The Pisces Season Shuffle Newsletter!
It's Pisces season! Scroll for recaps of & resources from the Town Hall and Pass the Mic episodes from the start of the year, the Pisces season astrology forecast, and information about ad space!
We hope y’all have had a February full of love and community! As we enter Pisces, we invite y’all to reflect on TDUP’s activity during the Aquarius season, as well as to prepare for the challenges and reflections that Pisces will invite us to take part in.
SURVIVING FASCISM: Town Hall Episode Recap
For our January episode, “Surviving Fascism”, we held the first Town Hall episode of the series! These episodes are open to the community to speak, share resources, and pose questions relating to a monthly topic. This newsletter has compiled list of all resources given!
Town Hall episodes are held monthly—stay tuned on our Instagram and Substack for updates!
Click here for our compilation of resources from January’s Town Hall episode! Watch out for the next episode announcement, in which we are planning to discuss funding in the arts!
Thank you to everyone who contributed!
j. bouey and Veronica Jiao (TDUP hosts), Troy Ogilvie (TDUP member), Ube Halaya, Sue Rock, Cue Quilan, Nadia Khayrallah, Jazelynn Goudy, Alicia Morales
Call for Action! Contact Reps!
Bill (Int 0536-2025): introduced this spring. Would require grocery stores to post publicly twice a month what food they have available for donation and how to arrange to pick it up. Contact local reps! Here's a few resources.
Federal Incentives for Businesses to Donate Food, USDA
NY Food Donation: Tax Incentives, Legal Fact Sheet created by Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic
Donors are shielded from liability by both state and federal law but some are unaware, go to USDA article titled, “Good Samaritan Act Provides Liability Protection For Food Donations”.
“Dismantling the Master’s House” Recap
Pass the Mic with Mario Ismael Espinoza & David Herrera
We are so excited to have officially started our Pass the Mic series with an episode with Mario Ismael Espinoza & David Herrera! Click here for the list of organizations and artists mentioned throughout the episode.
Summary:
We passed the mic to Mario Ismael Espinoza (they/them), who is part of the Entertainment Community Fund, and David Herrera (he/him), who discussed the creation and evolution of the David Herrera Performance Company over the last 20 years. Through this discussion, they unravel how Herrera’s perspective of his future career evolved as he began to envision the inception of Latinx Hispanic Dancers United and began to understand what holes in the dance community he wanted the company to fill, especially in the Latinx community. All of these leads back to revisiting the question: Can the master’s tools dismantle the master’s house?
Astrology Corner: Pisces Season
Click below to download the transcript!
February 18 - March 20: Pisces season
Pisces represents ideals. So the ideal of a life that we want to live or an ideal of our art practice and even an ideal of what the future can look like.
February 23: Mars stations direct at 17 degrees of Cancer.
Mars' wisdom comes through the experiences and wisdoms of pain. It comes through the wisdom of fighting, strife, separation and what we project onto those experiences… For those of us at 13 to 20 degrees of Cancer, Libra, Capricorn, or Aries, this is our time to listen to what Mars has to say because Mars will be stationary.
February 27: New moon at nine degrees of Pisces.
Mercury, the planet that rules communication, short-term travel, writing, knowledge, transfers of knowledge, etc., doesn’t do well in Pisces. While we want to be specific and direct when we manifest, this period is for imagining what things feel like when you want to manifest nonspecifically. Don’t allow your manifestations to be bound by reality, but allow reality to tell you what the boundaries are after you set the manifestation.
March 1: Venus starts her retrograde in Pisces.
Venus is exalted in Pisces. So, when we get morning-star Venus in Pisces going back into Aries, we as artists are going to hone our skills and tools again. We’re gonna be battling in how we collectivize how we collaborate.
March 1: Mercury starts her pre-retrograde shadow.
March 14: Mercury stations retrograde.
This is review time. When you need to have your computer backed up. Do your best no to say nothing wild or wicked that you’re going to regret. Make sure you get into a practice of reviewing what you wrote down the three weeks prior.
March 14: Full-moon total lunar eclipse in Virgo.
The eclipse in Virgo, a sign of service, has Virgo energy. Pay attention to what leaves and don’t try to hold onto anything. Be systematic with what we get rid of. Ask yourself: what were we of service to that we can get rid of and what can we make more space to be of service to?
And, in relationship to our art practices: What ways can your art be of service to a future that is not yet here? How can we, as a collective, be more in alignment with our ideals than we can be in alignment with what we were told we needed to be of service to? How can we cultivate for for what we believe in and not simply for a machine that does not care for us?
Advertisement Space in The Shuffle
We are now opening space for announcements or advertisements in The Shuffle. If you have anything you would like to amplify, including but not limited to shows or events, mutual aid needs, or grassroots organization, please submit via this Google Forms.
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