It all began with an idea.
We began seeding the ground for The Enclave Habitat and care activism in 2016. Today, the Enclave Habitat establishes a multi-generational, multi-racial/ethnic, and multi-gendered community of queer-identified artists, activists and accomplices, in which participating members live in an intentional design across geographic spaces which are local, regional, and global. In this way, The Enclave Habitat invites those who will become members with homes/living spaces/work spaces to designate those homes/living spaces/work spaces as “Habitat Homes,” a network of “homes” in different cities/geographies.
Habitat members commit to:
Living/working together across multiple geographies
Working together to further expand our foundational notion of "care activism”; and to redefine constricted notions of care, care giving, care receiving, and care worker in the context of multigenerational artistic and activist practices
Establishing strategies of caring for each other (becoming active care responders as that need arises) across geo-physical spaces
Creating interdependent living and working environments in which we support each other, share resources, improve the social and political climate of our intellectual, social, imaginative, and economic lives as human beings, and contribute to the common good of our surrounding and global communities; in ways that enrich and preserve progressive ideas about humans and the natural worlds we encounter.
Members also commit to collaborations on cultural projects and public workshops/events, initiated by members, that allow us to impact our particular communities.
Our initial plan included a physical center in New Orleans where we could gather for workshops, performances, and residencies. Instead, we shelter in place and count ourselves grateful to remain healthy and safe amidst what will hopefully be a global regime change in the political, personal, and environmental spheres especially. As we shelter in place we see The Enclave Habitat with new eyes, and find it’s core intention as a community of care to be deeply relevant in this moment.
With the current global health pandemic and the pandemic of racism and white supremacy as public health issues, and with each passing hour of our global uprising against structural injustices, the need for "care activism," that centers The Enclave Habitat mission grows.
As we "remix" The Enclave Habit as a virtual community now, a number of questions surface. Chief among them:
What would The Enclave Habitat look like as a virtual community? Is that an appealing idea? What do we want to commit to each other? How often do we want to be virtual? How can we care for each other? How can we care for each other while not creating more work for each other, recognizing that we are all already living multiple lives individually? How can this be nourishment and sustenance?
For more information or to get involved, contact:
Alexis De Veaux, Co-founder, The Enclave Habitat
Amy Horowitz, Co-founder, The Enclave Habitat