⁣Hi everyone, I'm raising money so that I can secure a place to live...and avoid homelessness.

“Who are you?”
I am an award-winning performer: actor, dancer, singer, writer, movement director, and collaborator. I am an almost-alumnus of Temple University, where I was awarded a four-year, full-tuition talent scholarship to study musical theater. I am a Latinx, gender non-conforming, first-generation college student. I practice activism in my daily life through bold, loving conversations with others and through educating myself. In my professional career, I practice activism through the roles I inhabit, the pieces I perform, and by exercising my privilege through raising anti-racist challenges to latent, racist activity in the organizations with whom I collaborate.

“What happened?”
Once COVID-19 shut down Temple University's campuses, I left my Philly apartment to live temporarily with my family in Lancaster. The plan was to finish my semester and then return to Philly for my summer gigs. But then those were all cancelled because of COVID-19! Because rehearsals for Pippin (@ Act II Playhouse) hadn't yet begun, I had no qualifying job for Unemployment payments. So I picked up a part-time job, $10/hour, because I still had to pay for my $525/mth apartment in Philadelphia, plus utilities, phone bill, etc. I choose to disclose this information because it is pertinent: From mid-March to mid-July, I was living with my emotionally abusive father, in a house and bedroom which legitimately triggered reactions to the trauma of multiple sexual assaults I experienced in high school. My father gaslights my experience as a sexual assault survivor, and he continues to gaslight my sexuality as he has from the first time I tried to come out at age 12. (If you don't know what gaslighting is, please click here. It is a primary tactic of narcissists and dictators.)

I felt a responsibility and desire to prioritize my wellbeing in order to maintain my dreams. Gratefully, a close friend opened up their home to me, and I have been there for two weeks. But today, I am returning to Philadelphia to pack up the last of my belongings from my apartment. My lease ends 07/31, and I still have a lot to figure out. I don’t yet have a place to take my things or a way to transport them.

I have gratefully had a few people offer to house me for 1-2 nights while I figure things out. But I need a longer-term solution, or I will have nowhere to stay. I am regularly tested for COVID-19, and have been confirmed negative each time.⠀ ⠀

“What will you do with the money?”
I am requesting $750 because the cheapest apartment options I am seeing right now are going for ~$400. My fundraising goal helps me to pay for my first month, plus either a last month’s deposit or the second month’s rent so that I can save my paychecks from work and start my time in my new home with some essential furniture. (I.e. bed, dresser/shelf, etc.) The funds will be used for nothing but securing and developing shelter: a new home.