Community is not built by the complacent.
Today I hold much uncertainty in my heart. Today I am writing this on Inauguration Day in the United States.
It comes as no surprise that for many of us in this country, there will be so much more at stake with Donald Trump’s return to Office. He and his cabinet are pushing policies that would drastically restrict the ways that a majority of us - the working and middle class - educate, protect, and support ourselves.
His administration sets out to disrupt our liberties, such as axing the Department of Education and withholding funds from schools that “push critical race theory and transgender insanity”, eliminate Title IX protections for LGBTQIA+ students and staff, and (as of January 22nd) Trump has signed off on the executive termination of “radical DEI discrimination” in the federal workforce.
Although these are only a few examples of what our nation’s “leaders” intend to do with our collective future, I hope it sets a clear enough scene for you to understand the kind of political landscape we’ll be navigating together for the next four years.
Togetherness…at least we have that.
Today I hold uncertainty in my heart, but not despair.
I’m only 24. I’ve noticed a trend in people my age feeling overwhelmingly powerless in regard to this dramatic shift. If you relate to this, I can’t fully blame you. So many of us are just trying to keep our heads above water and strive for happiness within our means. You only have a finite amount of resources and energy to focus on yourself, right? Maybe.
But how much longer can you ignore a fire until it burns your house down? How much time can you afford to waste to sit in silence and let your future be decided for you? Apathy and learned helplessness are the nails in the coffin that you hammer in yourself. So why not just try?
Research things you don’t fully understand, and once you do, try to talk about it with your friends and family. Try to speak up. Try to donate your time to volunteer, supplies to drives, and money if you have some to spare. Try getting organized with causes you believe in, and you don’t have it alone. We can try together.
Look closely at the listed policies above, and you’ll notice that they all share a similar trend: singling out the “outliers” in our society who are not straight, white, cisgender males. And with light research on Club Rambutan’s history, you’ll come to learn that most of our cohort artists are queer and/or women and/or people of color.
Club Rambutan is non-partisan, but we are not apolitical. It would be a disservice to uphold our mission while turning a blind eye to national and global politics that impact our very own community members.
When our collective first started, we were just two girls trying to find a purpose within ourselves through art. We didn’t know where our efforts would go, and Jasmin and I honestly were pretty silly with it in the beginning. But as time went on, and the more we talked, we realized the potential of CR and not only what it could do for our own self development, but for the surrounding young artists artists at a neighborhood-level.
A screenshot between Jasmin and I August 2023. Fun Fact: we met drunk at a New Year’s Eve party (a few days before i moved to Berkeley in early 2023), and then I added her to my close friends story on Instagram. We didn’t talk again until half a year later when I posted the idea of Club Rambutan on my CF and Jasmin was the only person to swipe up.
So yeah, there are probably thousands of art-related and community-based organizations like ours in the world, but that didn’t stop us from trying it ourselves. We went through many iterations on who should the target audience be. Below are a few screenshots of the original pitch deck, when we used to only cater towards Asian American/Pacific Islander artists. The logo used to be that little maroon blob I made in Figma, we were only based in Phoenix, and we didn’t even add the “Club” in front of Rambutan until a month or so later.
Three cohorts later, two girls evolved into a 16-person team of volunteers based all around the US who have helped advocate for values of unity, open-mindedness, authenticity, and the preservation of diverse, valuable, and relatable human experiences through art. We’ve hosted a thrift market, (soon to be) a total of four launch parties, and have We defend the stance that art (even leisurely art) is an act of resistance against a system that wears us down financially and physically. All the magazines and events that come out of our team will always round back to these guiding principles (and yeah, we make sure to have fun doing it too).
I hope that CR’s legacy is living proof of ordinary people trying and succeeding.
It took some time, and we’re still learning as we go. But the point is that we tried, and I’m certain you can, too.
Today I am uncertain, but somehow I still have faith.
