Incarcerated Artists! Pirate Merch! Cats eating popcorn?

Hey everyone,

Hope you're all hanging in there. It's 10:30 pm on Sunday, and I just hit "publish" on tomorrow's Gender Reveal episode and made myself a big bowl of popcorn. Now I am feeding popcorn to the cat (not Rhubarb, the other one) because they DEMAND that we share all corn and bread products. Normal stuff.

Anyway, this week on the show, I had the absolute privilege of speaking with A.B.O. Comix cofounder Casper Cendre about what life is like for incarcerated queer and trans people, and how we can move from saying "Gosh, I sure do hate prisons!" to taking meaningful steps towards liberation and abolition. (This is not to disparage anyone — I am also one of the people not doing enough tangible allyship for folks in prisons.)

Anyway, if you have the bandwidth, I really encourage becoming penpals with an incarcerated LGBTQ+ person, which you can do abocomix.com or blackandpinkpenpals.org. Just be sure to actually write them back, OK? They don't deserve to be left hanging. 

(Update: I'm getting grease all over my keyboard and the cat has eaten five (5) popcorn kernels so far.)

I also really recommend picking up a zine or anthology or merch item from the A.B.O. Comix shop, where all proceeds are sent to the artists' commissary accounts for their basic needs. 

You may have seen this on social media already, but here are a few non-comic pieces of art by A.B.O. collective members. I'm so in awe!

"Beware," a hand painted shirt by Joanna Nixon, a trans artist incarcerated in CA. It is an XL and reads: "Beware! Californians", "The real California Bear will eat your life + spit you out!", "Revolt: Vote or You Enter...", " From Welfare to CDC and their vendors programs", and "Wasted Talent Hurts Society."

"Elysa the Muse Stars In: May You Dance the Stars in Joy," a watercolor painting on illustration board by Michael Eaton, an artist incarcerated in Texas.           

"Face Pyrography," a piece of burnt wood art by Gabe Wyatt, an artist incarcerated in LA.

OK, and speaking of art and nonprofit merch shops and stuff: it's a new month, which means that we have new merch designs in our shop! 

Gender Reveal alum Maia Kobabe donated this wonderful trans pirate design, which we're running as a sticker and a lil pouch. Because Maia is a gem,100% of proceeds on this item goes to the Gender Reveal grant program for trans artists and activists! :)

And speaking of the grant program, we're also receiving 50% of the proceeds of this new sticker from our friend Rae Ajamie. 

We'll be spotlighting more new merch throughout the month, but it's all in the shop already, so take a peek if you're interested! 

(Update: cat has had enough popcorn, which I didn't know was possible tbh.)

In personal news, I went outside today. 

This winter has been by far the sunniest I've ever experienced in Oregon, and you know what????? We deserve it.

OK, just finished my popcorn, which means it's time to wrap it up. But before I go: In 4 hours, we're releasing my interview with author Kai Cheng Thom. It's our longest interview ever and also (not a coincidence) one of my favorite episodes of all time. (Don't tell the other episodes!) I hope you love it half as much as I do.

Take care and be safe. I love you. Here's your weekly Rhubarb, taken as I was editing the podcast a couple hours ago.

xo,
Yr resident gender detective 

PS: Holy shit, I just realized that it's the 3rd anniversary of the show launch on Friday! Thanks for still being here. I appreciate you so much.