ON FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY, SAFE PASSAGE AND THRIVING VILLAGE PRACTICES OF REPAIR
Dear Good Listener,
I have been building a vision for a Village Artist Grant (Eco)System.
This is a methodology, vision and praxis that makes it possible for us to give, receive, exchange and raise Artist Grants for and with one another, without having to go through “the machine.”
Through a set of thriving village principles and money moving strategies, this is designed to challenge us and nurture us while we deepen our strength and resolve in protecting the emergence of earth- honouring economies.
I am an Artist at heart and I deserve Artist Grants for my practice.
In the days of the thriving village, WE were each other’s first source of artist grants…
…”grant” as in the village roots of the word: Gift. Gratitude. Generosity. Funding, Not Just Monetization.
I’ve done the spiritual business thing for many years. I love entrepreneurship, but there is an inevitable wall we will always hit at the Gates of the Root Chakra, if we try and generate all of our financial sustainability (and financial evolution) through entrepreneurship alone.
Plus, the deeper I’ve gone into my ancestor healing and theatre practise, the more violent it has been for me to seek funding from “regular” artist grants.
The biggest heartbreak and lesson I received on this end was when I ushered my beloved Animal Companions, Estha and Rahel through their end of life and transition – animals who chose full- heartedly to transition while I was stewarding a workshop production of a play I wrote called, “PLUTO.”
Many of you know that I am a long time dedicated practitioner of Ancestor Theatre, Celestial Theatre and Abolitionist Theatre. My stages, pages and screens are designed as Altars for Ancestors to move, heal and evolve.
Every time one of my closest loved ones has transitioned, it has been unexpectedly, and yet completely intentionally in the loving arms of my Stories as Ceremony. Aka, when I was in middle of production for one of my plays…
…including my grandmother, Anima, aka Thakuma (2013, The Erasable Woman) and my Dad, Prasun (2016, Letters to the Universe) and my beloved Estha and Rahel (2022-2023, PLUTO).
When all of these loved ones died, there are so many ways that I didn’t have what I needed to get through the most important and devastating times of my life, including appropriate support for my labour, and the labour of my loved ones in transition.
Who I am required to be when I usher loved ones through the Death Portal is the most sacred labour I ever complete. It is where I have gained the most wisdom. It’s the hardest I ever work. When these gates open, they require everything from me.
And, in witnessing my loved ones in their end of life phase – the labour of their transition is the hardest work THEY have ever done – even as people and animals who have gone above and beyond in the work they did during their life times.
What I’ve learned from going deep into the ancestral healing work of my theatre practise, is that this is who we were in the days of the thriving village.
This was especially the role of a trans artist – a beloved and cherished village member who travels and trans-itions through genders and worlds, across dimensions of life and death.
We were called upon to designed, construct, hold and then eventually dismantle and close down stories as altars for the most important milestones of village life – including graduations, coming of age, unions, vow renewal, birthings, embodied or spiritual puberty, “divorce,” unexpected catastrophe, initiation into elderly life, and most certainly…death and transition itself.
I can’t pretend that today, here, in this modern age, that I am not called time and again into my stories for this exact same purpose. I cannot gaslight myself into believing I am “making things up.”
I cannot ignore the reality and the receipts, that my loved ones chose their exact moment to transition when I had a very specific story in my hands; or maybe something in my spirit knew it was time to create that story for them – it doesn’t matter if the chicken or the egg came first.
The point is, I know without a shadow of a doubt that every part of my spirit and heart has already decided, this is how I am going to live.
This is what I want to offer myself, my closest kin, and my village. I am required to take seriously how important this calling is, and how much it asks of me.
But where and how do I tap in to actually get funding for that labour?
For the full honesty of what it means to be this kind of artist in the village?
For how many years the transition and grieving process lasts?
For how many years of tending to such an altar?
For the labour of “ancestralization” ie for the spirit re-learning who they are without their body, and for the human learning how to impossibly start over in life, without their beloved…
…and for the miraculous, joyful, devastating, beautifully messy reality that now we have the gift of learning who we are to each other in a completely different way, across worlds.
All of it is labour. Labour that matters most, during times like these, or times like anything. Labour that reminds us how we really want to spend our time here, while we have it…and that we need to make each day count.
When Estha and Rahel died, when my Dad died, when my Grandma died, I held too much on my own. My back was up against the wall. Sure, I had “artist grants” from the man, but they were designed to cut off support in my most needed places.
In a Village Artist Grant System – WE DECIDE – what we need, give and receive artist grants for.
Not just for our projects and practices, but for the inherent artistry of life. For ancestors and thriving village as a whole, emerging through our livelihood.
What if you could have an artist grant for the common and unique milestones, initiations and gateways that come along with dedicating your life to a path of Ancestor healing?
Investing and supporting this practise ensures that those of us whose leadership and presence are needed and cherished on the planet, do not fall through the cracks. That we do not disappear. That we do not give up and quit and “get a real job.”
That we do not continue to hurt each other because what we have to do for money requires us to act out of integrity.
That we do not drown in debt while doing our most important labour. That we do not stay trapped in abusive relationships or jobs because of money that only drain our souls and take us further away from our sacred decree.
That we do not dehumanize ourselves to the point of illness while trying to “monetize” our gifts during moments that what we really need is just simple funding, from a sincere and consenting village.
Funding – not from a place of guilt or only during times of crisis or panic – but for all phases of growth, death, evolution, stewardship and Living.
So that Trans people like myself don’t come to the conclusion that we’re better off in Spirit and leave before our time, because there is no culture of celebration, communal investment or monetary ecosystem to truly support the way our Trancestors work and express themselves through our livelihood.
So that we have bountiful, easeful, and courageous financial support to GIVE AND RECEIVE more of what we need out of LIFE.
So that we have cultural habits and a dedicated ecosystem designed to ENCOURAGE us, and REQUIRE us to step more into our most Miraculous Selves, to BE the Voices and Hearts the World really needs right now.
Most of all, I am thinking deeply about the coming generations. I’m a Millennial at age 41.
The couple generations behind me will grow up to be the most heartfelt, courageous leaders we’ve ever seen, and that the planet has ever needed. The planetary challenges in front of them will be more gnarly, complicated, ferocious and overwhelming than any of us seen before.
What I want to do is ensure that Alpha (and beyond) has a beautiful, thriving, robust earth-honouring economy to grow up in.
I am hosting a Game-Changer’s Circle with my dear friend Ravyn Wngz on December 6, 1-4pm EST (online).
I am supporting Ravyn to become the first major recipient of a Giant Village Artist Grant, along with myself, that we will share with our chosen families and extended communities.
You can read the original invitation to our game changer’s circle here.
An Invitation to Help Us Repair
In preparing to host this event, Ravyn and I have both had to confront a lot of pain and injustice that we’ve faced from our peers.
Ravyn has survived a specific kind of spiritual warfare, anti-Black and Trans-misogynoir propaganda, not just from “the opposition” but from other comrades, chosen siblings, and other Black and Indigenous folks.
I have survived a specific kind of spiritual warfare, a whorephobic, transphobic, ableist type of racism used to justify the genocide and ethnic cleansing of my own people, the Bengali people – again, not just from “the opposition” but from other healers, including people in my own queer community & spiritual hoop.
This type of injustice has impacted us both deeply on the financial level, and impacted our ability to stay financially well – which it is absolutely designed to do.
What does repair look like for us now? We would love to receive support, investment and advocacy from our peers, in the same places that we have previously experienced antagonism, exploitation, attack and neglect.
THRIVING VILLAGE PRINCIPLE: we ask our present to apologize to us for what our past will never apologize for.
Often, we chase apologies from the sources that have hurt us, not being able to fully reconcile that in so many circumstances, if they were really capable of giving you the apology that you deserve, they probably wouldn’t have done it in the first place.
But, sometimes we need that apology, otherwise the rage will eat us alive, and we’ll never be able to move forward or find the love that truly wants to heal with us.
That’s why we ask our present, the people who do genuinely care about us and are invested in our well being, to give us the apology that our past was never able to offer.
When I say, I want an apology for how I’ve been mistreated in so many different social environments, I don’t just want you to say oh I’m so sorry that happened to you.
I honestly don’t care about the words.
I care about getting to live the way I wanted to live in the first place.
I care about being reciprocated fairly from day one.
It’s in this spirit that I’ve created this village artist grant system, and invite others to share the medicine with me. There are so many paradigms that tell me what I am and am not “worth.”
To have a village, even if small at first, willing to practise financial, social and spiritual reciprocity and repair with me is the apology that I need.
Learn More About the Project
I’ll include some links below if you’d like to learn more about the vision I hold and explore more of our world.
I recommend you choose one door you’d like to enter. If you’re interested in more than one door, you can always come back for another door, or travel our website in your own way.
For the Visionary: Check out our Village Funding Portal. Here, you can learn about the various village funds we’re growing, and imagine the places we can help you grow your own village funds that matter to you. ENTER DOOR #1 AKA THE NORTH
For the Community Organizer + Space Holder: On this page you can download free resources and study our Open Training for Community Organizers on principles of Visionary Mutual Aid. This is also great for entrepreneurs interested in expanding + deepening their business model. ENTER DOOR #2 AKA THE SOUTH
For the Spirit-Led Revolutionary: Take a deep dive with our free storytelling medicine bundle: “what we are willing to do for each other: introduction to a village artist grant system.” This is purrfect for those who want to deeply understand the vision and praxis behind this system. You can go through the medicine bundle on my website (with journal prompts, episode transcripts and pretty colours) or listen in podcast form. ENTER DOOR #3 AKA THE WEST
For the Game-Changer: Watch the replay from our Game-Changer’s Circle / Safe Passage Ceremony that Ravyn and I hosted on December 6! Make an offering to our pot of village funding and you’ll get the password to our backstage area in your inbox. Click the link and you’ll find the replay.
ENTER DOOR #4 AKA THE EAST
For the Good Listener: Hang out Backstage with Ravyn and I! This is our BTS series called, “A Friendship That Can Withstand the Revolution.” We share snippets of our epic-casual voice notes as we prepare to host our event.
We talk about healing from community trauma, loverships across the multiverse, what it means to share an “abolitionist relationship” or create space for “abolitionist audiences”…and through it all, we share with you a friendship that has proved time and again, can indeed withstand the revolution.
ENTER DOOR #5 AKA THE HEART
Please share this invitation with anyone as you feel called. And please feel free to contact me with any questions: mercury@shaungatagore.com
From My Heart to Yours,
Shaunga
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