How to make waves in the sea
a breakdown of fundraising + omg this email thick as hell like?? the girth??
Another year around the sun (almost) and I’ll be 25 (11/11:) )
Its been quite a year, and rly a shift from who I was when I was 23 (thankfully). I yearn for adventure, but I more so yearn for a job. Alas, we move, and cheers to many more years to come.
But what i’ve rly been doing this past few weeks has been setting up a fundraiser for Palestinian Aid. It has been a nice way for me to stay up to date with everything happening, but not drown into hopelessness. I just wanted to talk about how I got it going and whats next.
We all saw what was happening in Palestine, and we were all hopeless. In the little microcosm of our online art twitter bubble, there was a surprising defense of IDF militant action. I saw ex-idf members display their weapons in celebration, and people deeming the genocide as “justified”. I never thought I’d see artist be opposed to wanting people to survive, and demanding for the end of a culture. What is art besides a means of survival and culture?
While many were quiet at first, I saw rumblings of a movement. Would artists risk their careers to stand up for whats right? Would people be willing to learn about a cause instead of constantly feeding the algorithm for personal growth? Would someone be ok with burning bridges in such a small community? I typed up a thread with links and resources to educate, and the people responded with love and interest. I had faith.
I was tired of the online life tho, and have been growingly exhausted by it for the past few months. So i went to some protests in DC. I was solo, but that just let me schedule around it easier. And while I was there, I posted a picture onto my twitter, simply stating that I am here, and that I support palestine. And people responded with love and interest. I had faith.
As I was doomscrolling, I lost touch with my art. Unfortunate, but it’s time like these where I know that what I make, is not what I want to make. So after wrapping up some stopmotions, i took a bit of a break; I felt something different coming. It came in the form of a DM, asking to join a fundraiser.
Ofc I said yes - fundraisers let me flex my art chops while breaking away from my standard themes, so they’re always appreciated. @Daliilama1 on twitter, or @natxlama on insta was the person who asked, and I wanted to help out. After being a part of another fundraiser just as an artist, I wanted to learn more about how to run them, so I asked the original organizer of the other fundraiser. He (@emilcadeau on twt and ig) said that while it was possible to run a fundraiser solo, more people helping out makes the process less mentally crippling. So I offered to help out.
We got on a call - she was based in Jordan, so we were trying to manage a time that works between us. Thankfully being unemployed finally had its perks. We hopped on a call and got to chatting. We talked about what we wanted from this drop and how we how we could manage it. We met back in NYC a few months ago, so it was a nice full circle moment and a good catch up. The conditions for it were rough tho.
We agreed that we wanted to fundraise, but I wanted to take a stance. I felt that fundraising was not going to work under a blockade, so i wanted to make a pointed message to rally people together. But after writing a proposal stating how people “will burn all their bridges and make enemies in the space”, i figured it might have been a bit antagonizing. And it was definitely more of a personal statement than a rallying call. We tagged another person onto our group, Anubis (@anubis_3100 on twt), to help create a more approachable dialogue for a digital space that didnt have much support for Palestinian peoples.
I always hated taking the middle ground, but this rly wasnt about me. While funds aren’t the first thing needed, they absolutely will be to reconstruct gaza. I wrapped up our proposal, and then got on to DMing ppl, as the other two members in the fundraiser were working on finding fundraisers, outreach with organizations, and managing backend tech things.
My notion has been a lifesaver. I made a list of people, pushing 70 artists, to reach out to. I had my google doc of the proposal, and a google form to get people’s info to include them in the fundraiser. And then several copy/paste-able msgs. A quick wall of text for artist to just flood inboxes, and a copy/paste for people who said yes. And then I started sending them out.
I hate spams. and to be the one spamming was just as uncomfortable. At least until I was getting responses :) . I was dming people I’ve never interacted with before, and people I was in contact with nearly daily. I was mostly reaching out to people who were the most vocal about what is going on. Surprisingly, thats where I got the most silence. Id rather tell myself that they prefer a more direct statement, or they dont see the point of fundraising, but it was disappointing nonetheless.
Each day we got an extra 10 people. I made them fill out a form for their info before we got them in our twitter groupchat, as retroactively getting info is nearly impossible. Someone said its like herding stray cats, and that is the most real description i’ve heard ever. But support was coming. Even people who said no still want to support through just resharing info, which is still a huge step in the right direction.
Im calling the other organizers of this fundraiser, and we keep hammering details. We r on call with a person in Malaysia who also wants to do a drop. We have people in france (not capitalizing that one) and throughout the Middle East wanting to set up a charity. It feels like a mad dash into a wall, as we have all this energy but only a phone can help us, and theres a blockade of aid, stopping so much from happening. So many people want to help, but nobody knows how. We are cursed with having time on our side, so we have to take it all slowly to get the most efficient and cleaned statements and ideas for our drop.
Everything in our proposal was looked over several times. all our messages had to be proofread to be entirely apolitical. I don’t understand how anything regarding Palestine can be apolitical, especially as humanity has been called into question. I don’t like the passive route, where we r simply suggesting that “something bad happened” vs addressing a genocide. But we truly have to CNN this. If we want to help, and if we want to stay in this space, we must stay as neutral as we can. It helps create a space for artists to help, even if they don’t know as much as they want to abt whats happening.
And i think that there is the lesson. People want to speak, but they don’t know how. Artists are born in loneliness, and nobody wants to go back to solitude. Speaking up can send you into loneliness again. But creating a community of people who want to stand up is the best I couldve done with the resources I had. When we can only see a genocide get worse each day, using this space to create hope for a group of people is powerful.
We have the fundraiser set up, all we need now is the art. We have ~70 artists throughout the world, from various religions, and varying beliefs. We know that there are people that are being hurt, and families being erased. But we have made space. We have created dialogue. And soon, we can create funds.
I tweeted out a promotional thread (which ill add at the bottom) and now its just a waiting game for me. Will there be support? will there be backlash? what is this sense of guilt? should I have made more of a statement? Theres a knot in my stomach that can only be described as the feeling of needing to take a shit while still being hungry. or anxiousness.
It’s exhausting, but im not yet sure if its fulfilling. I usually hit burnout around this time, and i think its already happening. alas, we move
thanks yall, and happy bday me (on saturday)
free palestine
Faraz
ps. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh this one took a while. I still need to make a piece for the fundraiser too, but it should be done soon.
pss. the hardest part rly is burnout. I just wanna make things now. but im happy that I could put my energy into this, bc its been the best way for me to get away from my phone. ooooooo bruhhhhhhh im ready for bed
https://x.com/razDoesArt/status/1721969277710794929?s=20
link to twitter thread for promo^