collective dreaming

I was not on TikTok consistently until my partner started taking off there. When I say taking off, I seriously thought she would make a lot of money there, and I know it is possible somewhere because she is as talented as can be: art, poetry, dance, she does it all. First, she had 10K views on a post, 100 followers overnight, 200 followers, and up to over 2K by the “end.” Her TikTok growth accelerated with our love affair. Now that TT is on pause and likely never the same, I miss this silly, fun interaction with her friends and followers; some are now my friends, too.

That is how I saw one of our new friends today at a Zoom room gathering. Two of my other dear queer friends showed up, and we had ourselves a quorum. I spoke of the program I mention a lot here (profound steps through big transition); it is created and waiting for you, BUT more importantly, what has been happening is WE are getting to know each other in new and different ways. In the first week, three coaches gathered. Then many emails came; “I want to come, but I can't this week.” And so there will be many more meetings that I am now calling “queer church”! Shout out to Shelly Breen!

Perhaps you did not know that I, too, have a very small TikTok, and this is my favorite trend that my partner and I created. Song credit: How Do U Want It by 2Pac


Who am I again?: Bridget Bertrand with https://www.transformationcollective.space/

Why should you attend our Sunday Queer church: you are queer, questioning, aka 2SLGBTQQIA+. Come on through. Truly, no one will be turned away unless they are not friendly; I ask that everyone shows up deeply committed to kindness and love.

Who else can attend? All Global Majority folks who want support or want to tell us about your healing offering. This is where you might get confused. Bridget, are you creating a collective of healers?

Yes.

Bridget, do you wish for the healers and folks who want healing to gather together regularly?

Yes.

I sincerely desire that we can all be connected through our practices and what we cultivate. Some call this our praxis: our action, our practice, such as an exercise or a practice of an art, science, or skill. You often apply practical applications of a theory. What are they? Come tell us! Please sign up and please be in touch with any questions. The first bit of time will be for hello's, the second bit will be for individual practice, and the last bit will be to share what happened and what we found in this space. There may be break-out rooms if the space gets filled up. I am all done with the sales pitches for now. I see this working. I put myself out there. I offer the space. We figure out as a collective what to do with it. Wow, now that I type this out, it seems very simple and profound. Register for all the dates; if you don’t want to come to all, that is ok. Just let me know beforehand that you are only coming to one, or two etc. Please share far and wide. I can’t wait to meet you!

  • Feb 9, 2025 10:00 PM

  • Feb 16, 2025 10:00 PM

  • Feb 23, 2025 10:00 PM

  • Mar 2, 2025 10:00 PM

“A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers - the experience of knowing we always belong.”
― Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions

Love and solidarity!

Bridget

https://www.transformationcollective.space/

https://bit.ly/profoundsteps - an ever-evolving Google doc. with the collective offerings, dates, and Zoom registration place updated each week!

Free event Sunday 1/26, 10am PST

Hi, dear readers! I am back with almost the same blog/page on my website and on the Transformation Collective Space newsletter (on Substack).

I love to offer links. This email/blog post has six links, which I am updating today. It's MLK Day, which is the only part of the day I am here to celebrate.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

—A Time to Break the Silence: April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King

1) This document is a co-creation, and I would love to collaborate with you all on this collective list of fabulous teachers, healers, and helpers. Sign up to be with me on Sunday today to learn more about this list.

Google doc - "extra support" - list of helpers, healers, etc.

2) Link two is a meeting for potential clients, BUT I am expanding this to other healers and helpers, even if you know you never want to pay me for work. It is a free session, so please come through my Zoom room on Sunday. I am SO excited about what happened last Sunday. Four of us showed up and supported one another, and I know this Sunday will have a similar vibe.

When: Sunday, the 26th, 10 am-11:30

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/XXR3qdgSSl-OzL2PXqO71Q

I will discuss my coaching offering for some time: profound steps through BIG transitions. You will be invited to meditate, cultivate practices, and plan for your future. You are invited to come as you are and leave as you must (a phrase the meditation teacher, Rev. Angel, often shares). Please gather your paper, pens, and marketers, bring your favorite playlist list to share. Invite your roommates: your partner and college-age kids.

3) This is a link to a phenomenal human with many offerings around mutual aid.

https://www.deanspade.net/

4) This link to a list put together where you can direct funds to people who have lost everything in the Los Angeles County fires: https://substack.com/home/post/p-154481293

On to the blog (which you may have read last week):

I have been envisioning these gatherings for a while. I first thought about Zoom meetings of intersecting collectives of people when I launched my expressive arts work coaching offering in the fall of 2020; it was a big reach then for many reasons. I had to figure out how to explain what I hoped for. Now, as I transition to calling my coaching offering "transformation collective space," thanks to my beautiful partner's brain and understanding of me, I am ready. There will be more of these types of gatherings.

I am excited to share a tiny sliver of this collective's "why" in a more transparent and personal way.

I have long discussed and dreamed of working in "the collective" for at least four years. As I started writing this invite, I recounted again the many groups where I have healed. My first healing experience as an adult in a group setting was through my theatre connections.

In college, I met some of my most profoundly nourishing, trusted friends, including a fantastic teacher, Fay Simpson, who also became a lifelong friend. Fay helped us create one-person monologues for a collective theatre piece called Unmasked. She introduced us to energy work, meditation, and a new form of movement that informs my work today. Somewhere, I have a photo of myself as a fortune teller for one of my classmate's monologues. The impact of the theatre and theatre training on my life is rich. You will feel that when you work with me.

The healing of being with my theatre friends was profound. Although we had similar views on life, we passionately discussed the places where our viewpoints diverged. We partied, laughed, and cried together. We processed a lot of emotions in our acting classes, which became the beginning of my healing journey. I began questioning the ingrained systems that kept me from who I was during this time. A memoir in the works could delve into this deeply, but let's commit together for now. Let us start healing a little more each day, not in a supremacist way, but in a moment-by-moment way.

I invite you into this new group. We may write our own monologues. I hope there will be laughter and fun. Let's make it happen!

Who are your people? Get them and bring them along.

Questions to ponder:

Where is your collective?

Do you differentiate between collective and community?

What do you need to grow right now?

I want to know what excites you about beginning this time of change now.

Also, I want to know what you dislike about this time.

How are you showing up for yourself?

If you are brand new here, or if you have never seen this commitment, I would like to share my anti-racist pledge, which is also a seed for this collective journey:

https://www.transformationcollective.space/blog/anti-racism-commitment-live-and-updated-link

"It feels like every person is using their whole brain and heart to figure out these nearly impossible dilemmas about how we do our work, with our principles, in the current conditions. And it feels  ike the thing we know to be true about working collectively - that we have better ideas together than we do individually."

- Dean Spade

With much love from Bridget

https://www.transformationcollective.space/

…and …

you are already here in the transformation collective space because you are reading these words!

bridget@bridgetbertrand.com

meditation = mindful = MNDFL and a little list

Hello! First things first, if you are also over at https://bridgetexpressiveartswork.substack.com/ this will be a repeat. I am trying to decide what to do about that, so I will double-check and move you to one place or the other. Let me know your preference if you can. Or you can just delete or unsubscribe as you wish. Now on with the show. A double feature. 2 expressive arts work newsletters!

In 2021, the world was still deep in its COVID response. Most of us were at home and still taking great precautions. I was in a deeply seeking phase. I had joined many programs to “decolonize” my mind and my therapy/coaching offerings. These were somewhat new concepts to me. I was working from home for the first time ever. I imagine this time hop came up for me because it’s the new year, a time of looking both back and forward. The thing I want to share is meditation!

In 2021, I completed a meditation course that has deeply supported me over the last five years. It’s called MNDFL. I started meditating in high school, though mainly in the "I got high and loved sitting by a stream with my BFF" category. I don’t discount it, even though I will point out the lack of rigor in those early experiences. These formative moments, along with seeing the Grateful Dead and other "jam bands" and talking about the inequities of the world with friends, all helped expand my consciousness. I started interacting with folks who didn’t see everything through a Western Christian lens. Fast forward to 2021, and I began the MNDFL program.

MNDFL Program Overview

"MNDFL is a state-of-the-art training program offered by an unparalleled collective of expert teachers and scientists. Learn from fourteen individuals, including three neuroscientists and a neurosurgeon."

50% of their teaching staff identify as BIPOC or Global Majority people and facilitated classes always have BIPOC/Global Majority leadership. I’m still returning to my own slideshow, which you can find here: MNDFL slideshow

There are links within the links, so I encourage you to explore.

As I started to write this morning, I remembered the night before our weekend-long retreat to complete the 75-hour MNDFL program, an email came through. We were asked to watch two white guys talk about mindfulness. It was an interesting challenge, but I’m pretty sure I made it through both talks. Even though they are old, they’re vast and inspiring. Please read below for my quick takeaway.

John Dunne, PhD - Understanding Mindfulness: Heuristic Accounts
Evan Thompson, PhD - Context Matters: Steps to an Embodied Cognitive Science of Mindfulness

and

Evan Thompson, PhD - Context Matters: Steps to an Embodied Cognitive Science of Mindfulness.

Essentially, I’m bringing these talks and these folks into this discussion because they are shedding light on what has been, or still is, the gold standard of teaching mindfulness in a medical/health setting: MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). MBSR is not ineffective; it is effective, but in short (and I’m REALLY really simplifying my takeaway here), these folks are saying there’s a context to everything. Our minds are not only just neurons and thoughts in our brains, and mindfulness is not simply about paying attention on purpose—though that’s a definition I can recite after studying meditation/MBSR in graduate school. Meditation is derived from Buddhism, and it’s doing much more than what we see on a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scan in many research studies. I’m sharing all of this to let you know that I love geeking out on meditation.

I meditate on New Year’s Eve. I’ve done this since the pandemic started; four out of the last five years, I was on a cushion returning to myself (during meditation practice). I once met my Buddhist teacher in Times Square, had a cup of soup, watched the ball drop, and then went home to Brooklyn. I have to say, these are some of my favorite ways to celebrate our Judeo-Christian calendar.

These disclosures tell you that when I offer to support you in your meditation practice, I’ve put in the time. Though I don’t have a formal Buddhist grounding, I immensely love the philosophy. It took the place of my Christian upbringing when I felt pretty lost. Deep down, I think I knew the church and the people I had been surrounded by wouldn’t all love me if I were an out queer radical person. For some, I imagine that’s still true. I don’t hear from them much.

For those still reading, check out the MNDFL page on my website or many other writings I’ve compiled over the years. Let’s see if I might be a good coach for you.

All the links are always here:

https://linktr.ee/bhopeb

I have some old images of art from a long-ago Instagram that I got rid of around completing this meditation course. The photo below shows two trees, a moon, a 3D box, and a broken heart. A large part of the painting is black and has the words “ bodies of culture” written in what looks like drops of blood going into the earth. There are two mugs beside the art, one with pencils and one with markers. The one with markers has a broken handle, and the text says, “Feminist all day err day.”

And now for the super quick 2nd act:

The first week of 2025, year of the Hermit!

I love tarot; bring your deck into our free "Getting to know you session."

https://calendly.com/bridgetexpressivearts/gettoknowyou

Here is a little list to offer. Maybe you have or will do a list of this sort. Today, we (my partner Amanda and me) just did our super short tarot card pull for the year, and it made me think to invite you to bring your deck into our free "Getting to Know You Session". Ok, here’s my first-week list:

things I feel good about:

happy, healthy relationships

son launching to college

my business

gratitude practice is in check

my health

mutual aid commitment for three-plus years

community

meditation

art-making

cultivating practices

changing the way I see my art journal into being something i call a cultivation journal

swimming in the bay

dancing at home

walking

eating “well”

eating without guilt or shame (not ever been an enormous issue but very resolved)

my own therapy

mostly keeping track of finances

mostly keeping this calendar up to date: https://calendly.com/bridgetexpressivearts/gettoknowyou

things I will improve

preparation for the inevitable disaster of the T. presidency

on the ground mutual aid

keep offering more coaching - share my passion for cultivating practices ..........................(art - meditation - dance - making friends - movement as medicine …….. & so much more)

write more and with more confidence

be in a deeper, more authentic relationship with myself and others

look at the money I spend

keep deepening spirituality

more tattoos

stay off social media for the most part

do more IRL

learn Spanish

get back to pole class

buy less things, and I don't buy a lot of things …but consume less

What are you up to?

Email me: bridget@bridgetbertrand.com

In solidarity,

Bridget

bridget@bridgetbertrand.com

https://bridgetexpressiveartswork.substack.com/p/profound-steps-through-big-transitions

Friday the 13th check in

Dear Readers,

I am so happy you are here reading. I'm not sure if you are superstitious, but I have always loved the number 13! I am grateful you are here. Lately, I have been posting on BlueSky, Instagram, TikTok, my website, Facebook, and Substack; phew! I have been writing a blog since I got licensed as a therapist in 2014, so this is my 10-year Blog-A-Versary. Here is a little more about me you may not know…

I started graduate school for psychology while pregnant, and my child has now been accepted to four colleges. I audited a psychology class at Santa Clara University in 2006 because I applied too close to the application deadline. It was a challenging class! Statistics: The main takeaway from that class was that a research study needed to have a lot of participants to be considered worthwhile (in the professor’s opinion).

When I got into graduate school, I knew I had landed in a place where my life and work trajectory would profoundly change. After that first class, the professors had much more nuanced knowledge to offer. I felt seen and valued as an academic in ways I had not experienced in undergrad. Years before, when I started my first Master's degree in Early Childhood Education (a degree I never finished), I made many connections, but that career was not the lifelong one that helped folks the way I hope to now. Sitting where I sit these days, I feel the distant and crystallized parts of my formal education. There are things I wish I had held onto more deeply, but I also trust that I got what I needed.


Now, another chapter begins, a chapter where there will be more coaching/art/mindfulness, and movement!

I feel more solid. I trust more now that I can be both a therapist and a coach. In the blink of an eye, I will be the mother of a college student. I will continue to make art several times a week. This walk down memory lane comes with cleaning out many email inboxes. I started one of my email addresses 20 years ago, time for that one to go. It may seem like a small task, but I am committing to consolidating all my emails, life, and business into one address: bridget@bridgetbertrand.com somehow I am using this to collate all of my digital bookmarks, it will likely take all of 2025!

Here are some ideas and nuggets from my coaching program, " profound steps through big transitions.” I hope they will inspire you. 

Please make time for daily habits, knowing they are necessary for your well-being. Please practice self-compassion for at least five minutes every day. Maybe not this week, but as an ongoing goal, I hope you can see that self-punishment is not the path toward deep and lasting change. That means questioning diets, allowing for rest, not second-guessing yourself, or being quite mean to yourself. Please don’t do it :)

As you listen to your inner voices, speak to them with kindness and take small steps toward profound change.

If we work together, I want you to know where you are going goal-wise. I want you to forgive yourself when you don’t do your practices (meditate, art, move your body). After the 8 weeks, you will have set in place people, practices, and commitments to yourself that will help support your well-being.

My sense over my decades of working life is that NOT overworking has allowed me time to reflect on who I am and what I need to thrive. I also have a lot of privilege as a white-bodied person, so this is constantly being factored into my awareness.

All for now, but I want to share a few people and resources I’m grateful for and recommend checking out:

My Trust and Living Will - Planning Lawyer, Timeless Estate Planning Laura Croft Esq.:
Email: info@timelessestateplanning.com, https://timelessestateplanning.com/

Estate planning is expensive, but being in a lesbian relationship, I have decided to update my trust and include my partner. Who knows where our rights will be in four years?!

Lastly, this is a list of a LOT of providers and sites I have been curating as my program launches:

https://bit.ly/profoundsteps

As always, I would love to be in touch. Email me at bridget@bridgetbertrand.com

Or jump in a Zoom room with me to learn about me and my program, and of course, I want to hear about you, too!

https://calendly.com/bridgetexpressivearts/gettoknowyou

With love and solidarity!

Bridget

https://www.transformationcollective.space/

https://bsky.app/profile/bhopeb.bsky.social

https://www.youtube.com/@transformationcollective

© 2024 Bridget B.

have anxiety? try an art practice

The photo below is one of the first pieces of art I made at the Person-Centered Expressive Arts training, where I started my art practice earnestly. You can read more about this training on my website:

www.transformationcollective.space

I am SO excited about the new name, and I want to share all about that, but for now…

This week, especially, I thought you might need something to calm your nerves! First, I will share a little story and some old art.


The woman in the photo above is disconnected from herself. [Photo ID] A small white Barbie-like doll was pulled apart and glued back onto a cardboard box. Using glue gun glue, beads, fabric reminiscent of quits my grandmothers made, and the pièce de résistance, a rainbow button. [end photo id]

This art tells a story of whimsy and chaos. This was made toward the end of the first year of when you know, who’s the president. At the time I made this art, I was married to a cis man, but I think my identity was beginning to surface in the art. You think, rainbow/chakras everywhere!

That is the powerful impact of an art practice! You can see parts of yourself you could never speak about or even start to feel.

I used to call myself a late-in-life lesbian. Sometimes I call myself a “right on time” queer. The identity of dyke/lesbian/queer all feel interchangeable to me. Knowing that you can imagine, these times are stressful, and, I am the mom of a trans son.

So, it’s a lot to think about and feel in these recent years. Do we get to exist, yes, I will fight to exist. I have white privilege, economic privilege, and educational privilege, and I am still profoundly stressed out about the state of our world. I feel heartbroken that we can’t do better for each other, hence the art practice. Keep reading for inspiration. It’s coming!

Art practice Invitation

First step: label your anxiety and befriend it. A common phrase in the mindfulness world is tend and befriend (created by Shelley Taylor, a social psychologist at UCLA). So if we tend to our internal world and our feelings and befriend the states of being that are happening inside of us, we will have a lot more success than if we push them away or shove them down. And I know that a lot of you reading this know that, but I thought it would be helpful to share via a blog post. We are in this together. I hope you can soothe some of your days of intermittent worrying or perhaps some extreme anxiety with some art. You can say, “Hello, anxiety, let’s make some art”. It does not matter what the art looks like. Just keep saying yes, no matter what comes up. If you need more inspiration, it does not have to look pretty. I have a lot of examples. Please write to me @ bridget@expressivearts.work.

2nd step: open your art journal. Bridget - “I don’t have an art journal yet.” No problem. I like this smaller version, which is less expensive than larger art pads:

Strathmore 300 Series Mixed Media Pads (5.5 x 8.5) and this set of paints: Sakura Koi Watercolor Half Pan and a set of Winsor & Newton Promarker Brush Markers (or any other permanent marker). You will be good to go for months and months into the future after these purchaces.

3rd: Draw a circle in the middle of the open page. The circle will go across each page, as pictured above.

I think it is important to cross the midline of your body. There will be more lengthy posts about this in the near future. Lastly, keep adding circles, lines, or any other shape you want. Here is another example:

You will notice I often end up with many circles and triangles in the corners (see an example below). No matter how often I do this, I don’t get tired of it. You can alter the practice in any way. Please tag me on the socials #transformationcollectivespace or follow along at:

Instagram

I look forward to being more in touch in the upcoming weeks.

I wish you a lot of time for quiet reflection away from the onslaught of digital media and US elections. Yes, we need to be informed, but we also get to take breaks.

Peace,

Bridget

PS, I would love to know what you think of the updates on my website. Check out the MNDFL page for some invitations into mediation:

https://transformationcollective.space/

Transformation Check-In for LGBTQ FOLKS

Are you feeling stuck, frustrated with yourself, or eager to jumpstart your routines?

Has day-to-day life, job loss, midlife transitions, kids leaving the house, or divorce led to feelings of deep grief? You're not alone—we're here to help you get unstuck.

Imagine waking up each day and taking small but meaningful steps toward your goals. Do you want life to look profoundly different, or are you simply seeking a shift? Either way, that's okay. Lasting change comes from small, consistent actions, and we’ll help you create a plan.

At Transformation Collective, we share our stories and offer practical insights to support your healing and transformation. We believe in the power of community, so once we have two clients, you can connect with others via phone or in a Mighty Network space (think Facebook, but without ads or Trump-voting uncles!).

While there’s no pressure to participate in this part of the program, we know true transformation happens when we support one another. That's why we're called Transformation Collective. We offer one-on-one coaching with weekly support tailored to your needs.

I will be with you every step of the way. As our community grows, we’ll introduce additional coaches and healers to enhance your journey.

I’m Bridget (she/her), a white lesbian and the mom of an amazing trans son. I've been guiding people back to their true selves for decades. For over twenty years, I’ve embraced the transformative power of play. Like many, I struggled with routines until I discovered the person-centered expressive arts. Now, I help others integrate art, meditation, and movement into their lives as a source of nourishment and healing. I can help you do the same.

anti-racism-commitment - live and updated link

  • Please reach out to discuss this commitment or ask questions.

  • I am delighted you are here.

  • https://expresiveartswork.notion.site/Bridget-Bertrand-s-Anti-Racism-action-Plan-12e8855472094a6381c2f30d6b33cdec

  • The text as of January 13th, 2025.

  • Bridget Bertrand is committed to building an equitable, anti-racist company. We are taking steps to become an anti-racist company because we aspire to be a change agent against racism and white supremacy. We want to be a part of a community of micro-businesses prioritizing justice, equity, and inclusion. We have work to do to get there. This document names some of that work.

  • In this document, "I" means Bridget Bertrand, the owner of the company Expressive Arts Work / Transformation Collective Space and Bridget’s private practice (a therapy practice).

  • I, Bridget Bertrand, am the owner of these companies. As a white, cis, queer/dyke/lesiban woman have white privilege, cisgender privilege, I am able-bodied, and I have class and education privilege. I'm committed to taking action against a system that gives me unearned privilege. I move forward imperfectly. I continue to make mistakes. I will learn from those mistakes and I am open to and grateful for feedback. I will meet feedback without defensiveness.

  • Here are some of the steps I have taken and will take:

  • Signed The Anti-Racism Small Business Pledge 6/10/20

  • *Created a public document listing our company values, including a link to this action plan (updated here where you are).

  • We pay for and engage actively in education on anti-racism work. In addition to weekly listening and reading, I commit to investing money, time, and spirit in education and consultation on at least a quarterly basis and listing my educators/programs here.

    • Sonya Renne' Taylor

    • MNDFL

    • Embody Lab

    • Resmma

    • Liberated Life Network, Rev. angel kyodo williams

    • https://angelkyodowilliams.com/

  • I commit to open conflict and to allowing discomfort. When conflict arises in my life, in individual work, and within my programs, I let it arise. I don’t try to hide it, delete it, or ignore it and I do not protect hate speech. I acknowledge the conflict, allow space for community members to be heard, and deal with the underlying issue rather than demonize the community member who raised the issue. These conversations are happening regardless, and I allow them to happen in these spaces and participate in the conversations. I am willing to sit in the discomfort of being called out or in and take action to implement the needs expressed by community members. I state these community guidelines that acknowledge these things. (Most of the language in this bullet point comes directly from the Anti-Racism Pledge listed above).

    • Posted the above statement within groups - previously I have used this link in my groups:

    • https://eastbaymeditation.org/2017/05/agreements-for-multicultural-interactions/

    • *Include the above language in the on-boarding of all future participants as of 1/2/2021

  • I commit to paying for the resources I benefit from and receive from BIPOC educators. When I am regularly absorbing information from experts on JEDI and I am not enrolled in their programs, I seek ways to pay for the help I'm receiving. I buy books, contribute to Patreon, or find other ways to invest.

  • We commit to investing at least 10% of the ex arts work budget to BIPOC communities by the end of 2022 or sooner. This may include hiring BIPOC employees, vendors, and contractors, using BIPOC-owned software and services, purchasing BIPOC-authored books, donating to organizations, and more. I am are also queer-identified and queer loving.

  • We report the percent annually (or more frequently) below, usually after Q2.

  • Express my sincere, long-term commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization.

  • I will create a permanent statement that illustrates our commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism that goes on all of our external-facing documents (website, job announcements, publications, contracts, etc). It will be written using realistic language about where we are and aspirational about where this business is trying to go. It will outline specific steps that we are taking and will take to get there. This is that document, and it is a work in progress. Its first version was created in June of 2020. New newsletter information often includes links to this Anti-Racism Action Plan. For my coaching clients, I will include a link during the onboarding of new participants. Over the years (2020-2025), more than 10% of my funds (earned via spousal support, earned through my businesses, and my unearned wealth as a white person) have been directly given to the Global Majority through mutual aid.

    Do you want to know more about mutual aid, click here and also read more about Dean Spade. https://www.deanspade.net/