Important Update: Fallow Season Continues Through June 30
Dear community,
It’s been almost nine months since Split This Rock entered its fallow season. In that time, we’ve attentively tended to Split This Rock’s foundation: shifting internal protocols to line them up better with our values; expanding communication across board and staff; submitting grant requests and reports; assessing our email, donation, and accounting platforms; and opening conversations about ways to shape our programs in the future.
This internal work has required more time and effort than anticipated. One of the things we have gleaned from this season is that we cannot reap a programmatic harvest in April that we have not yet sown. It takes time to plant new seeds and tend to their growth with care. This tender time is an important aspect of transitioning out of a fallow season.
To allow space for this transition, Split This Rock’s fallow season will continue through June 30, 2022. Split This Rock will emerge from fallow season on July 1, 2022. Program start dates will be announced over the next few months, and we'll be in touch soon to invite you to update your subscription preferences as we move to Mailchimp, our new email platform. For FAQs and more information on fallow season, visit the fallow season web page.
During this season, embodying and practicing disability justice principles has been central to Split This Rock’s work, reimagining program offerings, and dreaming about the organization’s future. We’re committed to continuing to align Split This Rock’s culture more closely with these principles, offering programs that are sustainable and dynamic, increasing accessibility, and establishing a baseline of accommodations across all programs.
As a member of The Poetry Coalition, we are delighted for our first public offerings to be in support of its theme this year, “‘The future lives in our bodies’: Poetry & Disability Justice,” which takes its name from Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's poem “Femme Futures.” We will be sharing a collection of disability justice poetry from The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database, publishing poems supporting the theme when Poem of the Week returns, and offering a panel exploring poetry and disability justice in the literary arts world. Expect a "Save the Date" email to arrive in the coming weeks!
The work we’ve begun will continue beyond fallow season, as the changes we’ve seeded grow and bear fruit over Split This Rock’s lifespan. Our efforts to center disability justice principles will be continuous and include changes to work culture as well as program offerings. We’ve raised baseline salaries for full-time and part-time staff members to provide more livable wages and committed to expanding the staff team. We’re excited to pay a $100 stipend to poets published in Poem of the Week when it returns. Growing the organization’s budget through grants and fundraising will be vital to meeting these commitments. To learn more about what we've been up to in fallow season, we invite you to watch this short video from Split This Rock’s staff.
If you'd like to support Split This Rock's commitments to centering disability justice principles, increasing staff size and wages, and paying Poem of the Week contributors, would you help close the gap in securing a $30,000 investment by giving your best gift today? For every donation from a new supporter or increased gift from an existing donor we receive, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation will match it -- up to $15,000! Make a one-time donation or become a sustaining monthly donor today by visiting Split This Rock's online giving portal.
We’re grateful for how this present moment informs what will come in the future. Thank you for your support of Split This Rock during this fallow time!
With gratitude and appreciation,
Camisha Jones, Chelsea Iorlano, and Alexandria Petrassi
Split This Rock Staff
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