Building Permanence Work Week 2017

$8,509.94

Raised

Donations

$8,500

Goal

We are building (physically, socially) a supportive, autonomous, healing space for Queer Black, Indigenous, and other POC in rural Tennessee. 


Where are we now?

At a recent meeting of Black and Brown Queers in Oakland, we all shared our multiple versions of land dreams and the added urgency of establishing safe rural spaces in this time of environmental and political disaster. Cities, for many of us, provide community and safe spaces. But liberation looks like choice in our moves, and access to land and open spaces, is essential to our survival.

Recognizing that land ownership is a colonist construct that our capitalist society is built on, land continues to be the most contentious resource of all. Stolen by US Government through genocide, broken treaties and shady land grabs from American Indians. Banned from Black and Brown people through policy and impossible bureaucratic mazes. The “progress” and advancement of communities of color has not included a change in who gets to own and autonomously steward land. If anything, the disparity between White landowners and Black, Brown and Indigenous ones has widened.

And despite its anti-racist radical claims, Queer community continues to solidify this disparity. White queer land projects exist in large numbers and continue to be established without any real moves towards redistribution that centers and uplifts QTIBIPOC. At best, tokenization and empty anti-racist trainings.

If you haven’t heard, Ida in Tennessee has made a huge step in recognizing that land stewardship in the autonomous hands of Queer Black, Indigenous, People of Color is the needed step towards collective liberation.


“Since September, 2014, the IDA campground formerly known as Dog Park has been permanently reclaimed as QTIBIPOC autonomous space. Building Permanence is the rock-solid next step in the transformation of IDA from a white-centric refuge for arty queerdos into a place where QTIBIPOC [queer, trans, intersex, black, indigenous, and people of color] can seek safety and empowerment as well.

There has been an ongoing struggle to carve out space for QTIBIPOC at IDA in middle Tennessee. Grand contributions of labor, physical and emotional, yet the QTIBIPOC experience at IDA continues to be frustrating, disheartening, and sometimes dangerous, with every improvement toward a more inclusive IDA evaporating in the time between gatherings.

So what do you do when impermanence is the issue? Make things last. We build”.


This project is donation fueled and volunteer run. Folks have travelled far to be a part of this project, contributing hundreds of hours of work and gallons of sweat. We're well on our way, but we still need your help! Click below to donate. All funds donated will go directly into completing the three-room insulated communal structure.


Can't donate and wondering other ways to help?  Share us on facebook (tumblr, twitter, okcupid, etc), throw us a benefit/dancepartyrager in your town, or come out to build, learn, and share skills with us in middle Tennessee! Email us at building.permanence@gmail.com


We are committed to transparency in our accounting. The project's complete ledger will be available at http://buildingpermanence.tumblr.com/ when the project gets funded. In the meantime, here is how we intend to spend this money:


200 deck: stain/sealant 

600 build barn doors + rails

1000 drywall/internal sheathing 

400 Paints and primers

500 ramp for accessibility

2000 for electrical fixtures and permit for distribution panel

1400 food for workweek

850 tools: 2 driver/drill sets, circular saw + blades, speed squares, hammers, tape measures**, palm sander, belt sander, etc

2000 scholarships

550 Contingency

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9,500



Have another idea to help Building Permanence? Email us at building.permanence@gmail.com!




***QTIBIPOC: Interested in coming to skill share/build/organize? Register for the work week HERE***