I have already heard some concerns about my upcoming Ignite Boise presentation, entitled 12 Million Hardons, so I want to clarify two things in advance. (Maybe three things … should “hardon” be hyphenated?)
Here is the short description that will someday appear on the Ignite Boise website:
12 Million Hardons
I will provide a 5-minute Spanglish history of illegal immigration to the United States from the point of view of American citizens who are sleeping with the undocumented. The point of the talk is to open up a new front in the immigration debate: the impact of deportations on American citizen partners/spouses/families of the undocumented.
Yesterday, in an unrelated incident, a potential source told me I needed to, “look more deeply inside of yourself in areas around race, class and all kinds of privilege.” Over the weekend I was inadvertently rude to someone while explaining the topic of my research. Then another woman I respect told my wife that my preso title was sexist.
So here are my two clarifications:
(1) Hardon is a metaphor for “deep relationships” and they go at least three ways. I will be talking equally about foreign-born men and their U.S. citizen or permanent resident ladies, women from abroad who hook up with American dudes and same-sex couples, who get the short end of the short stick in immigration matters (just to confuse the metaphor even more).
(2) I think I actually covered both clarifications above, so just come to the event before you judge. The free advance tickets are gone, but if you show up at the Egyptian around 7 p.m. on Oct. 21, you will probably get in. It’s free. ($20 and some identification for you, Sheriff Joe.)
(3) The Ignite phenom forces a speaker to get an idea across in 5 minutes utilizing 20 slides, which auto-rotate every 15 seconds. All I’m saying is, I needed to find a metaphor that everyone could grasp, so that I can quickly get onto the meat of the presentation.
