Giving Tuesday 2022

Dear friends,

What a year 2022 has been! Through times of great struggles, we’ve seen so many incredible organizations step up to support communities and fight for what’s right. We are inspired by these groups and want to help amplify the great work they do, as we do throughout the year in our Cold Readings series.

This Giving Tuesday, we ask you to consider supporting one (or more!) of the organizations we highlighted this year. Below, see a loosely-categorized list of heroes who are:

• Making and spreading theater
• Providing direct relief to those in need
• Working for a more peaceful planet
• Offering legal support and encouraging civic engagement
• Empowering people and communities
• Working to make our housing, healthcare, and education systems more equitable

Thank you so much. Please take care of yourselves and each other.

Peace, power, and love to you,
Theater in Asylum

Making and spreading theater

• The Anthropologists is dedicated to the collaborative creation of investigative theatre that inspires action. Rooted in research and community engagement and shaped by physical theatre techniques, they’re committed to exploring current social topics from an anthropological perspective in order to break down and unleash cultural discoveries. Formed in 2008, past provocations have included: “why do Americans need so much stuff?” (EXCESS – a dance play inspired by The Cherry Orchard) and “who gets access to food?” (GIVE US BREAD, hailed by The New York Theatre Experience as “a thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking play mixing elements of dance and stylized movement to create a piece that is wholly within its own hybrid Anthropologists genre.”) Their work has been described as “eerie and weird in the best way” (Culturebot) and “incisive, even necessary work for the present moment.” (Culture Catch). Donate here.
• The Boxcutter Collective is a politically active crew of puppeteers, artists and performers committed to using art to create a hopeful reimagining of our reality. They believe cultural change precedes political change and are committed (and compelled!) to use their weirdo-puppet skills to create new accessible art for collective transformation. Donate here.
• The Jalopy Theatre and School of Music is a multi-faceted arts space showcasing folk and traditional music and art from New York City, the Americas, and the world. Their programming supports artists, fosters community, and provides enrichment and education about our shared musical heritage. Donate here.
• National Black Theatre. NBT’s mission is: 1) To produce transformational and dialogue-generative theatre that successfully shifts inaccuracies around African Americans' cultural identity by telling authentic, intersectional stories of Black life. 2) To use theatre as a means to educate, enrich, entertain, empower and inform national consciousness around the social issues impacting our communities. 3) To provide a courageous and supportive space for artists of the Black diaspora to hone their entrepreneurial spirit and articulate the complexity, beauty and artistic excellence intrinsic in how we experience the world through their craft—acting, directing, producing, creative placemaking, designing and/or playwriting. Donate here.

Providing direct relief to those in need

• Hispancic Federation's direct aid Hurricane Relief Fund is on the ground in Puerto Rico providing emergency relief services and essential supplies to the communities most affected by the hurricanes, most recently Hurricane Fiona. They also work with people living in Florida and the Dominican Republic. Hispanic Federation works through their network of community-based nonprofits serving Latino and immigrant communities to provide essential disaster relief services to those most in need. Donate here.
• Spanish Sin Pena is a Spanish language program for Lantinx folks learning/re-learning the language, and they are currently mobilizing to go to Puerto Rico to participate in relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. Donate here.
• Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund. Support the artists who stayed in Ukraine during in this time of war. Viktor Ruban and the team of Ruban Production ITP made a decision to create “Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund” on the basis of non-profit CO “Impulse Transformation Platform”. They opened two separate accounts in EUR and USD to collect funds. These donations will allow them to provide emergency microgrant help of 8000 UAH (approximately 250€) to each Ukrainian artist (dance and theater domain) in the independent arts scene staying in Ukraine, upon their request. Donate here.
• USA for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Established by concerned American citizens, USA for UNHCR is a non-profit organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C. USA for UNHCR envisions a world without refugees, and works to protect and empower refugees by providing in-person support, food, shelter, and care to those displaced by crisis and conflict. Learn more about USA for UNHCR’s campaign to support Ukrainian refugees and donate here.

Working for a more peaceful planet

• The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was founded in 1982 to pursue denuclearizing actions and achieve a just and peaceful world. Believing that peace is more than the absence of war, the NAPF serves as a forum for the study of human flourishing. Through publications, lectures, activism, and legal actions, the NAPF fosters a community committed to the protection of humanity’s future. The NAPF works with distinguished politicians, activists, artists, scholars and scientists to build an ongoing library of utopian ideas and a toolkit for practical activism. Donate here.

Offering legal support and encouraging civic engagement

• Represent Women’s mission is to strengthen our democracy by advancing reforms that break down barriers to ensure more women can run, win, serve, and lead. Even following several "record"-breaking election cycles for women candidates, women continue to be underrepresented at every level of elected office. More women in elected and appointed positions at every level of government will strengthen our democracy by making it more representative, reviving bi-partisanship and collaboration, improving the deliberative process, encouraging a new style of leadership, and building greater trust in our elected bodies. Donate here.

Empowering people and communities

• Building Trades for Worker Democracy is a grassroots organization working to democratize unions and engage rank and file members with the larger struggle. This organization is just getting started and donations right now can be sent via Venmo to Chris Schroth. Venmo: @chris-schroth
• El Nido de Esperanza is a non-profit organization that seeks to break the cycle of poverty by changing the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. They work with families from pregnancy through the child’s third birthday. They believe in tackling poverty neighborhood by neighborhood and empowering the mamas. Community matters- particularly when you are a new immigrant mama. Knowledge matters- particularly when you didn’t have strong role models growing up. Donate here.
• The mission of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center is to provide high-quality legal services to low-income immigrants, and to advocate for human rights. Las Americas is based in El Paso, Texas providing free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in West Texas and New Mexico. We have served over 30,000 people from over 80 countries since 1987. Las Americas provides legal representation through both attorneys and accredited representatives through the Department of Justice. Donate here.
• The National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture owns a collection of over 7,000 Black dolls, some dating back to the late 1700s - one of the most significant collections in the world. Unable to have visitors or run workshops during the pandemic, it was unfortunately forced to close in 2020. The National Black Doll Museum was the only brick-and-mortar museum in the U.S. devoted to the art, craft, history and preservation of Black dolls. The Museum’s collection is so significant that the Smithsonian once attempted to acquire it. The city of Attleboro, MA, has acquired a large piece of land earmarked for cultural development and is keen to welcome a brand new and improved National Black Doll Museum to relocate to this new site. Donate here.

Working to make our housing, healthcare, and education systems more equitable

• The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person. Donate here.
• Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. They are roughly 450 people of 70-plus nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need. They direct their advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. They partner with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims. Human Rights Watch is currently working all over the world, most recently notably Iran. Donate here.
• The Kwek Society is focused on supplying Native students and communities the period products they need to maintain their dignity and celebrate their strength and their moon times. They collaborate with schools and Native programs across North America, in rural areas, suburbs and cities, to eliminate period poverty among Native Americans. We educate about moon time as a time for celebration and we work to support the dignity and strength of all we serve. Donate here.