Help Abby go to school for creative coding
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My name is Abby Castillo and my pronouns are she/her. I am a Mexican-American trans woman living in Portland, OR. In addition to working as an administrative assistant, I am an interdisciplinary artist and I produce and perform music as twinchicken_. I am now seeking help with funds so I can pursue a professional certification in Creative Coding and Immersive Technologies from Portland Community College: https://www.pcc.edu/programs/music-and-sonic-arts/pathway-creative-coding/.
I had, like most of us, a difficult 2020. The below two paragraphs are an attempt to summarize my experience... fair warning, there's some discussion of transphobia and abuse.
An attempt to summarize: Prior to the pandemic, I received transphobic treatment from the organizers of a benefit show I played at in early March. They misgendered me, kicked me out of the venue for complaining, and then harassed me through text and Facebook for weeks afterward. Almost immediately after, the reality of the pandemic started setting in. I quickly began preparing for lockdown, and then found myself dealing with two roommates who refused to adhere to or even communicate about COVID procedure. I was trapped in my bedroom for three weeks, leaving only to prepare food or use the bathroom, with my cat and her litterbox. When I asked one of them to wear a mask in common rooms for a few weeks (because she had been going outside into other buildings until very recently) she flatly refused and then moved out of the apartment. My other roommate left shortly after. I was, around this time, laid off from my job as a crew member at Burgerville.
By the time my roommate had left, I was pretty mentally broken. I ended up having a manic episode which turned into a psychotic episode, and I ended up in a mental hospital (Cedar Hills Mental Hospital) for a couple weeks, where I was abused further. The hospital had almost no COVID procedures in place, and the staff and medical team were super transphobic. A doctor there refused me care one day because I spoke up after he misgendered me. When the staff refused to protect me from another patient who was violating my personal space and shouting homophobic slurs at me, I demanded that I be released immediately, and so I ended up leaving a couple days early. After that, I suffered through a few months of housing insecurity and separation from my cat.
Now I live alone, with my cat. I spend most of my time trying to pick up the pieces of my broken psyche. Thankfully I have (finally) received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and am now on a medication that helps keep me stable. Thankfully too I was given the opportunity to work on my art last year, thanks to funding from the Independent Publishing Resource Center and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. I have begun looking towards the future, and have decided to further invest in my career as an artist by pursuing a certification in Creative Coding and Immersive Technologies at PCC, a program I've been wanting to apply to for years. With this certification I will be able to deepen my practice as a musician, sound artist, and machine poet, and to perhaps earn enough money to pull me above the poverty line...
My total goal for this fundraiser is $4,349. Each class at PCC is roughly $600; the program has six classes, which comes out to a total of $3600. This program is not eligible for financial aid. The additional $749 in my budget is for a copy of the Ableton Live 11 Suite, the program I use to make music. This version of Live also includes a copy of Max/MSP, which I will be learning how to use at PCC. I have already purchased Ableton and enrolled in my first class with money from my savings, but since I work part-time and as a freelance artists, my income is fairly unpredictable and currently still low. Your donations will help me defray the costs for this program and ensure that I still have money to pay my rent. :)
Thank you so much for reading through and considering my fundraiser. If you want to learn more about what I do, you can look through my website at http://twinchicken.net. Have a great day!
xoxo
Abby
I had, like most of us, a difficult 2020. The below two paragraphs are an attempt to summarize my experience... fair warning, there's some discussion of transphobia and abuse.
An attempt to summarize: Prior to the pandemic, I received transphobic treatment from the organizers of a benefit show I played at in early March. They misgendered me, kicked me out of the venue for complaining, and then harassed me through text and Facebook for weeks afterward. Almost immediately after, the reality of the pandemic started setting in. I quickly began preparing for lockdown, and then found myself dealing with two roommates who refused to adhere to or even communicate about COVID procedure. I was trapped in my bedroom for three weeks, leaving only to prepare food or use the bathroom, with my cat and her litterbox. When I asked one of them to wear a mask in common rooms for a few weeks (because she had been going outside into other buildings until very recently) she flatly refused and then moved out of the apartment. My other roommate left shortly after. I was, around this time, laid off from my job as a crew member at Burgerville.
By the time my roommate had left, I was pretty mentally broken. I ended up having a manic episode which turned into a psychotic episode, and I ended up in a mental hospital (Cedar Hills Mental Hospital) for a couple weeks, where I was abused further. The hospital had almost no COVID procedures in place, and the staff and medical team were super transphobic. A doctor there refused me care one day because I spoke up after he misgendered me. When the staff refused to protect me from another patient who was violating my personal space and shouting homophobic slurs at me, I demanded that I be released immediately, and so I ended up leaving a couple days early. After that, I suffered through a few months of housing insecurity and separation from my cat.
Now I live alone, with my cat. I spend most of my time trying to pick up the pieces of my broken psyche. Thankfully I have (finally) received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and am now on a medication that helps keep me stable. Thankfully too I was given the opportunity to work on my art last year, thanks to funding from the Independent Publishing Resource Center and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. I have begun looking towards the future, and have decided to further invest in my career as an artist by pursuing a certification in Creative Coding and Immersive Technologies at PCC, a program I've been wanting to apply to for years. With this certification I will be able to deepen my practice as a musician, sound artist, and machine poet, and to perhaps earn enough money to pull me above the poverty line...
My total goal for this fundraiser is $4,349. Each class at PCC is roughly $600; the program has six classes, which comes out to a total of $3600. This program is not eligible for financial aid. The additional $749 in my budget is for a copy of the Ableton Live 11 Suite, the program I use to make music. This version of Live also includes a copy of Max/MSP, which I will be learning how to use at PCC. I have already purchased Ableton and enrolled in my first class with money from my savings, but since I work part-time and as a freelance artists, my income is fairly unpredictable and currently still low. Your donations will help me defray the costs for this program and ensure that I still have money to pay my rent. :)
Thank you so much for reading through and considering my fundraiser. If you want to learn more about what I do, you can look through my website at http://twinchicken.net. Have a great day!
xoxo
Abby
Organizer
Abby Castillo
Organizer
Portland, OR