As I write this Mid-August Ask (which absolutely should have been the Early August Ask), we are in the midst of preparing for our upcoming celebrations which will start on August 19th!
That’s my birthday, and even if I weren’t revisiting (and savoring) past essays, my upcoming birthday would be placing me in a reflective and celebratory mood.
The past three plus years have indelibly changed me. I am a different woman than I was in 2018, when I first launched Lace on Race.
You all have changed me. So very much. Engaging with you all; writing with your faces in mind, walking up and down my driveway (whew!) thinking of what I want to impart, and the precise words to best enable you to ‘get it in, get it in, get it in’; reading your emails and messages, talking with you one on one–yes, including even the hard conversations, hearing of your challenges and successes as you endeavored to ‘live it out, live it out, live it out’–I wouldn’t change a moment. Not a single moment.
Every day, every week, every month is a rebirth and a re-commitment to North Star. Every day, every week, every month comes with a deep internal search of my psyche and soul.
Is my own praxis marrow deep? Am I being the woman I say I want to be? Who am I imitating and emulating? Whose examples are being etched into my very bones?
Am I a woman worth following today?
I ask that question to myself at least two times a day. In the morning–will I be a woman worth following today?
And as night falls and I put head to pillow, the final query: was I a woman worth following today? Did I live out the values I espouse? Did I employ Kind Candor? Did I manage my slosh? Did I see eye to eye?
That enough of you feel that I answer these queries in the affirmative both warms and galvanizes me. I want to be a woman who takes this organization to the next level–not just for pride of place or the bragging rights of scale, or as the kids say, of ‘leveling up’.
No. I want more for myself and this org–and more for each and every one of you–active; dormant, spectator, Cafe diners; Takeout gulpers–even detractors and those both hostile to me and to my theories and methods–oh yes; I want more.
Because the North Star is fueled by growth. Because there are still Black and brown people harmed by racism and white supremacy, who still endure what they should not.
Always: On my mind and embedded in my heart. Front and center.
I am betting that this is true for you too.
If you are here, I assume you affirm enough of what we do here to want it to continue. So–a pointed and direct and overt Ask. It’s the only way we can keep doing what we are doing, and continue to work behind the scenes to share our message and method and mission.
I need you. Not the person to the left or right of you. Nor behind you or in front.
But you. You specifically.
This month, my birthday month, my wish is to add 500 people who will partner with us and tangibly engage for the first time. I have said this before–it is hard to run an org like this on fumes. 500 out of 10k is a modest goal. We have not met it; certainly not since Holly in February. We have never stopped content and engagement either inside or outside the metaphorical living room and dining rooms. We need your help to continue to do so.
So! Belly up to the Takeout Window and engage a la carte.
For those of you who would like to become Sustainers or Sustainers in Training–who would like to commit to a reliable amount each month, so we can plan and dream and implement with our utmost, click the link below. Walking with us in this enhanced way is such an affirmation–beyond the administration and the programmatic. Saying yes to staying in the car is such a big deal. My birthday wish is to have no fewer than 200 new Sustainers willing to make six months to one year commitments to our Western Star–the long term health and sustainability of this space.
For those of you who want to plant still deeper roots, partnering with the Sonas Fund for planned giving, and strategic philanthropy (hate that term, but ya), do message us. I and my staff will speak with you personally. Funds can be unrestricted, or designated for specific projects: Mental Health Fund; Lace on Race Lives; curriculum and other resources; to ensure that anyone, absolutely anyone who wants or needs it can have one on one abiding and coaching, and so much more.
However you choose to financially and tangibly engage, we deeply thank you.
As always, we will steward your funds to the absolute best of our abilities. We will share with Firstfruits. My staff and Leadership Team are here to serve, and to teach how to serve–all in deep alignment to both the here and now and to legacy.
We invite you in.
All that we want to do and be can happen. But only with your financial engagement. Please consider partnering with us, either as a monthly sustainer, or a la carte. Our PayPal is paypal.me/LaceonRace. We deeply appreciate you and your choice to look to and partner with our Western Star; the health and long term stability of this space. I deeply thank you.
Join our Bistro Discussion Below
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I am thinking about the importance of affirming with our wallets as well as with our follows and our words. There are some people online that I have found fairly difficult to financially engage with, and it has taken time and energy to find out how to get my money to them. Lace makes it easy though. I believe I have been financially engaging with this space for a year now, and it is always clear how to do it while at the same time there is the flexibility for us to determine how much on our own, and for me that amount has changed over time as my thinking has changed. Financially engaging with Lace on Race takes me a few more clicks than it did to initially search for the community and *like* it so that it would sometimes show up on my Facebook feed. Even if it were more difficult to figure out that I should engage and to actually engage here, it would still be my responsibility to do so regularly. And more than that, it would still be my honor to do so and my challenge to do so. White supremacy culture tells me to fear scarcity. Because of that, I am apt to find any tiny reason I possibly can to do my penny pinching here at a Black woman-led racial justice space. And I am easily convinced that whatever tiny reason crops up is a reasonable one. It is my challenge to financially engage here with this space that I know and love. It is the work of racial justice. I have financially engaged in August.
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“It is the work of racial justice.” THIS.
Once I understood that, my financial engagement can only grow – both here and in other Black-led spaces. Some months the fear of scarcity, like you mentioned, tugs at me, but knowing that this is justice work has pushed me forward.
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ditto to Christin above! This financial engagement is the work. I can waste so much brain space asking ‘am I doing the work when I do this?’ ‘when I do that?’. Whenever I open my pocketbook and engage financially in spaces and work like this one it’s then I’m absolutely doing the work.
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Yes, I feel this too. The fear of scarcity andthe work of racial justice . . . two things to hold in tension. I have to make a choice, each day, which one of these is going to direct my path and praxis. My fear of scarcity, my hesitancy, is rooted in white supremacy. The NorthStar must be front and center, because thinking about how my actions (or inactions) impact Black and brown people, it puts things into perspective, allows me to name my fear or hesitation while not allowing it to guide my praxis.
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Thank you for naming inactions, Kelsi. I think too often we conceptualize racism & antiracism in terms of actions. But what we choose NOT to do matters.
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Yes, and so much of white supremacy is about passive inactions and “can’ts” disguised as “won’t”. I just engaged the Encouragement, Exhortation, and the “Can’t” post from the starters forum so that was on my mind. Happy to be walking with you Kristin!
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I have engaged financially for August. And happy early birthday, Lace! I’m so excited for the cafe and lace festivities to start!
The daily check in, check out reflection of Am I a woman worth following today? is so vital. Because it forces daily, active work on my ethos and my praxis. Am I being who I say I want to be? Is who I say I want to be truly the best that I could be?
When my ethos grows, my praxis grows, when my praxis grows, I grow as a safer person for bipoc. I grow in my lessening and mitigating harm.
Lace, you prompt and push and nurture that growth. So of course I have engaged financially for the health of this community. And will continue to do so. Because you and this community have led me and so many others on a fight toward the North Star
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Financially engaging was one of the first things I did when I found Lace on Race because I understood the difference it would immediately make through supporting Lace and the organization and the community partners to make the world safer for Black and brown people. I appreciate Lace’s example and Hesed in everything she does, including this ask. I’ve engaged financially for August as planned. Happy birthday week, Lace!
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‘you specifically’ reminds me how all to easily I focus on the package I want to be in this work rather than the package I’m in. While focusing on change I want to make is important, what’s most important is what I’m doing in this moment, with this current present version of me. Focusing on the future can all too easily become a defense mechanism from accountability about the present. I have to do the same with walking here, with my pocketbook and with wrapping others into the double decker bus here. I have financially engaged for August and am excited to celebrate your birthday, Lace and all that continues to grow here at Lace on Race!
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I engaged financially for three reasons: It’s Lace’s birthday (Happy Birthday!!); to support a Black woman business leader (one to another); and I believe praxis leads to social evolution (social evolution happens to be my North star). Most significantly, I feel joyful and proud of the intentionality behind Lace on Race.
Carry on, good people! ?
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Lorise, I appreciate your succinct words! I engage as praxis – plain and simple and appropriate.
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I will continue to financially engage here, and in other Black-led spaces. It is part of my praxis, and is my honor tofinancially, for all that this community has done for me. I need Lace on Race, I need Lace and each of you. We need each other. Yes, at times it is easy to be held back by the fear of scarcity, but looking toward the Northstar keeps me moving forward, because I want to do my part in lessening the harm done to Black and brown people. We are new people doing new things in new ways, cultivating seeds of change that will one day, become oranges.
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I have engaged financially. Happy birthday, Lace!
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