Help The Cosmos stay alive to serve Asian women
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Our Urgent Need for Financial Assistance by Cassandra Lam and Karen Mok, Founders of The Cosmos
We are the founders of The Cosmos, a New York-based small business that creates content, community, and experiences for Asian women in America. We are launching this GoFundMe to raise $30K towards our ability to continue serving Asian women through 2022. We are in urgent need of financial assistance to keep operating, or our organization and impact will end.
Four years ago, we created The Cosmos to be a grassroots community-centered space for Asian women. So we believe the most values-aligned path is to let you, the community, decide the future of The Cosmos. We are committed to this work as long as you, the community, tells us our work is needed:
If we raise $30,000, The Cosmos can continue operating until the end of 2022. We will both take 30% salary reductions for a net salary of $23,700 in 2022. We will execute on ALL of the community initiatives below with a paid, 100% Asian creative team. Any funds over $30,000 will reduce the financial hardship on our team to keep operating this year.
Four years ago, we created The Cosmos to be a grassroots community-centered space for Asian women. So we believe the most values-aligned path is to let you, the community, decide the future of The Cosmos. We are committed to this work as long as you, the community, tells us our work is needed:
If we raise $30,000, The Cosmos can continue operating until the end of 2022. We will both take 30% salary reductions for a net salary of $23,700 in 2022. We will execute on ALL of the community initiatives below with a paid, 100% Asian creative team. Any funds over $30,000 will reduce the financial hardship on our team to keep operating this year.
For the last two years of the pandemic, we could not organize in-person events and indoor community gatherings that provide connection, safety, and community care for Asian women. We did our best to provide virtual spaces to heal and gather in times of rising anti-Asian hate and pervasive feelings of un-safety. We prioritized accessibility of these spaces due to the urgency and need. We were optimistic about resuming in-person programming and events in fall last year, but the rise of the Delta and Omicron variants made that impossible. Our community’s health and safety is our biggest priority, and we could not in good faith bring people together.
We believe that Asian women in America deserve an organization fully committed to their needs and experience, especially in the wake of rising anti-Asian violence. But today we are at a difficult crossroads. The Cosmos has been operating at a loss for the last four months, and we are unable to make payroll this month. We were only able to stay in operation last year because we received a PPP loan of $16,000. We need financial aid to cover our salaries, health insurance, software services, and to pay our brilliant part-time creative director.
At the end of 2021, we pursued a major brand partnership to keep The Cosmos afloat. However, we were not able to come to terms that felt equitable, inclusive, or respectful of the Asian women community we serve. So with heavy hearts, we walked away from the opportunity. We are heartbroken to be at this crossroads at a time when Asian women in America deserve access to care, safety, and community. We hope that with your support, we can continue to serve the community this year.
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES YOU'D BE SAVING:
Cosmos Small Business Markets: We support small businesses by hosting an open market featuring 5-10 Asian woman-owned small businesses. We tell the stories of the small businesses in our newsletter and our Instagram @jointhecosmos to help them build awareness and visibility!
The Cosmos Gift Guides: Over the past 3 years, we’ve created the only 100% community-curated holiday gift guide featuring 50+ Asian women-owned small businesses, creators, and artists. We help small businesses build awareness and make sales!
#VeryAsian APAHM Party: Just for fun, a community party to celebrate feeling #VeryAsian :) Everyone’s invited to wear traditional dress from their culture, and/or their own version of it!
The Cosmos Care Micro Fund: We created this 100% community funded micro-fund to distribute funds for Asian women in America to tell their stories through creative projects. No strings, no long-ass application, no credentials required. All grantees are decided by community members. Our impact to date:
- 140+ applicants as of January 2021
- $600 in funds raised from the community through donations and paid newsletter subscriptions
Camp Cosmos 2022: We make the outdoors, and all the mental and physical health benefits it provides, accessible to Asian women. In 2021, we organized free community hikes, kayaking, and camping for 50+ Asian women in the New York City Area. This year we’d like to organize a Camp Cosmos Field Day, because the '90s are cool again :)
From our programming, we co-create art with 100% Asian women creative teams that tell rich, nuanced, stories of our community.
Collective Rest: We create healing spaces for the AAPI community to process, rest, and grieve together. We organized 10 virtual events in 2021 serving more than 2,500 people. All spaces are free or donation-based to attend.
Emerging Writer Reading Series in partnership with Yu & Me Books : We’re launching a reading series for unpublished Asian women writers to read their work at Yu and Me Books, the first Asian American woman-owned bookstore in New York City.
The Cosmos Book Club: Led by community member Ina Y., The Cosmos Book Club reads and supports books by Asian women diaspora authors. The Cosmos Book Club newsletter is a space for community members to share book reviews and connect on the stories that help us process and understand our experience.
The Cosmos Weekend Retreat: We create intimate, safe spaces for 10-15 New York City-based Asian women to question and explore their identities, in community.
The Cosmos Virtual Retreat : We create a space that blends somatic and creative activities to help Asian women across America connect, care for their mental health, and explore their identities, in community.
The Cosmos Care Package: We write a weekly newsletter centering the everyday experiences, stories, and opinions of Asian women in America. You can become a paid subscriber to access premium content and support our Care Micro-Fund!
Work with Us: Our mission is to close the mental health care gap for Asian women by connecting the community to Asian women practitioners committed to culturally sensitive care. Last year, we helped over 1000 Asian women discover care options that centered their experience.
Prior to the pandemic, we organized The Cosmos Summit and The Cosmos Retreats:
About Us
The Cosmos is a small business that creates experiences and events for Asian women in America. Our mission is to create spaces for Asian women to care for themselves, their community, and their world. We, Cassandra Lam and Karen Mok, created The Cosmos in March 2018 because no spaces existed for Asian women to navigate their identity, feel seen and heard in their experiences, and meet and connect with a community. Our work has been featured in The New York Times, Bustle, and PAPER Mag, among others. We welcome Asian women of all ages, backgrounds, genders, and abilities to join us. Our community is inclusive of self-identifying women, femmes, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQIA+ individuals of Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, and mixed race descent.
Website | Instagram | Weekly newsletter
About Cassandra Lam (she/her, left)
I am Vietnamese-American and the oldest daughter of refugees. Though I was born and raised in Covina, California on the outskirts of the San Gabriel Valley, which is now home to over half a million Asian Americans, I felt trapped by the Southern California bubble. Hungry to change my environment to expand my worldview, I moved to NYC at the age of 23 to "find myself" (like so many of us do!) This involved a lot of painful struggling to find spaces where I could belong or be seen in my full, complex, nuanced Asian American woman self. My passion for The Cosmos comes from the desire to create what I didn't have during those lonely years -- a nonjudgmental, supportive, and community-oriented space for Asian women to be in the mess and magic of exploring our identities, together.
Professionally, I identify as a transformation facilitator, community caregiver, and wellness practitioner with a focus on serving Asian women. My teachings are informed by 10 years of personal practice in the healing arts, 300+ hours of training in yoga, somatics, trauma-informed mindfulness, and reiki, and a lifelong commitment to social justice.
About Karen Mok (she/her, right)
I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where less than 2% of the population was Asian. I created The Cosmos because I don’t want anyone to feel alone, judged, or worse, “wrong”, because of their identity. I wanted to create what my eight-year-old self needed. I am a mental health advocate with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - NYC, and I care deeply about reforming the healthcare system to provide universal mental health care.
I am a writer both in and outside of The Cosmos, and I write our weekly newsletter because I believe the Asian women community needs more stories that capture our diverse, beautiful, and vast diaspora.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES YOU'D BE SAVING:
Cosmos Small Business Markets: We support small businesses by hosting an open market featuring 5-10 Asian woman-owned small businesses. We tell the stories of the small businesses in our newsletter and our Instagram @jointhecosmos to help them build awareness and visibility!
The Cosmos Gift Guides: Over the past 3 years, we’ve created the only 100% community-curated holiday gift guide featuring 50+ Asian women-owned small businesses, creators, and artists. We help small businesses build awareness and make sales!
#VeryAsian APAHM Party: Just for fun, a community party to celebrate feeling #VeryAsian :) Everyone’s invited to wear traditional dress from their culture, and/or their own version of it!
The Cosmos Care Micro Fund: We created this 100% community funded micro-fund to distribute funds for Asian women in America to tell their stories through creative projects. No strings, no long-ass application, no credentials required. All grantees are decided by community members. Our impact to date:
- 140+ applicants as of January 2021
- $600 in funds raised from the community through donations and paid newsletter subscriptions
Camp Cosmos 2022: We make the outdoors, and all the mental and physical health benefits it provides, accessible to Asian women. In 2021, we organized free community hikes, kayaking, and camping for 50+ Asian women in the New York City Area. This year we’d like to organize a Camp Cosmos Field Day, because the '90s are cool again :)
From our programming, we co-create art with 100% Asian women creative teams that tell rich, nuanced, stories of our community.
Collective Rest: We create healing spaces for the AAPI community to process, rest, and grieve together. We organized 10 virtual events in 2021 serving more than 2,500 people. All spaces are free or donation-based to attend.
Emerging Writer Reading Series in partnership with Yu & Me Books : We’re launching a reading series for unpublished Asian women writers to read their work at Yu and Me Books, the first Asian American woman-owned bookstore in New York City.
The Cosmos Book Club: Led by community member Ina Y., The Cosmos Book Club reads and supports books by Asian women diaspora authors. The Cosmos Book Club newsletter is a space for community members to share book reviews and connect on the stories that help us process and understand our experience.
The Cosmos Weekend Retreat: We create intimate, safe spaces for 10-15 New York City-based Asian women to question and explore their identities, in community.
The Cosmos Virtual Retreat : We create a space that blends somatic and creative activities to help Asian women across America connect, care for their mental health, and explore their identities, in community.
The Cosmos Care Package: We write a weekly newsletter centering the everyday experiences, stories, and opinions of Asian women in America. You can become a paid subscriber to access premium content and support our Care Micro-Fund!
Work with Us: Our mission is to close the mental health care gap for Asian women by connecting the community to Asian women practitioners committed to culturally sensitive care. Last year, we helped over 1000 Asian women discover care options that centered their experience.
Prior to the pandemic, we organized The Cosmos Summit and The Cosmos Retreats:
About Us
The Cosmos is a small business that creates experiences and events for Asian women in America. Our mission is to create spaces for Asian women to care for themselves, their community, and their world. We, Cassandra Lam and Karen Mok, created The Cosmos in March 2018 because no spaces existed for Asian women to navigate their identity, feel seen and heard in their experiences, and meet and connect with a community. Our work has been featured in The New York Times, Bustle, and PAPER Mag, among others. We welcome Asian women of all ages, backgrounds, genders, and abilities to join us. Our community is inclusive of self-identifying women, femmes, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQIA+ individuals of Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, and mixed race descent.
Website | Instagram | Weekly newsletter
About Cassandra Lam (she/her, left)
I am Vietnamese-American and the oldest daughter of refugees. Though I was born and raised in Covina, California on the outskirts of the San Gabriel Valley, which is now home to over half a million Asian Americans, I felt trapped by the Southern California bubble. Hungry to change my environment to expand my worldview, I moved to NYC at the age of 23 to "find myself" (like so many of us do!) This involved a lot of painful struggling to find spaces where I could belong or be seen in my full, complex, nuanced Asian American woman self. My passion for The Cosmos comes from the desire to create what I didn't have during those lonely years -- a nonjudgmental, supportive, and community-oriented space for Asian women to be in the mess and magic of exploring our identities, together.
Professionally, I identify as a transformation facilitator, community caregiver, and wellness practitioner with a focus on serving Asian women. My teachings are informed by 10 years of personal practice in the healing arts, 300+ hours of training in yoga, somatics, trauma-informed mindfulness, and reiki, and a lifelong commitment to social justice.
About Karen Mok (she/her, right)
I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where less than 2% of the population was Asian. I created The Cosmos because I don’t want anyone to feel alone, judged, or worse, “wrong”, because of their identity. I wanted to create what my eight-year-old self needed. I am a mental health advocate with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - NYC, and I care deeply about reforming the healthcare system to provide universal mental health care.
I am a writer both in and outside of The Cosmos, and I write our weekly newsletter because I believe the Asian women community needs more stories that capture our diverse, beautiful, and vast diaspora.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Organizer
Cassandra Lam
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
