It’s Time to Get ENCOREGANIZED
Greetings everyone,
Much could be updated upon personally and commented upon globally since I last sent out a newsletter on October 3, and if you’d really like to catch my vibe on some of those fronts, most of my processing and sharing has been taking place publicly over on Instagram and privately in, well, every conversation with anyone I have an active relationship with. But one thing I’ve noticed about personal newsletter culture is that sometimes we want the processing and sharing and musing and even the sensible updates, and other times we just want something concrete - something that was ready to be shared in this right space. And today, friends, I’m here to offer both.
Read on for a formal invitation, followed by a messy deluge of snark and emotion.
I’d like to warmly invite you to donate to or join me in person at
ENCOREGANIZED
A NIGHT OF PERFORMANCE BY CHICAGO ARTIST-ORGANIZERS
+ FUNDRAISER FOR ROSSANA RODRÍGUEZ & GRACIELA GUZMÁN
SUNDAY, MARCH 3
COLE’S BAR, LOGAN SQUARE, CHICAGO
DOORS 5PM, SHOW ~6-8PM
FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY ~THE CANDIDATES THEMSELVES~ AND MORE FANTASTIC ARTISTS TO BE ANNOUNCED
CO-HOSTED W/ 33RD WARD WORKING FAMILIES
TICKETS/DONATIONS HERE
ACCESS INFO BELOW
Listen, we're all feeling it: it's not the most encouraging season for electoral politics, locally or nationally. But on March 19, Rossana Rodríguez and Graciela Guzmán need our votes in the Illinois primary - Rossana for ward committeeperson (a role to be served in addition to her City Council seat), and Graciela for state senate. And to know Graciela and Rossana is to feel your faith restoring: they’re two steadfast fighters for mutual aid, care-based policy, a free Palestine, workers' rights, bodily autonomy, immigrant justice, root-cause public safety beyond policing, healthcare access, affordable housing, and so much more. In a moment when collective action is as urgent as ever, let's pool up our cash and then elect and lift up leaders who will stay rooted in movement.
If you aren’t familiar with Graciela and Rossana, you can learn more about each of them at those links. But just to offer a few words from my first person:
I’ve been on team Rossana from the start of her first run for office in late 2018 straight through to this past week when City Council passed the ceasefire resolution she spearheaded. To be clear, the resolution passed because of movement organizing - in this case largely Palestinian-led coalitional organizing - that Rossana’s actions are integrated within. That is precisely what we want from a relationship with elected leaders. We want them to be put into office by movements, and we want them to keep working with and representing those movements once they’re there. The ceasefire resolution is one of many examples of what’s possible when folks like Rossana are in leadership.
Graciela I first met when she was helping run the northwest side food distribution warehouse during the heart of the pandemic. She’s been an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union and for equitable healthcare policy. As the daughter of refugees, she’s the kind of person I want in office to welcome our new asylum-seeking neighbors and find humane ways of using the massive resources in this region to create jobs and housing for all who need it.
Moreover, both campaigns are funded by small dollars and volunteer power rather than by the real estate and other big-money interests fueling their opponents. They’re also both aligned with and supporting turnout for Bring Chicago Home, the ballot referendum that will tax properties sold for more than $1 million in order to create a permanent revenue stream for affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness. The cash gathered by this fundraiser is not only much-needed, but will stretch far and pay dividends in long-term policy in Chicago.
So, on March 3, let’s come together and do it live! In honor of each candidate's background in the arts, ENCOREGANIZED will bring together performances from Chicago's rich community of organizers who are artists and artists who are organizers. I’ve dreamed of a night like this for ages - one that might highlight the multiplicity and shared solidarity across these areas of cultural work. There will be music, comedy, storytelling, and hopefully some dancing. Full lineup coming soon - keep up with my Instagram for updates.
Access info & more on what to expect:
Cole's is a ground-floor ADA compliant space. It is overall small/cozy and navigation can become tight at crowded events.
There is a public front bar space as well as a back performance space for events. On the night of this event, air purifiers will be running & masks will be required for attendees in the back performance space.
The performance space is not seated.
This is a 21+ event.
Lowest ticket price not accessible to you? Come the night of and we’ll work it out.
Questions or access needs not addressed here? Email build@rossanafor33.org.
Got other plans? Live out of town? Friends and strangers and loved ones, I gently implore you, please buy a ticket anyway as a donation!
These are bare-bones campaigns, we set a big goal for this fundraiser, and moreover, we can use your donation to pay forward attendance for someone who couldn’t afford a ticket!
Some informal additional context for lucky readers of this newsletter:
Bruh, I’m sure there are 12 past versions of me that would be like “well, actually” to the hyperbole ahead, but fuck it: I have never in my life been so fucking over electoral politics. You don’t need me to list the reasons why, but once again, fuck it: Genocide Joe, Brandi Jojo more like where is the pro-pro(gressive energy), some jackass in Pennsylvania (who may be getting his comeuppance in the form of wifely leave-taking?! Giselle we’ve got room for you in the commune, just say the word) - ANYWAY, the point is, one looks at the number of deaths in Gaza and migrants sleeping at O’Hare and record-breaking temps last year and anti-trans bills passed across the country - not to mention everything that was already not working and everyone who was already not being cared for before the specific crises just listed came into acute public awareness - and it’s like what are we even doing we need to seize all capital and, I’ll mention again, get the commune set up stat.* Or something.
So why am I organizing a fundraiser for two candidates running for local office in 2024?
People I trust asked me to.
I have a very particular set of skills acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like the Democratic machine - and a dream for progressive folks needing grassroots fundraising support.
Getting your hopes up about local politics can definitely still be foolish/risky, but not as much as national, and along the way, you may feel more legitimately connected to something intimate yet greater than yourself.
After they asked me to, I was like, well I know approximately 1,857 artists in Chicago and I could probably ask some of them to perform for a small but fair fee in hopes to get a much larger number of people to contribute a modest-to-significant donation to something very important and values-aligned.
Frankly, I wanted the glory.
For real tho: when people like Graciela and Rossana are out there in these halls of problematic power trying to change shit, I feel that we can’t just abandon them to already treacherous terrain. As my dear friend and mentor Leslie Cagan has often told me, electoral politics can’t be the only front on which we fight, but it is an important one, and one that we can use to our advantage.
*Encourage yall to read Everything For Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072, by M. E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi.
That’s all for now. More to come soon, mainly about things others are doing that I want to spread the word about. Until then, see you at the doors, in the streets, and by the bar in the lobby after the show.