I am going to make this Ask very short. For a few reasons.

One, because I am very emotional about it, and don’t want my maudlin feelings to spill over onto the page. We are at the last week before Solstice, which is also one month before our two year mark, and the time that we had set to determine whether the project of Lace on Race could reliably and durably make and achieve modest goals for sustainability.

The stakes are high for this community we have forged, and for me.

This entire last month has been, actually. Working on two tracks: researching and writing ever more content in what can feel like blind faith, while also forcing myself to consider a life and a place where our walk together may end.

I don’t think too much about the last part of the above paragraph. It’s paralyzing.

But the facts are real. Last week’s Ask netted 7 responses, and because we chose to boost (FB’s euphemism for running an ad) actually resulted in a net loss, so we are at about the same place we were before last weekend, at about half of our Basic goal. It seems like people are voting with their silence.

Again, I don’t think too much about that. So we will continue writing, and engaging for this next week, and we will see what the future holds.

If you have not yet made the opportunity to partner with this space and your fellow walkers so we can continue into the coming year, I humbly do ask that you do so.

If you have indeed committed as a Sustainer, and have not yet fulfilled that commitment, again, I quietly ask for your support and thank you in advance.

I am determined that this Ask be an exhortation and not a dirge. I know that what we have done, are doing and–please Universe–what we will do in the future will have long term reach, benefit and legacy.

But only if we stay the course.

Please walk with Lace on Race in a tangible way.

Off to pick and hold onto an orange.

Again, as a grateful Thank You to current active Sustainers, and also for those who are willing to walk with us as relentlessly reliable Sustainers through 2020, to those who have carried and watered us without fail and with resilient resolve, we are beyond tickled to offer you a gift!

Lace’s poem ‘God Is A Black Woman’ is being readied into a gift book, made manifest by my brother by another mother in Houston. He is a wonderful brother and also an amazing graphic artist. I saw the proofs and wept. My baby brother gets me, gets us, and has borne great fruit for our community.

They will ship early this next year, regardless of if we meet our December 21 goal.

If you want to be included in this, message us and let us know, or just fill out the Sustainer form to commit, or to re-commit, to keeping Lace on Race alive and thriving this month and through the next year.

paypal.me/mennolacie