Loved from a Distance
Graphic by Nicole Whitted for Jr Hi the Magazine
⤏ DIGITAL COMMUNITIES AS SPACES TO LOVE AND DREAM
⤏ BY ANNIKA HANSTEEN-IZORA
⤏ PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2020
I’m in a club, sporting a face mask. It’s 11pm on a Wednesday, and I’m at a digital dance party.
A Kaytranada remix is blasting through my headphones. I’m bouncing my ass so hard it’s almost daring a neighbor to catch a glance. In the glow of my computer, 400 queer folks duck-walk, twerk and twirl in an ocean of green-screen backdrops. People are dancing with their houseplants, their cats, their roommates. Every once in a while, a child comes into view and waves at the glittering sea of bodies. Four-hundred hands wave back. Here we are: both alone and together, centering our joy and our resistance in an online world.
The dance party, organized virtually by Club Quarantine, is using funds raised from the event to support women and LGBTQ+ artists furloughed from working in nightlife. I go to rinse off my clay mask and get a text: “Go off! Coming to the club looking hydrated and cared for!” I smile, knowing that in their own corner of the internet, they were dancing beside me.
Like many, I’ve been moving through a fog of collective weariness. Each day, grief compounds from one unimaginable change after another: a global pandemic, economic depression, ecological disasters, the protests for Black lives. Each change further reminds me of one single truth: we need each other.
In an age where physical gatherings threaten our safety, love is finding a new home online. This digital intimacy takes the form of mutual aid funds and emergency grants, online therapy circles and grieving sessions, virtual art shows, resources for free COVID testing, even fridges offering free food.
“400 queer folks duck-walk, twerk and twirl in an ocean of green-screen backdrops.”
We don’t often think of the internet as a space for warmth and vulnerability. I find myself drained by daily visits to Instagram, platforms fueled by oppressive algorithms that target users of color, or anyone queer, trans, fat, or disabled.
Online, there is endless space for communities to center healing and resistance. But just like our IRL communities, we must center accountability, compassion, and care.
When I think on effectively nurturing digital communities, I think of the knowledge Black activists and artists have cultivated across generations. Knowledge regarding communal care is rooted in the lending of our individual labour, spirit, and energy. Community requires constant tending in order to bloom. It’s something alive.
In “Emergent Strategy,” author adrienne maree brown notes that inciting change asks us to “move at the speed of trust.” We are being ushered into an era where everything is being revealed for its truth — our systems, institutions, communities. Ourselves. Through this strange portal, digital communities have a rare opportunity to pull our imagined futures into the present.
Below are digital collectives and organizations that are using the internet to cultivate love, liberation, art, and healing. Online spaces are full of possibility.
>Activation Residency
A Black trans-led artist residency and cooperative, that has hosted various digital offerings of healing and liberation. Events have included: Consent & Boundaries for the Revolution and free aromatherapy sessions for QTBIPOC folks. Currently, Activation Residency is hosting their virtual art show Bathing in Blackness, a celebration of Black artists and creators. @activationresidency
>BUFU
A project based on collective-oriented solidarity. BUFU utilizes experimental modes of organizing and creation. Their project “Cloud” — or Collective Love on Ur Desktop — created an online community offering free online classes. @bufu_byusforus
>Digital Energy Boards
Zeba Bay — Senior Culture Writer at Huffpost — creates energy boards that center rest and tenderness. Each board is a deep celebration of Black womanhood. @zebablay
>Algorithms of Oppression Book Club
A collaboration between the Women’s Center for Creative Work and Feminist.AI, this digital book club offers communal growth, as members discuss Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble’s work “Algorithms of Oppression.” Link here.
>Papi Juice
An art collective that celebrates queer and trans people of color. When quarantine shut down Papi Juice’s in-person parties, they moved to virtual Zoom celebrations, where queer and trans people take up space with vibrance, joy, and energy. @papijuicebk
>Cyber Healing
A virtual exhibition curated by Kiara Cristina, exploring how Latinx and Afro-Latinx artists heal utilizing feminine energy and the digital space. www.cyberhealing.world
>Ethel’s Club
A Black-owned social and wellness club designed to celebrate people of color, online and IRL. @ethelsclub
>Chroma’s Source of Nurture
Curated by Chroma, this music fundraising initiative brings together women of color artists to amplify each other and bring some much needed support to the organizations, folks, and funds standing in solidarity Black Lives Matter, Undocumented and Immigrant communities, and Essential Workers. www.chromanewyork.bandcamp.com
>Jewel on IG Live
Jewel, a self-described ratchet revolutionary, hosts Instagram Lives spanning topics from decolonizing disability to cultivating joy through Black party spaces. @jewel_thegem
>Studio Ananda
An online resource to help facilitate true global healing. Through interviews with various healers, Studio Ānanda works to answer the question: What does the post-capitalist landscape of healing look like? @studio___ananda
>Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Directory
Created by The Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective (BTFA), this directory helps connect Black trans femme artists to each other and to helpful resources for making and sharing their work. @btfacollective
>Healing Reflections
Mimi Zhu writes on reflective modes of resistance. Through their words and affirmations on self and communal care, Mimi creates an online space in which love is at the center. @mimizhuxiyan
>No Insights
A community for women and nonbinary strategists of color in the advertising and media industry. No Insights hosts online classes, distributes grants, and more. @noinsights
⤏ BUY THE PRINT EDITION OF JR HI THE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 010 HERE.
⤏ ANNIKA HANSTEEN-IZORA (THEY/SHE) IS A QUEER BLACK POET, DESIGNER, AND ARTIST, BASED IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, FROM PORTLAND, OR AND PALO ALTO, CA. THEY ARE THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF SOMEWHERE GOOD, ETHEL’S CLUB AND FORM NO FORM, THREE PLATFORMS THAT CENTER AND CELEBRATE PEOPLE OF COLOR. THEIR WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED BY VOGUE, BUSTLE, AIGA, AND OTHERS.