Where did the $4564.85 go?
On May 30 I released my first book. My book, Lightning On My Fingertips, is a poetry collection that is an exploration in identity and a statement in resilience. I released it for free and did not plan on anything after that. However, readers started contacting me and asking if I was accepting money to honour the work I did. So, on June 2nd I gave out my Venmo and Paypal and accepted money. Then, I committed to donating 50% of all the money I was given between June 2nd and June 9th to activists, Black Lives Matter supporting organizations, bail funds, community programs and the arts.
Supporting Black lives doesn’t only mean heading to the streets to protest. It also means developing school curriculums, creating pathways into jobs where people of colour are kept out, providing food to communities, fighting the prison industrial complex and police brutality, taking care of the environment, changing laws, building museums to hold history, protecting LGBTQ+ individuals, mentoring youth, mental health, physical health, and the list goes on…
When we say Black lives matter we are saying that all lives won’t matter until Black lives matter. And when we fight for Black life we are not only fighting for our lives in situations where we face police officers. We are talking about every day in every way our lives matter enough to push for changes that build communities, empower a peoples, and let us thrive.
The 50% I am keeping is to both honour the work that I did with my book and to help me continue the work I am doing.
The 50% I am donating is going to these places:
Money Donated: $100
Location: Global
What they are about:
“Peace Heroes was born out of a desire to empower children living in the shadow of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to face the challenges around them and overcome them in positive, life-giving, and healing ways….
Peace Heroes aimed to reframe the students’ sense of who is a hero by introducing them to a different kind of hero – real-life heroes who prioritize peace as a way of living over and above everything else.”
-Global Peace Heroes website
Northeast Neighborhood Association
Money Donated: $100
Location: Harrisonburg, Virginia. USA
What they are about:
“The mission of the Northeast Neighborhood Association (NENA) is to work to make our neighborhood a secure, attractive, and strong community. We strive to enhance safety and to sponsor beautification efforts to improve the appearance of our neighborhood. The Association engages in partnerships with community residents and families, city government officials and departments, and non-governmental agencies and institutions to revitalize our neighborhood and to address the needs of the residents of the community. The Northeast Neighborhood Association leads African-American historical preservation and cultural heritage projects in Harrisonburg, Virginia.”
-Northeast Neighborhood Association website
Money Donated: $100
Location: USA
What they are about:
“The Ida B. Wells Society For Investigative Reporting is a news trade organization dedicated to increasing and retaining reporters and editors of color in the field of investigative reporting….
…The organization, which is spearheaded by veteran journalists, also seeks to educate news organizations and journalists on how the inclusion of diverse voices can raise the caliber, impact and visibility of investigative journalism as a means of promoting transparency and good government.”
-Ida B. Wells Society website
Money Donated: $100
Location: USA/ Johannesburg, South Africa
What they are about:
“To increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology. To provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.”
-Black Girls Code website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Kenya
What they are about:
“New Life Home Trust exists to:
1. RESCUE abandoned and other extremely vulnerable babies (0-6 months old).
2. Give high standards of CARE to the children in our Homes (spiritual, emotional, educational, physical, medical and social).
3. PLACE the children into loving family situations (biological family reintegration, adoption or foster care).”
-New Life Home Trust website
Money Donated: $150
Location: USA
What he is about:
Activist and singer-songwriter
“...history isn’t a story that’s happening to us, but one we’re writing together. Therefore, we don’t have to feel helpless about the overwhelming brokenness in the world. We have the power to take meaningful action.
Now, my life is all about spreading that message everywhere I go.”
-Andre Henry’s website
Money Donated: $100
Location: USA
What she is about:
Activist
“A graduate of Eastern Univerity with a degree in Creative Writing and a minor in French from the Sorbonne, Imani Barbarin writes from the perspective of a black woman with Cerebral Palsy. She specializes in blogging, science fiction and memoir. “
-Imani Barbarin’s website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Australia
What they are about:
“To Change the Record, we need to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to invest in holistic early intervention, prevention and diversion strategies. These are smarter, evidence-based and more cost-effective solutions that increase safety, address the root causes of violence against women and children, cut reoffending and imprisonment rates, and build stronger communities.”
-Change the Record website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Southall, West London. England. UK
What they are about:
“Southall Black Sisters, a not-for-profit, secular and inclusive organisation, was established in 1979 to meet the needs of Black (Asian and African-Caribbean) women. Our aims are to highlight and challenge all forms gender-related violence against women, empower them to gain more control over their lives; live without fear of violence and assert their human rights to justice, equality and freedom.”
-Southall Black Sisters website
Money Donated: $100
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana. USA
What they are about:
“Women With A Vision, Inc (WWAV) is a community-based nonprofit, founded in 1989 by a grassroots collective of African-American women in response to the spread of HIV/AIDS in communities of color….
…The mission of Women With A Vision is to improve the lives of marginalized women, their families, and communities by addressing the social conditions that hinder their health and well-being. We accomplish this through relentless advocacy, health education, supportive services, and community-based participatory research.”
Work:
Women’s Health Education, Promotion & Advocacy
Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention & Drug Policy Reform
HIV/AIDS & STI Prevention & Education
Gender-Based Violence Prevention
Sex Worker Advocacy
LGBTQ Advocacy
Civic Engagement
-Women with a Vision website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico. USA
What they are about:
“The Navajo Water Project is a community-managed utility alternative that brings hot and cold running water to homes without access to water or sewer lines.
It's the first system of its kind in the United States…
…The Navajo Water Project is Indigenous-led, and registered as an official enterprise on the Navajo Nation. Our work creates meaningful, high-paying jobs, many with benefits like 100% employer-paid health coverage.”
-Navajo Water Project website
Money Donated: $100
Location: USA
What they are about:
“Founded in May of 1999, the Black AIDS Institute (BAI) is the only premier uniquely and unapologetically Black think and do tank in America powered by two decades of work to end the Black HIV epidemic and led by people who represent the issues we serve. BAI sources our capacity building, mobilization, policy, and advocacy efforts from Black leaders and communities across the country and provide high quality direct HIV services and linkage to care to Black people.”
-Black Aids Institute website
Money Donated: $100
Location: USA
What they are about:
“The Loveland Foundation was established in 2018 by Rachel Cargle in response to her widely successful birthday wish fundraiser, Therapy for Black Women and Girls. Her enthusiastic social media community raised over $250,000, which made it possible for Black women and girls nationally to receive therapy support. Black women and girls deserve access to healing, and that healing will impact generations….
…The Loveland Foundation is the official continuation of this effort to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls. Through fellowships, residency programs, listening tours, and more, ultimately we hope to contribute to both the empowerment and the liberation of the communities we serve.”
-The Loveland Foundation website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. USA
What they are about:
“To provide access to mental health treatment, psycho-education, and community resources to men of color….
They do this by
Removing the Stigma
Matching the male up with a qualified provider of colour
Initially eliminating cost”
-Black Men Heal website
Money Donated: $75
Location: USA
What they are about:
“The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.”
-Equal Justice Initiative website
Money Donated: $100
Location: USA
What they are about:
“Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25.”
-The Trevor Project website
Money Donated: $50
Location: Global
What they are about:
“In a world where crises abound and heartbreak is in every community, people who want to help often don’t know where to turn. Together Rising is where to turn….
Whether it’s pulling children out of the sea outside the refugee camps in Greece, helping abandoned kids on the streets in Indianapolis, establishing the first opioid recovery home for pregnant teens in New Hampshire, building a maternal health wing in Port-au-Prince, providing a single mother access to breast cancer treatment, or keeping a foster family’s heat on in Texas — Together Rising identifies what is breaking the hearts of our givers as they look around their world and their community, and then we connect our givers’ generosity with the people and organizations who are effectively addressing that critical need.”
-Together Rising Website
Money Donated: $75
Location: USA
What they are about:
“LGBTQ Freedom Fund posts bail to secure the safety and liberty of individuals in U.S. jails and immigrant facilities….
…We work to build a critical mass against the mass detention of LGBTQ individuals- a tangle of discrimination and poverty disproportionately puts them behind bars. “
-LGBTQ Freedom Fund website
Money Donated: $100
Location: New York City/ USA
What they are about:
“The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them. “
-The Okra Project website
Money Donated: $75
Location: Toronto Canada
What they are about:
“We are a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that supports, showcases and promotes an appreciation of arts from across the African Diaspora.”
-Nia Centre for the Arts website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Australia
What they are about:
“Black Rainbow is a national advocacy platform and touchpoint for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBQTI) peoples. We support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI people through a variety of community projects and initiatives that we have, and continue, to develop. We call these initiatives Contagion of Love projects.…
…We are a non-profit social enterprise that is 100% Indigenous owned and operated. Black Rainbow is premised by advocacy, leadership, and solutions which identify and address social and cultural determinants of wellbeing as they relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians whom identify as LGBQTI.“
-Black Rainbow website
The Redhawk Native American Arts Council
Money Donated: $75
Location: New York City area/USA
What they are about:
“The Redhawk Native American Arts Council is a not for profit organization founded and maintained by Native American artists and educators residing in the New York City area. Since 1994, the Council is dedicated to educating the general public about Native American heritage through song, dance, theater, works of art and other cultural forms of expression. The council represents artists from North, South, Central American, Caribbean and Polynesian Indigenous cultures.”
-The Redhawk Native American Arts Council website
Money Donated: $100
Location: Global
What they are about:
“CULTURAL SURVIVAL works toward a future that RESPECTS AND HONORS Indigenous Peoples’ inherent rights and dynamic cultures, deeply and richly interwoven in LANDS, LANGUAGES, SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS, and artistic expression, rooted in self-determination and self-governance.”
-Cultural Survival website
Array Now
Money Donated: $100
Location: Global
What they are about:
:Array is the rebirth of the African-American film festival releasing movement(Affirm) founded by the filmmaker Ava DuVernay in 2010. We are an independent film distribution and resource collective compromised of arts and advocacy organizations, maverick volunteers and rebel member donors worldwide. Our work is dedicated to the amplification of independent films by people of color and women filmmakers globally.”
-Array Now website
When I started accepting money my thought was that maybe if I was lucky I would be given $500. This has surpassed every hope I had and I feel so incredibly blessed. When I put my book out I thought that maybe just some of my family and a couple of friends would read it but instead you all have shared my work so much farther than I could have asked for. Thank you all for your generosity. Thank you for supporting me and engaging with my work. I am glad that you have found your way into my little corner of the world and that my words have been enough to encourage you to stay.
All my love
-K
** Disclaimer: Since the release of my book I have grown tremendously. If I had to do it all over again I would have distributed the money differently. But to honour transparency, I am leaving this accounting up of all the funds gathered and given.
