radio interview by MARK GABRISH
CONLAN
Sneak audio preview of an
interview scheduled for publication in the December 2011 Zenger’s!
Streaming:
http://zengersmag.posterous.com/nico-damico-barbour-regional-director-canvass#
Download: https://rapidshare.com/files/1024242343/01_Nico_D_Amico-Barbour__10_13_11__radio_edit_.mp3
Welcome to Zenger’s
on the air, the radio program based on Zenger’s Newsmagazine, a print publication of alternative lifestyles, media,
politics, culture and health in San Diego since 1994. Today we’re presenting an
interview with Nico D’Amico-Barbour, regional field organizer for the Queer
rights and marriage equality group Canvass for a Cause. Founded in the wake of
the defeat for marriage equality in California when Proposition 8, which banned
legal recognition of same-sex marriages, was passed by voters in November 2008,
Canvass for a Cause was started to get the marriage equality message out to
residents not only in San Diego’s so-called “Gayborhoods” of Hillcrest, North
Park and University Heights, but throughout the city. It was also designed to
raise money so its members could not only spread the message of marriage
equality but get paid for doing so. Nico started off as a canvasser and rose
through the ranks, and is now helping not only to run the Canvass for a Cause
in San Diego but to start a second chapter in Los Angeles.
Of course, Nico and I had a lot more to talk about than
that. By chance, the day I interviewed him, October 13, was also the date the
San Diego police announced their crackdown on the ongoing Occupy San Diego
camp-out in the Civic Center Plaza. The police originally ordered everyone out
of the plaza, then relented and allowed them to stay but only as long as they
didn’t have tents. Nico so strongly supports Occupy San Diego that he’s been
spending time at the occupation site and originally wanted us to do the
interview there, though his duties with Canvass for a Cause made him reschedule
for the Canvass headquarters at — ironically — an old Mormon church just south
of 10th Street and Robinson in Hillcrest. While we were doing the
interview, we were interrupted by a young man coming to apply for a job with
Canvass for a Cause, a long-time staff member who needed Nico’s attention, and
a phone call from a person Nico was letting go. They’re certainly a busy group,
not only with the marriage equality canvass but also with a subsidiary
organization called Gay Groups Give Back, which raises money for non-Queer
causes like earthquake relief for Haiti.
Nico’s remarks went beyond his work with Canvass for a
Cause. Stressing that he was speaking as an individual and not for the Canvass,
he talked about Occupy San Diego — including what he thinks distinguishes it
from the Right-wing Tea Party movement — and also gave his personal opinion
about the decision of the statewide Queer lobbying organization Equality
California not to seek an initiative to
repeal Proposition 8 on the November 2012 ballot. Nico is clearly an
up-and-coming leader in the equality movement and for progressive causes in
general, and for that reason, and to preserve his comments on Occupy San Diego
and other cutting-edge issues and get them before the public as soon as
possible, we’re taking the unusual step of presenting this interview in audio
form before it’s published in the print version of Zenger’s Newsmagazine. Accordingly, reproduction of this interview in text form,
either on paper or online, is strictly prohibited without the express written
permission of Mark Gabrish Conlan. Non-commercial reproduction of the actual
audio is allowed and, indeed, encouraged.
To contact Canvass for a Cause, visit their headquarters at
3705 10th Avenue in Hillcrest, phone (619) 630-7750, e-mail them at info@canvassforacause.org, contact the
Canvass for a Cause page on Facebook, or visit their Web site at www.canvassforacause.org. That’s (619)
630-7750, e-mail info@canvassforacause.org,
or www.canvassforacause.org
on the Web.
