Editorial: LEVEL UP! Gratitude, Growth and Other Goings On in the Exit Strata-sphere
There is a poem I wrote in the early spring that describes the moment of meeting, and attraction, as… cellular intelligence, as when
my electrons got all jumpy-like
from first you walked in the room
recognized yours like an overdue reunion
refugees from the counties of each other
and I bring that up now because, metaphorically, our Exit Strata electrons have been getting all jumpy-like a hell of a lot recently.
Far beyond a one-to-one connection, this piece posits a theory of interpersonal co-evolution that I’ve been tossing around lately — one that suggests that we instinctively recognize our creationary comrades: those who will make our world and life a better place, who will inspire us, challenge us, and help us evolve.
This electromagnetic impulse, lets say – the biological inclination to draw this person or these people into your self or your environment – becomes/grows into “love” with WORK: because even chemical reactions require catalysts, and require the appropriate conditions for full realization.
We come to love those people who bring this original impulse into being — through the ultimately selfless act of commitment to another person or group of people. We appreciate and feel in our very bodies how awesome it is that these people stay with us, and give of themselves and their energy again and again.
So we’re going to start out with a big hearty THANK YOU. Oh man.
We love you people.
We love our contributors, the people who come to our events, the people who write us email, the people who chat with us at our tables — and we get all jumpy for you.
You know why? Because you make us believe in what we’re doing, and you show us that YOU believe in what we’re doing. You let us know that it supports and inspires you. That it is encouraging and enabling and growing your work and your connections and your community. And because altogether, we’re feeling like we’ve, well, LEVELLED UP. To a new Strata.
Let’s hear it for 2012! Did you know it’s the United Nations’ Year of Cooperatives? I think that “country of eachother” those lines channel an understanding of is, in fact, the collaborative, cooperative future we are building here together.
EXIT STRATA <3’s Bill Considine! Poet, playwright, friend, tireless videographer. THANK YOU BILL!
That being said, we’ve decided to say farewell to whatever vision of always having to work for other people got lodged in us somewhere long ago and go full speed ahead on making this community and platform who we are and what we do.
Full time. Er, ok, well it already is full time (no joke) — but we want to pay ourselves to do it, and we want to pay you to play with us, to work for us, and for your valuable and beautiful work.
We’re in the (somewhat grueling) process of becoming a 501c3, have gotten our official EIN (which feels vaguely like being “born” according to the government’s recognition of Exit Strata existing as an entity), and are hoping that our application to be fiscally sponsored by the outstanding Fractured Atlas organization will be approved in the meanwhile, to help us begin the (also grueling) process of applying for grant funding to grow our services, events, and circulation.
An essential part of financing our next steps, which for every startup is about to become more viable than ever with the “Entrepeneur Access to Capital” (or, more familiarly, the Crowdfunding) Act is our I AM EXIT STRATA Crowdfunding campaign, which will go live by early fall. If you were at the Poetry Festival with us a few weekends ago perhaps we took your picture for this effort — in which we aim to say, in no uncertain terms, that we as an organization are soil, a platform, a conduit, a facilitator, a catalyst: that we exist to support and celebrate you, and the amazing work you do. More on that, soon.
Speaking of the amazing work you do, and of how overwhelmingly grateful we are for your participation, collaborative energies, and support, we’d like to give a shout out to Bill Considine, who you may have seen reading …or behind a camera … at one of our events. Bill has been a constant support and advocate of all things Exit Strata and we are blessed by his wisdom and energy.
He is the force behind all the footage now available on Exit Strata’s newly christened YouTube channel, where you can see
Other things afoot include:
EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION: It’s hard to navigate all the links and announcements and posts and memes these days… so we’ve made a handy, semi-old-school email subscription so that our feed will come directly to your inbox, where you can read it at your leisure, on any device! There’s a little box on the home page, on the right hand side to enter your address into. Make sure to verify subscription to “feedburner” when you get the confirmation email!
COMMUNITY CALENDAR: We’ve created a calendar that can be directly edited BY YOU. That you can add your community events, readings, concerts, gallery openings, plays, parties, benefits, salons, workshops… your birthday… into.
Perhaps eventually we’ll have a elfin workshop scanning all the individual calendars of goings on in NYC and elsewhere and add these in to the calendar but (as you see) we are struggling to keep it updated. It’s meant to be a tool for all of us, much like the (now RIP) Bowery Poetry Club’s calendar was for years and years — a place to see an overview, on a daily basis, of events across the creative spectrum. Please email us at editors@exitstrata.com for more information and instructions.
AUGUST COCO SALON: Invitations coming SOON! Save the date : Sunday August 19th, 12-5 pm
Our FIELD NOTES series is alive and very well indeed. Submissions for the series are rolling, please consider sending your process work!
Other calls for entry include responses to the CO-EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE prompt, as well as our community BOOKSTORES *YOU* LOVE invitational series. We are, of course, always interested in hearing your feedback or ideas, and welcome guest columnists on a range of topics! email editors@exitstrata.com with your queries.
And…that’s all she wrote! Ok well, actually there was more, but this is enough for now…more, soon. 🙂
ONWARD
with love and with gratitude
to you
who are Exit Strata
Lynne DeSilva-Johnson
