The Crows are Coming

Hi everybody!

I'm very very excited to tell you about a new project I'm starting with some of my favorite writers and creators in the whole world: CAW Journal, an anarchist journal of arts and culture.

Caw is a Collective of Autonomous Writers, a Corvid Appreciation Work-Group, a cry of autonomy and freedom with many acronymic meanings! We want CAW to be an alternative arts and media platform built on the diverse writings, collaborations and offerings of carla joy bergman, Shuli Branson, Dani Burlison, and me, Vicky.

It is a worker owned and run cooperative project to create art, culture and movement news and analysis accessible for all and sustainable for those of us who create it, and we are fighting to give ourselves a living wage, and to collectivize our labors and resist the individualizing and competitive tendencies of the freelance writing market!

What this means is that, when we officially launch CAW in February, this newsletter will be moved over to CAWshinythings.com. If you're already a paying member of this newsletter, it means you're going to remain a subscriber, and just get extra writings and offerings from Shuli, Dani and carla joy!! Subscribers will have access to a community Discord, a CAW lead reading group, special writing classes, other mutual aid efforts, and of course writing, podcasting, culture reviews and many more things besides.

However, as all of my writing will be moving over to CAW, most of it will not be free and openly available unless you are a paying subscriber to CAW. We will still add you to our free mailing list which will include weekly offerings, an editors' note every week, and some of the podcasts that we appear on. We will also have a fully free zine and sticker library and distro.

I am very excited about this because, if it works, it means the four of us, who have lived precarious lives of gig work, that we've filled with creative and liberatory projects stolen from hours otherwise given over to working for bosses and profits, will be able to devote all our energy and attention toward the beautiful world and movement building that we most love. And we hope to help create a community of subscribers who can take joy, pleasure, solace, and learning, and use the space for building out their own projects and autonomous work.

As my first contribution, I wrote a review of the movie Gladiator II which you can read now on the website.

Here are some questions about the project that we thought were important to answer.

Why are culture and art important while the world is burning?

The world has been burning since 1492. Art and culture have been crucial for creating a sense of belonging, spreading radical ideas, resisting empire, imagining new worlds, building community, connecting us across difference and helping you find your murder.

Why build a worker-owned cooperative writing project?

Billionaires own the TV networks, purchased and closed the local newspapers, polluted the internet with disinformation and hate, and most independent media has been captured, sold or recuperated. With worker-owned journals we won't work for those bosses, or their profits, but also aren't forced to be individuals competing in the "marketplace of ideas". We can pursue the praxis of mutual aid and collective living while building stability for ourselves, each other and a resource for our community.

What is anarchy?

A verb; mutual aid and care; reciprocity; fires that can't be put out; a collective way of life; a murder of crows screaming in the night; much more.

How often can I expect new writing and content?

We are aiming to publish at least two pieces a week, though "piece" could range from an advice column for a lovelorn autonomist, a movie review, a 5000 word screed against the private nuclear family, a piece of flash fiction, a work of art, a letter from an imprisoned comrade, etc. etc. Every week we will send out a newsletter update, with an editors note containing our thoughts on the week and giving a round up of all the new material on CAW.

I'm so excited to launch this project and share it with all of you. But we need your help so that we can create this space and maintain it as well as a living wage. Thank you so much for reading All Cats Are Beautiful and I will continue to post here and at CAW until the launch.

If you can support us, every little bit helps, even five or ten bucks will make a huge difference to me and to all of us. Thanks so much.