Wounded Knee School Fundraiser

[gougetheeyes]

I feel like LST is the perfect place to get this started, so here goes.

It looks like I'm going to put together a fundraiser in early December for the Wounded Knee School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. I've been talking with Chris who runs the Friends of Pine Ridge website and I've talked to Principal Alice Phelps from the school who is totally behind the idea.

Some of you may know about the levels of poverty, unemployment, and suicide, some of you may not. Some of you may remember the name being associated with Russell Means and the American Indian Movement in the 60s and 70s. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. What I don't want to do is get on a soapbox and go on a tirade about our government's systematic failure and attempt at extermination (woops, just did it), but instead I just want to get these kids fed.

The Wounded Knee School needs help. All of the students qualify for free meals in school but the problem is when they get home. Principal Phelps has made arrangements with Feeding America in Rapid City to come out once a month and do a food distribution for all of the families but the need is more than they can fill. Because there is only a single convenience store on the reservation and the nearest grocery store is 60 miles away in Rapid City, Alice has started a food pantry that she operates out of the school. That's what we're looking to fill.

My good friend Dave Wallin has agreed to use his shop, Eight of Swords Tattoo, here in Williamsburg for the event. You might remember the name from last year's Ladies! Ladies! art show, or other shows and events he's had there before. We're still in the early planning stages, still trying to lock down a date and a timeline, but I wanted to post this up here first to start to get the word out. I've reached out to a couple people initially to sort of gauge interest and everyone seems eager to help. The idea is pretty simple: get a bunch of rad tattoo artists to donate pieces, do a silent auction, and then send that money to pack the food pantry at the school.

We're looking at early December, possibly the first Friday or Saturday. I haven't even sent out real emails or made phone calls yet but I'm meeting with Dave on Monday to iron out some of the details. So expect me to bother everyone even more!

Feel free to pass along the info. to anyone that might be interested and in the meantime, I'll try not to fuck this up.

Also, MSNBC did a pretty decent three-part article on Pine Ridge a few months ago. Worth a read: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/failing-americas-most-forgotten-children

Thanks everyone!

Edited October 3, 2014 by gougetheeyes

[CultExciter]

I'm a Leonard Peltier supporter. Very cool @gougetheeyes

Thanks for sharing.

[Joe Shit]

I watched a documentary about life on the reservation and it was sad to see the conditions they live in,and how many turn to alcohol because it's so fucking depressing living there.

Good idea...We should help the less fortunate in this country too.

[Mark Bee]

I like this! I just taught a class on Wounded Knee, Means, AIM, and Peltier. I'll chip in.

[El Dolmago]

I'm an aboriginal studies Prof - Wounded knee is the centre of so much that needs to be supported.

Thank you @gougetheeyes !

[Cork]

Accepting food donations or cash only?

[Fala]

Is there a site setup for this fundraiser, links to the organization that this fundraiser is associated with, so others know where to go/research/etc?

[gougetheeyes]

@Cork @Fala you can donate money directly to the school here Home

Or if you check out Friends of Pine Ridge, Chris does donation drives as well http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/ I've sent some stuff through Amazon, seems to work pretty well, even though Amazon is the devil.

No website yet, no facebook, no instagram, still in the super early stages. It's possible that I may have announced this prematurely.

[Fala]

What's the news with this @gougetheeyes?

[Mark Bee]

Update?

[gougetheeyes]

Update: Had to push it back to March since December is just too soon for me to do it right, get commitments, get the website up, etc. Website will be up hopefully next week and we'll take it from there!

[Fala]

Sounds good @gougetheeyes! Keep us posted!

[cltattooing]

Hey, shoot an email to cltattooing at gmail dot com if you remember! I'm way into this, would love to contribute a piece or two. Also if anyone else is interested in learning more about the horrors out life on reservations, watch this documentary: The Canary Effect

[gougetheeyes]

A huge (yooj) thank you to @CultExciter for his handiwork on this preliminary flyer for the event!! Emails to artists will (hopefully) be going out tonight. Luckily, we've got the man himself @Scott Sylvia on board, as well as Justin Weatherholtz from King's Ave and buddies @Perez and Nash Hogan from 3Kings. And, one of my personal favorites, Michael Aul from Spiral. Beyond stoked with how this is coming together. And please feel free to spread the word and pass this along!

For any more info, etc. check out www.thewarriorsfund.org and try not to make fun of my wordpress skills or just email me at [email protected] and I'll give you the rundown.

Thanks everyone!

[gougetheeyes]

Roll call! We've got 25 participants in the Warriors Fund show so far! Thought it'd be a good progress report. So stoked to have this many super talented artists on board already. I know, I know.. it's five months away. BUT STILL. Follow along on instagram @warriorsfund and tell yo' friends!

Jeb Maykut

Amelia Martin

Robert Ryan

Daryl Rodriguez

Justin Weatherholtz

Ron Perry

Scott Sylvia

Miguel Uzi Montgomery

Jacob Redmond

Betty Rose

Eric Rose

Kevin Edwards

Don and Deb Yarian

Cheyenne Sawyer

Bart Bingham

Andy Perez

Nash Hogan

Michael Aul

Patience Biggs

Dave Wallin

Sophie C'est La Vie

Jake Fraser

Jason Flanell

Tron

[Pugilist]

Excellent.

[gougetheeyes]

BUMP! I know plenty of you have been following and supporting on the ol' Instagram (the only social media I'm equipped to use.. poorly) but just wanted to post more updates here! We've got 70 -- SEVENTY -- participating artists. Including Timothy Hoyer, Michael Aul, Antonio Roque, Bailey Robinson, Jerry Ware, Marina Inoue.... Gonna be a good one! The talented Nash Hogan is painting a flyer that'll be done soon and the talented Mr. Spider Man himself, Matt Arriola, just posted a rough of a t-shirt design he'll be doing for the show. And it fucking rules. Give a follow on Instagram if you've got it for (slightly) more frequent updates! Show's comin up... Friday, March 6th at Eight of Swords Tattoo in NYC.

Website.

Instagram.

Thank you.

[tatB]

Is everyone seeing the amazing pieces being posted on Instagram?!

[herewego]

Is everyone seeing the amazing pieces being posted on Instagram?!

Hoyer's contribution is fantastic!

[Tight-Lines]

Who from the board is gonna be checking this out? I'll be flying in Friday for the event. I look forward to meeting ya'll and seeing some amazing work for a great cause.

[tatB]

I'll be down on Long Island that weekend so I'm debating whether to drive into the city to check this out.

[CultExciter]

Who from the board is gonna be checking this out? I'll be flying in Friday for the event. I look forward to meeting ya'll and seeing some amazing work for a great cause.

Dude, I'll see you there!

[Tight-Lines]

Dude, I'll see you there!

About damn time. Lots of hard stance photos.

[CultExciter]

I'll wear some stance socks. My "My Little Pony" ones.

[gougetheeyes]

@dcostello totally crazy you're getting on a plane and coming into town for this. And you too @CultExciter, stoked to meet you! We'll have over 50 pieces to bid on, doing a limited run of t-shirts and a limited print run of the piece Nash did for the flyer.

Without getting too long-winded, this project has really picked up steam and it's been a very humbling experience. The response has been incredible.. to see how the tattoo community has gone all in for this, and to see how positive everyone's reaction has been. It's been stressful but super rewarding and I'm already looking ahead to next year, thinking of what else to do, how to improve it... @ShawnPorter had some good ideas, too. Also have to thank @CultExciter once again for helping me out with getting flyers done -- dude, you were a life saver. We've gotten a little press, had a nice little piece up on Inked mag's blog which you can read here. (Disclaimer: didn't realize it was gonna be a straight up Q+A otherwise I would've tried to sound a little more intelligent with the As.)

Attached a few photos for your viewing pleasure for those that don't have Instagram, since most of the online presence has all been through that. T-shirt design by the very talented Matt Arriola, a piece by Tim Hendricks and the last image is by Cheyenne Randall, who goes by Indian Giver on Instagram.. really talented artist who is one of the few non-tattooers that's part of the show. A bunch of you probably know his "shopped tattoos" work that blew up a little last year.. but he's also done some great work with Shepard Fairey and Honor the Treaties, an art advocacy group for issues facing native people. Check those guys out, too, really awesome stuff.

The show is less than a week away so I hope anyone in the area can make it out!