Provide Access to Storage Unit and Belongings

LaLa Drew is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hi there! La here ☺️

This fundraiser is to assist me in paying the back rent for my storage unit. Currently, I am locked out and the things I've loved on and collected over the years are in danger of being lost to me.

While I recognize that they are just things, some of those things include my adoption records, letters from my birth mother, photos, books, and many other things that I have carried with me and collected over the years.

I put my things in storage about a year and a half ago when I was forced out of my living situation and into the life of a nomad (read: unhoused person). Because I was in a period of crisis, I took the first and closest unit available through Life Storage.

They have since raised the rent and their late fees are very hefty.

Over the past year I have been recovering from a violent living situation, an abusive relationship, and the affects of living as a Black, queer, non-binary, neurodivergence, transracial adoptee. I know! It's a mouthful. Yet it is important to understand where I m coming from. I deal with anxiety, depression, cptsd, and chronic pain.

Despite this, it is my intention to find ways to sustain myself as an independent contractor, an artist, and a writer. Over the past several months I have applied to grants, received residencies, locked in contracts (which unfortunately will not be paid out until next year). I have been commissioned for poems, sold prints (I taught myself how to do linocut), and I have offered my services as a tarot card reader.

Despite all of my efforts, I am still coming up woefully short. There are a lot of talented people applying for the same grants as me, and some of these systems are very broken and don't necessarily see the value of someone like me and the work that I do.

I am several months behind on my $360/mo plus $60 late fee. As a result I am unable to access my things and per the contract they have the "right" to seize my belongings.

In addition to my storage unit, which is my primary concern at this juncture, I currently have very limited funds for housing, medications, and food. This is not to mention the credit card debt which lives in a tiny space in the back of my mind.

We are living in fairly impossible times. I am trying, earnestly to find ways to sustain myself without putting myself back into the environments which made me sick in the first place. I am soliciting gigs , looking for remote work, I have 20,000 words of a manuscript written thanks to #NaNoWriMo, I am trying and I have to believe that this period of trial is temporary. I have to believe that I will be able to move through these difficult times and find ways to thrive and continue to give back.

Anything you are able to contribute makes a world of difference.

Anyone who contributes $25 dollars or more will be able to either

A. Redeem a 30 Minute tarot reading or B. Request a commissioned poem. Please specify your preference in your message to me.

If contributing is beyond your present ability, please share widely, and encourage others to share as well.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to read.

Below are some links to my work. Feel free to peruse and share.

So much love to you,

XO - La

http://www.elderpoetic.com/

https://elderpoetic.substack.com/

https://www.patreon.com/TalesOfBlackWingedNight

https://www.autostraddle.com/culture-of-resistance-tending-the-garden-ending-grind-culture