Programs
Spoonie Sessions Open Mic
Spoonie Sessions Open Mic is a new program tentatively set to begin Spring 2022. It will be a virtual and in person event for QTIBIPOC folx and their allies.
The Open Mic will center and empower QTIBIPOC disabled, chronically ill, and neurodiverse people’s creativity and artistry. It is a space where vulnerability and creativity is expressed through visual arts, poetry, music, and spoken word. It is a brave space of inclusivity, accessibility, and vulnerability for QTIBIPOC disabled, chronically ill, and neurodiverse folk to be themselves.
Limitless Letters
Limitless Letters is a pen pal program the Los Angeles Spoonie Collective is collaborating with Trans Latina Coalition to create. It is our hope that this program can serve as a connection between two very isolated parts of the LGBTQIA+ community: disabled folks and incarcerated trans folks.
Both communities face surveillance from prisons and medical facilities alike. This shared form of oppression makes it important that we both stand with each other when possible.
Like disabled people, isolated incarcerated people are often targets for violence, so sending them letters actually creates more safety for them by showing the cruel prison guards, who are power-tripping slave-driving overseers, that someone on the outside cares about incarcerated people and abuse will be reported if needed. We can help keep our siblings alive, but also know that incarcerated folks are likely to abundantly reciprocate the love that you show them. It is both our duty and our joy to be included in this amazing program.
LASC Care Web
Disabled folk have learned to live interdependently in ways that abled society historically discourages but is now being forced to embrace due to COVID-19. It’s ironic, then, that during this pandemic, disabled QTI community is most at risk of falling through government safety nets. We cannot now, nor have we ever been able to depend on the state to care for the well-being of our bodies, minds, and communities.
With this harsh reality in our minds well before the advent of the novel coronavirus, we began work on a Tongva Land Spoonie Care Web to foster interdependence between our collective members and connect them to external resources wherever those are applicable and available. This care web is in its early stages, but we are hopeful that with the rest of society waking up to the truth of disability justice, we’ll be able to secure more institutional support and funding that will allow us to manifest our vision in its entirety.
Part of that vision now includes connecting abled drivers with collective members who need groceries or medications delivered and setting up a regional bulk supply system so we can be prepared in case our farmworker or grocery worker comrades have to go on strike to keep themselves and their families safe/flatten the curve.
If you are interested in supporting this program, you can donate to our fund via Donorbox. We are disbursing funds in rounds to collective members who need it to cover rent, food, medical equipment, and other necessities, so anything that’s donated goes directly towards the survival of Disabled QTI community here on Tongva Land.
LASC Zine Book Club
The Los Angeles Spoonie Collective is presenting an exciting Zine Book Club and we want you to be a part of it! We will be talking about and making zines with some of the most important creators in the Greater Los Angeles area and beyond.
Once a month beginning in May, LASC will host a sliding scale, NOTAFLOF online event centering the voices of disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent zinesters, AND we will be sending out digital copies of the hosted creator’s zine for everyone to share. Zine Book Club events will be closed spaces for disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill people in order to make them safer and more affirming for all those participating.