(NOTE: Currently youtube is having difficulty displaying this uploaded video - hopefully it will be corrected soon....)

Uh, Ungowa
PRIDE is full of power!
Say Uh, Ungowa
PRIDE is full of power!
Say Uh, Ungowa
PRIDE is full of power!
Say Uh!

WE'RE POM POMS, NOT BOMB BOMBS!
AND WE DON'T TAKE NO MESS!
WE'RE GONNA PUT OUR COUNTRY
TO THE TEST!
SO STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK AND SAY WHAT MUST BE SAID!
IF WE DON'T TAKE SOME ACTION
EQUALITY IS DEAD!

R! IS FOR REVOLUTION!
E! SAID EVERYBODY!
S! SUBVERT THE SYSTEM!
I! IGNITE DEBATE!
S! SMASH THE STATE!
T! WE'RE GONNA TEAR IT DOWN!
RESIST! RESIST!
RAISE UP YOUR FIST!
RESIST! RESIST!
SHOW 'EM THAT YOU'RE PISSED!
RESIST! RESIST!
FIGHT THE HOMOPHOBISTS!
RESIST! RESIST!
SHOW 'EM....WHAT THEY....CAN....KISS!!

Last Sunday was the annual PRIDE parade in Salt Lake City - one of the biggest PRIDE celebrations around.  This year the  parade broke Utah's parade record ever by being the biggest parade in Utah History!

 Pom Poms Not Bomb Bombs, Utah's Radical Cheerleaders (of which I am a member) participated in the parade:

Here are the cheers and chants we did that day:
R! IS FOR REVOLUTION!
E! SAID EVERYBODY!
S! SUBVERT THE SYSTEM!
I! IGNITE DEBATE!
S! SMASH THE STATE!
T! WE'RE GONNA TEAR IT DOWN!
RESIST! RESIST!
RAISE UP YOUR FIST!
RESIST! RESIST!
SHOW 'EM THAT YOU'RE PISSED!
RESIST! RESIST!
FIGHT THE HOMOPHOBISTS!
RESIST! RESIST!
SHOW 'EM....WHAT THEY....CAN....KISS!!
Here are some photos:

Sunday, April 22nd PPnBB performed at the 16th Annual Earth Jam.

Westminster Roots and Shoots - Westminster College, Salt Lake City:

HERE'S TO MY GIRLS!!!

I am only as strong as the caffeine I drink and the
girlfriends I have.
Here's to you!
Why do we only have parties for each other when one
of us gets married,
pregnant, has a birthday, or retires?
What would most of us do without our sisters,
confidants, and shopping, lunching and traveling
girlfriends?
Let's celebrate each other for each other's sake!

If you get this twice or more, you are lucky to have
more than one girlfriend.
Someone will always be prettier.

Someone will always be smarter.

Their house will be bigger.

They will drive a better car.

Their children will do better in school.

And their husband will fix more things around the
house.

So let it go, Be Happy!
And love yourself and your circumstances.
Think about it.

The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her
heart.
And the most highly favored woman on your job may be
unable to have children.
And the richest woman you know, she's got the car,
the house, the clothes....might be lonely.
And the word says if "I have not Love, I have
nothing."

So, again, love you.
Love who you are.
Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say

"I am too blessed to be stressed and too anointed to
be disappointed!"
I like that!
"Winners make things happen.
Losers let things happen"
Be Blessed ladies and pass this on to encourage
another woman.
"To the world you might be one person,
But to one person you just might be the world".

HERE'S TO YOU MY FRIENDS!

Give Me An F: Radical Cheerleading and Feminist Performance
by Jeanne Vacarro

Radical Cheerleading is a feminist performance and protest—a kind of intervention in political demonstration ('serious') and a subversion of cheerleading ('anti-feminist'). By taking pieces of political protest and sport cheerleading—anarchist "cheers" and choreographed dance—Radical Cheerleading creates unexpected political strategies and bodily acts. The first Radical Cheerbook, published as an independent zine in 1997, introduces Radical Cheerleading as "activism with pom-poms and middle fingers extended. It's screaming fuck capitalism while doing a split." The first Radical Cheerleading squad formed in 1996 when the Floridian sisters Cara, Aimee and Colleen Jennings infused junior-high cheerleading skills with anarchist politics. Cheerleading brought a renewed feminist excitement to boring, male-dominated demonstrations. In 1997 the sisters began publishing Cheerbooks and performing publicly, and soon Radical Cheerleading squads formed across the United States and in a few international cities.

I joined a Radical Cheerleading squad in 1999, and while I learned to choreograph dance routines, write cheers, and even build a pyramid, I also experienced the squad as cultivating a queer sensibility and a feminist ethics. As my friend and sister cheerleader Mary Xmas says, "Cheerleading is not just a way to do something. It's a community. It's a place in the world you can fit into and feel like you're mirrored on all sides. It's a safe space to feel feminine and badass." Archiving Radical Cheerleading as a feminist practice, community, and affect is a passionate imperative for me. Through documentation of informal Radical Cheerleading archives—zines, photographs and cheers—and through interviews with Mary Xmas, I am tracing the history of the movement and creating an archive. Like Ann Cvetkovich,

I was driven by the compulsion to document that is, so frequently, I think engendered by the ephemerality of queer communities and counterpublics; alongside the fierce conviction of how meaningful and palpable these alternative lifeworlds can be lies the fear that they will remain invisible or lost (2003: 436).

In documenting the Radical Cheerleading movement, I have worked with primary documents, photographs, videos, websites, personal testimony and correspondence, and finally decided to present these findings as an interview. I am hoping to portray the depth of the connection I feel to the subject, as well as the 'informant,' and to create a compelling adventure for the reader.

Interview with Mary Christmas (8 pages)

I found this on After Downing Street.org, the creator (David Swanson) whom I met at Camp Democracy in September:

Protest Primer: RADICAL CHEERLEADING

Submitted by danielifearn on Sun, 2006-11-05 15:27. IFPJ

I have a lot of photos to post about yesterday's events. I will be away from the computer most of today so won't get to it until tonight. I ran out of energy last night and had to get up at my usual 4:30am today. Please be patient until I can get them posted. In the meantime, here are two photos of us RC's at the afternoon protest yeseterday. You can also see more photos at:

Dee's 'Dotes

Here is a photo of Pom Poms Not Bomb Bombs at Sunday's PRIDE parade: