Veteran Artists

By: Justin Juul

“You gotta practice crossing those legs, man!” yells Eddie Falcon, an ex-senior airman for the US Air Force who now lives with a crew of activists in a loft on Mission and 16th Street. His friend, Robin Long, who was recently released from a military prison outside of San Diego after a year-long sentence for deserting the Army in a time of war, is giggling and pulling his miniskirt down over his hairy thighs, trying to figure out how to pose in a chair without being too obscene.

Falcon laughs as Long pushes his hair behind his ears and purses his lips in an exaggerated mock kiss. “Man,” Falcon says. “This is gonna be crazy. I don’t think this many veterans have ever gotten together and hung out in dresses.”

Falcon and Long are both members of The San Francisco chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), a national organization started by a group of Iraq War veterans in July 2004 to give a voice to active duty service people and veterans against the war. In days they’ll both be lip-syncing and dancing alongside ten other veterans at Dance Mission Theater in a fundraiser for Veteran Artists, an organization dedicated to encouraging artistic activity in the veterans community as a means of healing and reintegrating with society.

The drag show is based in pure hard-nosed activism–Falcon and Long are neither gay nor particularly inclined to dance and sing– but part of a group of war veterans who travel the world, speaking in front of students, protesters and government officials.

“Our chapter is special,” said IVAW’s San Francisco chapter president, Stephen Funk, who made international headlines in 2003 when he came out both as a gay man and as the first conscientious objector to the war in Iraq. “We’re visionaries. I mean, you won’t see any of the other chapters doing drag shows anytime soon; they’re more traditional. But believe me, it’ll happen eventually.”

The show, he said, is good for gathering supporters tired of the traditional protest gambits of marches, posters and speakers.

Hosted by “His Noble Negress, Artist Malcolm Drake” and featuring performances by award-winning drag queens such as Raya Light and Miss Rahni, the fundraiser, Make Drag Not War, represents the adoption of a new, unorthodox style of activism for the veterans. It’s partying-with-a-purpose and IVAW is just one of a growing number of Mission District non-profits trying to advocate in new ways. To many, partying and activism aren’t mutually exclusive.

San Francisco has played host to dozens of creative activist movements throughout the years–there were the beats in North Beach, The Diggers in The Haight, gay rights organizations in The Castro, etc–and the legacy carries on today thanks to forward-thinking activists like Falcon and Funk, the main organizer behind Make Drag Not War.

As an ex-marine, a former inmate (he served six months for an “unauthorized absence”), a career activist, and an occasional porn performer, Funk, who’s been the president of his chapter since its inception in 2005, is accustomed to thinking different. He encourages other members to do the same.

“Demonstrations and marches certainly have their place,” said Funk. “But a lot of times its like preaching to the choir. At an event like Make Drag Not War, you’re gonna have people who come just to party and leave feeling inspired to get out and do something. Isn’t that the point?”

Make Drag Not War happens Sunday, December 4th, at 8pm. This year’s cast of queens: Raya Light, Miss Rahni, Lil.Miss.Hot.Mess., Phatima, Kallisto, Tara Wrist, Alexis Blair Penney, Honey Penny, Mutha Chucka, and more TBA! With performances by Rotimi Agbabiaka, Flynn Witmeyer, the League of Burnt Children, a short play by Sam Kehl, and over a dozen veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, & Vietnam Wars. Artist Malcolm Drake returns as host.

Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Doors 7pm
Show 8pm

$10-20 sliding scale
$5 “audience participation” tickets available
NOTAFLOF

Tamara Straus for the San Francisco Chronicle

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Stephen Funk is best known as the first person to refuse to deploy to Iraq. The son of Seattle artists and a participant in the 1999 World Trade Organization protests, he felt compelled to join the Marines after Sept. 11. But in February 2003, after training, Funk failed to show up for deployment and was punished with a six-month jail sentence. He also came out that year as a gay man. The San Francisco resident has been through a lot in his 28 years.

Funk is now committing much of his time to developing a nonprofit called Veteran Artists (www.veteranartists.org), whose vision stems from what the ex-Marine calls the “anti-art” environment of the military.

“The military stifles creativity. It stifles self-expression. It stifles self-exploration,” said Funk. “I think a lot of people leave the military with that training, and it takes a long time to undo.” Funk also says he founded the organization in 2009 because he met so many inspiring artists who are veterans.

His colleagues at Veteran Artists, Emily Yates and Matthew Edwards, share his vision as vets, antiwar activists and artists. Yates did two combat tours in Iraq and moved to San Francisco with her husband in 2009. Edwards, who, like Funk, signed up for the Marines as a teenager, became a conscientious objector and never deployed. The three met through the Bay Area chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

“We aim to make Veteran Artists into a networking location for the veterans community and the artists community to come together – for healing, for communication,” said Yates. “Our dream is for returning soldiers to be able to contact their local Veteran Artists chapter and have a free place to pursue art.”

New ‘VA’ merges veterans with art community to promote healing
By Emily Yates

SAN FRANCISCO – As the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to drag on, members of the U.S. military are forced to drag on, too. Hundreds of thousands of service members are cycled through the war machine year after year, ferried back and forth across the Atlantic and dumped out on home soil when their contracts expire.

For returning veterans, adjustment to life after the military can be more challenging than adjustment to a combat zone. In the military, one has a living wage, a place to sleep, three meals a day, 24-hour healthcare and above all, job security. In the civilian sector, none of that exists. When combined with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder – which, according to a September study by the US. Army Office of the Surgeon General, has been diagnosed in 90,719 service members since 2000 and has gone undiagnosed in countless others – the transition can be overwhelming.

Former Marine Stephen Funk, 28, a San Francisco resident and member of veterans’ rights organization Iraq Veterans Against the War, saw this problem and was compelled to do something about it. He recognized an opportunity in the Bay Area’s thriving art scene.

“There are so many veterans who get out of the military with PTSD or some other form of psychological trauma and don’t know what to do about it,” Funk said. “Practicing art has been very important for my own healing process. By encouraging veterans to bring art into their lives and share the results with others, we hope Veteran Artists will be a transformative and restorative resource for veterans and our communities.”

Since 2009, Funk has been connecting veterans with members of San Francisco’s visual and performance art community, giving the former military members a chance to develop skills that might be useless in combat, but which could prove invaluable in life.

“The idea is to give veterans a way to contribute creatively to their communities while simultaneously easing the stress and trauma they’ve been experiencing after coming back from war,” Funk said.

His brainstorm became Veteran Artists, an organization run by Funk and other veterans whose purpose is to provide other vets with free lessons, workshops and other formal and informal education in the arts. Its members call it VA – not to be confused with the U.S. department of Veterans Affairs although, Funk said, “This VA also helps people.”

Rather than brushing it off, as many veterans claim the government has tended to do, VA’s tactic in responding to the growing problem of PTSD in returning veterans is to offer constructive solutions aimed at diminishing the disorder’s effects. In addition to giving veterans the means to create art, it also provides a greater purpose for it.

“Once we have veterans working on individual projects, the next step is to put those projects together in a form that can enrich the community,” Funk said. “That’s what we do in Make Drag Not War.”

Make Drag Not War is an annual “drag-tivist” benefit for VA produced by Funk and members of Veteran Artists. Its goal is to raise awareness about PTSD and other issues faced by military members, such as sexual harassment and race- or gender-based discrimination, while also showcasing the creative work of the veterans and artists of VA. This year’s production, staged Oct. 31 in the Mission District’s Dance Mission Theater, featured visual and performance pieces by Bay Area veterans as well as local performers and artists, all of whom donated their time and talent. Nearly 200 people were in attendance, many of whom voiced a desire to get involved by the time the stage lights went down.

“I’ve witnessed incredible personal growth in myself and in other veterans from sharing our stories in public performances (like Make Drag Not War),” Funk said. “It was touching to see veterans choreograph impressive dance routines using their military drill training.”

“Healing is a process,” said Matt Edwards, 26, another former Marine, now Veteran Artists operations director. “For me, like for many, that process can be painful. Art, as seen on stage; or heard through spoken word; or tasted through food; or made with your own hands speeds up that healing process. It takes a small piece of that pain away and replaces it with something fun and beautiful.”

Veteran Artists is still in its infancy, but the group’s collective dream of merging veterans with the art world is being accomplished even in the process of its organization: even the design of the organization’s website, www.veteranartists.org, and VA outreach materials are projects completed by former service members.

“We’re accomplishing our mission just by existing as an entity,” Funk said. “Any steps we take are steps forward.”

Over the course of the next year, Funk intends to expand VA and build the services it provides. All he needs are willing participants.

“The more artists and veterans get involved, the better VA will be able to serve its community,” he said. “Whether it’s through one-time workshops, regular classes or large-scale events like Make Drag Not War, veterans will be able to come to us and get not only the attention they’re being denied by the government, but real, practical ways to focus their energy on improving themselves and their fellow citizens.”

One San Francisco veteran who has benefited from VA’s assistance is Peter Schlange, who has participated in Make Drag Not War for two years in a row.

“Finding a creative outlet for all the destructive behavior I learned in the military was just what I needed,” Schlange said. “The more we share our stories of trauma, healing, and recovery, the less isolated all vets will feel. After all, reconnecting to community is what Veteran Artists is for.”

Ideally, Funk said, once veterans are provided the skills and means to create art, they will be able to contribute what they’ve learned to others within both the military and civilian communities.

“Imagine an art gallery filled with work done by veterans,” Funk said. “Or a theatrical production written and designed by veterans. These projects are not only helping veterans to discover their own talents; they’re also helping them to find a place in their hometowns that they might not find otherwise. They’re becoming empowered to heal themselves and to relate to the other people around them. Art is extremely unifying in that way.”