Featured Guest Artists & Justice Partners
Spotlighting Disability Justice, Black & Brown Futures, Trans Brilliance & Community-Rooted Arts
EVENT REPORT: “Money Please 2025”
A 24-Hour Giving Tuesday Livestream for Economic Justice
Produced by Calling Up Justice — December 2, 2025
Overview
On December 2, 2025, Calling Up Justice presented “Money Please For Our People,” a marathon livestream reframing Giving Tuesday through the lens of economic justice, radical generosity, and community-rooted creativity. Rather than centering institutional fundraising drives, we curated a space that uplifted disability justice leaders, Black and Brown cultural innovators, trans brilliance, and justice-producing artists whose work strengthens all our communities.
The first 12 hours of the livestream brought together a full ecosystem of support structures: fiscal sponsors, regranting organizations, membership groups, mentorship platforms, financial literacy educators, community care networks, and individual artists who build the cultural conditions for flourishing. It served as a living map of what a healthy, interdependent creative justice economy looks like. The second 12 hours featured content from the CUJ catalog including Accessible Virtual Pride, livestreams of theater, and justice talks.
- Claudia wrote the majority of the event copy, shaping the narrative voice, values framing, and invitations for the audience.
- Maiamama and Jesenia designed beautiful event graphics, giving everything a cohesive visual identity.
- Ry (Executive Assistant) provided critical behind-the-scenes coordination, ensuring communications, scheduling, logistics, and partner onboarding ran smoothly despite the chaotic circumstances.
This event expressed the core Calling Up Justice belief that when our community is well, we are well.
A Chaotic, Beautiful Beginning
Like much justice work, this livestream began in the middle of real-world infrastructural collapse.
- Our lead OBS designer and stream engineer Maiamama was mid-air during the start of the program due to cascading airline failures: a 24-hour delay in Milwaukee, followed by another two-hour delay in Minnesota related to climate change impacts.
- Both backup OBS operators were sick.
- Claudia set up the livestream under unstable internet conditions, with the signal repeatedly dropping due to digital redlining.
And yet, through collective brilliance and sheer will:
- Some schedule presenters had to drop due to illness but the crip resilience style format allowed them to submit videos for asynchronous participation or have one of their partners present in their stead
- The ASL team remained exceptional, holding access during every technical disruption.
- The speakers were grounded, generous, and powerful, carrying the energy even in moments of stream instability.
- Jesenia, GJ, and Claudia carried the bulk of the live hosting duties, improvising and weaving connections with remarkable clarity and care.
- Maiamama gave mid-flight advice to Claudia And once she landed, Maiamama reclaimed the stream and ran the OBS system for the rest of the night and into the next day—nearly 24 hours straight.
Her OBS design work and overnight stream management quite literally kept the event alive. Even when her equipment began failing in the last hour, the team adapted and carried it across the finish line.
Purpose & Values
“Money Please For Our People” was rooted in a deep desire to transform Giving Tuesday into a practice of solidarity-based resourcing, not extraction.
The event:
- Challenged shame-based narratives around asking for support
- Uplifted creators usually pushed to the margins
- Invited funders and fiscal sponsors to share pathways into their systems
- Modeled a cultural economy built on reciprocity rather than scarcity
- Embodied the Calling Up Justice Open Palm Philosophy—resource flow as mutual nourishment
This was economic justice storytelling, not a telethon.
Below is a curated look at some of the artists, leaders, and organizations joining us live.
Show up for at least two. Follow their work. Fund what moves you.
Featured Guest Artists & Justice Partners
Throughout the livestream, we highlighted a constellation of partners—each representing a vital part of a holistic justice ecosystem: access doulas, fiscal sponsors, creative studios, transmedia artists, movement elders, and grassroots organizers building alternative futures.
Luticha André Doucette • Catalyst Consulting
A queer, quirky, disabled Black femme bioinformatician and equity strategist, Luticha’s leadership reshapes nonprofits, municipalities, and small businesses through evidence-based disability justice frameworks. Catalyst Consulting is where data meets care, and where institutions learn how to transform, not just perform.
Mx. Antoine Hunter & Zahna Simon • Urban Jazz Dance Company & Bay Area Deaf Dance Festival
Antoine (“Purple Fire Crow”) and Zahna are internationally celebrated Deaf dancers, choreographers, chemists, producers, and advocates. Through Urban Jazz Dance Company, they show the world that Deaf artistry is expansive, rigorous, and revolutionary—and that movement is a language everyone deserves access to.
Digital Placemakers (SkyRiver • Neurovapor • Michelle)
Calling Up Justice’s weekly hybrid working group—architects of the Digital Encampment, stewards of accessible online culture, and innovators at the frontier of digital placemaking. They experiment with tech, build virtual worlds, and create the conditions for real-time connection across difference.
The Black Trans Prayer Book • J Mase III
A visionary multi-faith collection of prayers, poems, spells, and meditations by Black trans and non-binary creators. Co-editor J Mase III—poet, educator, and agency founder—brings a global vision for Black trans sovereignty, ritual, and joy.
Knox Community Street Dance (KCSD) • Madelyn “Maddei” Collins (FunkyAshid/FunkyAzhido)
A street dance–based social aid club rooted in justice, play, and community resiliency. Maddei blends digital & street dance cultures with environmental justice, anime aesthetics, and blerd delight—building safer, joyful movement spaces for all.
San Francisco Disability Cultural Center • Dr. Emily Beitiks
A home for disability culture—online and at 165 Grove Street. Emily, a disability studies scholar-activist, helps lead programming that ranges from book swaps to creative workshops, legal support, and community arts events.
M Eilo • BlinkPopShift
A trans, disabled SF artist who transforms castoffs and code into radical creative technology. Working across textiles, animation, and playful experiments, Eilo demonstrates that disability is a hotbed of generative innovation.
The Curiosity Paradox • Grant Miller & Jonathan Paradox Lee
A transmedia creative studio crafting access-centered art for multiply marginalized disabled people. Grant and Jonathan use joy, experimentation, and design to turn everyday spaces into portals for collective resistance and imagination.
LiberArte • Yura Sapi
A global artist-organizer building futures rooted in abundance and relationship with Mother Earth. LiberArte’s projects—including Protectores de la Tierra and the Building Our Own Tables Podcast—cultivate creators of color at the intersections of gender, disability, and liberation.
BAMBD & BAM House • Dr. Ayodele Nzinga
The Black Arts Movement Business District’s newest cultural home—powered by the Lower Bottom Playaz and Dr. nzinga, Oakland’s inaugural poet laureate and a cultural theorist shaping the next era of Black arts, community, and storytelling.
Vallejo Arts Fund (VAF) • Alison “DeLa” De La Cruz & Partners
A community-guided arts fund distributing $1,000,000 in resources from 2025–2027. Co-facilitated by Great Leap and Calling Up Justice, administered by CCI, and built with Vallejo’s artists, activists, and culture bearers.
Sins Invalid • Nomy Lamm
A groundbreaking disability justice performance project centering disabled Black, Indigenous, and people of the global majority and queer/trans creators. Creative Director Nomy Lamm brings decades of ritual, music, and visionary abolitionist art.
Chelsea House • Ability Design House & Black Disabled Femme
A Black Disabled Femme designer and cultural worker building access-based futures. Through design, consulting, and media, Chelsea uplifts disability justice, Black Disabled Femme brilliance, and care-centered creative economies.
One Free Community (OFC) • Jesenia & GJ Hodson
A BIPOC-led digital third space for decolonizing, disabled, neurodivergent queer communities. OFC hosts weekly gatherings, mutual aid, and Accessible Virtual Pride, redefining what community care looks like online.
Loud ‘N Unchained Theater Co. • T. S. Banks
A Black & QTDisabled writer, poet, playwright, and abolitionist artist. T.S. founded LNU to uplift mad, disabled, Black, queer, and trans brilliance—and create theater that liberates.
Midwest Mujeres • Araceli Esparza
A storytelling and economic justice powerhouse supporting Latina and Black women. Midwest Mujeres bridges financial wellness with cultural power, transforming lived experience into leadership.
Disability Power Bloc • Alex “Glamputee” Locust
A fiscal sponsor and community hub building interdependent economic systems for disability justice. Formally known as SPM Disability Justice Fund. Alex—performer, educator, and “Glamputee”—brings crip magic, financial culture change, and celebratory disability pride.
alexa dexa
A toychestral composer and crip xXgrandmacoreXx sound witch creating online operas, crip rituals, and participatory performance spaces. Their work makes communal access feel mystical, intimate, and alive.
Crowded Fire Theater • Julie McCormick & Nailah Harper-Malveaux
A Bay Area company investing in collective leadership, experimental new work, and transparent resource sharing. Julie stewards finance & fundraising; Nailah shapes the artistic landscape with transformative imagination.
Pockets Change • Andrea Ferrero, Dyalekt & Pamela Capalad
Educators transforming financial literacy through hip-hop pedagogy and racial economic justice. They help communities unlearn shame around money and build tools for liberation. Also check out the Get Shameless practice for adults!
Terri Lynne Hudson
A disabled, chronically ill queer actor, multidisciplinary artist, and disability rights advocate based in Chicago whose creative work is rooted in joy, grit, and community care.
Theories of Care • G.J. Hodson
A public scholar and community health worker expanding how we understand caregiving. G.J. bridges disability justice with the daily practices that sustain our collective wellbeing.
Deej Nutz
A genderflexing, award-winning drag and burlesque performer known for melting the binary and expanding what performance can be. Their new work needs—and deserves—community support.
Gata the beuracatic baddie
A queer Afro-Caribbean femme organizer offering free community events, disability justice-informed tax/legal workshops, and direct support for tenants and freelancers navigating oppressive systems.
Disability Justice Culture Club (DJCC)
A beloved East Oakland collective of disabled and neurodivergent QTBIPOC building joyful resistance, mutual aid, and liberatory spaces where every body-mind belongs.
Network of Ensemble Theater
NET advocates for ensemble theater-making as a distinct element of the performing arts field, amplifying the collective voice of our 300+ member companies and individual practitioners for local and national impact. We collect data and research to do this work. NET hosts in-person and online events, workshops, gatherings, and convenings to develop and deepen connections among NET members and colleagues, and provide opportunities for peer-based field learning and knowledge sharing. In addition to member-only events, we do offer programming and initiatives for the field at large. NET has distributed over $1M to support NET members’ relationship building and exchange.
These guests represent ecosystems of culture, care, and creativity.
Your attendance, amplification, and financial support help ensure their work thrives
Money Please — and Justice Always.
Each guest represented a strand of the ecology—mentorship, community care, culturally rooted art, economic empowerment, and long-term movement building.
Speakers like Dr. Ayodele Nzinga and Chelsea House also joined the chat during the livestream to offer real-time support.
Community Feedback
The response from participants, partners, and presenters affirmed the value of the work:
Alison De La Cruz (Great Leap & Vallejo Arts Fund):
“Just wanted to send you all a deep bow of gratitude for an amazing experience yesterday. Thank you for setting it up and making it happen. Truly an amazing collaboration and model for solidarity-based practice. Sending you deep deep gratitude! —DeLa”
Midwest Mujeres:
“This was such a fun and great event!”
Alex “Glamputee” Locust (Disability Power Bloc):
“Sending a quick thank you for inviting DPB to be part of your event yesterday. As an organizer and producer myself, I am always in awe of the prodigious amount of community organizing you’re able to pull off and with such grace and care… One of our project leaders tuned in and already asked if we’d consider working with her for a future training. The connections are poppin’! ”
This feedback highlights not just appreciation, but immediate ripple effects—new collaborations, new training requests, and new community bridges forming in real time.
Reach & Engagement
Despite technical instability early in the stream:
- We reached a couple hundred viewers across YouTube and Twitch.
- Audience members from many different practices and communities attempted to join.
- Stream interruptions limited real-time audience growth, but engagement in chat was lively and supportive.
Most importantly:
We are currently editing the footage into clips so partner organizations and artists can use them for ongoing amplification, fundraising, and visibility.
This ensures that the event’s value continues far beyond a single day.
Impact & Takeaways
What We Achieved
- A powerful demonstration of solidarity-based cultural economy building
- A national platform for dozens of marginalized creators
- New partnerships and collaborations sparked in real time
- A 24-hour mutual aid–centered livestream held together with creativity, resilience, and community care
What It Cost Us
This event required massive energy output, and many team members needed days of physical recovery afterward. Working through travel crises, illness, signal instability, and overnight labor took a tangible toll. We spent around $800 on ASL. The $258 in donations to Calling Up Justice will be earmarked to support the Digital Placemaking team. While we are not tracking donations made ot other practices we did successfully amplify requests for support from over a dozen groups and individuals.
What Comes Next
Because the model is valuable—but the labor is intense—we are considering:
- Inviting another partner organization to take the lead on production next year
- Sharing production responsibilities across a larger coalition
- Possibly shortening the livestream or distributing segments throughout the day
- Continuing to refine the OBS setup, access layers, and backup systems
What remains clear is that this event matters—to presenters, to audiences, and to the ecology of justice-producing culture.
Conclusion
“Money Please For Our People” was a testament to what becomes possible when communities resource each other with intention, creativity, and care. Even in the face of airline disasters, illness, failing equipment, and bandwidth issues, the Calling Up Justice team and our partners produced a powerful, generous, and deeply connective space.
This event honored the truth that justice work is ecosystem work—and that ecosystems thrive not because everything goes smoothly, but because communities continue to show up for one another.
We are exhausted, grateful, and proud.
And we will keep building futures rooted in abundance, interdependence, and joy.