Hello Partners,
Apologies for being about a week behind on this update. The last month has been exhausting with the unrest in America.
While I only managed to write one new piece (though I consider it one of my best pieces of writing in the past year, more on that below), I did make some good progress on other aspects of Bonsai.
Tiny Tree Grant
This is what I’m most excited about — this is the current idea that I would appreciate your feedback on:
I’m planning on giving one (or two) grants of $250 that would go to creators working on projects that also “cultivate depth and beauty.”
The first $250 would come from the money you’ve all given to me, and I might personally match that with my own $250. Or maybe I should combine into one $500 grant?
Would love to hear your feedback — read through the application form and let me know what you think.
As far as the name and logo go…I’m a glutton, I’m sorry. Is it confusing to have Bonsai, Technicolor, The Valleyist, and Tiny Tree Grants?? Yes! I probably should’ve just called it the Bonsai Grant and called it a day but for some reason I couldn’t get “Tiny Tree” out of my head.
Technicolor update
I may have secured another interview with a couple in Atlanta. But, as mentioned previously, this project is more or less temporarily on hold because of COVID as I’m unable to take pictures because of shelter in place.
The Valleyist update
I managed only one Valleyist piece of writing, but IMO it was one of the best things I’ve written this year:
“White Christianity and The Murder of Ahmaud Arbery”
It’s the only piece of writing that I felt compelled to share more broadly than my newsletter audience, and was surprised by the responses the article generated. People saying they cried, were challenged, and shared with friends.
According to Medium (where I hosted a slightly revised version from what I sent in the newsletter), the post was viewed ~800 times (100 of those came from the link being shared over email or text), and was read in its entirety by ~300 people (larger than my Valleyist mailing list, and not bad for a ~6min read).
Had I not been writing actively for the last year, I wouldn’t have been able to write this piece. If I didn’t have The Valleyist, I wouldn’t have had a natural home for expressing this type of feelings and thoughts on my heart and may not have written this otherwise.
So thank you for driving me to make this happen through your partnership.
May Playlist
Moody, slow, 4/5 explicit 🤷‍♀️ Beep beep beep. (You’ll get that if you listen to the last song)
Listen on Spotify
As always, thank you for your support.
Until next time,
Justin
PS — You can access all the playlists and more from jstnbrbr.com/perks
Password: garden