See Beautiful Grant Applicant: Emerging Together

The feature below is brought to you by Emerging Together, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Emerging Together, please visit their website page: here.

Creating space to emerge together

Emerging Together is an affinity space that centers People Of Heritage (Of Colour) and honours cultural engagement, intersectionality and inclusivity through art, rituals, collective care, mental health, and Nature gatherings - while building mutual aide networks for our under-represented community. The organizing team is made up of 8 volunteers. We live and organize without borders throughout the land of Turtle Island (North America). The majority of our organizing team and participants are low-income and/or genderqueer.

Emerging Together’s focus is the wellbeing of People of Heritage but even within our marginalized group we have different privileges based on our proximity to power, whiteness, wealth, health, and other factors. We address equity by working on the root issues in our community disclosed by the participants themselves through our registration form. We encourage open communication between attendants and organizers so that no one is at a disadvantage during our events.

Our Liberatory Art Camp is a one of a kind, multi-day, capacity building outdoor art camp for regenerative embodiment, mental health tending, networking, and creativity that is curated By Us, For Us. It will be held from July 2 - 7, 2020 in the original lands of the Kalapuya tribes (Southern Oregon). We have the capacity to invite 50 People Of Heritage doing critical work within the Environmental and Social Justice movements to experience our programming and services.

Regenerative outdoor spaces/events do not operate with the kind of equity lens needed to support the healing process of people of heritage. So we curated a beautiful space where we are out of the white gaze and are able to be our whole selves​ reducing perceived stereotypes and the marginalization of the everyday world.

Our programming includes youth led workshops, accessible nature, indigenous foods, Seed swap, mental health services and therapeutic sessions by local practitioners. Benefitting youth, veterans, disabled, and houseless communities and family participants. Our services aim to help with the mental health of our community, including reduced risk of suicide and responding to hate crimes, while promoting leadership, respect, accountability, regenerative mutual aid, and revitalization. Our Liberatory Art Camp is offered on a sliding scale: Pay what you can. Pay in trade. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

In an attempt to create a safer, nourishing, deep affinity space we have a registration process. which will be a series of questions about you, your community work, the support you need to tend your wounds, how you use your privilege, roles you can fill at the gathering, how you found out about the event and accessibility needs.

This event is a scent-free, sober space!
—REGISTRATION OPENS New Moon February 23rd--
https://artisticapothecary.wordpress.com/gathering/

Our Libratory Art Camp focuses on Low income People Of Heritage of which:
10% are youth; 15% are veterans; 65% are disabled; 60% are genderqueer; and 3% are Indigenous living on reservations.  Many of the folks we work with have intersectional identities that fall into many of the demographics above. In addition, our organizing efforts include improving accessibility on the venues campus by upgrading their ramp system, trails, and other facilities to be in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act so that our - and future – disabled communities can fully participate in programming.

In the long term, it is our goal that Emerging Together will lay the groundwork for an annual People of Heritage reemergence camp. After Our Liberatory Art Camp in 2020 ends we will solicit feedback and​ continue to have regional meet-ups where we will begin to strategize our efforts towards a second (annual) gathering in 2021.

Submitted by Jude Perez

Volunteer Organizer, Emerging Together