We need you (and others) to help keep the load off of our backs!

In the spirit of reciprocity—the interconnected web and flows of our African and diasporic traditions, The Cypher is asking for funds to cover costs of operations, medical care for our chronically ill kin membership and basic survival.

Our formation is an intergenerational, multi-experiential space that pushes past the status quo to embrace ancestral indigenous ways of knowing and remembering. We hold Black space as sacred and necessary for survival – Black Trans and Queer space even more so.

We are a Black femme[1]-focused and led QTBIPOC[2] collective with the goal of forwarding Black Trans and Queer liberation with a food and environmental justice praxis.

So often Black Trans*[3] and Queer femmes take on the invisible labor of taking care of our communities and expected and indoctrinated to not expect or want anything in return. But it is extractive and it leads to a physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual toll on the Black Trans* and Queer femmes who have given the care, knowledge, funds, etc.

Many of us have done this work for free, with multiple disabilities, compromising our bodies.

It's been an honor to generate a fire for many of our kin and we wish to continue to bringing forward world-changing conversations and principles, but the reality is that the boot of costs and inequity on our necks has not let up. We need urgent material support for the following:

The Cypher website and additional applications and e-services
Storage and additional utilities
Food, medicine, supplements and additional material supplies
Transportation

Our spirited spaces have time and time again provided education, food access, health, and solidarity needs for LGBTQIA+ Black and Indigenous communities by activating healing, educational, and joy-building from a Queer, vegan perspective.

We address the needs of our communities by exemplifying context for the ways in which justice for Earth and other animals is bound up in justice for the most marginalized of us humans - this is a total liberation framework. The following is a list of our liberatory offerings:

The Cypher E-Newsletter
Annual Herb Walk
"Beyond Concrete" A Radical Natural History of NYC
"The Smell of Money" Film Screening
"Messy Movement Lab" Workshop
Umoja Kwanzaa Celebration
Reiki Level 1 Training
Reiki Level 2 Training
QTBIPOC Grounding Sessions
Cyclical Lessons: Marronage, Liberation, and Co-Creation
"It's COVID Outside Pt. 1" Workshop
"It's COVID Outside Pt. 2" Workshop

Our work catalyzes transformation - creating and upholding generous vegan spaces that prioritizes Trans* and Queer Black Indigenous People of Color. These are also Caribbean and immigrant Queer Black Indigenous People of Color, usually (and mostly) on the periphery of already marginalized groups.

Instead of proverbially “closing shop” we have decided to tend the flame of necessity in the hopes that our fire keeping and sharing inspires kin like you and more to tend with/for us as well.

May we burn it bright enough to light the ways forward and together in this time of serious appeal and mutual obligation.

In Trust and Radical Gratitude,

[1] The word femme is used to describe folks who ascribe to feminine gender expression no matter their gender identity or orientation. Refer to this glossary of terms.

[2] QTBIPOC - Queer & Trans Black Indigenous People of Color

[3] Trans* - an umbrella term used to denote all Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming people. It is used here to deepen the understanding that femme knows no gender.

Support The Cypher's Urgent Operational Costs

The Cypher Needs You!