Holiday Commissary Fundraiser for Queer Prisoners!
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
A.B.O. ComixOur annual fundraiser sending holiday bonuses to our incarcerated contributors' commissary accounts!
$3,180
raised by 57 people
$5,000 goal
2022 giving has begun!
We've officially begun raising funds for our incarcerated contributors for the 2022 holiday season! Over the next two months, we aim to raise enough money to send $100 to over 50 incarcerated artists who were chosen for our 6th annual Queer Prisoners Comix Anthology.
Anthology pre-sales have historically made up a large portion of our fundraiser, but this year we're hoping to see more community donations early on so that our friends inside can have a better idea of the kind of financial support they can look forward to this holiday season.
While it has been a challenging year financially for us and for many other beloved organizations and community members, it has also been a year of unprecedented growth for both the incarcerated and free-world constituencies of our organization. We are confident that if our beloved free-world community spreads the word about our fundraiser early and often, that we will meet and surpass our goal to support the exponential growth of our inside community.
Please share this fundraiser with your friends and loved ones, with any organizations with the capacity to amplify our message, and donate what you can! A little goes a long way towards sending our incarcerated contributors some love for the holidays. Thank you for supporting the artistic expression of queer and trans prisoners!
Hey friends! We are re-upping this fundraiser building on last year's efforts to raise money for our queer and trans friends in prison in honor of Give OUT Day 2022. The month of June is increasingly recognized as a time to uplift the efforts of queer and trans people working towards collective liberation, and for us that means putting the stories of our incarcerated, queer and trans artists front and center. This year, we've published a 400-page compendium of works from one of our longest-time and most prolific contributors, a genderqueer multimedia artist working out of Allred Unit in Texas, as well as a poetry anthology with verses from over two dozen currently- and formerly-incarcerated artists from our network. And in a first for A.B.O. Comix, we published a kid-friendly comic that is the result of a partnership between a contributor who's been with us since Day 1 and a new friend he introduced us to! We have many exciting projects in the works for the rest of the year, including sequels for Sirbrian Spease's acclaimed autobiography, The Boy of Hearts, a two-volume collection of works from Billy Thomas (a queer/trans artist incarcerated in Texas), tons of zines and our first themed comix anthology! We've also started releasing episodes of our podcast, Teleway 411, in which we explore the inner lives of currently- and formerly- incarcerated artists (and special guests!) We'll release a new interview every Wednesday of Pride month. Our collective is flourishing in a time rights and protections for queer and trans people are under threat across the country, and when our incarcerated members are navigating lockdown, prison austerity measures, and major health problems among the many other curveballs life loves to throw at us. We've been hearing more and more from phone calls and letters with our friends inside about the impact A.B.O. Comix has on their lives, giving them an outlet to tell their stories in whatever artistic medium they choose. It's always an honor to be a platform for our contributors, and we're struck in this moment by the reality that we are such a source of hope for so many. Our community inside and outside prison is growing as we welcome more and more people home and find volunteers who share our passion for prisoner advocacy for the arts. We're using Give OUT Day this year as an opportunity to start fundraising early for our annual commissary fundraiser so we can show our artists even more love and support for their growing creative processes. If you've known us for a while or just met us for the first time in-person or online, please consider making a donation and letting your loved ones know about who we are and what we do. Happy Pride!