I'm starting a thing & I'd love to have you be part of it!
just femme & dandy is trying to get some love, as it gets closer to its birth
Hi darlings,
For years, I’ve wanted to create and curate a space for the LGBTQIA+ community on fashion. I wasn’t quite sure how to get it off the ground, and I’ve never felt comfortable striking out solely on my own. Call it the twin syndrome, but it always helps to have a partner.
A year ago, I curated a queer fashion folio with Anomaly, a wonderful lit journal where I have edited fiction for a good while now. The experience was incredible, and the work that was submitted was exciting, and covered just the range I knew was out there, waiting to be gathered and presented in a forum for others to read and witness and watch and relate to. As I look back now, I realize that, for me, the folio was a chance to dip my foot in the water, and to prove to myself that this was indeed a space lacking in the small zine and journal world, and that I did have what it took to bring it to life.
A few months ago, waist-high in divorce grief, a person I knew through literary circles reached out to me, and connected with me on the particularities of our grieving. It was a tremendous gift, a generosity that I’ve needed, but not as I’ve needed it in this time, the hardest time of my life.
As I got a sense of her, I asked her, would she join me on this thing that I’ve always wanted to do, this magazine for queer fashion that would accept any and all artistic expressions, as my right hand person? Excitedly, she said yes.
And before I knew it, the thing I had dreamed of for so many years, grew hands and feet, and then, suddenly, in a very short span of time, I was able to bring on board ten other incredible people of all walks of life! I am truly stunned, even when the world seems so overwhelming and fraught, that such flowers can blossom. Even now. Perhaps, especially now.
All that to say, next month, just femme & dandy, a literary and arts magazine dedicated to fashion by, for, and centering the LGBTQIA+ community, will open submissions and launch a brand spankin new website! To say I am thrilled is an enormous understatement! We’re having a fundraiser, so if you want to help, please check out our Gofundme or our Ko-Fi! Or, if you want to help us get the word out, please share with your channels! And, most importantly, subscribe here for updates!
As you know, I always end with a question, so here’s one for you: what did you start this year that you’d always intended to, but somehow the space and time of this surreality we’ve been living in pushed you to do it once and for all? How’s it going? And, as always, ask me anything! Check out the Dashboard to see how, or you can always write me at: addiester@gmail.com. Can’t wait to hear from you, and have a wonderful transition to 2021! <3
Yours in love and solidarity,
Addie