bada bing bada boom

we did it, thank you!

40 days ago, i set an ambitious-to-me goal of raising an all-or-nothing $12k on kickstarter. It was time to pump some energy into my land-based community textile work and I needed a high-stakes experiment to generate the courage in me to shamelessly share and rally support around it.

And bada bing bada boom, 40 days later! I’m so grateful to announce that our goal has been met :) And there are so many thank-yous to give… and a doodle to share:

me in a sea of indigo plants

Thank you to all 68 of you who donated over $12k for ya boi! Thank you reader for sticking with me as I dowsed you with 40 days of fundraising content. Thank you to all my beloved friends (and strangers) who shared this effort on their social media. They know how anxious I can be when it comes to posting and I’m so thankful they offered to share it. Thank you Earthseed Land Collective for making space for dìèdìè to prototype our vision. Thank you Black Fiber and Textile Network (BFTN), Teju and Grace, for being the faithful cheerleaders for this work and cultivating a much needed ecosystem of relationships in the broader Black textiles space. Thank you Black Mycellium crew for existing and helping dìèdìè make it to the finish line! Thank you Sky High Farm for the significant grant support you provided in our early days, we wouldn’t be here without that. Thank you LIFT Economy Team, Erin and Shawn, for coaching me in designing a spirited and values-aligned business for dìèdìè. Thank you to all the unnamed and invisible forces that contributed their power and attention to meeting this goal and firing up my will to continue. Adupe o! Mil gracias! Merci beaucoup! Thank you so much!

So, uh, what’s next here?:

I’m excited to put down my fundraising hat and put my sacred silly hat back on. Soon, I’m going to archive my fundraising posts and be back in the springtime with fun updates from dìèdìè and an assortment of new creative expressions and stories from afrosurrealist research bureau. Lately, I’m feeling heavily inspired by Harmony Holiday’s writing, clay, plantain vinegar, my present-day and ancestral local arts scenes, and backyard woodpeckers.

I’ll end this with a doodle i drew to process anxious feelings that came up for me during the fundraising sprint:

Happy wintering y’all!

xoxo

adé