Land & Historical Acknowledgements & Reparations
Going forward when Grimalkin is participating in shows and events in Richmond and beyond, we will be making a land and historical acknowledgement, and there will be historical information about the place or neighborhood available in a visible location, preferably at or near the door or merch table.
In addition, Grimalkin is committed to donating 5% of our in-person events to an Indigenous organization or individual artist local to Richmond or Surry Counties. We also commit to donating another 5% to an organization that serves the health and safety of the Black community or to an organization that supports Black creative endeavors, including individual Black artists seeking support to continue making their art or music.
Our submission team is currently over 25 artists, collective, board, and community members. The team reviews individual and organizational and collective requests. We also have local organizations and Black artists we already regularly support and will continue to support through our events, releases and services. In the case of multiple submissions, priority is given to Black or IIndigenous trans, queer and two-spirit individuals or organizations and collectives that are local to Richmond or Surry Counties.You can email grimalkinrecords@gmail.com to request support for our upcoming scheduled events.
Disclaimer: we donβt always collect a lot of donations or tickets at shows at this time, especially since we mainly use a pay-what-you-can model. That can change depending on the event. Weβve shown how far we have come already, so we predict like everything else, it will be a continuous slow growth forward.
We wonβt be doing this for our annual music festival though since that is a much bigger effort to redistribute money back into our local community in a different way than most of our events. It also costs a lot of money (unlike typical shows), and we need all of those funds to support that effort.
We believe it is our responsibility to set an example. Actions speak volumes. You donβt have to be wealthy to donate and share money, resources and skills. You just need enough of an income to live comfortably and the opportunity to share your disposable income, resources and skills if you have the means to do so.
We have not yet reached financial sustainability, but we have progressed to a point where we can take off the oxygen mask and share a little of our financial progress going forward as we continue to move forward as a collective and nonprofit. What may currently be small amounts of reparations, eventually has the potential to turn into more as we continue to progress towards financial sustainability.
We commit to sharing 10% of what folks donate or pay for tickets to our events into our local communities as a continual gesture of small but financially feasible reparations for the past atrocities committed against Indigenous and Black people here in Richmond and Surry Counties. Our hope is that people with means attending our events will be inspired and encouraged to do the same and support us in our efforts.
