Essays, Essays Archive

12 creatives of color to financially support throughout 2019

Photo Credit: Leighann Renee

Marginalized voices already have a hard time getting noticed. I’ve tried to do a bit of the heavy lifting for you. Wouldn’t it be great to support the work of some really phenomenal people of color in 2019? I think it would be an excellent idea.

Our challenge to you is to spend some time reading each link and pledging to the ones you are drawn to. You don’t have to be a person of color to support a person of color. If you sponsor someone or not, please pass this along to everyone you know. Let us work hard and intentionally to amplify voices among us in the new year, and always. Help me make the marginalized more mainstream.

https://www.patreon.com/hermanaresist

I operate a studio, small press and give workshops, usually in my home, and also do the following:  
*curate the online space Poems & Numbers which will release issues with different focus
*edit Hermanx Resist Press, a small DIY micro press where we will publish anthologies and collections from marginalized writers and artists.

https://www.patreon.com/bettinajudd

I am currently working on a project titled most recent common ancestor. This multimedia poetry and performance project is about mother. I have no other way to say it but to structure the previous sentence in that manner. You could say that I am interested in mitochondrial eve. She emerges enough in this project for that to be true and I’ve explained the project in that frame before but in the development of this poetic, visual, sound reflection on mother I have found something else of interest. Our desire for her and the desire to inhabit her skin. 

https://www.patreon.com/Tashiko

For more than a decade, I have been using my creative skills to dynamically inspire community engagement and create opportunities for folks to forge connections across real and digital platforms. In June 2016, my conceptual art project (and social experiment) Reparations went viral, engaging more than 100,000 people around the globe. When the experiment concluded at the end of 2016, the demand for a platform like the one I had established was still very much present, so I developed the Reparations: Requests & Offerings community on Facebook. 

https://patreon.com/FiveFifthsMedia

I created The Five-Fifths Podcast because because we’ve hit a crucial crossroads in our society. Either we face racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry head on and say, “No more.” Or continue burying our heads in the sand because we want to avoid uncomfortable conversations. None of us win, when one person in our global community suffers.

https://www.patreon.com/writeswrongs

For over 10 years, I have contributed writing, readings, lectures, workshops, translation and other work to my communities, and it’s not something that can easily be given a price tag. I want to keep my work accessible to people of all backgrounds and income levels, and I can’t do that without your help. If you have benefited from my work or would like to contribute to keeping my skills and content available free of charge to the Portland community (and other communities – people as far as Berlin and San Salvador benefit from the work we do right here in Oregon).

https://www.patreon.com/geminiwriter

I’m inviting you to follow — and support! — my journey from aspiring writer to professional writer and published author. You’ll get to see the behind-the-scenes of pursuing an MFA, balancing life while answering your calling, the creative process of writing and the technical process of getting published and making a book successful. Discover and learn along with me as I navigate the triumphs and failures, the good, the bad and the torturesome! I promise to be open and authentic throughout, because what’s the point otherwise?

https://patreon.com/tashafierce

 I’m a Black, queer, disabled, fat, cisgender femme, so the traditional avenues for advancement in society are often closed off to me. I know that I have amazing things to offer if given the chance, so I’m asking you to help give me one. With school and commuting and dealing with my crazy mind and my pained body and also trying to help others around me as much as possible, I don’t have a lot of spoons left for making money and pouring myself into my art. Anything you can offer would help lighten the load and enable me to create even more. 

https://www.patreon.com/jasminegolphin

If you are here, it’s because you want to support this little currently-titleless film I’m putting together and that’s really great! 

If you like what I’ve done before and want to help me keep doing more, consider signing up. Not only will you help me put this still-untitled-film together, you’ll get early access to projects I’m working on and exclusive cool stuff as my way of saying thank you. Either way, stay tuned! I’m so hyped for this film it’s not even funny.

https://www.patreon.com/truthisweirder

I’m a nonbinary transgender Latinx artist and writer from Portland, Oregon!

I write comics about mental illness, queer identity, and rambunctious rescue cats. Like a lot of people I know, I’ve spent my life dealing with some serious trauma, struggling with my identity, and trying to live my life in a society where I’ve never quite fit in. Maybe you can relate?

https://www.patreon.com/TinaVasquez

As a queer woman of color working in new media, I understand how desperately the voices of queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) are needed. As a writer, I respectfully tell stories and explore issues that impact communities at the margins. As an editor, I am deeply committed to uplifting the voices of QTPOC. 

https://www.patreon.com/briannablogs

I write on issues of race & racism, sexual and reproductive health/rights/justice, current events, radical politics, queer theory, and feminism, generally—and I love being able to share my thoughts and words with such a loving audience.

https://www.patreon.com/satyanelms

The characters I create and the stories I tell reflect my life’s journey. I write about women, mothers, sisters, and children. I write about subtle traumas and catastrophic ones. I write about relationships and love, both the ones that hurt and the ones that heal. I write about intricacies and politics of identity and I write myself into places and spaces where I and others like me can belong. 

And a bonus, our Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/raisingmothers

Raising Mothers is a literary magazine created by and for women of color and femmes of color discussing the intersections of race, sex, faith and parenting. We center the work of the marginalized in our effort to normalize our stories and existence on the web and in life. 

We focus on mothers of color and femmes of color. We are an inclusive bunch. We represent all walks of life and want to amplify the voices of the underrepresented. Far too often, Black and brown and trans voices are either silenced or used as a token. Not at Raising Mothers. We are the standard. 


Raising Mothers is a free online literary magazine for femmes and NBPOC parents of color. We center the work of the marginalized in our effort to normalize our stories and existence on the web, and in life.     
Filed under: Essays, Essays Archive

by

Sherisa de Groot (she/her) is a writer, community builder, and founder of Raising Mothers, literary membership community Literary Liberation, and pens A Home Within Myself. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications, including Kindred by Parents, Refinery 29, Mutha Magazine, and Oldster Magazine and she was a contributor to the book ‘100 Diverse Voices on Parenthood’ by A Kid’s Company About. With a focus on intersectionality and social justice, de Groot’s writing explores the nuances of motherhood and the experiences of BIPOC mothers and marginalized genders. Through her work, she aims to amplify the voices of those who have been historically silenced and create a more equitable world for all. Raising Mothers was the 2021 Romper People’s Choice Iris Award Winner. Originally from Brooklyn New York, she is a first-generation American turned immigrant living in Amsterdam, NL with her husband, two children, and cat.