June Community Gathering: "Creative Process" #3 - Lindsay White

In today's edition of “Creative Process" we feature a statement from Lindsay White, founder of Lady Brain Presents, written with the help and input of several friends, mentors, and Lady Brain Collective members and sent to local government officials leading into this week's City Council meeting and vote on city funding. 

image description:
colorful writing pens overlaid on photo of Lindsay White,
who is standing in the street and holding her hand over her eyes to block the sun.
original photo credit: Sydney Prather

---

Official Statement to Local Officials from Lady Brain Presents and Members of the Lady Brain Collective
Last Edit: June 8, 2020; 1:36 pm

My name is Lindsay White, and I am the founder and managing member of Lady Brain Presents, a collective of womxn-identifying creatives based in San Diego. Since our inception in late 2018, we have been committed to carving out a place for womxn creatives in our city, creating opportunities where they don’t already exist, exposing the community to our members’ work, and offering assistance/resistance to health and social justice matters affecting our membership and communities. We have until now avoided issuing monolithic social and political statements because our membership consists of so many diverse voices and forms of expression, and we typically prefer to lift up these voices artistically via our monthly, member-led community gatherings. Our very existence is a social and political statement, and our work speaks for itself. However, current events that directly violate the safety of our members and threaten our values and mission compel many of us to speak out publicly.

As a womxn-identified group we have a vested interest in racial justice because racial justice is a feminist issue. Structural racism is built into the fabric of society, and is therefore impossible to separate from the intersecting forms of oppression womxn face. Fighting to dismantle one form must involve fighting to dismantle all of them. Racial injustice threatens our collective because our members, especially our black members, need to feel safe and supported in their communities in order to thrive. We are a family, and we refuse to silently comply as our BIPoC siblings are forced to process the impossible amounts of trauma, fear, rage, and exhaustion that come with systemic racism and oppression. Many of our members find themselves struggling to create and survive this year due to the mental, physical, and economic ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic; we can not allow their creativity and well-being to be further stifled by locally-sanctioned violence. The safety of our black members at this pivotal moment in history is imperative and urgent.

Defunding/demilitarizing/divesting from the police and abolishing ICE are essential to that safety. We have seen over the last weeks unprovoked escalation of peaceful gatherings by police, continued inhumane detainment and deportation of folks seeking asylum, and mistreatment of people of color and undocumented neighbors, friends, and relatives. In the face of budget shortfalls, our Mayor has proposed $27 million increased funding for police with no oversight or accountability for past and current wrongdoing. As long as our city continues to prioritize law enforcement over the well-being, survival, and flourishing of marginalized communities, it’s impossible to trust that safety for communities of color matters to our local leaders.

As varying opinions circulate around the concept of defunding law enforcement, we ultimately trust and defer to the leadership of Black Lives Matter San Diego, March 4 Black Womxn San Diego, and other grassroots racial justice organizations to define, implement, and oversee what their communities need. We also call for increased funding for arts and education, healthcare and housing, and other social programs because we know healthy and thriving communities do far more to protect and serve San Diegans than enormous police budgets ever could. 

We know ours is a voice that matters and we are committed to lifting up our members because, as the UN reports, “In the long term, societies and economies can only thrive if they make full use of women’s skills and capacities.” We will be watching, voting, and focusing much of our art and action toward racial justice until the demands of Black Lives Matter: San Diego and March 4 Black Womxn San Diego are met. And we will always fight for the interests of all womxn-identifying creatives in this community, which will in turn lift up the communities of which they are a part and the health and social justice issues they care about. Supporting the safety, health, and well-being of womxn sends a positive ripple effect into our community, the world, and future generations. It’s time to dismantle the institutionalized racism that has interrupted that ripple for far too long. 

In solidarity,
Lindsay White
Founder of Lady Brain Presents & Member of Lady Brain Collective

Marie Haddad
Lady Brain Collective Member

Barbara Rutherford
Lady Brain Collective Member

Lisa Brackmann
Lady Brain Collective Member

Noelle Pederson
Lady Brain Collective Member

Cathryn Beeks
Lady Brain Collective Member

Stacy Antonel
Lady Brain Collective Member

Jules Stewart
Lady Brain Collective Member

Amy Day
Lady Brain Collective Member

Lizzie Wann
Lady Brain Collective Member

Marlo Smith
Lady Brain Collective Member

Mayzie Smith-Moors
Lady Brain Collective Member

Ramona Ault
Lady Brain Collective Member

Kinnie Dye
Lady Brain Collective Member

Lauren Leigh Martin
Lady Brain Collective Member

Astra Kelly
Lady Brain Collective Member

Karen Lindenberg
Lady Brain Collective Member

Julia Sage
Lady Brain Collective Member

Marcia Claire
Lady Brain Collective Member

Ren Daversa
Lady Brain Collective Member

Rebekkah Baronkay
Lady Brain Collective Member

Mary Hamer
Lady Brain Collective Member

Sharisse Coulter
Lady Brain Collective Member

Rachel Riba
Lady Brain Collective Member

Sandi King
Lady Brain Collective Member

Emily Bartell
Lady Brain Collective Member

Tori Roze
Lady Brain Collective Member

Susan Lipson
​Lady Brain Collective Member