office Initiatives: For the Gworls
Learn more about Asanni's mission below.
Unfortunately for the 25-year-old musician, Asanni Armon’s closest friends, two trans people existing and working in New York, were risking eviction. Sadly for many trans people, this is their reality, but the deterioration of her friend's sustainability was unforeseeable for her. Just then, the Atlanta native was sitting in her therapist’s office when she was pondering the severity and weight of the situation. She couldn't band-aid her pain unless she was able to aid in sustaining and protecting her loved ones' lives.
Inside of that therapist’s office, a captivating wave of ideas washed over her thus presenting her with a seamless solution. “I just kind of had this mental 'aha' moment where I was like, hm, maybe if I throw a party and ask people to pay at the door, people will, and we'll be able to raise money for them," explains Asanni. "And it was like a shot in the dark because I mean, I had thrown parties on the lower scale before.” She quickly mocked up and printed out a flyer basically reading, "Come here, come through to this rooftop. Pay $5, you can get in, and we'll have liquor." And in her own words, "A lot of fucking people came through, and those that couldn't donated anyways."
Her idea, yet admirable and moldable to all New York stresses, isn't original, it's historic. She claims that she sought out this idea and took inspiration from the great American poet Langston Hughes who threw parties for rent relief. "I remember Langston Hughes writing about rent parties where like Black poor people would come together in a building. Somebody in the building would be facing eviction, so the people in the building would offer up their apartment or offer up their roof and be like, 'Hey, y'all bring a dollar, $2, whatever food and liquor, and you can come party with us and we'll use this money for somebody rent." For The Gworls truly proves that the great assessment of struggle in society has a community to safeguard it, and where there's a community, there's a way.
After this one successful advance at a party and a lucky $2000 was raised, she was overtaken with an idea. Asanni was at another party when she was approached with, "Maybe you could try to do this every month to help people in our community and help other Black trans women and femmes who need help with their rent or gender-affirming surgery." Asanni explains further: "Cause you know, we're always struggling with these things in this city, and I was about to start a new job, like a nine to five that same week, so I was like, 'I don't know if I can commit to that, but I'll try.' And I decided to commit to it." This birthed the multi mutual aid fund For The Gworls. For the Gworls or "FTG" is bringing back rent parties for the greater good, but in COVID times they focus on raising money through electronic donations that prioritize Black trans folks.
From there, the initial thought of this being a full-time commitment for Asanni struck as an instant "no." But over time, the pressure of trans people's well being began to overflow in thought. "When that friend asked me, 'Hey, why don't you go do this every month,' well, my initial reaction was no. Then I was by myself the next day and was like, 'Well girl, if you didn't throw this party this past weekend you would have been on somebody else's roof getting drunk anyway. And you're going to do that every weekend anyway. So you might as well dedicate one weekend to try to do that, to help somebody else.' And so, I just feel like there were many reasons why I felt responsible to do this kind of work."
The process of mutual aid is ever-evolving in method and selection for Asanni. It started as an overwhelming call to action for many trans people who needed help. "So when we first started, it was very much so first come first serve. People would DM us, people would tweet us. People would call me, text me, friends would call me and text me and be like, 'Hey, I know this person.' And then we would have a waitlist because we were such a small platform."
The waitlist began to pile up and it rang as a sign that something about the process needed to change. It evolved into a system that was fair and had a maximum impact on the trans community. "Then June happened where we experienced this explosion of followers and donations, which I'm very thankful for. And so now it is very much so still first come first serve. But, I think what we are trying to do now is kind of pivot to only putting out asks for the really big things. And then people who come to us for smaller amounts, we can kind of just send that to them immediately."
For Asanni, For The Gworls isn't a question, it's a commitment to her community. "It's so important [to sustain Black trans sisterhood] because the world distances us from every other community, right? White trans people, white queer people wanna fetishize us and just want to fuck us. And they just want to treat us like we are subhuman. Which I mean, getting into the theory of it all to white people, we are in indeed subhuman. Black cishet people want to alienate us because they think that we are immoral, unnatural, etc. And then Black, even Black queer cis people, don't really understand Black transness. So we have no choice, but to form community within ourselves."
In a community of forgotten people, Black trans girls deserve your protection and advocacy. To support this community, it is imperative that we allocate money for trans people in need in order to sustain not only their well being but their safety.
To support and donate to For The Gworls, click here.
