Bi-Monthly By Ryan #15

Dear Friends,

This email is a request to donate to my GoFundMe campaign. This email feels difficult to write. I imagine it might feel difficult for some of you to read, and relatable for others.

This email list includes community, family, and friends who have signed up, and also who I signed up to receive updates about my life as a writer and author. I love sharing my accomplishments and things I have going on with all of you. Asking for help is not as easy for me to do.

I am moving away from my old life and into my new life. My old life includes working in the food and beverage service industry and living in Baltimore. My new life is centered firmly around poetry and abolition.

For so long, I have found solutions to earning money in the food and beverage service industry, to which I do not care to return, ever. I started working at restaurants in my mid-teens and found a safe place to explore all aspects of my identity, and also earn money in less competitive ways than in the corporate arena for which I was being groomed by my education. I also found excitement and community in the culture around the consumption of alcohol, which I no longer find, and I am proud to have celebrated 4 years of sobriety in October.

For so long, I have found solutions to my problems in Baltimore. I love Baltimore, deeply so, and I believe many of you truly know and can sincerely attest to my love for this city, which will always hold a special place in my soul. Moving forward, I am more excited to find opportunities in other cities, outside of the industry in which I worked for well over two decades.

I am already exploring opportunities which are rooting, and are too young to share here. I will share them in due time, so please stay tuned. There are many other ways to support me, and this email is about my GoFundMe campaign.

There are so many other causes worthy of your support right now. I appreciate your attention here. I offer this request with humility and gratitude.

Here is a special shout out to Katelyn Durst Rivas. Katelyn is a fellow adoption abolitionist poet who is partnering with me to unroll this campaign, and encourage me along the way. I likely would not be writing this email without her support and encouragement.

Thank you for reading my email. Thank you in advance for your donation. I aim to be back twice more this month, and am grateful for your attention to this GoFundMe campaign.

Sincerely, Ryan <3

linktr.ee/ryanartes