A Message from the Founder: Write. Fight. GIVE.

By Tamura Lomax on December 31, 2016

Dear Friends of The Feminist Wire,

I co-founded TFW with Hortense Spillers in 2011 while still a graduate student. My vision was to create an intersectional, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, mediated feminist space committed to telling the other side of the story in a world where crisis seems to run amok, mainstream media lacks integrity, complex story-telling and principled socio-political and cultural critique appears null, and structural and interpersonal violence against the most vulnerable remains steady and omnipresent.

TFW was intended to be a critical source of light in a shattered political economy. The dangers we faced in 2011–sexism, racism, white supremacy, rampant corporatism, unbridled neo-liberal economic practices, unrelenting bigoted right-wing media, un-sustained citizen participation, cultures of war, hyper-militarism, patriarchy, ableism, classism, heteronormativity, capitalism, threats to women’s safety, reproductive freedom and health, and more–are even more present today. In fact, with a white nationalist sexual predator about to assume the presidency of the U.S., we are living under a heightened racist, sexist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, misogynist state of emergency. Our work is needed now more than ever.

First and foremost, thank you for your support thus far. We cannot do this work without you. As you know, TFW is a labor of love. We don’t have huge (or small) sponsorships. What we have is us and that includes YOU. We survive thanks to a handful of AMAZING donors, including some precious souls who give monthly. But we need more than survival in 2017. We need to find new ways not only to thrive but to understand, navigate, and resist in this current moment. And because we cannot trust mainstream media, we need more critical and responsible voices writing and speaking about the current political climate. But we cannot do the work 2017 demands of us without your immediate help. Specifically, we need you to help us pay our Collective members a stipend per article.

TFW Collective members have volunteered their time over the years because they believe in the vision. Many have worked tirelessly to bring you a quality product and important resistance to the status quo. And for almost all of us, TFW is the 3rd shift. We do this work alongside of and sometimes in place of our paid works. But if we want and need more, WE NEED YOUR HELP. If nothing else, the 2016 presidential election solidified the need for independent countermedia, and more, for informed, intersectional, righteously discontented feminist writing, resistance, dialogue, and dismantling of the public sphere.

Will you chip in? We will not be bullied by an administration that seeks to deconstruct, marginalize, and mute free and independent media. Nor will we be silent in this critical historical moment. Your donation will keep TFW alive as well as help us continue this work in 2017. These are no ordinary times. Help support our vision and labor and make a donation today!

Happy New Year!