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Letters – Beca and Tim on Coop in Santa Fe

Dear Antioch Community,

This is a letter to everyone from Beca and Tim. We have both recently returned from the New Mexico Co-op “Community”. Two of our classmates are being expelled for events that occurred throughout this co-op “community” experience. As we were both present throughout this entire ordeal and had a close connection with both students, we felt we should share what we witnessed, and why we feel these expulsions are unjust. Continue reading Letters – Beca and Tim on Coop in Santa Fe

He Said… She Said…

Welcome back to another cold spring term. “Nookie with Niko” is taking on a new twist this term. We’d like to introduce you to “He” Said / “”She” Said. We’re still talking about sex and politics, but from two different perspectives: the sex nerd’s and the lit nerd’s. We encourage the community to submit questions via email or the Record box. No question is too wild or tame.

NK: Last term I ended on the story of my fi rst porn experience. This is number two. My partner, Milo, and I got in touch with Trouble Royale, the creator or nofauxxx.com. After some conversations, we set up our shoot to become Nofauxxx models. To me this couldn’t have gotten any cooler. Nofauxxx was one of the fi rst radical porn sites that focused on the queer community. You can fi nd their mission statement at: www.nofauxxx.com/tour/mission.htm

MJ: As the saying goes, sex work is the oldest profession. In ancient Assyria and Babylonia, the followers of Ishtar, a goddess of love and benevolence, were the fi rst examples of holy prostitution. They were courtesan priestesses called ishtaritu that enacted the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. The highest of these sacred prostitutes, the enitum, granted sovereignty to the King through his “marriage” to the goddess.

NK: Milo and I showed up to the shoot, instructed to bring pink and black attire. I was a bit nervous. I was about to fuck and be fucked on camera. Trouble had set up her living room around this plush red velvet couch. This is where we’d fuck. Trouble also had snacks and great music on. The environment was so relaxing. We took some time to sit down and discuss the shoot. We were about to do NoFauxxx’s fi rst video. It was scripted some, but it was real sex, and we really came, a lot.

MJ: Not only were the ancient sacred prostitutes a conduit to the divine, but they were responsible for the fertility of the land. In fact, it became the custom for women, regardless of rank, to serve once in their lives as a courtesan priestess. The fi rst incarnation of Ishtar was as the Sumerian’s Inanna in the second millennium B.C. E. One of the sacred prostitutes, Enheduana, wrote cuneiform poetry- the oldest words by an author whose name is known today.

NK: Our shoot was titled “That Teenage Feeling.” Milo and I were supposed to be high school kids who have crushes on each other. Then Milo was to “be in control” and fuck me before I earned the right to fuck her. We were also dressed in all pink and black, even my harness and cuffs were pink and black. We had a small intro as teenagers talking and then progressing through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base, ‘til we got to the homerun…

Let me tell you, I sure had to work for it and I’m willing to work for it. First I had to suck Milo’s cock to earn my handcuffed ass fucking. I was expected to take it for a while, have to make sure you get all the angles. I was bent over the couch, handcuffed, Milo behind me, fucking me with the diving rod, and Trouble on the fl oor shooting up between our legs. You know what? I didn’t give a fuck. All I could think about was how hot this was. Then I was reminded about the Hitachi magic wand. A sex toy company had donated all the toys to the shoot and we had a lot of options.

MJ: Mesopotamia’s Gilgamesh epic (around 2,000 B.C.E.), mentions Ishtar’s prophecy of a great fl ood. Sound familiar? The Biblical version is a bastardization of Ishtar’s fl ood. Ishtar, in turn, co-opted it from an earlier Babylonian moon goddess, Nuah, whose name, masculinized, is the obvious root of Noah. Also in Gilgamesh, a temple prostitute, Shamhat, civilizes Enkidu by sleeping with him. NK: I had never used a Hitachi, but I’d heard it’s the Cadillac of vibrators. Many women owe their fi rst orgasms to it. I was really excited to give it a go. The low setting is amazing. The high? It will vibrate your clit right off. This is where I came really hard. Now it was my turn to do some fucking. I slipped on my cock and fucked Milo. We varied the position and ended in the “reverse cowgirl,” kissed, and relaxed. We made some money, did some radical porn, and had hot sex. What could be better?

Our video premiered at Homo A Gogo. Which is a huge queer festival is Seatlle. It went on right before “The Crash Pad,” a great new dyke and trans porn put out by Pink and White Productions. Afterwards an Antioch student even called me to tell me they saw it. I think I turned bright red on the other end of the phone.

MJ: In one Babylonian text, Ishtar aligns herself with the common tavern whore, the harimtu, rather than the sacred ishtaritu. In another she says, “A prostitute compassionate am I.”

The New Plan?

Whether they planned on it or not, fist and second year students have been participating in “The New Plan” for Antioch’s curriculum. This year, first years were offered five learning communities each term: American Identities, Cool, Gaia, Citizenship, Sense of Place, Revolutions, Order and Chaos, Science Intensive Core, and Art, Business, and Chemistry. Second Years are familiar with Revolutions, American Identities, and Sense of Place, but also were offered Environmental Justice and Embodied Minds, Thinking Bodies. The curriculum was reconstructed to bring more students into the school, and help students gain General Education credits as soon as possible.

Although the creators of the core program were surely well intentioned, there seems to be a general response of distaste from the community. As a second year student put it, “it’s not that the Learning Communities suck, it’s what they symbolize.” Many community members see the New Plan as a direct attack against Antioch’s history and culture. Very few students understood that Learning Communities were all that was being offered, and were placed in classrooms with shell-shocked faculty members who were under the pressure of “team teaching” for the fi rst time, working the kinks out of course material, and trying to integrate the Co-op program into the classroom.

Students were limited in their opportunities to interact with people outside the Learning Communities, which created animosity and distrust in the community. The largest fault that students found within the program was in the Co-op Department. Students were placed in specifi c “co-op communities” that were not fully developed or supported. First year students also had the experience of co-op class within the core, which aimed to institute positive work values and help prepare students for their Fall co-op. Most students failed this portion of the core, with the exception of Gaia, who removed Co-op class from their schedule.

That’s not to say that there weren’t some positive aspects of “Core” classes or Learning Communities. Considering the short notice given, the classes pulled together pretty well, especially in the second year of the New Plan. As second year student Becca Buel from Embodied Minds, Thinking Bodies said, “There were definitely moments where things were falling apart, but overall it was an amazing experience.”

Womyn Center Mural Painting Party

26 Friday

Womyn Center Mural Painting Party

All femaleidentified community members are invited to a MURAL PAINTING PARTY , Friday, January 26th, anytime between 7-11pm in and outside the Womyn Center.

Coordinators Erin, Mariel and Anne plan the mural to be compromised of dozens of individual or group designed 15’’x 7.5’’ bricks composed with the theme of womyn and womynhood in mind .

Bring your ideas, drawings , and supplies (if you have them; if not, supplies will be provided).

Get ready for estrogen and creativity, coming together in an explosion of colorful expression of how we interpret our genders.

Real World News

In a non-binding vote on Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush’s escalation of the Iraq War as “not in the national interest.” The vote comes one day after President Bush appealed to congress to give his revised Iraq plan “a chance to work.” The resolution, which passed 12-9, opposes Bush’s plan to deploy 21,500 additional troops for peacekeeping operations in and around Baghdad.

Three prominent senators; Democrats Joseph Biden and Carl Levin, and Republican Chuck Hagel proposed the resolution earlier this month. “We better be damn sure we know what we’re doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder,” said Senator Hagel, the only Republican on the committee to support the resolution. Vice President Cheney disregarded the objection, saying: “It won’t stop us, and it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops.” Cheney commented four days after U.S. forces faced one of the bloodiest days of the Iraq War since the invasion began four years ago, with 25 soldiers lost in a 24-hour period.

On Tuesday President Bush addressed the nation in his annual state of the union address, during which he called on congress and the nation to lend him their support. “We went into this largely united – in our assumptions, and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq -and I ask you to give it a chance to work. And I ask you to support our troops in the fi eld – and those on their way.” Bush said in his address to the legislature.

Bush went on to characterize the confl ict in Iraq as a front in his Global War On Terror, saying: “In the end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance of success. Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq – because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching. The war on terror we fi ght today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others. That is why it is important to work together so our nation can see this great effort through.” Lieutenant General David Petraeus, Bush’s choice to become the new U.S. commander in Iraq, said on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, “The situation in Iraq is dire. The stakes are very high. There are no easy choices. The way ahead will be very hard. But the hard is not hopeless.” Monday more than 130 Iraqis died in the capital Baghdad, 88 in a double car bombing at a crowded market. Iraqi ‘police’ also recovered 29 bodies bound and executed scattered across the capital. The attacks came as 3,200 troops, the advance guard of Mr. Bush’s 21, 500, arrived in the capital to boost security.

The coordinated assault on the Baghdad market entailed a parked car fi lled with explosives, that was detonated by remote, followed by a second car, driven by a suicide bomber, which plunged into the panicked crowed before exploding. The market, which specializes in pirated movies and secondhand clothes, was popular among Baghdad’s poorest residents.

Next week both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are set to vote on resolutions in opposition of the troop ‘surge,’ a largely symbolic move that will not stop the executive branch’s plan for further entrenching our troops in the tactical nightmare of Iraq. Senator Biden defended the vote, however, saying: “(The legislation) is an attempt to save the president from making a significant mistake with regard to our policy in Iraq.”