. We’ve never met physically, but we’ve met through her work. She is an award-winning young Jamaican poet who, like all of us, has a unique life story. However, quite unlike all of us, Christena tells this story beautifully through her work. At her young age, Christena is already the author of her own published collection of poems, Pearls Among Stones.

Williams collects Youth Award from PM, Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller

The collection, published by Canadian, Brian Wrixon, in 2013, earned her one of the most prestigious awards given to youth in her country, ‘The Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture’. This achievement she accredits to her life story; her unique story of love, love deprivation and strength, courage and faith.

A personal favourite in her collection, ‘Do Not Call Me Poor’, is a creative product of the hardships she endured growing up and her refusal to allow for stigma or discrimination to stymie her development.