Greetings, friends! We are Audiofemme, and we're here today to humbly ask for your help in aiding our beloved co-director Mandy Brownholtz in recouping her losses and rebuilding her day-to-day life after a debilitating car accident this past weekend.

For those of you who don't know us, Audiofemme is a NYC-based event production/artist grant/fundraising platform that exists primarily to help our community here in NYC and beyond. Among the myriad ways we cultivate supportive spaces for artists, our "Crown Jewels" include the Agenda Grant and its sister program The Imaginal Intensive (an artist grant program that we run annually, and an auxiliary artist coaching program we offer for free to all of our finalists), as well as the Audiofemme Abortion Access fundraiser. Additionally we have raised money to support families in Gaza (the Middle East Children's Alliance specifically), the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition, The Brigid Alliance, as well as many others over the decade we've existed.

Today, however, we are asking for support towards a cause that has hit close to home for the Audiofemme family. Mandy and her partner were involved in a horrible car accident at the hands of drunk drivers on Sunday night which resulted in the totaling of her car, and her partner sustaining injuries that will affect his ability to work for the next month or two. In addition to the monetary loss of Mandy's vehicle (which they had only purchased a few weeks ago), the countless hours spent on it to get it into working condition are also unrecoverable. Mandy and her partner have spent every penny, and all of their time on this project, only to have it totaled by drunk drivers nearly the moment they drove it out of the garage.

Before I continue, I would love to tell you a little bit about the kind of person Mandy is. She joined our team in 2017 and quickly became invaluable to me - not just as a friend and confidant, but as someone who I could immediately trust my entire company with. Mandy is one of the kindest, smartest, most loyal, caring and beautiful humans I know, and has been with me as a friend, co-worker and show runner through thick and thin. She would go to hell and back for us, and has shown that every step of the way. I can say without a shred of doubt, that Audiofemme would not exist today without her, and as I have told her repeatedly throughout the years: I'd be dead in a ditch without her.

This accident was one of many Mandy has suffered this year since moving to Baltimore, and seeing her have to go through this again is heartbreaking. Audiofemme’s primary mission is to foster community and try to help as many folks as we can along the way, and Mandy is an integral part of that community; I feel it would only be right, to extend a request for support to help out one of our own, because this is what family means.

With that said, we gently encourage you to donate whatever you can to help Mandy through this moment. These funds will be used directly to help her purchase another used car, as well as make ends meet until her partner is able to return to work. If a monetary donation isn't possible, any sort of capacity to share this story with friends/on social media, would mean the world to us!!

With love,

Marianne / Team Audiofemme