I was recently selected to travel to North Carolina for a writing workshop with one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Alexis Pauline Gumbs. I applied as an absolute moonshot, and I'm in disbelief about this opportunity to work on my ancestor writing project in a sacred container. I leave in just two weeks and am seeking some help to cover the $2500 tuition and travel expenses.

For the past few months, I've been digging through the archives to find and map the path my ancestor Dempsey Spencer took on the Underground Railroad. Working on this project and writing about it on my Substack has absolutely fed my soul. Interrogating my ancestors' survival and brave flight for freedom feeds my soul as a Black trans person navigating the ripple effect of surviving a lynching. I can't wait to learn and grow in this community and to deepen this project.

You can check out more of my work as a writer, musician, and educator at my website: www.lazarusletcher.com