Because no summer would be complete without it — TRACE issue #83, Black Girls Rule!

And, because we love y’all, check out the free PDF download here.

Closing out its three-Sunday romp this weekend, the end of Justin Bond’s temporary home at Joe’s Pub — aptly called Justin Bond is LIVING! (at Joe’s Pub, ha ha) — will leave the same gap in New York City’s queer, underground heart that we feel between every romp with Bond.

But gaps need to be filled and — say what you will about the current crisis of queer New York, you drama queens — filled this one will be, too.

Justin Bond, after all, is not alone. His camp, the new camp, includes the Dazzle Dancers, Squeezebox, Taylor Mac, Vaginal Davis, Bruce LaBruce (and maybe John Cameron Mitchell, Dr. Frankenfurter and Rufus Wainright, if we’re counting protos) and a host of other queer burlesquers, rock n rollers, gender-punkers and sex-pansies.

Old camp — gay camp — had its kitsch queens and drag divas. It had its Susan Sontags, pop- and arch-theories and its knock-offs. It had all the little commodifying clarifications and framing lines drawn around it that inhaled everything magic, umami, or subversive until it became a cheap husk of metro-hipster-sexual irony.

New camp wasn’t born yesterday, but it hasn’t been chloroformed, pinned down, labeled, and frozen with explanations yet. It is still LIVING!, at least at Joe’s Pub until Sunday.

Justin Bond is LIVING!
Joe’s Pub
Sunday, August 17th; 9:30 p.m.

Many recurring reading series in the cities are on summer hiatus, and the political discussions are heating up. Two readings with a global bent this week:

Monday, August 4, 2008, 7:00pm
KGB Bar (85 E. 4th Street btw 2nd and 3rd Aves.)
The Future of the Global Environmental Movement

Authors William Powers and Glenn Hurowitz get together today to discuss “the future of the global environmental movement.” Powers has worked in development aid and conservation, written for numerous publications, and is the author of of Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa’s Fragile Edge and Whispering in the Giant’s Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia’s War on Globalization. Hurowitz is the author of Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party and has also written for numerous publications and worked on many environmental and electoral campaigns.

Thursday, August 7, 2008, 6:30pm
The New School, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street )
Bringing Down the Great Firewall of China: Silenced Writers Speak on the Eve of the Olympics

The Olympic Games open on Friday in Beijing, while many of China’s writers and journalists remain in prison. PEN American Center and The New School present this reading of their work by a who’s who of famous PEN members and writers. They’ll include Edward Albee, Russell Banks, Philip Gourevitch, Jessica Hagedorn, Hari Kunzru, Rick Moody, and Francine Prose.

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is no stranger for TRACE readers who had a chance to encounter her in a feature story on her photography collective, She Shootin’ in our Fall 07 issue. KINDRED COOL is Barrayn’s new photography project that uses the relationship between Ralph Ellison, Romare Bearden and Albert Murray as an inspiration for documenting other friendships forged and fostered through a shared appreciation for jazz. Through photographic portraits, KINDRED COOL showcases the diversity of the jazz diaspora, that is, individuals who are inspired by American classical music: jazz. The subjects of KINDRED COOL are a motley crew of jazz educators, vocalists and instrumentalists, rappers, aficionados, journalists, publicists, dancers and painters. A partial list of those photographed for Kindred Cool are Ellis Marsalis, Ladybug Mecca, Randy Weston, Mos Def, DJ Spooky, Vijay Iyer, Rhonda Ross, Brian Jackson, Farah Jasmine Griffin among many others.

KINDRED COOL
Photography by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
On View: August 3 - September 14, 2008
Opening Reception: August 3, 2008 - 3pm
Museum of Contemporary African Disaporan Arts (MoCADA)
80 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, New York 11217 www.MOCADA.org

For more info, visit kindredcool.org

Graffiti, once the bastard child of art forms makes a mainstream appearance this year that links graffiti with fashion and function. Tatoot, a debut line of backpacks and messenger bags, allows graffiti artists to showcase their work legally and aims to help clean up city streets by providing them an outlet.

Founders Eddie Shabot and David Ben David created a classic old school/new school battle pitting ten artists — five from each group — against one another to design a bag. Winning designs went on to be manufactured and with that Tatoot was born. Propelled by contributing artists the design competition is on going and welcomes any graffiti artist to enter.

Contest winners are decided by online vote and the design goes into production, bags are sold at Foot Locker; Dr. Jays; Foot Soldiers (Miami); Michael K. and Up Against the wall (NYC). To enter the competition or vote for a bag here, to check out the bags on sale now here.