About me: I am an amazing, crafty, queer artist living in the SF Bay Area. I turned 50 this year and it was a hard turn as I recently lost pretty much everything that made up my life. Divorce, home, my mom, my health, my job. Finding my direction again has been exhausting. But I am here today to share with you that I found it!

As bad as things got for me, I somehow found myself surrounded by amazing people who stood by me. I am very lucky. Now it is my turn to stand by people who need my strength. I cannot look away from the harm being caused by our government. I cannot allow racist authoritarian ideology to infiltrate our public institutions.

I come before you now to ask for funding of my art-based 50th birthday wish: To celebrate my 50th revolution around the sun I pledge to participate in 50 public actions that promote dissent against the Trump Administration and fascism. Read more about my work below & updates to the project. I believe my greatest work in life is before me now.

**Updated** I completed my 50 actions on July 17th. I hosted a Overpass Visibility Brigade Action in partnership with Indivisible East Bay to honor John Lewis by making Good Trouble. The message read: USA NOW ON HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH LIST. There were over 120 participants. But there is so much more work to do. Read on to learn the roots of this project.

Project Title: Inspire Resistance

You can view my documented body of work thus far on Instagram & Facebook. I showcase the art and people of public protest and hope to inspire others to lead bravely with love and joy.

Current Work: Outreach, Engage, Create

Outreach -I never would have imagined that I would spend all my time holding space for dissent. Well, actually I did. I currently host multiple weekly street protests and overpass visibility brigade actions. The number of participants vary from a few to several dozen. I also heed national calls to action by hosting events when there is a vacuum. These include pop-up events in response to serious violations of human decency. Unfortunately, these actions happen daily, espcially to people of color and other marginalized communities.

Engage -With a playlist and speaker in tow, I act as a unifier within the movement by greeting protestors, sharing my hand-lettered signs with participants, documenting the movement, engaging with cars, giving small tokens of resistance to people passing by ( those Fuck ICE stickers), and encouraging everyone to build community & momentum. I also hand out mini symbols of resistance and post public notices of dissent everywhere I go. Chalk is one of my favorite mediums right now.

Create -My artwork has slowed in recent weeks. This is due to the time commitment of public actions. I now mostly purchase stickers to distribute at protests, the grocery store, the gas pump, every person working behind a counter, everywhere.

My funding pitch:

Public protesting isn't for everyone. People have jobs, kids, school, their own forms of resistance, and for many, fear of retribution. If you see the vision of this project or it has made an impact on you, your financial support is needed to fund the cost of materials for the signs, chalk, bubbles (thanks y'all for the bubble machine), flyers, giveaways, and banners; all designed to raise public awareness of the clear and present fascism we are facing. I will stand up for you, and your support will increase the breadth of my work in supporting others to also participate in resistance.

My free giveaway:

I also need co-conspirators. I have multiple ongoing weekly actions. Part protest, part community cheerleader (I have pom-poms & cow bells). I am excited to train facilitators to lead the resistance. If you are just starting out, I will hold your hand. Grass roots mean you can grow at your own pace. We all feel better when we aren't doing it alone.

Whew, that was a lot. Thanks for reading to the end.

Local street corner protest with a few of my signs.

Overpass visibility messaging. Pom-poms were a nice touch. Our deltoids thank us.

First run of my mini-protests signs.

My 1st overpass action. Become part of the solution by being a part of the action. For a single day or as part of weekly resistance! This action can be done anywhere, anytime.

An unpolished version of my newest mini-protests signs. Thanks Karen, for suggesting I go digital.

I distribute the mini-protest signs everywhere I go.