A VILLAGE ARTIST GRANT SYSTEM
IS A NEW KIND OF BUSINESS MODEL, AND A NEW WAY OF DOING (NOT SO) BUSINESS (AS USUAL) WITH EACH OTHER, AS A COMMUNITY OF STORYTELLERS, MEDICINE CARRIERS, HEALERS, ACTIVISTS AND GOOD LISTENERS.
Except, there’s nothing “new” about this system, and that’s the point.
The reason why it was created rests on a fundamental commitment to return to our personal and collective birth right.
It is our birth right to re-member and practise deeply heartfelt, thriving ways of being village members together, even now amidst all of the injustice…especially now, amidst all of the injustice.
A Village Artist Grant System prioritizes, protects and stabilizes the process of massive personal and collective transformation.
This system rests on our active commitment to bring forth memories of the thriving village that we have stored in our bones, blood, organ systems, spiritual body, oracle visions, and that we find in our friendship with the land, stars, cosmos, and all of nature.
We need to invest in ongoing processes of research, storytelling and re-membering village practices everywhere:
from how we move through conflict & break-ups,
to how we support survivors AND perpetrators of abuse,
how we process grief, rage, lineage trauma,
how we unwind from religious violence,
how we repair our personal relationship with the spirit world,
how we approach activism and organizing strategies,
how we come into deeper realms of healing intimacy,
sex, partnership, friendship,
how we grow old together well,
how we can show up more for our young people
and our elders…
…and certainly how we do business with each other.
ONE OF THE SMARTEST THINGS WE CAN DO RIGHT NOW, IS APPLY THRIVING VILLAGE PRACTISES TO HOW WE EXCHANGE AND GROW MONEY.
Too many of us cannot find adequate employment.
Too many are depleted at a 9-5 that takes way more than it gives.
Too many have been running solo businesses or freelancing for years and need to know you can take a break for as long as you need without losing everything.
Too many are being awakened into a spiritual-healing journey that deserves your full attention – with no idea how you would pay your bills while doing so.
Too many are being asked to come forward and take more leadership in the world, holding ENORMOUS, deeply inspired & needed projects in your belly, and you have no idea how you could possibly get all the funding you truly need.
Too many have been running themselves ragged, creating endless content, relying too much on social media, all while parenting and keeping up three jobs on the side.
Too many are reliant on government, corporate, academic, non-profit funding that might get the job done, but never enough, and often at too high a cost.
Too many are getting squeezed out of funding they could previously rely on, because of their activism or willingness to speak out about injustice.
Too many are realizing the way they used to make money, in general, just doesn’t work anymore.
Too many are turning to all kinds of weird money making schemes out of desperation.
Too many are relying on under the table stuff where your safety isn’t protected.
Too many are abandoning their true heart-centered life-path out of necessity, to get a “real job” in a “stable industry” – when the reality is, no industry steeped in a colonial/capitalist tradition is actually stable right now. Those who are paying attention can see that clearly.
Too many are financially dependent on jobs and institutions where you have to mask who you really are, you can’t fully express your gifts, and it’s eating away at you.
Too many are bankrolled by the same parties funding the genocides you take the streets to protest and it is eating you alive.
Too many are financially dependent on transphobic, queerphobic, or otherwise abusive relationships.
Too many are staying in unhappy relationships because of money.
Too many are trying everything you can to get a business off the ground, or going into debt trying to make it successful and it’s just not happening quick enough.
HINT: THERE MAY BE SOMETHING IN YOUR SPIRIT THAT KNOWS, IN A THRIVING VILLAGE, THERE ARE SOME SEASONS OF LIFE THAT YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BUY AND SELL.
IN THOSE PLACES, MAYBE YOU NEED A VILLAGE ARTIST GRANT, INSTEAD.
Our practices of Mutual Aid need to be brought deeper – into fundamental practices of sacred reciprocity and a spirit of mutuality that lives in our knowing of the global thriving village determined to re-member itself.
This means developing village practices to financially support one another, not just when we are in crisis, not just when we can’t make ends meet, but in every phase of life, growth, death and evolution of the soul, spirit and body.
A VILLAGE ARTIST GRANT SYSTEM WILL SUPPORT YOU TO GROW MONEY WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN CRISIS…
AND ENSURE WE ARE MORE ORGANIZED WHEN FOLKS ARE IN CRISIS…
AND MITIGATES THE CHANCE FOR MORE OF US TO GO INTO CRISIS, IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Our practices of Reparations, Reciprocity and Mutuality with Black, Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, Caste-Oppressed, so-called “Third World” communities, and our non-human relatives, must also be brought into a deeper place. Right now, the masses are only inspired to give real Reparations when the realities of genocide, murder, brutality, and environmental catastrophe are popular in the news cycle.
In our current state, people in severe crisis have to also become social media stars, viral content creators and share horrific details of their suffering in order to get the support they need – with little to no support or even acknowledgement for how violent “fame” can be.
A Village Artist Grant system empowers everyone financially to re-balance their lineages and lived experiences on a regular basis. It frees us from colonial charity models, and dismantles our personal and collective saviour complex.
It rests on the ongoing commitment to claim and receive what truly belongs to you, and give back what doesn’t.
A VILLAGE ARTIST GRANT SYSTEM ORGANIZES ITSELF AROUND ONE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE, AND THAT IS…WE CAN BE EACH OTHER’S PUBLIC FUNDING SYSTEM.
HERE, WE HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE TO THE FACT THAT THE RIGHT, RESPONSIBILITY AND POWER OF PUBLIC FUNDING BELONGS TO THE VILLAGE.
…AND NOT TO COLONIAL, CAPITALIST INSTITUTIONS.
Some people might pause this conversation to say – okay, but how would this actually work?
There are two separate river streams I hear people say when asking this question.
The first stream – is not actually a question, it’s a sarcastic statement…
A sarcasm that is probably rooted in deep wounds of being let down repeatedly in community, believe me I have this voice in me too…
okay, but how would that actually work?
…meaning, that would never work.
Underneath, what you’re actually saying is not that it would never work, but that we would never do that for each other.
That’s why I named this medicine bundle, and the spirit of this invitation:
“what we are willing to do for each other.”
For me, this title is a question and a curiosity.
What ARE we willing to do for each other? Because I don’t know.
But I am willing to find out if the answer is not much of anything…or so much of everything.
The title holds so much of my personal longing, and my personal commitment.
“what we are willing to do for each other” holds what I know and believe in my bones, in my spirit, even as someone who is very burnt and jaded from my experiences in community.
Even so, I have a truth and unbridled joy, birthing, spilling out of me too…
That I’m honestly so happy and grateful to be holding this question and all of its promise.
When I think about everything that had to unfold in the Universe, throughout the generations, and across my lifetime, for me to just hold this right now…that in itself is a miracle.
What are we willing to do for each other?
I don’t know everything on the other side of the question, but I do know that I want it.
I do know this is my garden to tend to, when neither its life nor death is guaranteed.
The second river stream of: “okay, but how would that work?” is a genuine inquiry.
It’s an invitation to do this research and practise together.
an invitation into a process of experimentation,
wild, gorgeous, imperfect invention,
where we win, we lose, we learn, we try,
(but stop me before I start singing alanis lyrics),
ongoing adjustment and evaluation,
course correcting,
going deeper,
re-membering more,
dismantling more, and constant evolution.
How would that work? How COULD this work? What can we try today? What small steps can we take to make big, impactful moves?
When we enter the conversation here – what becomes possible?
If you’re here with me, I invite you to travel through the medicine bundle I’ve created.
I’ve recorded thirteen voice notes (along with transcripts you can read) taking you through my vision of a Village Artist Grant System.
We’ll go through everything from what “money moving workshops” could look like, that feed into creating village artist grants for people like you and me…
…to breaking down core principles taking us back into the heart of the thriving village…
…to how you can get involved, help grow this garden, and benefit from the fruits of our labour.
Check out the chapter list, and then let’s dive in.
13 VILLAGE VOICE NOTES
a free medicine bundle
1. RED // overview: who this system is and isn’t for (12.12 mins)
2. ORANGE // the money moving workshop, part one (6.09 mins)
3. YELLOW // protecting the integrity of your healing journey (25.22 mins)
4. GREEN // the money moving workshop, part two (9.21 mins)
5. BLUE // the liberation we make possible as this system grows (6.02 mins)
6. INDIGO // let’s talk about investors (13.48 mins)
7. SHADES OF PURPLE // a tour of our garden, in three parts (6.34 mins)
7a. MAGENTA // the ancestor’s cinematic universe (21.40 mins)
7b. ORCHID // dream artist residencies (14.22 mins)
7c. VIOLET // bodies of wisdom in development (12.41 mins)
7d. HOT PINK ELEPHANT // accountability & trust (14.56 mins)
8. PRISMATIC // the entry portal (20.56 mins)
9. SOLID GOLD // easter eggs & an important dedication (22.30 mins)
total listening time = 3 hours and 3 minutes.
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