SW Activist Needs
Donation protected
Covid support for sw activist needed once more!
I’m still doing fairly badly but am plodding along. I’m living on only my $750/ month Whose Corner income at moment- which pays me less than it costs me to live. Hoping to raise $1500 today, which would go immed to June rent (I’m not having luck with a housemate search in a pandemic) and some living expenses like groceries.
Thanks again to everyone for having my back. <3
Naomi, May 29 2020
—————
My income has fallen apart during the current crises and you can probably also guess that my psyche has been right there with it. I’ve been incredibly lucky to get so much personal support from the community via GFM this last year. I’m reopening this campaign with the hope that I can get some emergency funds and possibly also some ongoing help while covid is happening.
I’m very lucky to be receiving a $175/ week paycheck for my admin work for WCIIA. This is less, however, than it costs me to live. I think I’ll need another $300/ mo to tread water until we have a vaccine.
I’m also experiencing another looming housing crisis which I think I’ll need $1k by the end of the month to avert.
I’m having very profound executive function problems these so I’ll leave it here for the moment. I’m running another ask under a name I do not associate with my sw or activism and will update donations made there here as offline donations for accountability.
Thanks and solidarity to everyone reading,
-Naomi, April 25, 2020
————————
Car repair saga very near an end.
It’s been a wilder ride than usual with this stupid car (Which, okay, I can see now, was not at all a good deal for me.)
The head gasket ppl were booked seven weeks out when I called them in November, so I just took it in this week. Shamefully, I spent down some of that round of fundraiser money keeping myself housed and fed while unable to make it to the club before the repair was done. Now only $1300 away from putting all this behind me and hopefully really getting it all together financially this spring and summer.
It’s been an amazing few months for Whose Corner and for me in particular. We are receiving institutional funding. I’m getting a paycheck ($173/ week! Woot!) for some of my WCIIA admin hours. I’m starting to make personal connections with SW activists I’ve been admiring for years. My takes and my analysts are getting some notice by amazing people. Writing this from the depths of a disability flare so don’t have it in me to mention the names and details but the big take away is that I’m doing great precisely because I’ve been able to keep my access to transportation this whole time. Very grateful for all the support I’ve gotten over this year of turning to crowdfunding to cover the gaps in my earnings. Hoping you can carry me one more time.
Much love,
-Naomi, February 2, 2020
——
Head gasket needs replacing stat to let me keep up with critical WCIIA work and my own physical survival.
Welp the adventure continues: I bought my car this fall knowing it would soon need a repair totalling about $2.3k. I’d hoped to be able to wait until January to replace the head gasket and timing belt (plus an unrelated axel boot bc now that is torn too) so I could use my usually higher December strip club earnings to pay for it but no such luck. The engine is now doing a coughing thing that, in my long experience adopting senior rescue Subarus, means I really need to make these repairs as soon as possible and drive minimally before that time, or risk an exciting explosion while driving. (Speaking from experience- I’ve miscalculated how long I could wait to get this work done on a previous car.)
Ofc I’ve booked myself for some unpaid speaking gigs that are important to Whose Corner this month such that picking up extra shifts at the club in November is again not an option.
Any help readers could offer re this newest drama much appreciated! Thanks again to everyone for the support you’ve already given. It’s been hugely important for both the continued functioning of WCIIA and my own personal well being.
Naomi, November 20, 2019
—-
Dec 1- Changed the goal bc I was more behind on rent than I realized- spent some of the GFM money on Dec rent due to missing work while the car not able to get me to club. Am close enough right now that I’m making an appointment tomorrow to take the car in on Wednesday for the head gasket - thank you everyone for getting me almost there!
———
October rent now in peril. Car search went long and over budget and the car failed inspection.
Good news: I bought a car! It has a moon roof! I got a good deal! It costs less to insure and gets better gas mileage than my other car!
Bad news: The search took too long, the purchase was over my budget, I just now failed inspection in the way where its illegal to drive at all without getting it fixed. (Instant death safety fail, not one of those luxurious 30 day emission fails). I spent my rent money buying this car + borrowed to register it bc I just needed the search to be done so I could get back to work. I thought with one weekends left before rent was due I’d have time to make up what I overspent by working extra. I went to work last night and literally made $3- lolllllll. (Also, fun: two other strippers used me as an example of how they don’t want to look in a conversation they were having with each other about aging. Yes I was standing right there sex work is so empowering!!!1!!). I‘d probably be risking arrest by attempting to the long and heavily policed drive to work with a red safety affiliation sticker in my widow so it feels like I really need to stay home for the rest of this weekend.
Okay news: all repairs are being made for free on Monday.
Less okay news: I’m way the fuck behind on rent and other bills, and now I’ll miss another weekend of work. Whose Corner is also behind on our fundraising this week and boosting this fundraiser in WCIIA donor networks would probably take away from money we could raise for stipends, which doesn’t feel ethical let alone pragmatic to me.
PLS HELP: Can you donate? Can you boost? Anything helps!
Naomi, Sept 27 2019
——-
My car broke down on Thursday Sept 5. Because I am the only person in Whose Corner Is It Anyway who drives, it’s essential for our continued smooth functioning that I get back on the road asap. I’ve also missed one week of paid work so far- I hope not to miss another.
A nonprofit local to me had previously awarded me a $2500 grant towards advancing my activist career and has very graciously allowed me to redirect those funds towards the purchase of a replacement car. (The now dead car was in bad shape before its current problems and is not worth repairing.) I’ve found that a used car budget of $3000 is a sweet spot for a few years of reliability.
Raising money now to make up my anticipated car purchase shortfall:
$500 - remainder for purchase of actual car
$75 - certificate of title transfer fee
$60 - registration fee
$188 - sales tax (6.25% on 3k car)
$59 - mechanic inspection prior to purchase
$50 - Ubering around handling all of this this week plus regular errands in a transportation desert sans car (I’ll need to go to the grocery store at least once this week and hope to be able to go to the gym at least once as well)
$180 two months unpaid internet
$200 replacing one week of lost income
$200 for possibly another week of lost income while I look for a car
$150 gfm cut
———
$1662 - total new GFM request (current total reflects this amount added to the $3106 previously raised here)
Thanks in advance to everyone seeing this!
Naomi, September 12, 2019
**
New Emergency! Loss of housing now imminent.
After this crowdfunding campaign + some earnings on Tuesday evening allowed me to pay my May rent in full on time, my landlord a few minutes ago rescinded her previous offer to sign a new one year lease with me starting June 1. I’m reaching out to lawyers now and am told by people knowledgeable about housing issues that her actions here do seem illegal and retaliatory. I am either going to need money for legal fees or housing relocation costs in the next week. Maybe both? I’ll update when I have more bandwidth with more information on why keeping this housing if possible is so critical for me as a disabled and criminalized person- right now I am numb with panic. Meanwhile thank you in advance for any donating or forwarding of this crowdfunding campaign you are able to do.
-Naomi
May 2, 2019
———-
TLDR: within the last 12 hours I came down with strep throat and a housemate bailed on me on very short notice. Because of these unexpected events I am in danger of not paying rent on time to a landlord who is temperamental and difficult.
Welp my situation has now become dire!
I mentioned in a previous update that my finances became precarious but not unsalvageable earlier this month because of missing paid work to focus on building connections between WCIIA members and organized labor. I spent about 40 hours over the course of 11 days picketing and coordinating others support efforts at a local strike against unfair labor practices. (If you know what campaign I was working on please do not mention it by name here because I am not out as a SW to everyone I worked with there) I’m very proud of work I did and the connections that were made on that campaign. Thankfully, my ability to get myself to to the strip club and my earnings once there have been good enough since then that I was on track to pay this months bills on time until this afternoon.
I woke up this morning with strep throat, so knew then I would not be able to work tomorrow while I wait for antibiotics to kick in. (I am planning to go in on Saturday). Because of my ongoing chronic health problems, I often take longer than usual to recover from pedestrian illnesses and get much sicker than most people would be. Being even mildly ill always has a large negative impact on my income.
This would likely have been surmountable except that, a few hours after waking up, a person who was supposed to take over my outgoing housemates part of the lease May 1 told me that he is backing out of that plan. Because my beloved outgoing housemate gave me plenty of notice and is is committed to his next space, it is on me to come up with all of rent for this apartment for the month of May, while also restarting a housemate search for June 1.
Right now it looks like $600 will fix this situation for me entirely- any extra will give me wiggle room to miss a day or so of work in the next weeks while I scramble to find a housemate for June/ take it easy on going in to the strip club while I recover from strep throat.
Thank you for considering!
Naomi Lauren, April 25 2019
———
Taking a moment to update this fundraiser because I accidentally skipped my paid work today to start a long cherished project of bringing our members closer to local organized labor. I don’t know where it will take me/ us but am tentatively very excited about the possibilities for lumpen/ working class solidarity!
That said I’m currently completely out of money to sustain my own life lol. I don’t have any bills this week and I did recently go grocery shopping so my lack of funds does not feel like an emergency this minute. If work on Saturday goes badly or my health is poor and I don’t make it in my lack of money will then immediately become an emergency. If any prior donors get this message and are motivated to donate again now I would be extremely grateful! More importantly, if anyone not local to me is inspired to take the lead on posting this fundraiser to their networks that would mean the world to me right now! I’m hoping to specifically avoid raising my profile as a sex worker in circles close to where I live because I’m not presently out to the unions we are collabing with and I am hoping to keep it that way as long as possible.
WCIIA is also behind goal on crowdfunding this week so I’m not going to ask Caty to publicize this ask and if she is reading this now let me be clear that I am specifically asking her to not post this to her networks!
Much love to everyone reading now,
-Naomi, Weds April 17 2019
———
After unexpectedly making less than the legal minimum wage the last three weekends, I am now short $525 on my rent due immediately. I also have a phone bill for $45 being auto payed tomorrow. Any amount raised above those emergency bills will first go to buying me some groceries for this week, and second will help prevent me from needing to scale back my activist work in order to pick up more shifts at the club to keep my bills paid n March, which I am frankly also worried about right now.
I’m a longtime stripper and have been very lucky to also spend the last 16 months working 20-40 hours a week doing behind the scenes admin for Whose Corner Is It Anyway, an amazing (and if I do say so myself, ground breaking) project centering and growing the leadership of drug using housing insecure survival sex workers.
I strip in a low density rural market and my income is never flashy but I’m pretty great at my job and usually able to support myself just fine. This month I’ve had a series of weekends where I’m making less than $100 every 7 hour shift. Last night I made $47 before getting gas to go home- I left town with $27 in ones.
Because my time during the work week is pretty much given over to WCIIA commitments now, I’m limited in my ability to pick up extra shifts when I hit a rough patch like this. (In previous Februarys I’ve been able to work 3,4,5 days a week including doubles as needed to make it through those dark times when there really is only $50 in the room per girl per shift).
This feels like an emergency situation for me and I could really use some support from the community at this time. Thank you so much for considering!
Update: at 4pm on Sunday afternoon I deleted the option to send money to Caty directly, to save work for her and reduce the chances that this fundraiser brings her banking under scrutiny. I also upped the ask amount to include a cushion for groceries and etc to tide me over till I get back to the club this weekend. Thank you to everyone who has contributed or shared already!
I’m still doing fairly badly but am plodding along. I’m living on only my $750/ month Whose Corner income at moment- which pays me less than it costs me to live. Hoping to raise $1500 today, which would go immed to June rent (I’m not having luck with a housemate search in a pandemic) and some living expenses like groceries.
Thanks again to everyone for having my back. <3
Naomi, May 29 2020
—————
My income has fallen apart during the current crises and you can probably also guess that my psyche has been right there with it. I’ve been incredibly lucky to get so much personal support from the community via GFM this last year. I’m reopening this campaign with the hope that I can get some emergency funds and possibly also some ongoing help while covid is happening.
I’m very lucky to be receiving a $175/ week paycheck for my admin work for WCIIA. This is less, however, than it costs me to live. I think I’ll need another $300/ mo to tread water until we have a vaccine.
I’m also experiencing another looming housing crisis which I think I’ll need $1k by the end of the month to avert.
I’m having very profound executive function problems these so I’ll leave it here for the moment. I’m running another ask under a name I do not associate with my sw or activism and will update donations made there here as offline donations for accountability.
Thanks and solidarity to everyone reading,
-Naomi, April 25, 2020
————————
Car repair saga very near an end.
It’s been a wilder ride than usual with this stupid car (Which, okay, I can see now, was not at all a good deal for me.)
The head gasket ppl were booked seven weeks out when I called them in November, so I just took it in this week. Shamefully, I spent down some of that round of fundraiser money keeping myself housed and fed while unable to make it to the club before the repair was done. Now only $1300 away from putting all this behind me and hopefully really getting it all together financially this spring and summer.
It’s been an amazing few months for Whose Corner and for me in particular. We are receiving institutional funding. I’m getting a paycheck ($173/ week! Woot!) for some of my WCIIA admin hours. I’m starting to make personal connections with SW activists I’ve been admiring for years. My takes and my analysts are getting some notice by amazing people. Writing this from the depths of a disability flare so don’t have it in me to mention the names and details but the big take away is that I’m doing great precisely because I’ve been able to keep my access to transportation this whole time. Very grateful for all the support I’ve gotten over this year of turning to crowdfunding to cover the gaps in my earnings. Hoping you can carry me one more time.
Much love,
-Naomi, February 2, 2020
——
Head gasket needs replacing stat to let me keep up with critical WCIIA work and my own physical survival.
Welp the adventure continues: I bought my car this fall knowing it would soon need a repair totalling about $2.3k. I’d hoped to be able to wait until January to replace the head gasket and timing belt (plus an unrelated axel boot bc now that is torn too) so I could use my usually higher December strip club earnings to pay for it but no such luck. The engine is now doing a coughing thing that, in my long experience adopting senior rescue Subarus, means I really need to make these repairs as soon as possible and drive minimally before that time, or risk an exciting explosion while driving. (Speaking from experience- I’ve miscalculated how long I could wait to get this work done on a previous car.)
Ofc I’ve booked myself for some unpaid speaking gigs that are important to Whose Corner this month such that picking up extra shifts at the club in November is again not an option.
Any help readers could offer re this newest drama much appreciated! Thanks again to everyone for the support you’ve already given. It’s been hugely important for both the continued functioning of WCIIA and my own personal well being.
Naomi, November 20, 2019
—-
Dec 1- Changed the goal bc I was more behind on rent than I realized- spent some of the GFM money on Dec rent due to missing work while the car not able to get me to club. Am close enough right now that I’m making an appointment tomorrow to take the car in on Wednesday for the head gasket - thank you everyone for getting me almost there!
———
October rent now in peril. Car search went long and over budget and the car failed inspection.
Good news: I bought a car! It has a moon roof! I got a good deal! It costs less to insure and gets better gas mileage than my other car!
Bad news: The search took too long, the purchase was over my budget, I just now failed inspection in the way where its illegal to drive at all without getting it fixed. (Instant death safety fail, not one of those luxurious 30 day emission fails). I spent my rent money buying this car + borrowed to register it bc I just needed the search to be done so I could get back to work. I thought with one weekends left before rent was due I’d have time to make up what I overspent by working extra. I went to work last night and literally made $3- lolllllll. (Also, fun: two other strippers used me as an example of how they don’t want to look in a conversation they were having with each other about aging. Yes I was standing right there sex work is so empowering!!!1!!). I‘d probably be risking arrest by attempting to the long and heavily policed drive to work with a red safety affiliation sticker in my widow so it feels like I really need to stay home for the rest of this weekend.
Okay news: all repairs are being made for free on Monday.
Less okay news: I’m way the fuck behind on rent and other bills, and now I’ll miss another weekend of work. Whose Corner is also behind on our fundraising this week and boosting this fundraiser in WCIIA donor networks would probably take away from money we could raise for stipends, which doesn’t feel ethical let alone pragmatic to me.
PLS HELP: Can you donate? Can you boost? Anything helps!
Naomi, Sept 27 2019
——-
My car broke down on Thursday Sept 5. Because I am the only person in Whose Corner Is It Anyway who drives, it’s essential for our continued smooth functioning that I get back on the road asap. I’ve also missed one week of paid work so far- I hope not to miss another.
A nonprofit local to me had previously awarded me a $2500 grant towards advancing my activist career and has very graciously allowed me to redirect those funds towards the purchase of a replacement car. (The now dead car was in bad shape before its current problems and is not worth repairing.) I’ve found that a used car budget of $3000 is a sweet spot for a few years of reliability.
Raising money now to make up my anticipated car purchase shortfall:
$500 - remainder for purchase of actual car
$75 - certificate of title transfer fee
$60 - registration fee
$188 - sales tax (6.25% on 3k car)
$59 - mechanic inspection prior to purchase
$50 - Ubering around handling all of this this week plus regular errands in a transportation desert sans car (I’ll need to go to the grocery store at least once this week and hope to be able to go to the gym at least once as well)
$180 two months unpaid internet
$200 replacing one week of lost income
$200 for possibly another week of lost income while I look for a car
$150 gfm cut
———
$1662 - total new GFM request (current total reflects this amount added to the $3106 previously raised here)
Thanks in advance to everyone seeing this!
Naomi, September 12, 2019
**
New Emergency! Loss of housing now imminent.
After this crowdfunding campaign + some earnings on Tuesday evening allowed me to pay my May rent in full on time, my landlord a few minutes ago rescinded her previous offer to sign a new one year lease with me starting June 1. I’m reaching out to lawyers now and am told by people knowledgeable about housing issues that her actions here do seem illegal and retaliatory. I am either going to need money for legal fees or housing relocation costs in the next week. Maybe both? I’ll update when I have more bandwidth with more information on why keeping this housing if possible is so critical for me as a disabled and criminalized person- right now I am numb with panic. Meanwhile thank you in advance for any donating or forwarding of this crowdfunding campaign you are able to do.
-Naomi
May 2, 2019
———-
TLDR: within the last 12 hours I came down with strep throat and a housemate bailed on me on very short notice. Because of these unexpected events I am in danger of not paying rent on time to a landlord who is temperamental and difficult.
Welp my situation has now become dire!
I mentioned in a previous update that my finances became precarious but not unsalvageable earlier this month because of missing paid work to focus on building connections between WCIIA members and organized labor. I spent about 40 hours over the course of 11 days picketing and coordinating others support efforts at a local strike against unfair labor practices. (If you know what campaign I was working on please do not mention it by name here because I am not out as a SW to everyone I worked with there) I’m very proud of work I did and the connections that were made on that campaign. Thankfully, my ability to get myself to to the strip club and my earnings once there have been good enough since then that I was on track to pay this months bills on time until this afternoon.
I woke up this morning with strep throat, so knew then I would not be able to work tomorrow while I wait for antibiotics to kick in. (I am planning to go in on Saturday). Because of my ongoing chronic health problems, I often take longer than usual to recover from pedestrian illnesses and get much sicker than most people would be. Being even mildly ill always has a large negative impact on my income.
This would likely have been surmountable except that, a few hours after waking up, a person who was supposed to take over my outgoing housemates part of the lease May 1 told me that he is backing out of that plan. Because my beloved outgoing housemate gave me plenty of notice and is is committed to his next space, it is on me to come up with all of rent for this apartment for the month of May, while also restarting a housemate search for June 1.
Right now it looks like $600 will fix this situation for me entirely- any extra will give me wiggle room to miss a day or so of work in the next weeks while I scramble to find a housemate for June/ take it easy on going in to the strip club while I recover from strep throat.
Thank you for considering!
Naomi Lauren, April 25 2019
———
Taking a moment to update this fundraiser because I accidentally skipped my paid work today to start a long cherished project of bringing our members closer to local organized labor. I don’t know where it will take me/ us but am tentatively very excited about the possibilities for lumpen/ working class solidarity!
That said I’m currently completely out of money to sustain my own life lol. I don’t have any bills this week and I did recently go grocery shopping so my lack of funds does not feel like an emergency this minute. If work on Saturday goes badly or my health is poor and I don’t make it in my lack of money will then immediately become an emergency. If any prior donors get this message and are motivated to donate again now I would be extremely grateful! More importantly, if anyone not local to me is inspired to take the lead on posting this fundraiser to their networks that would mean the world to me right now! I’m hoping to specifically avoid raising my profile as a sex worker in circles close to where I live because I’m not presently out to the unions we are collabing with and I am hoping to keep it that way as long as possible.
WCIIA is also behind goal on crowdfunding this week so I’m not going to ask Caty to publicize this ask and if she is reading this now let me be clear that I am specifically asking her to not post this to her networks!
Much love to everyone reading now,
-Naomi, Weds April 17 2019
———
After unexpectedly making less than the legal minimum wage the last three weekends, I am now short $525 on my rent due immediately. I also have a phone bill for $45 being auto payed tomorrow. Any amount raised above those emergency bills will first go to buying me some groceries for this week, and second will help prevent me from needing to scale back my activist work in order to pick up more shifts at the club to keep my bills paid n March, which I am frankly also worried about right now.
I’m a longtime stripper and have been very lucky to also spend the last 16 months working 20-40 hours a week doing behind the scenes admin for Whose Corner Is It Anyway, an amazing (and if I do say so myself, ground breaking) project centering and growing the leadership of drug using housing insecure survival sex workers.
I strip in a low density rural market and my income is never flashy but I’m pretty great at my job and usually able to support myself just fine. This month I’ve had a series of weekends where I’m making less than $100 every 7 hour shift. Last night I made $47 before getting gas to go home- I left town with $27 in ones.
Because my time during the work week is pretty much given over to WCIIA commitments now, I’m limited in my ability to pick up extra shifts when I hit a rough patch like this. (In previous Februarys I’ve been able to work 3,4,5 days a week including doubles as needed to make it through those dark times when there really is only $50 in the room per girl per shift).
This feels like an emergency situation for me and I could really use some support from the community at this time. Thank you so much for considering!
Update: at 4pm on Sunday afternoon I deleted the option to send money to Caty directly, to save work for her and reduce the chances that this fundraiser brings her banking under scrutiny. I also upped the ask amount to include a cushion for groceries and etc to tide me over till I get back to the club this weekend. Thank you to everyone who has contributed or shared already!
Organizer and beneficiary
Naomi Lauren
Organizer
Holyoke, MA
Naomi Lauren
Beneficiary