The Raven: A free quarterly journal
Donation protected
A homage and a love song to this most magical of places, the Mojave High-Desert, The Raven will channel the poetry, the light, the dark, the macabre, the humor, the weird and the wonderful, the calming and frightening beauty of our home.
The Raven is a free quarterly arts, cultural & lifestyle journal documenting the boundless creative spirit of the high-desert, channeled both by the people who live here and by the many who come here to be infected by its unmistakable inspiration and work on their art. It is our offering to this desert and to this community and we will strive to reflect the magic of this place as truthfully as we can. The Raven will alchemize disparate talents and create something bold, unexpected and powerful. This will not be a disposable publication but a precious keepsake of this desert. As such, it will not be saturated with advertising in the traditional sense. We will advertise local, independent ventures in the form of advertorial style articles, with words and pictures. We will have one page dedicated to carefully sourced desert objects from local, independent businesses and one page of ‘ads’ featuring local, independent enterprises presented in the style of an old wooden noticeboard. Everything will be woven into the character of The Raven, into the narrative of its aesthetic.
Sustainability and the promotion of a more symbiotic relationship with the environment is close to The Raven’s heart. Each issue will feature and highlight issues around these topics, in particular the role of permaculture in creating a harmonious, fruitful and sustainable connection with this planet.
As much as The Raven is an offering to the community and beyond, it is not a community mouthpiece. The Raven is a powerful and magical creature, its folklore is that of a messenger that can travel through the veils of worlds. It is not a carrier pigeon. It will not be reporting on local news and featuring listings and classifieds. There are enough local publications which fulfill that need, as do numerous online forums.
The high-desert has an abundance of creative output. The Raven will be a product of conscious curating, channeling, filtering and distilling to align with our vision and ideal of creating something of tangible value and offering it freely to the community and wider world.
The desire to give something back to this unfailingly inspirational desert and its nurturing and supportive community is a key motivation of The Raven. Not only that, but to give something back of value for free, for a number of reasons:
1. No-one involved is being paid anything. All revenue from advertising is going directly towards printing costs. This endeavor is powered by a deep love of this place, by the elusive sentiment of not wanting to be anywhere else but here with all its challenges and rewards. Many of us have escaped here from lives that were destroying us and it is our safe haven, our opportunity to start again on our own terms. That is a lot to be thankful for and The Raven is our labor of love and gratitude. This is why it will be free.
2. We want to challenge the status quo of judging the worth of something by its commercial value. Our vision is to create something that is intrinsically valuable, something of quality and depth, and to offer it freely. The primary purpose of art and culture is not monetary, but to evoke the feeling of being able to relate to something from that nameless place, from our very essence, to understand and be understood from that place. It is about connection. Whether The Raven succeeds or fails in this endeavor, it is nevertheless our mission to make that intangible and precious feeling, which is the birthright of all, freely available; to forge unity instead of the separation that money inevitably brings. This is why it will be free.
3. Unhindered by the weight of a price tag, The Raven will be able to fly freely, both near and far. We intend to distribute the journal across the Mojave High-Desert, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and London. We will be able to spread the light of this place and this community far and wide, supporting a vibrant local economy that relies heavily on tourism. This is why it will be free.
As a brand new publication that is only going to be advertising local, independent businesses and not corporate franchises, we want to keep our rates competitive. Enough for us to meet our production costs. And as mentioned earlier, in the interests of providing something of quality, we are not going to saturate the publication with advertising. Which brings us to this GoFundMe campaign. We need to raise $600 to cover our initial start-up expenses of purchasing design software, and administrative costs such as registering a fictitious name.
If The Raven has struck a cord with you, please help our fledgling project take flight. We want to encourage others to create and give freely so that creative expression ceases to be so much about ownership and price tags but rather a free flowing energy stream that connects and unifies, that is inclusive rather than exclusive. Your support would show others out there dreaming of doing something similar that the time is ripe for creative initiative based on unconditional giving.
In return for your donation, you will receive the first issue of The Raven mailed directly to you, wherever you are. As a token of our gratitude, we will also print your name in the first issue for helping us get this project off the ground.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you’re interested in finding out a bit more about The Raven, here’s a short blog post.
We don't have a website as yet but you can check us out on Facebook: The Raven Journal and on Instagram @thejoshuatreeraven.
The Raven is a free quarterly arts, cultural & lifestyle journal documenting the boundless creative spirit of the high-desert, channeled both by the people who live here and by the many who come here to be infected by its unmistakable inspiration and work on their art. It is our offering to this desert and to this community and we will strive to reflect the magic of this place as truthfully as we can. The Raven will alchemize disparate talents and create something bold, unexpected and powerful. This will not be a disposable publication but a precious keepsake of this desert. As such, it will not be saturated with advertising in the traditional sense. We will advertise local, independent ventures in the form of advertorial style articles, with words and pictures. We will have one page dedicated to carefully sourced desert objects from local, independent businesses and one page of ‘ads’ featuring local, independent enterprises presented in the style of an old wooden noticeboard. Everything will be woven into the character of The Raven, into the narrative of its aesthetic.
Sustainability and the promotion of a more symbiotic relationship with the environment is close to The Raven’s heart. Each issue will feature and highlight issues around these topics, in particular the role of permaculture in creating a harmonious, fruitful and sustainable connection with this planet.
As much as The Raven is an offering to the community and beyond, it is not a community mouthpiece. The Raven is a powerful and magical creature, its folklore is that of a messenger that can travel through the veils of worlds. It is not a carrier pigeon. It will not be reporting on local news and featuring listings and classifieds. There are enough local publications which fulfill that need, as do numerous online forums.
The high-desert has an abundance of creative output. The Raven will be a product of conscious curating, channeling, filtering and distilling to align with our vision and ideal of creating something of tangible value and offering it freely to the community and wider world.
The desire to give something back to this unfailingly inspirational desert and its nurturing and supportive community is a key motivation of The Raven. Not only that, but to give something back of value for free, for a number of reasons:
1. No-one involved is being paid anything. All revenue from advertising is going directly towards printing costs. This endeavor is powered by a deep love of this place, by the elusive sentiment of not wanting to be anywhere else but here with all its challenges and rewards. Many of us have escaped here from lives that were destroying us and it is our safe haven, our opportunity to start again on our own terms. That is a lot to be thankful for and The Raven is our labor of love and gratitude. This is why it will be free.
2. We want to challenge the status quo of judging the worth of something by its commercial value. Our vision is to create something that is intrinsically valuable, something of quality and depth, and to offer it freely. The primary purpose of art and culture is not monetary, but to evoke the feeling of being able to relate to something from that nameless place, from our very essence, to understand and be understood from that place. It is about connection. Whether The Raven succeeds or fails in this endeavor, it is nevertheless our mission to make that intangible and precious feeling, which is the birthright of all, freely available; to forge unity instead of the separation that money inevitably brings. This is why it will be free.
3. Unhindered by the weight of a price tag, The Raven will be able to fly freely, both near and far. We intend to distribute the journal across the Mojave High-Desert, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and London. We will be able to spread the light of this place and this community far and wide, supporting a vibrant local economy that relies heavily on tourism. This is why it will be free.
As a brand new publication that is only going to be advertising local, independent businesses and not corporate franchises, we want to keep our rates competitive. Enough for us to meet our production costs. And as mentioned earlier, in the interests of providing something of quality, we are not going to saturate the publication with advertising. Which brings us to this GoFundMe campaign. We need to raise $600 to cover our initial start-up expenses of purchasing design software, and administrative costs such as registering a fictitious name.
If The Raven has struck a cord with you, please help our fledgling project take flight. We want to encourage others to create and give freely so that creative expression ceases to be so much about ownership and price tags but rather a free flowing energy stream that connects and unifies, that is inclusive rather than exclusive. Your support would show others out there dreaming of doing something similar that the time is ripe for creative initiative based on unconditional giving.
In return for your donation, you will receive the first issue of The Raven mailed directly to you, wherever you are. As a token of our gratitude, we will also print your name in the first issue for helping us get this project off the ground.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you’re interested in finding out a bit more about The Raven, here’s a short blog post.
We don't have a website as yet but you can check us out on Facebook: The Raven Journal and on Instagram @thejoshuatreeraven.
Organizer
Rohini Walker
Organizer
Joshua Tree, CA
