How You Can Help Queering Dreams Raise $3000 for a New Website

We've loved this little newsletter, but we are growing much bigger than this site can handle, and we need your help so we can share all the good work of Queering Dreams.

Queering Dreams

Crystal Mason

, and

Queerly Complex

Apr 15, 2022

“How you can support immigrant &n queer artists” in white hand lettering against a purple dot. In a word bubble reads,”Yes! You the one reading this.’’ There is a Black, Latinx, South Asian, and white artist on the bottom left corner, all smiling & looking into the camera. www.queeringdreams.com. All set against a pink with black splotchy paint background.

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Queering Dreams needs your support.

Queering Dreams a fiscally sponsored (thanks Independent Arts & Media!), community organization co-founded by Crystal Mason & Queerly Complex, which produces emergent stories & collective experiences of dreaming, studying, & co-creating to dispel shame, punishment & loneliness, so we can all get free from systems & patterns of oppression & domination.

We started by dreaming with our comrades (it’s in our name) & co-created an entire calendar of events in November 2021. It was a delightful process that solidified how we grow our tree of change, how we hold space & time, & how we cultivate belonging in virtual space. And we accomplished all of this with generously donated labor, ideas, & art.

What’s emerging? Two of our main programs in 2022 are our Immigrant Artist Network, Co-Founded by Rupy C. Tut, and our Queer Art School, Co-Founded by Juan Carlos Escobedo. Both programs are creating virtual models for artists to come together across generations, territories, cultures, traditions, & practices in mutual exchange & knowledge sharing. And right now, we are hosting 19 immigrant artists from across North American in a three-month long Virtual Salon that is providing a critical space for sharing works-in-progress, giving & receiving feedback, & building our own art vocabulary.

“I support Queering Dreams because I support dreaming alongside a community that values layered identities & finds itself enriched by them,” in white typeface against a purple dot. “Rupy C. Tut,” in black hand lettering set against a yellow dot. Rupy is a first generation Punjabi Sikh immigrant artist, is smiling & looking into the camera, and is wearing the Demon tee. www.queeringdreams.com. All set against a pink with black splotchy paint background.

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We need a new website.

Queering Dreams started with curiosity & inquiry. As conversation & co-creation between Crystal & QC & Co-Creators deepened, we wanted to share what was emerging with our growing, intersectional community, so we set up this Substack landing page to easily collect emails & share our story with you, our fabulous neighbors & comrades.

Now, we are growing. We host A Space for Dreaming & A Time for Study on a month basis. We have a budding network of Co-Creators including Tray Smith of Realest Exposure, Midori, blkcowrie, Han Qin, Momos Cheeskos, and Kiana Honarmand. And we are cultivating a network of immigrant & queer artists working both independently & together to create useful tools that help artists explore who they are, deepen their practice, and share their art & story with the world, all for free.

So this little Substack ain’t going to cut it. It’s just not cut out to tell the story that’s emerging.

We need your help to build it.

“Goal: $3000. You can help us reach it. Supports website hosting, accessibility AI, image description copywriting,” in hand lettering against purple & yellow dots. www.queeringdreams.com. All set against a pink with black splotchy paint background.

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We are raising $3000, which isn’t nearly enough.

Building a website is expensive & time consuming. Luckily, we have the skills & know-how to build the website we want & need. BUT…we need to cover some basic expenses that will help us ensure that when we launch our website is as accessible as it can be.

For us, that means purchasing an accessibility AI that we can embed right into the code. It also means paying someone to ensure we have image descriptions on all the images we post. And we need to cover the cost of hosting the new site. One thing that’s nice about Substack: it’s hella cheap. A more functional website, not so much.

We really do need your support to build a new website.

“I Co-Founded Queering Dreams because dreaming in community is a powerful act that dispels feeling stuck, isolated, & hopeless, so we can co-create a better world together,” in white typeface against a purple dot. “Crystal Mason,” in black hand lettering against a yellow dot. Crystal is a Black queer artist, is smiling & looking into the camera, and is wearing the Queer Love tee. www.queeringdreams.com All set against a pink with black splotchy paint background.

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So…How can you support Queering Dreams?

BUY A LIMITED EDITION TEE! We are selling tees in partnership with Queerly Complex. T-shirts by Rupy C. Tut, Juan Carlos Escobedo, and Queerly Complex! When you purchase one of these t-shirts $15 goes to Queering Dreams to help us create a new website.
DONATE! Donations big and small support us and our co-creators and help us make Queering Dreams as accessible as possible. If 10 people donate $50 this pays for the AI that will make our website accessible. If 10 people donate $20 this helps pay an honorarium to a Co-Creator.
AMPLIFY! We know times are hard for many of us & we don’t want anyone to give more than they can afford. Here’s how you can help us amplify our impact & spread the word:
1. Follow us on Instagram & Facebook & share our stuff!
2. Create your own post & tag us. We have a Spring 2022 Fundraiser Google Doc & Photo Album to help you make one.
3. Tell your neighbors, comrades, & friends about us when you talk to them. Posting on social is fabulous. Sharing a personal story makes a deeper impact.
4. Subscribe to our newsletter, if you haven’t already.

“I’m part of Queering Dreams because there has always been a deficiency in queer camaraderie in most of the art circles I’ve been a part of & this has helped me to connect & understand how people view queerness for themselves & how they apply it to their artistic practice,” in white type face against a purple dot. “Juan Carlos Escobedo,” in black hand lettering set against a yellow dot. Juan Carlos is a brown, Mexican-American queer male artist, is smiling & looking into the camera, and is wearing the The Moon tee. www.queeringdreams.com. All set against a pink with black splotchy paint background.

Thank you so much for your support!

We are so grateful to everyone who has subscribed to Queering Dreams, who attends our workshops, who co-creates with us, and who is existing amidst this chaotic world. Thank you for being a neighbor & comrade, and we look forward to continuing to share our story & co-create new stories with you.

“I Co-Founded Queering Dreams because need & want & desire an intergenerational, cross-territorial, community of comrades to whom I belong & I am accountable,” in white typeface against a purple dot. “Queerly Complex,” in black hand lettering set against a yellow dot. Queerly is a white, anti-binary, queer artist, is wearing makeup, smiling & looking into the camera, and is wearing the Queer Love tee. www.queeringdreams.com. All set against a pink with black splotchy paint background.