we're all doing the best we can: an update from the web

hello spiderfriends near & far;

no doubt you are having a very weird week(s). we are too. personally, i don’t know what day it is. (time is a construct.) however you’re coping, i hope you are able to take things moment to moment and find time to breathe. it helps to have good books to read, dear friends to talk to, and a journal for your thoughts. i’m in no place to be giving sane advice right now but i do intend to update you with a few things that are going on with the ‘web during these bizarre and confusing times. there are still ways we can connect and grow and learn from one another and we intend to do just that.

YOU ARE HERE: MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT GROUPS

our much-needed mental health support groups have gone online, and our facilitators and community are here to listen and support each other during these difficult days. please email yah.braedyn@gmail.com or yah.caitlin@gmail.com for a link to the zoom meeting! here are the upcoming meeting times: Saturday, March 28 at 1:30pm Tuesday, March 31 at 6:30pm Meetings are generally held every Tuesday evening and the last Saturday of the month. Feel free to email us or the facilitators at the address above if you have any questions.

FOLLOW THE READER BOOKCLUB

this month our FOLLOW THE READER bookclub read Persepolis with a supplemental treat recommended by Shadan, Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, and we invite our bookish community members to join us for a lively online discussion this Thursday (March 26) at 7pm! If you haven’t read either of the books but you aren’t afraid of spoilers, you are more than welcome to zoom with us for some entertainment and learning! you can also join us next month in honor of National Poetry Month we will be doing a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE challenge, in which you read as many poems as you can and bring your favorites to share at our meetup at the end of the month (next one will be Thursday, April 30, but we may hang out earlier just for fun-stay tuned!). as always, we are happy to offer suggestions if you need somewhere to start and we have digital resources available to anyone who may need them!

Link to Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/210850978 Meeting ID: 210 850 978

DISCORD & HAPPY HOURS & VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING OH MY

Nina set up a Discord server for Spiderfam! join us here: https://discord.gg/GkjfK4n if you're not familiar with Discord, that's ok because we’re figuring it out too. it’s a chat server that is available thru web browsers and the phone app, so we can keep in touch with each other. we’re in here offering mutual support to one another & sharing photos of our pets & meals & craft projects & you should totally get in on this.

we had a super cute zoom happy hour last week and we’ll definitely do it again. it was great to see everyone’s faces and commiserate as a community. we will share via our socials when we do it again – let us know if you don’t have access to other communication channels and we will make a note to email or text you invites personally! the crew is also planning some virtual programming to bring us together and continue to showcase the creativity of our brilliant artists and writers. we'll have more on that soon, but for this week check out:

VIRTUAL OPEN MIC IN SUPPORT OF GOLDEN BOY COFFEE CO.

our dear co-collaborator Anjelica Fraga set up an open mic featuring a collection of spiderpals sharing their poetry, songs, and stories virtually! we’ll be pretending we are at Golden Boy Coffee Co and encouraging everyone to give to their employee fundraiser here in lieu of a cover for the show: https://www.gofundme.com/f/golden-boy-tips-amp-donations

check out the open mic at 7, and/or happy hour with us starting at 6 in this zoom meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/399096623 Meeting ID: 399 096 623

AN UPDATE REGARDING OUR PATREON FUNDS & ARTIST LIVELIHOODS & “THE FLOOD”

as you can imagine, many of our artists & co-collaborators have lost sustaining gigs/work/jobs recently, so we’re keeping a spreadsheet updated with links & payment info. please share this link and contribute as you can- we are so grateful!

http://bit.ly/spiderweb-support

BIG NOTE: we will also be splitting up our patreon payout on April 1 between our collective members in need, so you are already helping us help our artists so much. we plan to continue using our funds in this way for the duration of the crisis at hand. thank you so much for making this possible.

lastly, our HQ studio flooded last week & though it was a horrible, terrible mess nothing crucial was lost or damaged & we are so grateful for community members checking in & contributing support where they can. we love you so much!

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER

we’ve been thinking a lot about our role in the community & how we can continue to do what we do best as a collective in the era of social distancing: support, love, create....we’ll no doubt have more on that later. right now it’s time to breathe deep. we are all facing big challenges & changes right now & it’s scary but we are in it together & send our love to all of you forever

thank you so much. i miss you.

courtney marie, spider-mom-friend

PS before this all went down, our friends at What the Femme?! were kind enough to interview me and we talked a lot about spiderweb things & hopes & dreams & more: https://www.wtfemmepodcast.com/episodes/episode-34-courtney-marie