love as resistance

This is Asylum Collective’s monthly newsletter. We cover our calendar, provide early access to events and classes with limited tickets/seats, and cover what we’re up to. Additionally, we announce volunteer and artist opportunities, highlight our resident artists, talk about other events, organizations, and artists we admire outside of Asylum, update our Track ID playlist with things we’re listening to (and most requested song titles from events), and dig a little deeper into the realities of operating a community-funded third place.

upcoming events

You can view our full calendar here.

volunteer & performer opportunities

Check out an overview of our calendar here. Contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Yamileth, with any questions. If you’re interested in modeling and you haven’t volunteered with us before, contact Yamileth to gain access to sign-ups.

artist updates

We have our first DJ Resident— Dylan, aka d8w, who has been volunteering with us for a long time! If you’ve been to Asylum, you’ve almost certainly experienced their fabulous picks and incredible ‘stache. After a chaotic move from one server to another and losing all of our initial applications, access to our program plans, etc, we put a long halt on our DJ Resident program to ensure something like that would never happen again, and that we’d be able to put someone in front of the project who had the passion, time, and ability to bring stability and life to it.

Their vision includes things like radio, livestreams, and more. We’re incredibly excited and honoured to have them on board.

tunes

elsewhere

Sunshine Lollipop— A grindcore group of feel-good songs to scream along to. Subjects include cat toe beans and being nice to friends. Their performances often include Godzilla get-ups and other inflatables. Much-needed feel-good fun times.

Mask Bloc Seattle— Mutual aid group that provides resources, info, and access to masks (and related material). Currently fundraising with incredible prizes. Go support them!

Freedom For Immigrants— Occasionally, when someone is detained by ICE, they are able to post bond for their freedom (pending their court date). This is just one of many organizations who can often cover that expense.

in other news

• Seattle Tarot Syndicate & Asylum have formally partnered to bring tarot to all of our events. They are an incredible group of queer tarot readers who also throw awesome parties. Check them out.

• We are rolling out summer classes very, very soon. Get ready to sign up next month (March)— newsletter subscribers get a 3-day heads up.

• We are now hosting a monthly dinner put together by Nora for transfemme people to connect over a meal— one of life’s simple pleasures.

• We are hoping to host some events this month for people looking for legal advice, be it relating to name changes, immigration status, etc. Please reach out if you or someone you know would be able to volunteer 1-2 hours this month providing individuals with legal information (not explicitly legal advice).

• We are also hosting our first performance art event called sOUNDSPACe. It will be weird, messy, and interactive.

• We have a budding tool library, but are always looking for more. Have a sewing machine? Old guitar? Kiln you never use? Consider donating! We can offer tax-deductible receipts and free class passes. We’re also looking for pretty couches, coffee tables, and benches.

• Believe it or not, the new administration is putting organizations like ours at risk. We still don’t have access to our grant funding, and most likely now will not have any until at least March. If you’re able to, check out our GoFundMe for detailed information on how we spend donations and to donate there. Your donations are protected, and you are issued a tax-deductible receipt.

note from the editor

Don’t get it twisted— what’s happening now is chaos. But that’s by design.

This is by no means the first time this has happened in history, nor will it be the last. It’s correct to feel anxious, afraid, and tired. But it’s important to recognize that this— the constant misinformation, the battery of our institutes, the disregard towards normalcy— is a tactic, and that it’s working as intended.

Recognize, however, that we are not being flung out of orbit by some unstoppable gravitational anomaly— instead, systemically being pulled apart by a scared animal that is backed into a corner.

What’s happening is well documented, and what occurs to a movement that is dying.

Hitler, famously, failed for a very long time before tripping into power. The Third Reich was minutes away from being fumbled entirely due to incompetence. The opposition was so incredibly loud that it only lost via illegal measures to suppress votes and outright ban the Community Party. The beliefs held by few were not the beliefs held by many, despite what you may have learned— the propaganda that Hitler was initially beloved by millions was so effective, most people understand that to be the truth over ninety years later. Hitler was not popular. He was loud.

Hitler’s power rose through two dangerous methods. One was via violence— state, political, and physical. The opposition was imprisoned, deported, or otherwise silenced. The other was the opposition’s aggressive belief that normalcy was the universal goal, a value shared even by their enemies. Passivity and adherence to guidelines written for people of honour were upheld; facists either picked these apart, dismantling the legal system, or else ignored them altogether. 

We are at a very important time in history. We must acknowledge that the game we’re playing was upended a long time ago. The rulebook is being utilized only to manipulate those still using it.

I am not telling you what you should do right now. I am strongly recommending, however, that you protect yourself and others, even while deciding what to do. Make sure you are covered when you go out, even if you’re playing the game with people who still follow the rules— but especially in areas where people have already thrown them out. It might be worth reading rule books from other games. You may even want to see what games they’ve played before.

On another note, it’s important to stress that this time around, they are relying on our burnout. Infighting, lies, and erasure of our successes, culture, and history (including via misattribution) are essential tactics. Recognize that while you alone cannot save the world, you are still needed. You cannot let yourself collapse under the weight of it all. It’s important to find joy in all the places you always have. It’s even more important to find joy in all the new places it’s cropping up.

We hope we have provided a soft space during a hard time at one point or another. It’s easy to forget the importance of it— seemingly even more so when you’re the one organizing it. It’s easy to feel guilty to indulge in pleasure when there is so much pain. It’s hard to tell yourself you’re allowed to sit, sleep, laugh, dance. Take a minute. Take a day. Take the week, sometimes.

If it’s easier for you— it’s often easier for me, at least— here’s someone telling you: you’re allowed. Not just that: you must. Replenishing yourself is part of the job, too.

Your homework for the month: take any opportunity you can to sit with joy.