Worldbuilding with Vigilant Love – Help us Reach $20K Today!

Over the summer of 2022, the world witnessed a series of breathtaking images captured by NASA, illuminating the cosmos in an exciting new way. Stars, galaxies, planets, and nebulae, each at their own stages of life, death, or rebirth, came into sharp focus, unfurling before us as a reminder of the vastness and wonder of our universe. For many of us, the images were an invitation to consider our own place within this rich tapestry of energy and matter. What worlds are we building to contribute to this grand design – and in what ways will those worlds center the accountability, care, and awe we all deserve to live with?

Our world-building is as rooted in ending war, abolishing carceral structures, and divesting from the state as it is in building new pathways toward healing, co-creating new models of safety, and deepening our connection and vigilant love for one another.

Here at Vigilant Love, we want to continue fostering cosmic dreams with you all – and we need your help to keep doing that. Consider donating to us today so that we can continue worldbuilding together.

Here’s how we’ve been building this world – and all its infrastructure – in 2022.

• We’re building networks of knowledge through political education: Whether it’s our workshops on the history of surveillance in mental health, planning for our next iteration of the “Liberatory Lineages: Unpacking & Resisting Anti-Blackness” workshop series, panel participation on various partner events, academic presentations, and digital education campaigns, we continue to focus our work on political and popular education with the aim to empower our communities and bolster our movement work.
• We’re mobilizing resistance through community organizing: Our grassroots efforts against harmful policing and surveillance programs continue, ranging from our opposition to the expansion of the LAPD’s PATHE program, to our work illuminating the criminalization of reproductive autonomy and rights.
• We’re working to deepen community (re)connection through arts and activism: After two online cohorts of the Solidarity Arts Fellowship program for young Muslim and Japanese American artists and organizers, we were able to host some in-person retreats and gatherings with our 2022 cohort! These retreats were held with great care and intentionality, ensuring the safety of our participants and communities during an ongoing pandemic, as we engaged with multidisciplinary and collective artmaking, storytelling, and rich grassroots political education.
• We’re connecting with new community members through intergenerational learning & play: VL partnered with Camp Musubi to co-host a day camp for BIPOC youth (ages 8-12) to connect to the rich history of Little Tokyo through food-making, a scavenger hunt, and interactive games. It was one of our first experiences sharing space with a younger generation – and worldbuilding together through play.
• We’re sustaining ourselves and our movements through vigil and grief space: After Roe v. Wade was overturned in the summer, we heard the need for a gathering space to grieve together and share political analysis. In the weeks following the SCOTUS decision, we held “Rage & Refuge: SCOTUS, Bodily Autonomy, and the War on Terror” with our partners to create the space our community needed.
• We’re re-committing to this work through spiritual practices and reflection: Our 7th annual Bridging Communities Iftar, held during the month of Ramadan, was a powerful inter-spiritual space that gathered our communities virtually to renew our collective commitment to solidarity and reflect on how we’re cultivating liberation within our work and lives.

Your donation will ensure we can continue to build on the legacy of decades-long Japanese and Muslim American organizing, joint-struggle, and creative work in SoCal and beyond. Worldbuilding is not possible without the kind of deep, relational, grassroots support our communities provide – and as we look toward our sun, sky, and the galaxies beyond, we see so much more on the horizon. We thank you for being part of our world.