Reunion Chicago: Reunion Relief Fund for Cultural Producers

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Hello, Kristen and Elijah here, Co-Directors of Reunion, a Chicago sliding scale events space for LGBTQ+ and POC creatives. To our community: We are thinking of you, missing you, and sending our love your way.

We know that right now as artists and creative people that we are all experiencing varying degrees of stress, sadness and fear in this time of uncertainty. And while we know financial hurdles are of high concern, we are also grieving our creative losses - the projects we can’t put up, the collaborations we can’t complete, and the support for these efforts that can’t be fulfilled.

As many of us seek financial relief as independent, self-employed creative laborers, we’ve found it incredibly challenging to find support: Curators, art administrators, promoters and producers - the very people who bring art & culture to communities - are disqualified from many of the artist relief funds that have been established - either explicitly stated, or because the very nature of our work is multidisciplinary and can’t fit in one box.

This combination of financial and creative instability has been daunting and even paralyzing for many folks in our community. This has inspired us to create the Reunion Relief Fund, an effort to reimagine the ways we support LGBTQ+ and cultural producers of color post-pandemic when the connectors of our community will be tasked with bringing us together through intimate live events and programs.

This fund is specifically intended for creative laborers who work to bring people together: The behind-the-scenes masterminds who make the programming possible that enriches our underrepresented communities.

That’s our event producers, drag show divas, market & festival mavens, party promoters, and anyone whose primary role is to bring community together.

Donations collected from this campaign will directly support artists who wish to use the Reunion platform to make work at a time when our options are so limited. With these micro grants, we will be able to offer LGBTQ+ artists and artists of color an opportunity to make work - and a little money for it too.

If you can give financially, we are grateful for your support. If you are seeking support, we are grateful for your talent and labor. The application for the micro grants will open on Friday, May 1st. Please help us spread the word by sharing our GoFundMe, and tagging @reunionchi in your posts.

The world around us continues to change. As we grieve the lives we once knew, we feel that it is essential to remain hopeful for the future, and continue to function as a family tree of support. After all, we call this place “Reunion” with the mission to create a sense of home & belonging.

When the supposed support systems don’t serve our communities, we navigate struggle as we always have, together. In the words of the great ancestor June Jordan, WE are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We will be seeing you soon, in the virtual and in-person worlds we create together.

Support Reunion Relief Fund: gofundme.com/reunionrelieffund

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