On PARK POWER!! 🌳⛅️🤝🥤

The world opens up when you realize you can just do something cool at a park.

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My friends and I encountered this feeling recently while experimenting with ways to assist the evacuation fundraiser of a family in Gaza we've been talking to for the past 3 months.

In August 2024, we experimented with "park power": which is to say, we picked a random Sunday afternoon and brought a table and some signs to Washington Square Park in NYC.

We set up the table with homemade snacks and iced drinks to give out to strangers. Our signs advertised a range of other offerings. Two friends offered to make portraits and doodles of those who stopped by. One friend brought a tube of henna paste and offered temporary tattoos. Another friend baked and brought focaccia, cut up into squares to share.

We'd tell people they could "pay what you can," but we often gave our goods away for free.

It was a hot, beautiful day. People came and talked to us. We told them about the family, how we came into contact with them, how the fundraiser was going. They'd leave, often with a cup of juice or chai, a drawing, and/or a tattoo. They also often left a few dollars (or a lot!) as a donation.

We officially ran out of things to give at around 6pm. In 4 hours, we raised ~$600 and had a lot of fun doing it.


This doc is an ode to "park power"!

I (Ashley) wanted to document this event (Aug 25th) and how it came together.

I also want to spread this idea of "park power," which is a phrase coined between me & my friend Jenny. So this doc will be half case-study, half manifesto ❗️❗️

Jenny was the first among us to experience park power, two weeks before our event in NYC. In her own words:

Tilling, Seeding

I was able to tap into park power for the Al-Hayek family thanks to my friend Rehana, who organized a community flea market at a park in Santa Ana. I live in Los Angeles so I knew it was going to be a trek (not having a car and all) but I was looking forward to meeting new people and venturing into a new place. So, I packed some comics and prints I had made in a small rolling suitcase and set out for 1801 W Segerstrom Ave, with the intention of giving all funds gathered during the event to the Al-Hayek family.

The first thing I noticed about the park was the small but beautiful lake, along with the Canadian geese resting peacefully by the water--a sight nowhere to be found in the loud, chaotic, dirty hustle and bustle of the city. I walked a bit further with my rolling suitcase and saw Rehana talking to some folks, along with blankets spread out with clothes, baked goods, accessories, and much more. I got to talking with a new friend next to me named Ale who was selling their clothes. I set out some zines and prints on a blanket, and when folks expressed interest in the items I brought I made sure to clarify that all prices were pay-what-you-can.

Tilling, Seeding

I was able to tap into park power for the Al-Hayek family thanks to my friend Rehana, who organized a community flea market at a park in Santa Ana. I live in Los Angeles so I knew it was going to be a trek (not having a car and all) but I was looking forward to meeting new people and venturing into a new place. So, I packed some comics and prints I had made in a small rolling suitcase and set out for 1801 W Segerstrom Ave, with the intention of giving all funds gathered during the event to the Al-Hayek family.

The first thing I noticed about the park was the small but beautiful lake, along with the Canadian geese resting peacefully by the water--a sight nowhere to be found in the loud, chaotic, dirty hustle and bustle of the city. I walked a bit further with my rolling suitcase and saw Rehana talking to some folks, along with blankets spread out with clothes, baked goods, accessories, and much more. I got to talking with a new friend next to me named Ale who was selling their clothes. I set out some zines and prints on a blanket, and when folks expressed interest in the items I brought I made sure to clarify that all prices were pay-what-you-can.

The flea market was a space tilled by Rehana and seeded by its participants. It was a space not only meant for the sale and exchange of goods, but also a place to water new friendships, swap stories, play chess, partake in snacks, and re-regulate frazzled nerves with the earth (making sure to avoid geese poop in the process). I especially appreciated the space to lie down and let my scoliosis-induced back pain melt into the dirt. Towards the end of the day I ended up selling $160 worth of printed matter, which blew my expectations of selling nothing out the water.

I wasn't sure whether to be explicit or not about the fact that the funds would be going to the Al-Hayek family--would it be disingenuous to try to elicit more money that way? Within the flow of the community flea and conversation I became wrapped up in, however, the point became moot.

More so than the money I was able to gather for the family, these experiences in the park left me with a renewed belief in the significance of relationship and disrupting the internalization of the extractive-ness economic systems that we live in. Instead of approaching the gathering as a place to extract profit, a mentality of relationship building and a decentering of profit resulted in a more powerful result.

I will say I was not immune to the temptation of breaking my earlier oath and spending some of the money for myself. $160 could get me a ticket to see friends in other states, or a nice meal, or some new clothes. Money has its own hypnosis in that way, doesn't it? However of course all was given to the family in the end.

In the end, both of our experiences at the park left us with a new feeling of possibility. It was as if we unlocked a new level on the map. Why not play?


Anyone can tap into park power!

1. Park power is about believing in public spaces.

In cities, we spend most of our time abiding by the rules of civil inattention, of minding our own business, pretending like we don't see or notice the strangers we pass by every day.

>> What happens when we orient ourselves towards public spaces as opportunities for contact and connection?

There are ways to do this gracefully—we do not need to forcibly invade anyone's personal space. We can make gentle invitations in creative ways, like with a cute, appealing sign, a moment of eye contact, or a thoughtful offering of some kind.


2. Park power is about abundance.

It is possible to create a mini-world of abundance even with finite resources, and the park is an excellent place to practice that.

The important thing is to cultivate the spirit of abundance — by showing up with what you have and being generous with it. This can be as simple as a smile or as grand as a party or a performance. This can even be a game that you play out in public!

>> This can also be ice-cold drinks on a hot day ☀️ For Aug 25th, I prepared big batch of watermelon juice at home which served us wonderfully as a conversation starter & an easy gift. Here are some tips if you'd like to do something similar:

How to make & transport a large quantity of juice!

+ an easy 🍉 agua fresca recipe

This was my first time trying to make this much of a beverage, so I did a lot of guessing & experimentation to figure out the process and the materials I needed. I learned a lot in the process. If I were to do it again, I'm sure I could do it much more efficiently.

How to make & transport a large quantity of juice!

+ an easy 🍉 agua fresca recipe

This was my first time trying to make this much of a beverage, so I did a lot of guessing & experimentation to figure out the process and the materials I needed. I learned a lot in the process. If I were to do it again, I'm sure I could do it much more efficiently.

Here are some tips that would have saved me a ton of time (and money)!

Juice-making

2 gallons is a good amount to aim for. If you are giving away / selling cups, it will last you a solid 2-4 hours in a high traffic park. Adding ice will also extend the supply.

This took me ~1.5 watermelons. (2 quarter watermelons and 1 full one that was like, rly big.) Of course YMMV depending on how big & juicy yours are lol

I didn't know how much I needed upfront, so I bought conservative amounts and ended up paying more in total.

If you can, try purchasing whole watermelons that are priced per unit instead of per pound. ($0.99 per pound adds up fast!)

Use seedless fruits. Or fruits that are easy to de-seed / de-core. Trust me 😭 it's not worth the extra effort..

Prepare most (if not all) of the juice before the event. I initially thought it'd be cool to make the juice live, at the park, but once I tested out making juice with my tiny portable blender & my tiny sieve, I realized it would take way too long to produce it in bulk.

If it's your first time, I recommend doing a juice-making test run a few days in advance, to find out how quickly you can make a pint with the materials you have! You will also pick up ways to streamline your process, which is quite satisfying and fun.

Invite some friends to make juice with you. I didn't plan it far enough in advance so I ended up doing it alone, but even then it felt like such a weird joyful activity I'm 100% sure it would be a blast with others.

Natural juice does not need added sugar, in my experience. It did, however, benefit from some added acidity (lime or lemon juice)!

Also maybe I did this wrong but watermelon juice tastes different after boiling. Some recipes I looked up said to do this. I did not prefer the way this turned out, so I removed this step from the process.

FUN BONUS TIP: if you're making agua fresca (blending fruit and straining the pulp), save the pulp and freeze it instead of throwing it away! Add a little lime juice and you have a delicious fruit shaved ice.

You could actually freeze this in small quantities / little cups and give this out to folks at the park. See pics below!!

Transportation

Buy a few 1 gal jugs of water and use them as containers to transport the juice. (I recommend buying these jugs a week in advance so you have time to use up the water).

Find a cooler bag with wheels or a dolly!

If you are hoping to raise funds by selling goods, try a sliding scale or "pay-what-you-want/can" pricing. Or better yet, offer your goods for free!

Even with free offerings, we were happily surprised by how willing people were to give. Giving freely encourages people to give back, not for the sake of fulfilling a transaction, but out of a spirit of generosity and abundance.


3. Park power means trusting spontaneity.

You can't predict what happens at the park—who you encounter, what goes wrong (or right)! A foray into park power can go beautifully, though there are no guarantees.

Part of the beauty of Aug 25th was how quickly it came together. We planned most of it in less than 1 week. We made the signs the night before. 2 folks that were originally going to help couldn't make it, but then a handful of friends joined the day of and lent a hand.

We also adapted quickly to obstacles that came up, and of course there were a few:

forced relocation, angry encounters, etc.

Thirty minutes into the event, we were approached by park officials and asked to pack up and move. We were worried that this might happen, as 1) we were operating without a permit, and 2) our sign, which signals support for Palestine, could definitely draw the ire of people who don't.

Talking to the officers, it seemed like there was no way we could remain where we were without risking penalty. Thankfully, we had a lot of hands (somehow by then we'd grown to a party of 7), which meant we could pick up and carry most of our stuff without too much trouble. We complied right away to avoid getting fined, and relocated to the street right across from the park.

forced relocation, angry encounters, etc.

Thirty minutes into the event, we were approached by park officials and asked to pack up and move. We were worried that this might happen, as 1) we were operating without a permit, and 2) our sign, which signals support for Palestine, could definitely draw the ire of people who don't.

Talking to the officers, it seemed like there was no way we could remain where we were without risking penalty. Thankfully, we had a lot of hands (somehow by then we'd grown to a party of 7), which meant we could pick up and carry most of our stuff without too much trouble. We complied right away to avoid getting fined, and relocated to the street right across from the park.


Screenshots from @ashaqian's story before & after relocating.



angry encounters

This was probably the thing we were most concerned about. Whether or not we end up encountering people who bristle at the mention of "Free Palestine" or people who are prepared to start a fight about it was largely out of our control. We also couldn't predict how passionate or determined a person would be at sabotaging our event or making life hard for us.

We discussed it the night before and settled on a de-escalatory approach. We would rather have any hostile interaction end as quickly as possible so that we could continue having our event, instead of taking a stand (verbally) and engaging someone in an argument that takes over our space.

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We had our 1st encounter of this sort very early on in our day. A passerby shouted out at us, "Do you give out juice to Jews too??" We were like "Yes!!" and gave a thumbs up. The person nodded and walked away. It ended up being that quick.

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Our 2nd encounter came after we relocated to the street across from the park. A woman came up to us, shaking with anger, pointing at our sign, saying "Tell me what do you know about Palestine. What do you know about the history of the Land of Israel going back 3,000 years. Do you know that Judea... You want to talk about free palestine but if you really cared you should be demanding FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS, HAMAS IS THE REASON ..." and so on.

There were a few of us manning the table at that point, so a couple people tried to respond in ways that would calm her down. Success was mixed, and she remained in place, ranting passionately for a few minutes at a time.

Then, one of our friends (who was just hanging out, and who wasn't one of the original planners) started countering her views, which unfortunately escalated the engagement. This wasn't his fault, as he hadn't been briefed on the strategy we'd discussed beforehand. He was just standing up for what he (and really, what all of us there) believed in.

But in the 15 minutes that this took place, some of us tried to keep up the engagement with people passing by, but most avoided eye contact with us, probably because they didn't want to get dragged into a tense situation.

Ultimately what worked was reaffirming that we wanted to help this one family. The fact that this family was endangered by Israel's operations in Gaza was not deniable, regardless of anyone's views or commitments to Zionism. (The fact that Israel has endangered and harmed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians is not deniable either, but regardless.)

On the flip side, there were also many positive surprises :)

1. there were a few times people came running back to us saying "i was just gonna walk by but then i saw your sign and HAD to come", which was incredibly sweet.

nice fun things that happened too

2. the literal blue man group came by and we gave them some juice

3. our event coincided with nyu students move-in day. :P

there was an nyu organizer who stopped by, gave us a cute watermelon scrunchie, and stuck around for a few min, texting fellow students & staff who would be interested in coming out to support

a few hours later someone came up to us to comment on the scrunchie and ask if it was for sale XD

a friend confirmed via instagram later that it really was them lol, they visited wash sq park that day

(lmao i actually barely even noticed them until people sent these pictures after the event)

4. instead of individual doodles, alicia took to drawing people in pairs, which ended up being a big hit!

alicia doodling^

5. watching someone slowly read out my sign^ "seriously i will give you some for free as long as i still have cups" and coming to us like "Did you write that? Was that you? oh my goodness BLESS your heart"

6. Fatima, a member of the Al-hayek family in Gaza (and the one I'm most in touch with), messaged me midway through the event.

We video called through Instagram and everybody got to say hi to her live! ❤️

With our 7hr time difference, it was around 10pm for her by the time we called. She hung out with us for a while and listened to the music and ambient conversation before going to sleep.

7. rowan bringing their car into the city ad-hoc (they originally planned to take the train) was a huge boon - made transporting our supplies SO MUCH easier & not all the passengers knew each other beforehand, so we also had some fun convos there. we talked about bees

8. some ppl we gave drinks to appeared to be unhoused / itinerant. they seemed relieved to have something cool to drink, and we were glad we could give it to them.

9. Woman who came up to us, stood on the bench, and said "MEMORIZE MY AURA"

you can actually see her in the photo used for the background tile of this doc haha

both her and her partner had on interesting hats. she was wearing one that said (yes, upside down.

"FUCKERS"

10. carlie becoming the de facto MVP of manning the table! over the course of a few hours she basically came up with a script for what to say to people everytime and it worked like magic

u can see for urself @ the link above^

11. some of the people who donated had close ties to Palestine. like at least 2-3 ppl who came up to our table were like "is this for gaza? i am from there" and thanked us for our support ❤️‍🔥

got a henna blessing by tzu

12. watermelon shaved ice break

13. one friend who came to hang was daring enough to mix the watermelon juice with the chai and drink it :-O

15. OMG ADDENDUM: WE INADVERTENTLY BROUGHT TOGETHER 2 FRIENDS WHO ARE NOW GOING TO BE ROOMMATES!??

14. honestly just shocked at how good the vibes were throughout. its so important to just hang out

ummmm yeah this picture is totally unrelated (tho drawn by our good friend yasmín!!) we just don't know why we can't delete it (or resize it) (help)

a virtual hug from fatima after our call

(shared with permission)

In other words, if you want to leverage park power, you must accept that anything can happen. Lean into it! 😌


4. Park power is mutual aid.

First, a primer on "mutual aid" for those who are unfamiliar:

What is mutual aid?

Mutual aid is a framework for how ordinary people can coordinate their actions in order to meet each others needs.

It often has a redistributive aspect (can involve donating money, labor, resources, etc), but it is different from charity in several crucial aspects.

What is mutual aid?

Mutual aid is a framework for how ordinary people can coordinate their actions in order to meet each others needs.

It often has a redistributive aspect (can involve donating money, labor, resources, etc), but it is different from charity in several crucial aspects.

Three qualities that distinguish mutual aid from charity are that mutual aid is participatory, unconditional, and anti-institutional.


1.

First, mutual aid is "participatory" in that it matters that the project of meeting a community's needs is led by ordinary members of that community. It matters that anybody can participate, contribute, and even lead these efforts, not just non-profit organization employees.

It is also participatory in the way it erases distinctions between "receivers" and "givers". There's a focus on reciprocal relationships and giving that goes in both directions: people helping their peers, rather than just the wealthy helping the poor. This is made possible, in part, by the emphasis placed on non-monetary forms of giving, such as the free-exchange of items and necessities, skill-sharing, and other acts of service.

This participatory nature makes mutual aid especially great for individual capacity-building. Mutual aid projects develop each of its participants' community-organizing skills by giving them first-hand experience with activities like meeting facilitation, planning, logistics, decision-making etc.

Mutual aid also builds collective capacity. A community that regularly exercises its capacity to care for one another will be dense with healthy, robust relationships. This kind of community can be mobilized quickly when needs arise, in both everyday situations and sudden crises.


2.

Second, mutual aid has an "unconditional" quality to it. It is the norm to give aid to others without qualification, or checking for things like eligibility or "deservingness."

This is because we recognize that not only do these practices pose bureaucratic barriers to those that need aid, but they also stem from a kind of logic that rationalizes and perpetuates injustice. In his essay "Solidarity Not Charity", Dean Spade points out: "The determination of deservingness and undeservingness is based in cultural archetypes that pathologize Black families, frame poor women as overreproductive, and criminalize poverty." (In this line, Spade cites the book Welfare Racism as a source.)

I personally feel that this "unconditional-ness" supports an ethos of love that often gets elided by the governmental/non-profit approach to social services. Like at their best, safety-net government services can be interpreted as well-intentioned, or even altruistic. But can they be loving?


3.

Third, mutual aid tends to be "anti-institutional" or, more precisely, extrainstitutional (Wiktionary definition). Mutual aid projects happen outside of established institutions like governments, non-profits & NGOs, or corporations.

The anti-institutional nature of mutual aid is rooted in anarchist philosophy, particularly in the work of Peter Kropotkin, who wrote about mutual aid as a factor in evolution and human societies.

Some well-known examples of mutual aid in the United States include the Black Panther Party's free breakfast program in the 1960s and 1970s, which demonstrated how communities could organize to meet basic needs while also building revolutionary political consciousness. More recently, mutual aid networks emerged spontaneously in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, filling gaps left by disastrous institutional (gov't) responses.

Park power is like mutual aid in the following ways:

Park power is a collective effort.

Park power is an unconditional gift.

Park power is informal.

Park power creates channels for people to share resources.

Park power is open to everyone.

Park power builds solidarity.

Park power assumes that everyone has something to offer and everyone has needs that others might be able to meet.


5. Park power is micro in the macro.

Adrienne Maree Brown writes in their book Emergent Strategy that "how we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale." In other words, the health that we foster in our smallest communities, such as our families, our neighborhoods, our localities, forms the foundation of flourishing in our broader society.

A park is a microcosm of the society it is in. This means that we can learn about that society by observing the park, and also by acting on the park & seeing how it responds.

One might say that park power is an exercise in world-building. But crucially, park power also challenges us to meet our current world as-is! The park keeps us grounded. Doing something cool at the park requires us to bring our loftiest ideals down to the scale of the concrete and particular.

For instance, if we care about "community building", then we practice that locally, by creating an occasion for people to gather and welcoming them when they come. If we believe in "equity" and "redistribution", then we practice that by boosting a direct fundraiser and by sharing our wealth freely, in the form of food and funds and company.

As Brown says: "Our friendships and relationships are systems. Our communities are systems. Let us practice upwards."


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Acknowledgements

I want to personally thank Jenny for incubating this idea with me and for contributing her writing to this document.

Aside from her, the reason this doc exists at all is thanks to the wonderful people who came together and made our day in the park a success!


First, to Rowan, Alicia, Carlie, and Tzu for being the backbone of this operation, for coordinating the event and each of our offerings, and ultimately pulling it off. WE DID THAT !!!

Second, thank you to Sao Mai, Brendan, Naman, and Ali for offering to chip in for materials and supplies. 💗 💗 💗

A special shoutout to our friends Marcos, Colin, Elim, Krystal, and Jasper for joining at various points in the day and helping us set up, relocate, and clean up at the end of it all 🧹 ! A personal shoutout to my friend Campbell for doing 🍉 juice experiments with me the weekend before. Shoutout Claire and Nikki for being Alicia's ✍️🎨doodle test subjects the night before! Finally, shoutout to Chinatown Basketball Club 🏀 for your support, for helping us spread the word, and for showing up that afternoon! I realized after writing all this that you've been doing park power since 2019! You taught me the meaning of community-building by being a shining example of it.


Lastly, most importantly, thank you to EVERY friend, foe, & stranger who stopped by! You are the source of the park's power. ;)


We were honored to be part of your Sunday afternoon.




If you enjoyed this doc, consider donating to the Al-Hayek family fundraiser, either through their GoFundMe or through Venmo (DM me for my username and I will forward your donation).

Or consider: joining our working group to do more cool stuff at parks, or sharing this doc with a friend. I really mean it when I say everything is appreciated.

Some context on our relationship with the family

The first question a lot of people ask me is how I first got in touch with this family. The short answer is Instagram. The long answer is this:

My first point of contact with the Al-hayek family was with their daughter Fatima, who I keep in touch with to this day. Through our correspondence, I have come to know her as an exceedingly kind, smart, and resilient human being, and I am so happy to say she is my friend.

Some context on our relationship with the family

The first question a lot of people ask me is how I first got in touch with this family. The short answer is Instagram. The long answer is this:

My first point of contact with the Al-hayek family was with their daughter Fatima, who I keep in touch with to this day. Through our correspondence, I have come to know her as an exceedingly kind, smart, and resilient human being, and I am so happy to say she is my friend.


⚠️ This leaflet is a work in progress! ⚠️

Below is a chronological retelling of how Fatima and I became friends and how these efforts to help her family's fundraiser have developed over time.

I haven't had the time to finish the later sections, but if you'd like to know when it's complete you can sign-up below! I'll send an update once this page is done.

no posts yet


how we first started talking

On June 23rd, a friend shared the Al-hayek family's GoFundMe on their story, and I usually just repost those when I see them, so I did that and sent a small donation.

Later that night, I got a DM request from Fatima asking if I could help them, and I replied oh, actually i think i donated & shared the fundraiser earlier! But this interaction prompted me to go back and look at Fatima's profile, where I saw some of her older posts.

There were pics of her with a graduation cap in 2022. I thought, oh shit, I also graduated in 2022. Maybe Fatima and I were the same age?

I stalked her profile a bit. I found I could verify some of the info from the GFM: that she had a sister named Rana (from her Following list), that they lived in Gaza (as Fatima had frequently geotagged her stories). I also saw that Fatima participated in a program called Reach Education Fund, which awards scholarships to Palestinian students in Gaza and the West Bank.

The more I thought about it, the more willing I felt to send more funds.

I thought about the disposable income I had. I would suffer no consequences if I treated myself with that money, if I ate out a couple times, got something nice for myself, etc.

But I could also put it towards helping someone and their family who were going through the something unimaginable and terrifying. I could start where I was, with this person who had just opened up a conversation with me, and decide: yes, you are somebody to me. You matter, and I will not ignore you. I will do what I can to help.

the big matching campaign

The first time I reposted the fundraiser on Instagram, I wasn't sure if it amounted to anything. Nobody new donated, as far as I could tell.

Links & misc thoughts

This park event was organized by an offshoot of this remote mutual aid working group supporting the Al-Hayek family fundraiser.

If you have any interest in participating in the next park day in NYC, or if you'd like to volunteer your time/energy/skills in other ways (we collaborate remotely), join us!

Links & misc thoughts

This park event was organized by an offshoot of this remote mutual aid working group supporting the Al-Hayek family fundraiser.

If you have any interest in participating in the next park day in NYC, or if you'd like to volunteer your time/energy/skills in other ways (we collaborate remotely), join us!

sign-up: mutual aid working group for family in gaza
NOTE: As of Aug 7th, this group has had its 1st meeting! You are still welcome to sign up, but please make sure to notify me through DM @ashely_drawer so that I don’t miss your response! Hello! This is an initiative for the Hayek family in Gaza and their GoFundMe to evacuate to safety in Egypt. For more details on the family’s situation, please see this doc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT THIS IS: I would like to form a temporary working group to support the Hayek family in August. This is open to anyone who would like to offer their time, energy, or skills to assist this family in reaching their fundraising goals. This can look like any of the following: –> brainstorming ideas, strategy –> coordinating to make fundraising initiatives happen (like art markets, raffles) –> making art or graphics! –> starting a direct correspondence with Hayek fam members, keeping in touch, doing 1-on-1 relationship-building –> doing outreach with friends, strangers, and relevant organizations –> translating/documenting the family’s situation to help with transparency & visibility What this group ends up doing will depend on how many people respond & what everybody is most interested in. I’m most interested in setting up a structure where we collaborate freely and frequently, but where we are not constrained to only acting as one unit! I’m happy to facilitate things in the beginning, but as time goes on, I would love to decentralize my role as much as possible. My hope is that each one of us will eventually feel empowered enough to start and lead projects that advance the family’s goals. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHY PARTICIPATE: “Mutual aid projects let us practice meeting our own and each other’s needs, based in shared commitments to dignity, care, and justice. They let us practice coordinating our actions together with the belief that all of us matter and that we should all get to participate in the solutions to our problems.” — Dean Spade This is a chance to build solidarity with Palestinians via concrete, direct action and taking on a degree of responsibility* for the wellbeing & safety of real people fighting to survive a genocide. When we invest ourselves into this relationship, we create personal stakes that make our sustained involvement inevitable and our sustained hope a necessity. As we do this, we will practice leveraging the resources available to us (such as our skills, our creativity, and our communities) and build up the courage to publicly experiment with different tactics and approaches. We will work together in ways that reaffirm the dignity and agency of all participants, which includes all 11 members of the Hayek family. ------------ *: to me, responsibility means being someone who responds to another person’s needs, as opposed to being someone who has the power to protect or rescue them. We are not saviors. We are in an ongoing relationship, which means that when something happens to one of us, the other can be relied upon to respond. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TIMELINE: Aiming for this group to be active through the month of August. This is a short amount of time, so if interested, fill this out ASAP! Let’s work hard and make as much progress as we can! If you have any questions, please reach out to @ashely_drawer on Instagram.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdek8kjjbTChV1Pvc_3f-APg6FDv8qz2T-XpGLIhxqeVx0jag/viewform?usp=send_form


Info sheet about the family:

hayek family fundraiser info
This is a family of 11 people (8 adults, 3 kids) that has been displaced from their home in north Gaza. They are now living in a green tent in Az-Zawayda, a town in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. The adults’ names, from left to right: Fatima (20), her brother’s wife Ameera (27), her brother Mo…
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gy56-Tmj4VqmbjSQZ4f_ZWqmWwmW0DLFo8Vc4c0jLIs


The working group's Instagram:

We'll be posting more there soon, so follow us for updates!

The Hayek Family on Instagram: “WASHINGTON SQ PARK: SUNDAY, 2PM 🍉🍉🍉 We are bringing a table to the park to fundraise for the Al-hayek family! Please stop by and say hi! Our offerings: - 🤲🏻 henna tattoos by @bushwa1998 - 🎨 doodles by @ashaqian, @rrmchair, & @ashely_drawer - 🧋homemade chai & 🍞 za’atar focaccia by @carliehuang - 🍉watermelon agua fresca by @ashely_drawer Bring a friend & come hang out! All goods will be PAY WHAT YOU CAN (suggested $5+), up to the discretion of the provider, through Venmo, Zelle, or screenshot of a donation to the GoFundMe! 100% of proceeds will go to the Al-hayek family’s evacuation and survival fund. Stay tuned for updates on table location!”
34 likes, 3 comments - helpthehayeks on August 24, 2024: “WASHINGTON SQ PARK: SUNDAY, 2PM 🍉🍉🍉 We are bringing a table to the park to fundraise for the Al-hayek family! Please stop by and say hi! Our offerings: - 🤲🏻 henna tattoos by @bushwa1998 - 🎨 doodles by @ashaqian, @rrmchair, & @ashely_drawer - 🧋homemade chai & 🍞 za’atar focaccia by @carliehuang - 🍉watermelon agua fresca by @ashely_drawer Bring a friend & come hang out! All goods will be PAY WHAT YOU CAN (suggested $5+), up to the discretion of the provider, through Venmo, Zelle, or screenshot of a donation to the GoFundMe! 100% of proceeds will go to the Al-hayek family’s evacuation and survival fund. Stay tuned for updates on table location!”.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_FGBd6N5zG/?img_index=1


The GoFundMe page (anything helps!):

502 Bad Gateway
https://gofund.me/1cbbbdff

(the preview looks broken but the link's fine)



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Lastly, if you wanna discuss any of the thoughts in this doc, I (Ashley) would be super happy if you started a conversation with me! I assume you found this doc through social media, so feel free to DM me there.


(Woo ok that's it thank you for reading!)