Guess what? It’s my birthday! I love my birthday. (Guess the subject line was a bit of a spoiler).
I love to take the day to celebrate being alive, reflect on the past year, and set new goals and intentions for the coming year. Given everything that happened this past year – it’s going to take a lot reflecting.
EXCITING birthday move:
I decided to launch a Patreon Community today to kick off my 43rd year. This way, everything is in one magical safe digital space for us. You won’t miss a single thing, we can work together on all the new things, and it’s an easy way to support my work so that I can keep doing it.
I encourage you to watch the video. It explains the why and how and goes over some of the highlights of what we have been able to accomplish together this year despite the barriers.
https://www.patreon.com/BadassCrossStitch
And because I love to give gifts on my birthday, if you join today at the $10+ level, I will send you a random sticker 3-pack in the mail.
If you join at any level this month, you are entered to win a custom piece of art made by me for you on this beautiful antique textile!
Don’t forget it’s Pride Month and there is no better way to celebrate than directly supporting the work of a queer art activist trying to make a difference in this world. (it’s me…I’m talking about supporting me)
Other things you should know about:
The How To Be A Good Human Initiative
I’ve launched a new initiative aimed at supporting everyone in developing some hard skill-sets to make us all better community members and citizens. These trainings are free or pay-what-you-can with 100% of the donations going to the organizations and experts leading these workshops.
In March + April we worked with Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago and trained about 500 people in being Active Bystanders. We learned the 5 D’s of bystander intervention and 100% of participants reported that they walked away feeling confident in their ability to respond to incidents of violence. If you missed those trainings, you can register for one directly with Advancing Justice here.
In May, Omkari Williams led Activism 101 for Introverts + Highly Sensitive People and it filled up in 24 hours with 100 participants. It was so well received that we will be offering it again on September 25th.
June is going to be Harm Reduction month! I am partner with the National Harm Reduction Coalition and they will be presenting four workshops for us. We will offer two sessions on how to prevent a drug overdose, a panel on speaking to young people about drugs and harm reduction, and harm reduction on college campuses. Registration will go public shortly. (If you join the Patreon community you will know the second they go live…just saying) And if you want to know more about the history of harm reduction practices, I recommend this video.
Additionally, on July 29th the amazing Laura Grimes will be presenting a workshop on all things therapy. Have you considered going to therapy, but you aren’t sure where to even start? Feeling overwhelmed and afraid? Not sure what to expect or ask for? We’ve got you! I’m certain you will walk away totally informed and with a game plan for moving forward.
August will feature: How to Unionize Your Workplace with two of my favorite union organizers!
AND, the extra fun part is that after you complete a training, you get a pattern so you can stitch yourself a completion badge for your How To Be A Good Human sash! Because…of course!
Disrupting Craftivism Panels
I have partnered up with the Be Seen Project and we are hosting quarterly discussion panels featuring amazing humans to bring an added level of public discourse and critical analysis of the craftivism movement. The first panel, hosted by the Fuller Craft Museum, was a fun and beautiful evening full of challenging discussion around “what is craftivism?”
The next panel is on June 10th and will be hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild. It will focus on the tricky relationship between craftivism and capitalism. These events are free, and you can register for the June panel here.
Inner Alchemy Cards: Build A New World Deck
I am a big fan of Mindy Tsonas Choi and she is launching something super fun and I’m happy to be a part of it.
Her words:
This workshop is meant to inspire people to join us in creating their own Inner Alchemy Card Deck as a tool for creative exploration and understanding around the concepts of anti-racism and activism.
It’s self-paced, guided, educational, creative, and joyful.
You can learn all about it and register here.
I’m going to leave it there for today, but I hope to see you all in Patreon community so we can continue to change the world together (and hopefully with far fewer death threats!)
Thank you for everything.
Xo
Shannon
A parting shot from my birthday hike in Washington State this past weekend. It did not suck.