I’m super excited to share something we’ve had in development for the last few months. This year has been hard. But I was so excited after Kendrick Lamar’s Superbowl performance, and excited again after Cynthia Erivo’s performance of Defying Gravity at the Grammy’s.
It really underscored the point that “Art is Resistance.”
If you still aren’t sure, ask yourself why:
- They’re shutting down federal funding to libraries and museums
- Banning books in libraries and schools across the country
- Proposing legislation that will allow parents of minors to sue bookstores for harm due to “obscene” content
- And so much more
Artists (like you) help shape culture. You inspire us to keep taking action during times where we are tempted to slip into hopelessness. Art gives moments of respite and fuels bonfires of inspiration.Art speaks to our spirits.
And, on some level at least, they know that. That’s why art is under attack. That’s why your art IS resistance.
When Ali, Paige, and I (Ruthie) did the first Femme Audio Takeover in 2022, it was really just to draw awareness to the talented femme audiobook narrators and the femme characters they play, since the algorithm often favors our masculine counterparts.
We didn’t expect it to turn into anything big, but it EXPLODED.
It’s taken on a new meaning as our communities have come under attack from local, state, and federal governments, as well as unethical generative artificial intelligence developments.
We’ve done over 10 Femme Audio Takeover events since then, settling on a semi annual cadence for sanity’s sake. Last year, we hosted our first Sapphic September, which was a ton of work but loads of fun.
In honor of that concept, “Art is Resistance“, we partnered with author and artist, Rowan Merrick, to create a design that speaks to the energy of that statement (They designed our new FATO logo at the top of this email too!).
My art is resistance.
Your art is resistance.
Our art is resistance.
If that speaks to you, we hope you enjoy adorning yourselves with our latest collection, “Art is Resistance.”
Your Art is Resistance Shirt
Our Art is Resistance Shirt
My Art is Resistance Shirt
We’ve got shirts, hoodies, tote bags, mugs, and prints.
Once per quarter, we will choose a nonprofit supporting marginalized artists to donate 10% of this collection’s profit to. A percentage will be sent to the artist, Rowan Merrick, to honor their enormous part in this project, and the rest will be used to upgrade our current infrastructure for FATO and new collaborative marketing opportunities!
Orders of $75 or more will receive free shipping!
What infrastructure? We use the free version of Airtable for the Wildcard and Femme Narrator Database. Upgrading to the paid version will allow us to create a smoother user experience and add additional features that will lessen a lot of the manual work we do to pull off these events!
Thank you so much for your support these past few years. We look forward to this year’s third anniversary FATO, which will be held during the first full week of July, stay tuned for a specific date!
-Ruthie
