When A City Changes, What Does Investing In Artists, Creatives And Homegrown Culture Look Like?

In 2024, our team worked with the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation to publish its first Artists and Creatives Thrive Report, exploring cultural investment in downtown Austin.

Continue reading for the report's findings and key insights.

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Austin has a long and well-documented creative history.

As the city rapidly grows, centering Austin’s diverse creative communities in cultural planning continues to drive belonging, economic growth & long-lasting culture.

Simultaneously, this growth has posed many questions and barriers for cross-community traditions, arts access, ongoing public engagement in culture and impactful creative empowerment in austin’s built environment.

So, how can we rise to these challenges?

Downtown Austin Alliance’s Active Urbanism team engaged with Future Front Texas to use the 501c3 arts and culture organization’s community design frameworks & public engagement approaches to identify new responses, programmatic designs and impact metrics toward this question.

Project Goals

impact

Identify the desired impact of “Artists & Creatives Thrive” initiatives facilitated in downtown Austin by the Downtown Austin Alliance and Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation

FLAGSHIP VIBE

Inform programmatic options for new cultural initiatives that meet the desired impact metrics established by the report

ALIGNMENT

Recommend planning, engagement and programming efforts that expand downtown Austin’s creative community partnership & involvement

When artists and creatives thrive, culture thrives, too. So, when a city’s built environment rapidly changes, what should investing in culture — aka the vibe — look like? We asked independent creatives, artists and cultural producers themselves.

how public engagement occurred

3 Downtown Field Trips

with 50+ participants at DAA cultural programs & partner events

25+ Creative Community chats

with 50+ participants at DAA cultural programs & partner events

4 Active Urbanism COMMITTEE MEETINGS

with 15 public servants and 12+ AU Staff Meetings

public engagement timeline

Research Included Downtown Voices, Like:

What We Heard From Artists & Creatives

on what’s missing from downtown austin’s built environment:

“Public art experiences and creative activities that speak to the human experience, conviviality beyond art on the walls... opportunities that engage the muscle memory of physically moving through urban spaces with curiosity.”

— Alan Garcia, Cultural Producer

artists AND creatives want to see SUSTAINED OPPORTUNITIES THAT model Cross-community collaboration AND open invitations to the public.

Ultimately, when it comes to the culture of our communities, the vibe must be more than visible art on our walls.

It must be modeled.

It must be experienced.

Why Are Creatives Important To The Culture of Public Spaces, like Downtown Austin?

Local Economy

Supports opportunities for emergence of hyperlocal small businesses and ongoing cultural tourism

Strong Brand

Encourages memory-building & organic storytelling

BELONGING

Includes stakeholders beyond development & business

What Kind of Creatives Make Culture?

& How Can Homegrown Culture Grow?

① How can you apply these findings to your own cultural programming and community engagement?

② Where can you make space for local art and creativity in your daily life—and plans for the future?

③ What does it look like to invest in the experience of community?

HERE’S HOW THESE FINDINGS WILL BE APPLIED IN DOWNTOWN AUSTIN:

• Introducing $30K in micro-grants to fund local cultural experiences, establishing an application process and promoting grants through community channels

• Fostering continuous engagement with local artists and creatives by hosting town hall meetings, forming partnerships with arts organizations and organizing networking events

• Activating downtown public spaces to boost community interaction by organizing public art installations, as well as interactive events that include collaboration between urban planners and the local creative community

• Creating arts and culture programs tailored to community needs by conducting surveys and focus groups, studying successful national programs and piloting new initiatives

• Ensuring the availability of creative spaces and continuous funding by repurposing vacant buildings, establishing long-term funding sources and offering affordable studio spaces

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behind this REPORT

This report reflects a year-long community design effort for Downtown Austin Alliance and Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation, facilitated by executive leaders from 501c3 arts and culture organization Future Front Texas.

Future Front LEADERSHIP TEAM

• Jane Hervey, Lead

• Xochi Solis, Lead

Downtown Austin Alliance Staff

• Raasin McIntosh, Lead

• Emily Risinger, Co-Lead

• Amanda Baez

• Jenell Moffett

• Leta Harrison

• Marilyn Willson

Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation Board of Directors

• Dewitt Peart, Secretary, Downtown Austin

• Jennifer Wiebrand, Gables Residential

• Kevin Brown, DuBois Bryant & Campbell

• Nick Moulinet, Chair, DPR Construction

• SaulPaul, SaulPaul Productions, Foundation

• Xavier Pena, St. David’s Foundation

Participating Active Urbanism Committee Members (DAA)

• Nick Moulinet, Chair

• Adrienne Brown

• Albi Hasku

• Andy Austin

• Ashley Kegley-Whitehead

• Dan Jefferson

• Eric Schultz

• Heather Hart Potts

• Janis Daemmrich

• Kevin Brown

• Lindsay Palmer

• Marissa Rivera

• Martin Nembhard

• Michael Girard

• Rachel Blair

• Rebecca Senchak

• Sania Shifferd

• SaulPaul

• Xavier Peña

PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS

The Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) is the steward of a collective vision for downtown Austin and enhances every aspect of the downtown experience. DAA is on a mission to create, preserve and enhance the vibe, vitality and value of downtown Austin for everyone. Currently, the organization supports multiple programs for artists, creatives and cultural producers in Downtown Austin. Learn more about DAA at downtownaustin.com. Learn more about DAA’s programs for artists and creatives at downtownaustin.com/foundation/dasa.

The Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation is the 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable foundation of the Downtown Austin Alliance that serves underserved and underrepresented populations downtown, using art and cultural placemaking to cultivate a welcoming, safe and vibrant Downtown Austin by and for everyone. Foundation programs are made possible through the support of charitable contributions. The Downtown Austin Alliance absorbs all overhead and administrative expenses of the Foundation, ensuring 100% of donations go directly back to the community. Learn more at downtownaustin.com/foundation.

Homegrown in Austin, Future Front is an award-winning cultural space and public exhibition series—with women and LGBTQ+ creatives at the front. As a 501c3 arts and culture nonprofit, we produce two annual community-led exhibitions, The Front Market and The Front Festival, platforming independent artists and creatives across disciplines in Texas. Beyond our flagship exhibitions, we host seasonal shows and workshops at our creative space in East Austin, welcoming 20,000+ visitors per year. Through these programs and a diverse network of partnerships, we invite the public (including you) to dream of a future where local art and creativity thrive in Texas—where we see ourselves and our cultures reflected in our communities.

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Do you want to get involved in 2025?

The Collective-Care Guide: Building Self-Care and Sustainability into Creative Community Work

in 2023, alongside licensed therapists SANDRA OLARTE-HAYES AND MANUEL CANTU, future front facilitated ITS FIRST-EVER Collective-Care Club.

Monthly, a group of psychotherapists and community members in justice-based creative and/or cultural work gathered to explore their personal and professional relationships to collective-care, self-care and sustainability.

We explored important themes such as trauma and the body, how shame and trauma impact how we treat one another in conflict, personal and collective transformation and why so many social justice-focused spaces cause so much harm. This guide reflects back what the group learned.

KEEP READING FOR a step-by-step guide ON realigning your values, boundaries and frameworks toward EMBODIED self-care and collective-care within your community work.

WRITTEN BY TEXAS-BASED LICENSED THERAPISTS SANDRA OLARTE-HAYES AND MANUEL CANTU, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY KAI ARNN (UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED)

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STEP 1 — 

finding your Narrative

(The Personal is Political)

BEFORE WE DISCUSS COLLECTIVE-CARE, LET’S IDENTIFY YOUR JUSTICE NARRATIVE.

There is a point in our lives when we widen our worldview and the panorama becomes nuanced and complicated. Seemingly benign systems we thought were supposed to heal us and protect us start to feel oppressive and exclusionary. The innocent “colorblindness” and heteronormativity some of us were taught as children gives way to realities of privilege and histories of harm.

For those of us engaged in justice-oriented creative work, there was a point at which all of this awareness became too much to bear. We could no longer sit back and allow the status quo to replicate itself. Whether for our own self-healing, the healing of generational trauma, or an attempt to leave behind a better world, we took up a cause. 

But what happens when traumatized and wounded people all find themselves in the same spaces? With similarly primed triggers? As we examine our personal “why,” we can understand how our experiences and narratives inform our work, what moves us, and our lenses.

*What brought you to justice-oriented creative work? WHAT’S YOUR WHY? HOW ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND NARRATIVES INFORMING YOUR WORK?

CLEARLY UNDERSTANDING YOUR “WHY” HELPS YOU FIND CLARITY—AND STAY MOTIVATED WHEN THE WORK IS CHALLENGING.

For many of us, our pain brought us to this work and yet our pain and our stories also imbue our work with triggers and pain points. Our personal narratives lead us to invest ourselves deeply. Setbacks have a big impact on us and losses are hard on us because we care. Conflict and harm in spaces where we thought we would be seen feels disheartening.

So how do we find the motivation to keep going when things get hard? In our Collective Care Club series, we heard stories of disappointment followed by a re-grounding in one’s values and in the strengths of one’s communities. Doing this work with others has its challenges, but it also leaves us with ways to bolster one another when we need to. We find ways to have fun together and to relish the successes, even if they feel small. Many of us need time to step back from our work temporarily to get re-grounded in our own personal “why,” only to come back to the work  and step back in when we are ready to.

SOMETIMES, WE KNOW OUR WHY—BUT NOT OUR “WHAT.” WHAT ROLE DOES YOUR WORK PLAY WITHIN MOVEMENT-BUILDING?

When figuring out how to help (or how your work helps), it’s always best to start with a few simple questions:

What are you naturally good at?

Maybe your skillset is creativity, you’re going to design a stellar social media campaign or flyers to get the word out. Perhaps you’re a social butterfly whose charisma and connections can help attract donors or get the right pair of eyes on your content. Lean into your innate abilities, and you can’t go wrong.

What feels safe for you?

When fighting “isms” and other foes, it’s important to not re-traumatize yourself in the process. Listen to what feels overwhelming and what you have the capacity to do. Perhaps being on the frontlines in a protest is a level of public-facing attention you aren’t naturally comfortable with. Maybe as an abuse survivor, you don’t cope well with raised voices or passionate debate. Be patient with yourself. You are so powerful and can show up for yourself and your community in a myriad other ways.

How do you show up for others?

We as social creatures often serve a specific role in our groups and offer unique ways to support others. Here are a few different ways you might support your community: 

• Being a good listener

• Giving people space to debrief and process

• Leading people

• Delegating, transportation, etc.

All rights reserved. Visit www.socialchangemap.com for more information and usage guidelines.

Illustration by Kai Arnn

How do YOUR experiences help YOU in YOUR work? and in what ways DO THEY MAKE YOUR WORK DIFFICULT?

When we look at the ways we show up for others and what feels safe and comfortable for us, it may become clear that we gravitate towards certain roles and that some ways of working towards change may come more naturally than others. To create real and lasting change, our movement ecosystems require a variety of different roles and forces. It is okay to be drawn to some roles more than others.

We also recommend asking yourself if the roles you inhabit and the patterns you embody in your work and personal life are still working for you.

• How are these roles influenced by your history?

• Is trauma a part of that story and are there ways in which your trauma narratives are showing up again or impacting where you feel most comfortable?

• Are there ways in which the roles you are drawn into are harmful to you?

• Are there other ways in which you would like to try to show up?

• Sometimes the roles we are comfortable in and good at are the ones we had to step into when we were younger. 

STEP 2 —

identifying SYSTEMS

THE systems WE LIVE IN

where can you FIND cultures of harm within your work?

When one lives as a minoritized individual, it is easy to externalize some of the problems and barriers we face toward achieving justice and representation within our creative and cultural work. However, cultures of harm are often the same cultures we “live in,” making harm difficult to address within ourselves. 

Harm happens even within marginalized and oppressed communities and identities. Because harmful ideologies and practices are often culturally encouraged and even celebrated by the social norms and practices of the systems we navigate daily.

For example, hustle culture, perfectionism and individualism (“pulling yourself by your bootstraps”) are all personality traits or practices that are lauded in capitalist societies, especially in the United States. And these traits and practices can be affirmed for an individual or group of people, even when they’re causing harm.

Once we can acknowledge the systems we live within, it becomes easier to fight against the harmful mindsets holding us back and rededicate ourselves to communal healing. 

WHAT DOES centering SELF-CARE AND COLLECTIVE-CARE LOOK LIKE?

• Leadership

• Transparency

• Connected communication

• Trauma-informed

• Non-punitive

• Accountability

• Attention to process 

• Affirmation of the whole self

• Congruence between written values/mission and experienced values/mission

Art by Melanie G. S. Walby

can you dismantle systems of harm, while working with theM?

If access gives us a way into dismantling a system, but we only get access through privilege and power, it’s important to acknowledge the internal conflict which may arise. Guilt and imposter syndrome are prevalent among minorities who inhabit places of wealth or predominantly heteronormative, White-dominant spaces (like creative industries and arts and culture industries). Others will reinforce this by telling BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ individuals and women they don’t belong there; this happens often enough that you start to believe it.

Collectivist values tell minoritized people they should feel bad about succeeding and making it out of communities that are still struggling. Still, choosing how to work within or without a system comes with its contradictions and questions:

• When does “playing the game” further marginalize our causes?

• When does refusing to “play the game” further marginalize our causes?

• How do we spend our valuable time and energy on combating what we disagree with, as well as uplifting what we do?

• How do we design our lives for more ease, joy and abundance?

• How do we ensure our choices don’t solely make our lives more difficult (leaving no dent in the broken system, policy or discriminatory cultural attitude we’re hoping to change)?

• Are we trying to solve a problem without the necessary resources, support, self-care or community-care solutions?

what are Your options WHEN YOUR WORK IS CONTRIBUTING TO systems misaligned with your values or goals?

If you can’t change the harmful environment you’re working within—but also can’t leave—it’s of the utmost importance to figure out how to adapt and protect yourself within it. You do not need to re-traumatize yourself. Decide on your ultimate goal and what you’re willing to risk or lose to achieve it. 

Example: You’re observing or experiencing racism within a community space. Calling it out might feel necessary and urgent, but if it ends up in retaliation that leaves you ostracized or jobless, are you better off? Are the consequences things you can live with? Or will the lack of a paycheck further marginalize you and your family? For some, speaking up is the only option. For others, professional blacklisting or temporary unemployment could have devastating consequences.

It therefore becomes paramount to determine your disruption strategy. How can you challenge the status quo in a way that doesn’t endanger your standard of living or ability to feel safe in your professional, communal or creative spaces?

Ways to do this: 

• Solidify your emotional boundaries

• Build a safety network or conduct a care mapping exercise to visualize safe connections around you 

• Seek mentorship and guidance outside of the workplace

Also important to note—even seemingly affirming community spaces, values-driven creative organization and mission-driven artistic work can be marginalizing and/or unsafe, depending on the lived experience, expertise and embodied values of your peers. Be cognizant of how your peers are carrying their own trauma into the work.

STEP 3 —

addressing trauma

the science of oppression

SELF-CARE AND COLLECTIVE-CARE LIVE IN THE BODY—AND SO DOES TRAUMA.

where does trauma influence your work?

Trauma is the body's response to an event it perceives as life-threatening or terrifying. Essentially, anything that is too much, too fast, too soon, too long or too little can lead to trauma.

Trauma is not just the event itself but also the person’s experience and emotional response to the event that lead to a post-traumatic stress response. Two people might experience the same event and respond very differently, to the point where one might experience post-traumatic stress and the other might not based on each one’s protective and risk factors, experience of and emotional response after the event.

The body plays a key role in a person’s response to trauma. Trauma is at its core an experience of powerlessness—of not having the power to keep oneself safe.

The body did not have the experience of being able to protect itself and when this happens, trauma responses become stored in the body’s tendons, sinews, muscles, nervous system and organs.

You may experience inflammation, digestive issues, recurring illness, muscle stiffness, or pain (among other ailments). It may feel hard to trust your body and your body might activate from zero to one hundred in the blink of an eye. It may feel hard to trust your body, as though it betrayed you.

The brain is also actively involved in a person’s trauma response. When a person experiences something profoundly scary, the  brain and body reacts by:

• Activating the amygdala (the brain’s fear center)

• Inhibiting the prefrontal cortex (which is responsible for executive functioning including attention, judgment and impulse control)

• Inhibiting the hippocampus (the brain structure that encodes and stores memory)

• Stress hormones like adrenaline, noradrenaline, and norepinephrine are secreted

• Heart rate increases and intensifies

• Blood pressure, blood sugar, and inflammatory protein levels increase

• The protective mobilization of nutrients occurs and blood flow patterns to the brain change

These reactions happen so quickly to mobilize the body to keep itself safe that most of the time, they have occurred and we have responded before we are even consciously aware of what happened.

Below are just some of the longer-term impacts that trauma has on the nervous system and the brain:

• Trauma causes epigenetic changes via gene methylation. These changes don’t necessarily change a person’s genes but change how those genes are expressed, particularly those involved in the stress response and physical health. These epigenetic changes can be passed down to one’s children as an intergenerational footprint of trauma,

• The hippocampus (the brain’s memory center) shrinks.

• Reduced gray matter in key areas of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala (the brain’s fear processing center).

• Overactivation of the microglial cells which then release neurochemicals that lead to neuroinflammation and destroy neurons as well as leading to chronic inflammation.

• Trauma ages people at a cellular level by eroding telomeres (the protective caps which sit at the end of DNA strands and keep the genome healthy and intact). Their erosion increases the likelihood of diseases. 

• Decreased GABA (Gaba-Aminobutyric Acid). GABA helps people feel relaxed and calm.

• Weaker connections between the pre-frontal cortex and the hippocampus and amygdala which can lead to an increased likelihood of mental health challenges.

What is important here is that trauma has long-standing and pervasive impacts on the body and the brain. It transforms us and puts us in a constant state of fear and reactivity that is outside of our awareness and our control.

Trauma also comes in many forms. It can be acute (one event that happens once), chronic (a similar type of trauma that reoccurs over a period of time), or complex (exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events that continue to occur over a prolonged period of time). Complex trauma can happen interpersonally, but many marginalized people experience it systemically. Threats to one's life doesn't have to be physical or happen all at once, and systemic oppression and discrimination such as racism, patriarchy, homophobia, and transphobia are examples of threats to one's life that are legislated into society as well occurring interpersonally.

Your personal traumas may have been the spark that called you into movement work or creative cultural art-making.

It may be what keeps you going when the work is frustrating and feels hopeless. It may be deeply healing to transform your trauma into action, and yet we cannot ignore the profound impacts that it has on our spirits, bodies, and ways of being and feeling safe with others.

some forms of trauma may be personal—while others may present in a community due to shared experiences of a system.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are childhood experiences of trauma (emotional/physical/sexual abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, etc) that are directly linked with long-term health impacts in adulthood, both mental and physical. More recently, research has added to the list of risk factors—it now includes racism, bullying, community violence and growing up in foster care. This underlines how ACEs play a huge role in maintaining systemic oppression, particularly in the way they sustain ableist power dynamics and disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

Groups who are more likely to experience ACEs are ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+ individuals and people living with less access to education or below the poverty line. 

We can’t talk about disability justice without talking about trauma. ACEs are also connected to social outcomes like unemployment, socioeconomic status, and other markers of privilege and access to systemic power. Therefore, we also can’t talk about capitalism or poverty without talking about trauma.

what can trauma responses look like?

Many of us have likely heard of “fight or flight,” but did you know there are three more common stress responses? Here they are, defined:

Fight – Just how it sounds, this response to trauma is active, reactionary, and may even be aggressive. 

Flight – Folks responding in this way are trying to find the exit and get as far away from the scary thing as possible. They may choose not to engage and remove themselves from a situation until they are regulated enough for resolution.

Fawn – As the name suggests, this stress response is akin to becoming as sweet as a baby deer, doing your best to calm everyone down and reach a sense of safety again. This could manifest as people pleasing, physical affection, and flattery.

Freeze –  Have you ever been in an argument and found that you weren’t able to articulate yourself as clearly as you want to? For some reason, you’re so overwhelmed and flooded by adrenalin that you’re unable to respond. This is one way we can freeze under stress. Sometimes it looks like shutting down, becoming unresponsive, or even dissociating and forgetting where we are.

Dissociate – Sometimes stressful situations are so intense that our brains literally force us out of our body to avoid having to experience all of the emotional or physical pain. Afterward, this could lead to us being unable to remember entire events in extreme instances, or for things to feel like they happened to someone else or in a dream.

why do we need to be mindful of when/where/how trauma responses show up within our work?

The personal is political. For many of us, we are called into justice work because of our personal experiences with injustice. We tell our stories, amplify those of others, and fight to impact policies that could reduce human suffering so that other people and families don’t have to endure what we have survived. 

But when we are in the work because of our pain, it also means that our somatic reactions to the traumas that brought us here are woven into the sinews, tendons, muscles and nerves in our bodies. In our social justice work, we find ourselves continually confronting the same topics, themes, images and stories that have hurt us.

Taking power over these stories and using our voices for change can be deeply healing, but continually leaning into confronting these narratives means that the work itself can be wrought with triggers. A meeting can be deeply activating when it hits too close to home. Public experiences when faced with possibilities of violence or lack of social safety can cause huge amounts of re-traumatization to our nervous systems.

Additionally, when individuals come together to work towards a common goal, they are not always going to agree on how to achieve it. Disagreements and conflicts will arise. Brains and bodies regularly respond to conflicts and threats of social rejection with fight, flight, freeze or dissociate responses (as though they were life-threatening events).

It’s important to be mindful of trauma when designing or facilitating community work in creative and cultural spaces.

When you add previous trauma into the mix, conflicts are likely to escalate more quickly and become explosive. Sometimes the damage is irreparable and can lead to conflict in movement spaces within groups of people who re-traumatize, activate, ostracize and push people to leave the community.

*IS ANGER A TRAUMA RESPONSE?

Anger is an emotion that has become taboo and vilified, but when we break it down, anger is simply a funnel emotion for sorrow. When one experiences anger, they are really experiencing a more activated and raw version of sadness and hurt. Often we are told to temper ourselves, silence ourselves and ignore our anger.

Societal narratives take this further and tell us that people of color are dangerous when angry (think of culturally analyzed stereotypes like the “angry Black man” and “angry Black woman,” for example).

White supremacy culture and other cultures of harm often teach us that only certain people are allowed to be angry. (For example, in the Collective-Care Club that led to this guide, someone shared their personal observation that a White person in a certain space was able to raise their voice and complain and still be seen as a go-getter, while a person of color showing the same behaviors was labeled threatening and aggressive.)

Examining our relationship to our own anger is important because at the end of the day, anyone engaged in social justice work is doing so out of some kind of anger at viewing the injustice in the world. Anger has a place and a vital role in justice work—it motivates us, spurs us to act instead of remaining apathetic, and helps us enforce important boundaries for ourselves and others.

The task is knowing when anger feels appropriate and valid, then figuring out how to channel it to prevent further harm and even self re-traumatization.

STEP 4 —

FINDING YOUR APPROACH TO Action

Many Paths, One Goal

WHERE DO YOUR VALUES AND GOALS FOR CHANGE SHOW UP WITHIN YOUR WORK? 

Let’s take a bird’s eye view for a second. You’ve decided now that you have a mission, a goal and a cause to lift up. How do you want to do that? Are you more inclined towards individual activism or are you ready to join or start a group? Here are some examples of what action looks like:

Individual Activism Examples

• Donating to causes you care about

• Interpersonal and community advocacy

• Civic action like letter writing, voting and sharing your personal story

• Creating art (music, visual art, film, etc) about the causes and viewpoints you care about

• Discontinuing support of problematic brands

• Supporting businesses owned by minoritized populations

• Self-education

Group Activism Examples

• Community art-making and cultural affirmation

• Organizing and strategizing with an existing group for better policies or processes

• Mutual aid and pooling resources toward the causes you support (whether that’s money, connections, knowledge, or otherwise)

• Community and public education

• Community fundraising

• Political action like lobbying or canvassing

WHICH ACTIONS ARE YOU TAKING?

storytelling, community work and art have always had a relationship toward justice and movement-building.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Throughout history, there are examples of movements taking off that created ripple effects and shifted world paradigms. The civil rights movement throughout the 50s and 60s which worked to dismantle systemic racism, the gender equality fight of the 70s, the Chicano movement, the response to the AIDS crisis, to mention only a small few.

These movements were not only driven by political players, but by disruptive artists, cultural workers and icons who went from anonymity to becoming the face of an entire movement, the way Sylvia Mendez at 9 years old helped pave the way for Brown vs. the Board of Education.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful actions we can engage in. Across centuries, propaganda, art and even folktales have all conspired to create dangerous stereotypes and promote fear of the “other.”

As we slowly transition into a mediascape and literary landscape where more diverse artists, creatives, cultural workers and storytellers have room to tell their own stories, we do work to humanize ourselves.

So, How can you find power and joy in your story?

Telling the world about how our communities have been hurt is important, but a side effect of always ingesting stories about our pain is that we start to feel hopeless. We suddenly get flooded by our own suffering, whether it’s through the news or the stories we consume through television and film. 

The minoritized individual is equated to a tragic figure, therefore “joy” becomes a radical act for these communities. Not only as a beacon of hope to tell others they too can overcome their tribulations (even if it’s only momentarily), but to scream to the oppressor that their scare tactics will not defeat us.

People in power count on their own systemic control (and our own self-oppression) to render us powerless, demotivated, and stripped of all ability to rally. When we allow ourselves moments of joy in between the fighting and advocacy, we allow ourselves to be fully human. We are able to celebrate the beauty in our cultures, our neighborhoods and those we hold dear. 

So, the next time you feel guilty for laughing at a joke or smiling while there is so much going on in the world, remind yourself that moments of joy are as integral to your work as anything else.

STEP 5 —

embracing resilience

Restorative and Transformative approaches

Pursuing values-driven community work within creative industry, as well as arts and culture spaces, COMES WITH conflict.

How we respond to disagreements, as well as harm and violence, matters when we are trying to do community work in a trauma-informed way, prevent burnout for ourselves and others, s well as practice the very values we advocate for. Let’s identify some of the difficult things that can happen within community-driven work:

• Conflict occurs when there is disagreement over ideas, issues, or values. This is a normal part of humans’ social interactions, often requiring facilitation to resolve.

• Harm happens when a significant negative impact or injury happens to someone. It can be emotional, physical, sexual, financial, or spiritual and oftentimes results when one party has systemic power over another or privilege and that power is abused.

• Violence occurs when the harm is intentional and causes significant disruptions in a person’s life. While there is a distinct difference we have seen how easily conflict can escalate to harm and violence when our traumas get activated, especially in social justice spaces.

When engaging in community work, it’s important to distinguish between conflict, harm and violence. By distinguishing between these different types of exchanges, we can work to prevent further conflict, harm and violence within our communities and community work.

how can we address harm and conflict when it arises in our community work?

Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice is an approach to violence and harm that draws from indigenous principles of interconnection, mutuality, inclusion, and shared decision-making. This approach focuses on repairing interpersonal relationships at the micro-level after harm by meeting the needs of people who have been harmed. Important principles underlying restorative approaches are:

• Harms are violations of people and interpersonal relationships

• Violations create obligations

• The central obligation is to “make things right,” not to punish or make the person who caused the harm suffer

These principles lead to questions:

• Who has been harmed? 

• What do they need to heal?

• Whose obligation is it to meet those needs?

Exploring the answers to these questions can help us take a restorative approach to conflict and harm, bringing people together to repair relationships, listen deeply, and repair what has been broken.

There is a strong focus on people who have caused harm taking accountability, whether this means restoring the person who was hurt to wellness or giving a meaningful apology and taking accountability.

Transformative Justice

Relationships, however, don’t occur in a vacuum and are impacted by the context of systems of oppression we live in. Transformative Justice-based approaches to harm go one step further by trying to repair the harm while also acknowledging the role of both interpersonal and systems-based trauma in creating the conditions for harm to occur and perpetuating more violence. 

For example, if someone steals breaks into someone’s home in order to steal so that they can feed their children: yes, there is value in bringing together the person whose home was broken into and the person who stole from them so they can share the impacts the incident has had on them (financial impacts not feeling safe anymore, feelings of violation etc.), but a Transformative Justice response would also look to improve the societal and systemic conditions impacted their ability to meet their family’s needs.

Because transformative justice-based approaches acknowledge that the violence caused by oppressive systems are root causes for harm and that state policing systems reproduce violence and create trauma primarily in minoritized communities, Transformative Justice-based responses to harm do not involve state systems that have the potential to cause more harm and instead involve community members and resources in the response.

This often involves creating support teams called “pods” around different community members involved in the harm. Each pod might have a specific focus, such as supporting the person who caused the harm in their personal transformation and healing while also holding them accountable, or supporting the person who has been harmed emotionally while also connecting them to needed resources.

*Additional Reading and Resources on Transformative Justice — 

• Transformative Justice: A Brief Description

• What is Transformative Justice

• Everyday Practices of Transformative Justice

• The Modern Roots of Transformative Justice

• How Shame Can Block Accountability 

• What are Obstacles to Accountability

• What is accountability?

• What does Justice Look like for Survivors? 

• Centering the Needs of Survivors part 1 

• Centering the Needs of Survivors part 2

• How to Support Harm Does in Accountability

• Pods

BALANCING A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-CARE AND COLLECTIVE-CARE IN COMMUNITY WORK CAN BE HARD. IT’S NORMAL TO EXPERIENCE ROADBLOCKS. IT’S NORMAL TO MAKE MISTAKES.

Transforming our communities and the systems in which we create and organize involves transforming how we create justice and our responses to harm. How we are with one another and the values we embody when things get hard really matters.

But it is incredibly difficult to work through conflict and respond to harm in a way that is restorative, non-punitive, and transforms everyone involved, because we are deeply embedded in cultural narratives of retribution where we are told that punishment teaches us a lesson and that experiencing pain will reduce the likelihood of further wrongdoing.

Fear of “getting it wrong” and being rejected socially makes us tighten up and revert to old fear-based responses, and our trauma responses and shame showing up when triggered make it that much harder to stay grounded in our values.

REMEMBER—Trauma lives in the body, and So doeS healing and justice.

So, WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO BRING SOME OF THESE EMBODIED QUALITIES INTO YOUR APPROACH TO SELF-CARE, COLLECTIVE-CARE AND COMMUNITY WORK NOW?

• Leadership

• Transparency

• Connected communication

• Trauma-informed

• Non-punitive

• Accountability

• Attention to process 

• Affirmation of the whole self

• Congruence between written values/mission and experienced values/mission

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This resource guide was developed in collaboration with collective-care club, a project of future front’s community clubs.

To learn more about upcoming Community Clubs, click here.

The Front Market Gift Guide (2024)

It’s THE MOST WONDERFUL time of year.

With The Front Market’s 2024 Season officially wrapped, this year’s Gift Guide—featuring 200+ women and LGBTQ+ creatives from The Front Market—is live! Keep reading for how to shop and our favorites across each of this year’s gift categories.

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SHOP SMALL. SUPPORT LOCAL. SHOW UP.

SHOP SMALL. SUPPORT LOCAL. SHOW UP.

NO. 1 — ACCESSORIES

Featured MAKER:

HANDMADE NAIL artist 10PIECEEXPRESS

10PIECEXPRESS was creative with the belief that nails are the ultimate accessory, even in the midst of a busy lifestyle. Homegrown in Austin, the brand aims to make custom-made, fun and premium quality nails more accessible and less time-consuming for everyone. Each nail is designed to be reusable, providing a sustainable option for those who want to switch up their style without creating unnecessary waste.

Featured Gift:

zone 9 nail set ($65)

NO. 2 — ART

Featured maker:

Print-MAKER AND PAINTER WAVY ROLLER

Victoria Cardenas (she/her), aka Wavy Roller, was raised in Buda, Texas and now currently resides in Austin. She is a self-taught artist that primarily works with acrylic on canvas but is constantly exploring other creative methods such as murals, screen printing, block printing, and more! Her love for sharing art began with vending and meeting others that can relate to her art, as it gave her the courage to keep going creatively. Her art explores connection (and lack of connection) that is all around her; with herself & her own trauma, others, and nature. She explores these feelings through fun calming colors and shape. She believes it's important to find her relation to everything in existence no matter how big or small!

Featured Gift:

RADIATE KINDNESS print ($5 to $35)

NO. 3 — APPAREL

Featured MAKEr:

SUSTAINABLE APPAREL BRAND livelihood

Based in Austin, Livelihood has used its goods to plant thousands of native trees in public parks and green spaces throughout our city.

“We launched Livelihood Apparel with a simple goal: to help you do the things you love, how you love, more sustainably. That’s why we craft high-quality apparel made from natural, recycled, and biodegradable fibers that move, breathe, and dry with every stride. And because making better apparel isn’t enough, we invest 25% of our profits into Livelihood Projects to restore native habitats in urban parks and trails, helping us bring nature back to where we encounter it and need it most: in the cities we call home.”

Featured GiftS:

LIVELIHOOD HOODIE ($98) & hat ($32)

Featured MAKER:

Knitwear brand sweater p*rn

Handmade in South Austin by artist Kate Greene, Sweater P*rn’s range of design-forward knitted pullovers and sweatshirts are one-of-a-kind.

Size-inclusive, you can custom order a sweater from Kate at any time of year.

Featured Gift:

SWEATER P*RN PULLOVER (price varies)

Featured mAKER:

screenprint brand emsbrynart

100% sustainabiy sourced and hand-printed, Emsbrynart is the apparel and accessories brain child of Austin-based artist Emily Lawson.

From celebrity sightings to sold-out drops, their tees have circled the world this year.

Featured Gift:

ONE-OF-A-KIND EMSBRYN TEE ($30 TO $42)

Featured SHOP:

AUSTIN-BASED BOUTIQUE dylan wylde

With a brick-and-mortar concept in Central Austin, DYLAN WYLDE offers an array of independent designers and thoughtfully curated closet additions.

Items are available in-store only.

Featured Gift:

DYLAN WYLDE BELT & JEANS (prices vary)

NO. 4 — Ceramics

Featured maker:

fletcher ceramics

Handthrown and designed by Sabine Fletcher—a full-time artist in ceramics, photography, set dressing and production assistance—Fletcher Ceramics features palette-forward takes on functional ceramic classics.

Featured Gift:

FLETCHER MUG ($55)

NO. 5 — HOME GOODS

Featured MAKER:

honeywood home decor

Honeywood is a Latina-owned and operated woodworking company based in Austin, Texas. Founder, Kaliegh Benck, launched Honeywood in March of 2022 after years of dreaming of becoming a full-time artist. Her work strives to create unique and sustainable pieces that add warmth to the home. Often incorporating recycled and reclaimed materials, Benck focuses on making one-of-a-kind art pieces and reducing product waste. 

Honeywood produces small batch, handcrafted wooden goods and art for the home. Benck’s work often relies on clean lines, wood’s natural grain intricacies and a fusion between past and present silhouettes and techniques.

Featured Gift:

chelsea cutting board ($80)

NO. 6 — JEWELRY

Featured MAKER:

CHAUNCEY AND COCO JEWELRY

Chauncey and Coco IS a lifestyle brand founded by sisters Mehek Ahmed and Nida Ahmed in 2016. Based in Texas, the duo specializes in constructing noteworthy jewelry and home décor that integrate a passion for color, contemporary art and modern design. As self-taught visual artists, they have always been inspired by the principles of color theory and form. Their journey began with a desire to create functional art pieces that not only serve a purpose but also spark conversations. Each collection they design is a testament to artistic evolution, personal style and community. 

Featured Gift:

CHAUNCEY AND COCO SOLSTICE EARRINGS

NO. 7 — SELF-CARE

Featured shop:

fragrance curator terre gaillarde

Founded by Austin-based creative Amanda N., Terre Gaillarde (formerly 8-12) is a concept shop offering scents from origins near & far, new & familiar. Their curation of perfume, candles, incense, & bath immersions centers aromatic artists inspired by their sense of home and heritage.

Featured Gift:

fayoum fragrance ($132)

NO. 8 — FOODS & SIPS

Featured Vendor:

BEEBEE’S FLAVORED SYRUPS

“Like most people, I love my flavored lattes. Some of my favorite things to do are making lattes for friends & family (it’s my love language), and trying different coffee shops around town and when traveling.

In my search for the best ingredients for my at home lattes, I noticed a lack of high-quality syrups. Everything seemed to be loaded with artificial flavors, dyes, and preservatives. While there are clean label options, they still didn’t match the syrup quality and taste crafted in-house at thirdwave coffee shops. I resorted to making my own syrups at home, using all-natural, high-quality ingredients - fast forward three years, and the idea of sharing these recipes was born.

At Beebee’s, we hope to help bring comfort, community, and customization to your daily ritual. We can’t wait to see the yummy beverages you make!”

— Bri, founder of Beebee's Syrups

Featured Gift:

Beebee’s mexican hot cocoa syrup ($19)

NO. 9 — PETS, PLANTS & PAPER GOODS

Featured shop:

the green room atx

Owned by Austin-based plant enthusiasts, Ale and Hector, The Green Room ATX is a backyard shop in Austin Texas, specializing in rare and columnar cacti. Beyond their hard-to-find varieties, the shop also offers everyday indoor and outdoor plant options (for the gardening and plant parent newbie alike).

Open by appointment or popping up around town, The Green Room ATX also offers plant care and lawn care services.

Featured Gift:

THE GREEN ROOM SUCCULENTS (PRICES VARY)

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Future Front’s Gift Guide features entirely women and LGBTQ+ vendors from The Front Market, which opens every Spring and Fall to feature more than 400 Texas-based creatives and small business owners per year.

Learn more here.

How To Support Creative Small Business Owners: A Five-Step Guide

What conditions are best for our creative and small business communities’ growth?

Keep reading for five tips from our research and experience on how you can best support women-owned, LGBTQ-owned and POC-owned businesses.

This article was written and compiled by our Founding Executive Director Jane Hervey.

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HERE ARE FIVE WAYS TO PUT ON BUSINESSES YOU CARE ABOUT:

1.) SHOP LOCAL.

Take a peek at your expenses and bank statements over the last few months. What businesses do you spend your money on? An even better phrasing of this question is: What businesses do you assign value to?

Are local businesses on that list? If not, that’s a good place to start. Local businesses better support our communities’ economies. Reports show that local businesses generate 70 percent more local economic activity per square foot than big box retail, because they hire locally and typically do not outsource labor. And the businesses in your local community are more likely to be owned by women, people of color, LGBTQ folks and more. When it comes to diversity in ownership, small businesses beat large corporations and Fortune 500s by a long shot.

2.) BE LOUD ABOUT IT.

Women, LGBTQ and POC small business owners, solopreneurs, freelancer and side hustlers are part of the largest growing segment of entrepreneurs, yet the most underserved. They deserve community support, visibility and opportunities to market to larger audiences.

So become part of the movement by becoming a fan. Advocate for the business owners that you know, research businesses you could better support in your community and amplify the spaces and places that put diverse business owners on.

Whether you post on social media or tell your friends, spreading the word works.

3.) VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR AND PAY FULL-PRICE.

This one’s tough. So many of us make our lifestyles work by shopping large retailers, getting those big box discounts on groceries, or relying on Amazon for cheap solutions and deliveries.

When we pay a little more to go local—when we pay small business owners for services and products that we *might* be able to get cheaper elsewhere— we are doing our part to ensure they can earn a living wage and pay a living wage to their own employees and staff. Studies show that our economies and communities only stand to benefit from more gender-equal business ownership, as women are also more likely to advocate for equal pay, create socially conscious businesses and media and employ more diversely.

Also, when we consciously support racially and culturally diverse businesses, we have the opportunity to redistribute economic wealth and value within our communities more equally. And that’s something we can get behind.

4.) SHOW UP.

When we pay attention to the small businesses in our immediate communities (like the grocery store down the street or the barber shop around the corner or that nonprofit community center in our neighborhood), we create a sense of place. The small businesses and organizations around your physical home often double as community spaces, too; you can physically see and be around other people who live in your area. Moreover, in times of crisis or gentrification, small businesses’ successes or failures may be a significant indicator of changes that will impact you or neighbors.

So, when budgets are tighter than usual, you can still support businesses you care about by showing up to their events, opening emails, reading their announcement and/or paying attention to what’s going on.

5.) CHECK YOURSELF.

If you want to build supporting local, diverse businesses owners into your lifestyle, make it real. Audit your bank statements once a quarter, take stock of where you’re assigning value with your spending and then adjust.

Being mindful—and realistic—about how you participate in your local economy and community will make you a better advocate. You’ll better understand how you contribute to the ecosystems around you and how you can continue to show up and support. :)

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Want more?

You can keep up with what we’re doing to nurture the creative and small businesses we want to see in the world at thefrontmarket.com.

How To Host A Community Club with Future Front

Community Clubs are intimate gatherings hosted by Future Front members in Austin, Texas.

Grounded in nurturing creativity, community, professional resilience (or all three!), clubs are a way to make space for the things we need to learn, the habits that support our growth and the people who remind us why we’re here.

We launch a new round of clubs every summer, and this year our Open Call for ideas has returned. Whether you’d like to host a club or attend a club, keep reading for some background on these sweet series, as well as meet a few of our 2022 Club Hosts.

FIRST, A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON COMMUNITY CLUBS.

⭑ What is a Community Club?

01. Community Clubs are designed to nurture creativity, community or professional resilience.

02. Meeting regularly, all clubs work to achieve one purpose, like:

• Mastering a skill

• Nurturing a habit

• Celebrating / supporting something everyone in the club loves

03. Clubs usually have 10 to 20 active members throughout the year—and they’re seasonal. A club might meet once a month from February to October, for example, or maybe they’ll meet every other week during the Spring, etc.

04. Clubs must be hosted by Future Front members and available to all members to attend. (They can be open to everyone to join, though—it just depends on whether or not the host decides to make their club public!)

⭑ How often do Community Clubs meet?

In order for a Community Club to thrive, it’s got to meet on a regular basis! For a Community Club to be listed with Future Front, it must run on a weekly, bimonthly, monthly or quarterly schedule.

⭑ What does a Community Club host do?

• A club host sets the tone and the purpose of their club. A club host selects the intention and overarching goal of the club.

• A club host runs their club autonomously, with support from Future Front. A club host sets the agenda, location, medium and/or topic for every club meeting using Google Calendar or an alternative calendar tool. They also check in with members of the club at least once a month via email, text or some other communication method.

• A club host wants to be a good host. If you’ve become a host, you’re interest in community-building as a practice, sharpening your facilitation skills and practicing curatorial work! Hosts meet with the Future Front team once a quarter to check in on their club, share resources, learn from growth edges, have fun and hang! Hosts are responsible for:

  • Keeping the club free and safe by staying curious and asking for feedback

  • Having and starting conversations, as well as facilitating space for others to share

  • Understanding everything that is going on within the club, etc.!

⭑ Can’t imagine what makes for a good club? Or what joining one might look like? We got you! Let’s take a look at Hike Club.

Two years ago, Future Front member Stephanie of Storied Series decided to list her own bimonthly Hike Club as a Future Front Club. The club met every other Sunday at different trails in Austin, and the goal was simple. The club was designed for people who wanted to get outside—and just needed to find the time, space and company to do it. (After listing the club with Future Front, Hike Club doubled in size and Stephanie still runs it today!)

second, hear from some of our 2022 hosts.

This Is Not A Book Club — Hosted by Amanda Johnston, Founder and Executive director of Torch Literary Arts, an organization supporting creative writing by Black Women in Texas

✹ How would you describe This is Not A Book Club?

This Is Not A Book Club is a low-key meet-up where book lovers come together to support local independent bookstores, learn more about Torch Literary Arts, and meet new people. It’s not a book club, but we do talk about all things literary and encourage everyone to find a great book to take home. We have treats and book giveaways, too!

✹ Why do you think sharing literature within our communities is important?

Authors and freedom of speech are under attack. Most books being challenged, censored, or banned are overwhelmingly by and/or about BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people. What gets published becomes our perception of the world.

Representation matters in publishing and across media, so it is vital that we support diverse writers who dare to tell the stories that make us think and ask questions. It is vital that our communities read and support our indie bookstores and local libraries so free thought and imagination can inspire generations to come.

“We have an abundance of creators, organizers, and heart workers in our community. Feed into them and receive the bounty that will grow in return. ”

— AMANDA JOHNSON

Summer Period Club — Hosted by Kate Morton, a dietitian, menstrual health advocate and the founder of Funk It Wellness

✹ How would you describe Period Club?

Period club was a chance for everyone to come together and build community around menstrual education. We had so much fun—we did a different craft each month and just hung out and talked about all the things that society tells us are "TMI.”

✹ Talking about menstrual cycles and things can be a bit intimidating! How do you creatively approach these kinds of subjects? What got you interested in periods from the start?

I have to give our club members a lot of credit. They came 100% ready to dive in and talk about all things cycles. One thing we found helped everyone feel comfortable and have fun was doing a different craft activity each month. I think having something to do with your hands and creating something new can help you feel more comfortable and bonded to the people around you.

✹ What kinds of topics did you explore in the Period Club? Why are they important?

We explored cycle tracking, what is a normal period, how to advocate for yourself in a health care setting and many many other important aspects of menstrual health but most importantly we all shared our lived experience and I think that is where the most valuable education came from.

Money Moves Club — Hosted by Lina Zuluaga, artist, UX designer and Future Front Texas board member

✹ Talking about money can be a bit intimidating! How do you creatively approach these kinds of subjects? What got you interested in making this a community conversation from the start?

It really IS intimidating! There is no formula for everyone because our stories are so different but the thing we have in common is the fact that we all have to deal with money. Money means different things to all of us, it might mean security or a way to measure success but at the end of the day, we’ve all made mistakes and have had wins when it comes to money, whatever that means to you personally. I try to approach from a place of curiosity and kindness every time we get together. There is a lack of education around money and most of us have to hope what our parents told us about it is true, and figure it out ourselves. Sometimes learning the hard way is what we have in common and I use that commonality to have a conversation and share what we’ve learned because someone else is probably going through it.

✹ Any interesting stories from your club or things you’ve learned through your club that you’d like to share with us & the community?

There are too many and that’s why I started a Money Moves blog! I wanted to keep track of what our conversations are about for the members who can’t make it in person, I definitely try to encourage people to come to the chats but it's nice to look back in the blog and see all the resources we’ve shared in one place. Here is the link to it, if anyone is interested!

Skechers Drawing Club — Hosted by Cynthia Muñoz, artist, social impact leader and Future Front Texas board member

✹ What’s your favorite thing to make as an artist?

I've always been drawn to images of people. Most of my work focuses on self-portraiture simply for convenience because I'm a cheap model!

✹ What do you like most about drawing with other people? Or just collaborating creatively with others in general?

As a procrastinator, having a specific event or reason to draw forces me to actually do it versus just thinking I should do it sometime. A lot of people have told me that they feel the same way, thus Skechers was born! I really enjoy that the majority of people who attend are people I don't know so it's nice to see new faces and it's fun peeking at what they're drawing because everyone's style is so unique. I feed off other people's energy and enthusiasm so having collaborators keeps me motivated and inspired.

✹Do you have any advice for people interested in attending Community Clubs, or just being in community, in general?

Just show up! Community Clubs are meant to have a low barrier to entry so if you're interested at all, just try one and see if you like it. Being in community in general is a bit harder, but I find that attending events is an easy way to check out a group that allows you to show up as you are. You can be quiet and observe or you can start mingling right away!

*To host or join a Community Club in 2023, head to futurefronttexas.org/clubs for more information.

How To Say No: Four Questions To Ask Yourself When Setting Work Boundaries

On Saturday, August 22, we hosted WORK, our biannual conference examining creative and entrepreneurial approaches to work. That summer, our theme was reset—so we explored everything from leadership in times of renewal to reevaluating the values present within our work.

In recapping the conference’s discussions, we chatted with Vanessa Flores, principal at Colors of Austin Counseling and Brave and Well, about her session on boundary-setting. Flores has joined us for a few of our virtual events and talks in the last few months, and today we’d like to share some of her talks’ takeaways.

Editor’s Note — This blog post was written and compiled by Future Front Executive Director Jane Hervey and reflects takeaways from talks and interviews with Vanessa Flores. It was originally published in August 2020.

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Photo courtesy of Vanessa Flores

Here are four questions to ask yourself FOR better boundaries at work:

1.) Does this decision reflect my values?

Understanding our boundaries and priorities takes a bit of self-reflection and examination, too. It can be difficult to understand what kind of work is best suited for our needs and goals, as well as our values. To better clarify what’s a yes and no for you, Flores recommends reflecting on your values.

“I can’t be the yes person in all things. I am going to engage in work and collaborate with people who I feel passionate about and align with my values as a person and with my business. I’ve also decided I'm not doing anything for free anymore, and that’s been something really hard to sit with because access is a value I hold. My hope is that the tables I am a part of honor all parts of my identity and value what I can bring. Declaring that has been really freeing,” Flores said.

2.) Does this decision infringe on my sacred time—or protect it?

We all need space to rest and recharge, and our boundaries around work time and personal time will always be in flux. Sometimes, we need more rest. Sometimes, we need more time for family. Sometimes, we need to take time away from work to handle a crisis or heal. For example, right now, many of us are grappling with the day-to-day nuances of living (and working) through a pandemic. Flores recommends taking your own capacity and environmental factors into account before saying yes to things. Does this decision infringe on your sacred time—or protect it?

“As a country, we’re experiencing collective grief and trauma. The spaces we are confined to right now have become the space for all life. There is no space for separation. We are teaching, grieving, experiencing trauma, working, eating all in the same space everyday. It’s important to be kind to yourself and to take time and take space and create a degree of separation between work and life in order to keep moving,” Flores said. “I have to understand that my capacity is lower, and I have to take care of my team. I restructured my schedule. I only work Tuesday through Thursday because that’s when we have childcare. I have to be really protective of my time. I create buckets in my schedule that are categorized for supporting others and supporting myself.”

3.) How does this decision feel in my body? Do I feel tired? Excited? Anxious?

When it comes to making decisions, our bodies often have a lot to tell us. Tracking the way a decision feels can be a helpful tool for deciding what to do, too. By tuning into our emotions, we are better able to discern between what feels like excitement versus anxiety or burnout versus disinterest.

”You’ve got to listen to your body. If you’ve slept 10 hours and you’re still tired, that’s your body telling you something,” Flores said.

4.) If I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?

At work, it can be easy to say yes to everything. In many cases, saying yes feels good—or simply easier than saying no. We may also say yes, because we feel pressured to please or we feel like a yes is what’s expected of us. If you can, Flores recommends taking a minute to pause and unpack before you take something new on. Ask yourself: If I say yes to this, what am I saying no to? Is this a priority for me?

“I am a recovering perfectionist,” Flores said. “I have a tendency to over-book myself when I feel like I’m not good enough or I need validation or I don’t think I’m busy enough.”

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LOOKING FOR MORE?

ABOUT VANESSA FLORES — Vanessa Flores is the founder of and principal therapist at Colors of Austin Counseling. Colors of Austin Counseling is an intentionally diverse multidisciplinary group practice that provides counseling services in person and online within the state of Texas. They are social-justice oriented in their practice and inclusive in our work within the community. Their goal is to reduce the barriers that exist when it comes to mental health support and to provide high quality clinical services to all regardless of race, gender, and/or socioeconomic status. (They currently partner with Future Front on our Community Leaders of Color Mental Health Fund Initiative.)

ABOUT FUTURE FRONT’S WORK CONFERENCE — WORK is a a day of workshops and talks curated by Future Front. Join us annually to hear creatives and founders explore the messy nuances of growth, collaboration, leadership, identity, storytelling, equity, wellness—and all the other things we need to do our best work. Click here to learn more.

How To Nurture Abundance And Prevent Burnout: A Guide For Independent Creative Business Owners

This summer, we’re checking in with our members and friends on the meaning of abundance.

In this journaling guide, licensed therapist and work healing specialist Davia Roberts (our featured Minding Your Business speaker this season) takes us through daily practices for preventing and recovering from burnout as independent creatives and small business owners.

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About Davia:

Davia Roberts (she/her) is a licensed therapist with a focus on racial equity, mental health, and well-being. She is a lifelong introvert who managed to make an entire career centered around talking to people. Despite the introvert stereotypes, she comes alive when she gets to engage in meaningful conversations about racial equity, mental health, and well-being. The thing she is most proud of doing was a 12-month sabbatical that prioritized her own well-being. Her sabbatical motivated her to build a business that helps other professionals break through burnout and shame. This work has expanded to therapeutic programming for non-profit organizations, universities, and companies so that mental health and wellness are embedded into the culture of each organization.

Below, Davia shares her top 3 tips on nurturing your mental health—as an independent creative or small business owner.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), burnout is a syndrome caused by chronic work stress that has gone unmanaged. Typically, there are three main characteristics:

• exhaustion

• difficulty to perform at a particular level

• feeling checked out/pessimistic about your work

Usually, we associate burnout with 9-to-5 jobs. Due to this association, it’s not a surprise that some people look to self-employment as an escape from unending fatigue. Unfortunately, it’s important to know that creative careers and entrepreneurship aren’t the magical solutions to avoiding burnout. If not careful, creatives and small business owners can recreate the same toxic environments that initially led to their burnout. 

Instead, I encourage self-employed professionals to reimagine a career that fits their personal and professional needs with intentional practices and boundary setting. 

 Here are 3 questions I suggest to every creative and entrepreneur to ponder.

No. 1 — What beliefs do you need to unlearn about your work/career? 

Set a timer for two minutes and write down all the beliefs you’ve held about work and your career. Don’t worry about them “making sense.” Just write what comes to mind.

After the two minutes are completed, review your beliefs and identify which ones need to be reshaped so they can benefit your good. It’s possible that some of the beliefs can’t be redeemed and need to be completely replaced. (Ex: My income dictates my worth.) 

It’s important to be clear on the beliefs you hold. Our beliefs greatly influence our actions and impact how we see ourselves in relation to work. When we can recognize that we’re making decisions based on unhealthy beliefs, we can make non-judgmental and compassionate choices that better serve us. 

Here are some examples on how to revise the beliefs you arrive at within this exercise:

• Example No. 1

  • Original Belief: I’ll know I’m successful when I’ve earned 6 figures and I’m featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List.

  • Revision: My definition of success is the only one that matters. Each day, I get to define success for myself.

• Example No. 2

  • Original Belief: The only way to be successful is to work 24/7.

  • Revision: I can be successful without working around the clock.

• Example No. 3

  • Original Belief: If I want to make it big, I have to accept any opportunity that comes my way.

  • I will not operate from scarcity. I can discern the opportunities that are aligned for me. 

No. 2 — What boundaries allow you to show up as your best self?

 Boundaries aren’t just for friends, family and romantic relationships. They’re for every element of our lives and they’re especially important when it comes to our career. Here are a few areas to consider, if you’re an independent creative, founder or small business owner.

✰ Personal Boundaries:

• How many hours do you want to work per week?

• What work hours are the best for your energy levels or lifestyle? You don’t have to work traditional business hours, if that’s not ideal for you.

• How will you incorporate breaks into your day? How often will you take vacation time? It’s easy to skip lunch and spend the entire day staring at your screen as you answer emails, complete projects, or research business plans. It’s important to build schedules that prioritize genuine breaks, whether it’s a lunch break or holiday break. Put them on the calendar and honor them.

• What are realistic project turnaround times? Word of advice: Consider how much time it would typically take to complete a project and add a week or two to your timeline. Why? In the event you run into a personal or professional issue (illness, late delivery, supply delays, etc), you’ve built in a cushion that allows you to still meet your deadline with little to no delay. Plus, you can always complete the project early and receive kudos from your client.

✰ Client Boundaries:

• What type of work are you unwilling to provide to prospective clients?

• What are possible boundaries to address payment delays, last minute project changes, or ghosting? It’s always helpful to have solid contracts in place with contingency plans to address late payments or last minute requests that don’t leave you feeling overwhelmed.

• How often will I communicate with clients? Booking a client doesn’t mean they have 24/7 access to you. You have the right to format your onboarding process to define the parameters of communication via email, phone, or video.

No. 3 — What practices pour into your cup?

 There’s no shame in experiencing burnout. It happens to the most well-intentioned creatives. Once you notice signs of burnout, it’s time to slow down and take stock of what needs to change. Evaluate the decisions that may have led to burnout. Are you skipping meals and not getting enough sleep? Have you taken on a lot of new projects without hiring any assistance? Consider ways you could make shifts that could better support you and lessen the possibility of burnout in the near future.

More importantly, think about the last time you experienced deep rest and joy in your life.

For some of us, it’s easy to think of people and practices that bring us joy. You may experience joy as you build living room forts with your children (or roommate—no judgment). You may experience joy during game night with friends or at your altar as you pray. No matter how you cultivate joy, prioritize more moments in your life. 

Rest is not merely mid-day naps and seven hours of sleep. Rest can be found in quiet walks during your lunch break. Rest can be found in conversations with friends that don’t center work and labor. Rest can be found in saying, “no” to personal or professional requests as you protect your energy.

We pour into our cup by centering joy and rest with a fierceness.

 While you may not be able to prevent all moments of work-related burnout, you can learn tools and practices that minimize burnout’s duration and intensity so that you never hit rock bottom.

To work with Davia, please head to carrierbradley.com.

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Want to stay involved through Future Front?

Keep up with what we’re up to—from virtual events to membership—here.

What Do You Know About Your Community's Black History?

This Black History Month, we’ve reconnected with one of our partners, Black Freedom Communities, a project by Art Is Cool.

Here, you’ll find a few journaling questions from the project’s Director Funmi Ogunro and Producer Tamar Price, as well as a recording from one of their talks with Future Front in 2020.

Use this a mini-guide and solo exercise for examining your own relationship with history. Enjoy!

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First, take thirty minutes to journal.

1. What do you know about your own family history?

Write down a few things to get your brain going—like where you’re from, where your family lives, etc.

2. What do you know about your Texas community’s history?

When you think of the community you live in right now, what histories are you familiar with? What iconography, stories or culture do you associate with your community?

3. What do you know about your community and its Black History?

Are you familiar with cultural centers, creators or history museums that explore Black History? Do you know who used to live in your neighborhood?

4. Based on your answers to the three questions above, what would you like to learn about your community and its Black History today? 

Journal out three next steps (or questions you’d like to answer) over the next month.

Next, set time aside to start learning.

You can start with this 2-hour talk about Black Freedom Communities through Art Is Cool.

Behind this talk:

Funmi Ogunro has been a regular exhibiting filmmaker with Future Front and The Front Fest. In 2020, we became one of the community partners around her upcoming film, Black Freedom Communities. The film is currently fundraising $100,000 to connect the histories of Black people in Austin to the future. You can learn more here: http://www.artiscool.co/

This recording from the Future Front archives features a talk with filmmaker Funmi Ogunro and the documentary team behind their upcoming film Black Freedom Communities.

Austin Black Freedom Communities are communities built by former enslaved African Americans after the Civil War ended in 1865. These communities were built with little resources from the ground up and included churches, schools, and stores.

This talk is free and available to all.

GET ACCESS TO THE FULL RECORDING:

Behind Black Freedom Communities:

Austin Black Freedom Communities is a feature-length film detailing the many rich history of Black people and Black Freedom Communities in Austin, Texas.

FUNMI OGUNRO:

Funmi Ogunro (she/her/hers) is a native Austinite and filmmaker, launching the production of her first feature-length documentary about Austin Black Freedom Communities. She decided to make this film because many people are unaware of the rich history of Black people in Austin—and it’s time for these stories to be told.

TAMAR PRICE:

Tamar (she/her/hers) is a creative producer with a background in film, events, and art. Her film work has garnered almost half a million views via Issa Rae’s Presents YouTube channel, and been screened at SXSW, Palm Springs Short Fest, Indy Shorts Fest, and more. She currently produces work with award-winning ad agency Material.

LOOKING FOR MORE?

Learn more about what we do at Future Front and how to connect with creators through our programs here.

On Collaboration: How Can We Start And Sustain Healthy Professional Relationships?

How do we reject cultures of comparison and approach collaboration? How do we protect our own energy as we navigate opportunities, success and failures? What emotional and practical tools are necessary to start and sustain a successful collaboration?

In this guide, we share some of the key questions and takeaways on collaboration that have been shared at bbatx events and workshops over the years.

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Here are a few things to consider when collaborating with someone else:

1.) Do you share the same goals and values?
You want your collaborator to complement your skills (and vice versa), but you want to work around a common goal. When starting a collaboration, sit down to talk through your mission for the project and values. This will help you both understand why you’re working on this project and what will motivate your decision-making.

2.) Do you have a plan and/or a schedule of responsibilities?
It’s easy to start a collaboration if you don’t have anything written down—then there’s no way for you (or your collaborator) to hold each other accountable. When starting a collaboration, make sure you and your collaborator sit down to talk through your shared goals and values. You’ll also want to identify the scope of each other’s roles and ensure each party is clear on their responsibilities. It helps to have these things written down in a place where both parties can revisit (like a Google Doc), and it never hurts to draw up a contract defining your working relationship (one that includes an exit strategy if things go wrong, etc.).

3.) Do you have a budget? And do both sides know what’s financially at stake for the other?
We’ve all got limited resources and lives to live, so every collaboration needs a budget—whether you’re looking at money, time, energy or working hours. Writing out a budget is also a good time to identify risks. A collaboration can easily go sour if one party’s got a lot on the line and the other doesn’t.

4.) Who will move the ideas from conversation to paper to reality?
Communication is difficult! That’s why taking notes at meetings and ensuring that conversations become recaps and/or next steps is important. By writing things down, you’re giving your collaborator the opportunity to check your work and vocalize whether or not you’re on the same page. Within your collaboration, make sure someone (or both parties) are responsible for turning conversations into deadline-oriented action items. We suggest keeping all of your action items S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound).

5.) Who will ensure deadlines are met?
It’s difficult to hold each other accountable to deadlines, but pointing out when something was not turned in or completed on time helps keep the project moving. Make sure both parties are comfortable communicating about deadlines and taking responsibility when things are late or don’t go as planned.

6.) Who will update your shared roles and responsibilities as things change and how are these updates communicated?
As your project grows and shifts, your collaboration may grow and shift as well. When projects scale, roles can completely change, too. This is normal. Carve out time to reassess roles as necessary and update your timelines and schedules of responsibility accordingly. Make sure that these changes are communicated in a way that works for both parties.

7.) Does your collaboration require externally communicating with clients, customers and/or other team members? If so, who is responsible for communicating what you accomplish to the rest of the team or to your audience?
Telling the story of your collaboration is important. You want to be prepared to answer external questions and give credit where credit is due. Chat this over with your collaborator, so you’re both ready to communicate about the work with others.

8.) And last but not least—do you trust your collaborator to do the work, communicate with you and be honest?
If the answer’s no, then you need to hit the drawing board. Why do you want to work with this person? Are you in a position to collaborate?

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Are you already in a collaboration that may be headed in an unhealthy direction? Use these questions as an exercise to determine your next steps.

1.) Where are you currently struggling and why might that be?

2.) Where are things running smoothly and why might that be?

3.) Is there mutual trust? 

4.) Does the project have any written notes, contracts, a plan, a schedule of responsibilities?

5.) Are there skills required for this collaboration that you are still developing?

6.) Are you upholding your end of the collaboration?

7.) What do you want/need to make the collaboration better?

8.) Does the collaboration still align with your goals?

9.) Considering your needs, your resources and the state of the collaboration, what can you reasonably do next?

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Want to explore collaboration and working relationships a little deeper? Check out bbatx’s workshops and learn more about our biannual WORK conference.

This blog post was written and compiled by Jane Hervey, thanks to notes by Deeksha Srinath and Hannah-Nisha Haggerty from our Alone, Together: A Workshop on Collaboration event on May 4, 2019.

How To Find A Financial Self-Care Routine

The tumultuous nature of the last three years have impacted us all, from individuals to small business owners to large corporations.

We’ve all had big-picture questions around what the future holds and what it means for stability in our lives moving forward—like how to make smart financial decisions.

To help answer these questions, we teamed up with Kara Perez to host What The Hell Does Financial Self-Care Look Like Right Now? Perez took over our Instagram stories to break down all things money and how to build a flexible financial plan for yourself.

ABOUT KARA PEREZ

Kara Perez is a financial expert and the founder of Bravely, an Austin-based intersectional feminist financial education company. Kara discovered her love of finances courtesy of her quarter-life crisis. Broke, underemployed and saddled with student loan debt, she realized that her lack of financial education was crippling her adulthood. After becoming debt free in June 2015, Kara created Bravely to help other women take control of their financial lives.

Kara believes in the power of Oprah, loves the color green, and can most often be found with her curls up in a bun, drinking her 80 oz of water every day.

Kara speaks at events across the US, including FinCon and the Lola Retreat. You can find Bravely on Forbes, Glamour Magazine, US News and World Report, Austin CultureMap, Austin Woman Magazine, and Lifehacker.

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Here are Kara’s top five tips for starting (and sustaining) a financial self-care routine:

1.) Get real about your budget.

When getting yourself together financially, the first thing Kara recommends is to look at the numbers. The best way to gain knowledge about your own financial life is to review your own spending. Look at your credit cards and bank statements. Don’t throw these out to avoid stress. Figure out what you’re spending, where your money is coming from and where you want it to go. 

*You can use this budgeting guide from our 2019 Money Mindsets series to get started, too.

2.) Practice financial flexibility.

Whether you’re an independent creative, working a full-time job or managing a small business, one thing’s for certain—the last few years haven’t quite gone the way any of us anticipated. So, if you’re just now looking at your numbers, try not to assign shame or negative narratives to your spending or your income. It’s likely fluctuated a ton.

Figure out what your budget needs to look like now to make it through. Set some expectations and adapt if those expectations aren’t met or exceeded.

*Kara has more tips and resources around this topic on her website.

3.) MAKE AN “oh, shit” EMERGENCY FUND.

If you want to change your habits and be better prepared for financial crises in the future, Kara recommends making what she calls an “oh shit” budget.

You can figure out what an emergency fund may need to look like for you by identifying and reviewing your normal spending habits, then factoring in a 50% of your income.

Decide what you can sacrifice if you did end up experiencing a 50% loss, and think through other ways you can earn income. Once you know what you’d do in this scenario, you’ve got it—this is your “oh shit” budget plan!

4.) ASSEMBLE YOUR MONEY TOOL-KIT.

Once you know your budget and have established some goals (whether that’s spending less or saving more for an emergency fund), it’s time to sharpen up your financial literacy. If you’re ready to make financial awareness part of your routine, Kara recommends equipping yourself with the tools necessary to change that.

Struggle with spending? Then you need a budget.

Don’t have a clue about what an investment is? Then, get a book on investing.

From there, you can build your confidence and figure out what your next money moves are. Kara suggests the following tools to help increase your financial knowledge and better track of your spending habits:

• Mint Budget Tracker and Planner

• PocketGuard Money Management Tool

• Clarity Money

• Goodbudget

5.) RESIST THE ANXIETY SPIRAL—and repeat.

So many of us have negative relationships with money, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Take a deep breath, light a candle, and take a peek at your finances without judgment—get yourself to a place where you can look at your numbers and problem-solve. Like anything, your relationship to (and understanding of) money can change with a bit of practice.

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Looking for more?

Be sure to follow Bravely to find out about events, tools and community resources at the intersection of finance and feminism, too

For more information on what we’re up to at Future Front and how to get involved, head here.