THE PIERCED POMEGRANATE TAVERN: True Blood and Treme Making TV Safe for Representations of Diversity...NAACP Awards or Not!

Thirsty for a Fresh Take on All Things True Blood?

WELCOME! Thirsty for a fresh take on all things True Blood? Pull up a virtual barstool at the Pierced Pomegranate Tavern where sisters Rachel and Rebecca are serving up juicy feminist analysis with a twist and opening a vein of thoughtful sociocultural dialogue on HBO's hit series.

Like the epic literary salons of eras past - theaters for conversation and debate which were, incidentally, started and run by women; where the spirited debate about the issues of the day ran as copiously as the actual spirits did - but updated for the digital age, the Pierced Pomegranate Tavern is a fun forum for exploring questions ripe for discourse about the human condition & today's most crucial social issues through the medium of True Blood.

Your salonnières are not peddling liquor per se, but they are offering up new and alternative ideas informed by such diverse influences as pop culture, art, music, cultural history, Goddess studies, transformative theory, literature and poetry, and archaeomythology, filtered through the sieve of their own lived experiences as feminist women of a particular age, background, and culture.

This is a space where you - patrons and passersby alike - can view and engage with these perspectives through the lens of True Blood and contribute your own thoughts. So, no matter if you're a Truebie or a more casual viewer of True Blood, or your drink of choice is a pomegranate martini - one of Rachel's favorite cocktails to drink and Rebecca's to mix - an herbal tea, a frothy double mocha latte, or a can of Fresca (wink, wink) you're invited to join the conversation on the show's complexities in a way that can spark transformation.

Hopefully you'll find something to sink your teeth...err...straw, into! PLEASE ENJOY RESPONSIBLY ;-)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

True Blood and Treme Making TV Safe for Representations of Diversity...NAACP Awards or Not!

I'm disappointed to report that our True Blood nominees did not prevail at the 42nd NAACP Image Awards. I'm also sorry to see that another great HBO show, Treme (set in post-Katrina New Orleans the show follows a core cast of characters as they rebuild their lives and their city after the storm...the music! the unique culture! the spirit! the resilience! the heart!) was snubbed.

But nothin' can keep two brilliant shows set in Louisiana down for long, what with Carnival season is in full swing and Mardi Gras just around the corner!

our take on a Mardi Gras parade float

In lieu of the "Halfway to Mardi Gras" party Rebecca and I have hostessed at my house for the past three years (one part blowout theme party, one part fundraiser for the ongoing rebuilding efforts; the money we've raised at the annual fest has supported ACORN and MUSIC RISING and the Gulf Coast still needs our support as they rebound from the storms of 2005 and the oil spill last year) we will be celebrating Mardi Gras a few days early with a big dinner at our parent's house tomorrow. Rebecca will be making her amazing New Orleans-inspired sweet potato bananas foster...there'll be dirty rice and veggie gumbo (I know, not trad, but I'm a vegetarian as is our mom) and plenty more good eats to be had...and I'll be eating! Perhaps there will even be a hurricane of the beverage kind, too ;-)

Being nominated for the NAACP Image Awards is an honor in and of itself and we celebrate the work Nelsan Ellis, Alexander Woo, and Alfre Woodward have done on True Blood to make TV more open to diversity.

~ Rachel

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A SALON FOR TODAY - WE'RE YOUR SALONNIÉRES

The European literary salons of the 17th and 18th centuries had intellectuals. They had drinking. They had conversation and debate. They were social and stimulating places where Enlightenment-era movers-and-shakers could linger in pursuit of wisdom and just one more glass.

Over the centuries, salons have played a historic role in enriching literary and philosophical movements and have built bridges between artists and thought leaders, this has had a major impact on intellectual and cultural life.

Salonnières played a central role in salon life; since most paths to formal higer education were closed to them, these abitious, intelligent, self-educated, and educating women adopted and implemented Enlightenment values to shape salons as informal universities where they too could exchange ideas, receive and give criticism, read their own works and hear the works and ideas of others.

At a time when society was dominated by men, the salonnières (nicknamed "Blue Stockings"; a term that even today connotes intellectual women) exerted powerful influence in the salons they convened, selecting their guests, deciding about the subjects of their meetings, and directing the discussion.

The Pierced Pomegranate Tavern is inspired by the old-school salons and designed to carry the flavor of the Enlightenment era's venerable houses of drink and debate into the 21st century, with a few exceptions.

Where the salons of old were at times elitist and exclusive, this forum is open and inclusive.

We're your salonnières, here to foster a fun and safe atmosphere for sociocultural and political discourse through the medium of True Blood that feels more social and less academic, to get the conversation going, and to keep it on track.

Feminist philosopher Mara Keller reinterprets Persephone’s ingestion of the pomegranate seeds as being part of her sexual initiation into womanhood. She writes:

Death, life, male, female and, above all, the irrepressible power of reproduction—all are found in the image of the pomegranate seed. It is this seed that Persephone takes within her body—literally incorporating it into her own being. With this seed, she becomes a new person: whole, mature, fertile, and infinitely more complex than before. Having tasted it, she has crossed a barrier from which there can be no turning back.

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Sunday, March 6, 2011

True Blood and Treme Making TV Safe for Representations of Diversity...NAACP Awards or Not!

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