Finally, Pictures of the Center!

I have been trying to post pictures of the Youth Center ever since this blog was created, 

but for some reason the pictures weren't compatible with the HTTPS thingy 

(and I'm not knowledgeable enough in that area to fix it). But now they work! 

All pictures posted with permission of the Youth Center staff.

This is the center from across the street! And no, I don't know why it has the strange

windows. And yes, there is a parking lot under there. Rainbow stairs lead up to the center.

This is a view of the group area. Now there are piles of donated

food by the One N Ten logo, as well as boxes of plastic bags so that youth can carry the

food home. The far-right wall with the two paintings has also been updated with 

black-and-white pictures of people that I assume are youths (I haven't met the people

in the pictures, though). What you can't see in the picture is the other half

of the room, which includes a window into the kitchen, a gender-neutral bathroom,

a crafts cupboard, a sitting area (which has a music thing? where you put a cord in?

like a stereo but the music comes from the ceiling? I don't know what it's called?), 

and four computers. 

A hallway connects this room to Q High, which I will talk about in my post next week! 

There's also the Fishbowl off the hallway, which is a quiet room. 

I was told that music isn't allowed in there, but also there's a drum set, so I think

the Fishbowl doubles as The Place to Put the Drummers Because They Are Loud.

(does one capitalize "because"? Mr. Wells, I know you know English but

please don't take points off (or however you grade this stuff))

(do I get a grade for this? or do I just get to graduate? which is pretty great, don't get me wrong)  

Anyways, the Fishbowl also serves as an area where youth can talk privately

to a staff member. One of the Safe Space guidelines is to "Save the

Drama for Your Mama," but the staff and volunteers make sure to 

stress that if anyone needs to talk, then counselling will be provided.

Every Thursday the Phoenix Children's Hospital Crews'n Healthmobile is available at 

the Youth Center, offering services such as STD screenings, exams, and

even minor surgical procedures. No one shies away from this opportunity, although

some people are a little scared of the STD tests.    

One N Ten also offers Camp OUTdoors! which is the largest LGBTQ camp program 

in the country and was featured in National Geographic's documentary Gender Revolution. 

The youth and volunteers, who come from all over Arizona, and even some from 

out-of-state, engage in team-building activities in Prescott. 

You can learn more about Camp OUTdoors! here.

I have finished Middlesex! I even wrote a review on it! And posted it! Woot!

I am now reading Giovanni's Room, a book by the renowned novelist, playwright, 

essayist, and social critic James Baldwin (1924-1987), who often wrote on racial

tension and taboos such as homosexuality and interracial relationships. Baldwin himself was homosexual (or bisexual, there is some confusion, but then again, sexuality is confusing),
and his works frequently involved some sort of autobiographical nature.

His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was in part written to hep him

through his relationship with his step-father, a preacher, as well as a discussion 

on the church's role in the lives of African-Americans.

Giovanni's Room Baldwin's second novel. Centered around the main character's struggle with his relationship with an Italian bartender, the novel tells the story of a man

afraid to love. This is an interesting interview with Baldwin on his sexuality and

need to write Giovanni's Room. I am almost done with the book (although I will definitely

reread it before I write up a review), and it is so much more engaging and raw 

than Middlesex. I am enjoying it, although I'm not sure "enjoying" is the right word.

One really feels the characters' pain.

I'll see you guys next week! 

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Middlesex, tells the story of Cal Stephanides’ 5-alpha-reductase deficiency by following three generations of the family as they emigrate from Greece to America. Narrated by Cal, the book starts off with Desdemona and Eleutherios “Lefty” Stephanides, who happen to be siblings and Cal’s grandparents, in 1922 in Bithynios, a village in Asia Minor. Orphans of the ongoing Greco-Turkish War, they board a ship for America and marry when their village is burned. They start their new life in Detroit, living with their cousin Sourmelina and her husband. Over time, they struggle to fit in amongst their American neighbors, and the inbred family continues to inbreed.

Two generations later, Cal Stephanides is born. As a result of the inbreeding, he has  5-alpha-reductase deficiency, meaning that his genitals are underdeveloped and appear female at first glance. He was raised as Calliope “Callie” Stephanides, but during puberty realizes his true sex. Cal struggles with his identity, both as a Greek-American and as someone born intersex.

I did not like this book. For starters, Middlesex is much more about the family’s journey and the American Dream than Cal’s identity crisis, so I felt that the advertising was a little misleading. The first 300 pages or so focuses on Desdemona and Lefty as they come to terms with their attraction for each other and the life they build in America, while the last 230 pages relates Cal’s parents and their struggle to build a business.

Cal’s personality seemed underdeveloped, and his entire story came off as secondary to the American Dream storyline. Cal’s “identity crisis” did not seem like a crisis at all; rather, Cal tried passively to live up to whatever societal roles he thought applied to him at any given point in his life. When living as a girl, he desired breasts, waxed his mustache, and waited impatiently for his period to start. As soon as he realized he was genetically male, he immediately put on a suit, cut his long hair, grew out his facial hair, and tried to walk and talk like the stereotypical man. I felt like Cal’s whole storyline was without purpose, except to highlight how Cal is a hybrid of Greek and American culture, part of both but never truly belonging to either, just as he feels connected to both men and women but never wholly one or the other. But again, the book is marketed as revolving around a child born intersex, so either Eugenides got seriously sidetracked when writing about the Stephanides family or the book summary was purposely misleading.

The writing, like I said before, is very pretty, but so horribly verbose. The book could easily be cut down without losing anything vital to the plot. I was often distracted by the rambling of the text. However, Middlesex was one of the first books to explore the emotional impacts of being born intersex (although in my opinion the exploration was limited). Yes, this book won a Pulitzer Prize, but I don’t think I’ll be rereading it anytime soon.

Some other reviews you might enjoy:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/11/07/mighty-hermaphrodite/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/oct/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview15

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeffrey-eugenides/middlesex/