an election care toolkit

It’s no small feat to hold the anxiety, worry, and fear that comes from living through these turbulent times, while also having to continue working our jobs, doing laundry, and finding joy where we can. With the U.S. presidential election tomorrow, these feelings may be heightened, as the country and the world prepares to face another unknown. It’s likely that we’ll be in a similar position as the 2020 election, where we won’t know the results until well after election day. And no matter the result, we may be in for a tense few months.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, author and activist Arundhati Roy wrote the piece “The Pandemic is a Portal”, exploring how the pandemic presents us with an opportunity to re-imagine our future. She wrote, “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

The election is its own portal, not only influencing the next four years (and beyond), but also providing an opportunity for us to reflect on how we got here and recommit to creating a better world. However, each new day is also its own portal. Whatever the results of this election may be, there will still be work to do. Electoral politics alone will not liberate us and there are ways to tap in and create change at any time. There’s power in getting to know our neighbors, pursuing collective action, and of course, creating our art. Art and politics have been intertwined since the beginning of time, with artists utilizing creative mediums to process moments of big change and then envision a more liberated world. Your work is vital. You simply existing as a human is also vital. Taking time to breathe, rest, and care for yourself is foundational to all these labors of love. 

With all that in mind, we’d like to offer some resources that can help you ground in this moment and navigate the election, reminding you of the power all of us hold collectively. We’ve also included resources to help you find avenues to direct any energy you may have. In the meantime, please take good care of yourself and hold your loved ones tight.

Resources

Fractured Atlas Resources

• Use What You Have: How Creatives and Artists Can Help in a Crisis
• Artists & Protest: an Incomplete History
• Solidarity Economies, the Arts, and the Future of Funding
• Where To Donate Your Money: Large Nonprofits, Grassroots Orgs, Personal Fundraisers
• Resources for Political Demonstrations Against Police Violence

External Resources

• Solidarity Economy 101 webinar recording w/ Chris Myers, of Anti Capitalism for Artists, and Sruti Suryanarayanan of ART.Coop.
• How to think differently about doing good as a creative person by Omayeli Arenyeka - The Creative Independent
• Making Art During Fascism Zine by artist consultant Beth Pickens
• 2024 Elections and Beyond: Fortifying Ourselves, Our Organizations, and Our Ecosystems toolkit by Solidarity Is, a program of the Building Movement Project
• Self-Guided Self-Care Practices by the NYC Transformative Justice Hub