Carolyn Olson

Mutual aid is where people in an area, or a community, come together to support one another, collectively meeting each other’s needs without the help of official bodies like the state or NGOs. It often arises due to neglect of government provision for certain classes of people.

Mutual aid, in simpler words, is cooperation for the common good.

Mutual aid is a horizontal mode of organisation, aiming to break down hierarchies and practice collective decision making. However, the concept of mutual aid encompasses a wide variety of practices – there is no one-catch-all term or definition, it is a universal practice rather than a singular concept. All of the examples listed on this site attempt to speak to the universality of this practice, but by no means aim to define them rigidly.The idea of solidarity, rather than charity, underpins mutual aid. Resources are unconditionally shared, as opposed to charity which is often conditional and means tested. 

Mutual aid has been around for a while. Dean Spade, a trans activist and scholar defines mutual aid as, “work that directly addresses the conditions the movement seeks to address, such as providing housing, food, health care, or transportation in a way that draws attention to the politics creating need and vulnerability.” In other words, mutual aid is solidarity not charity.

Mutual aid groups have been around through every corner of U.S. history in the form of unions, activist groups, and organized networks. Spade notes that some of the most famous examples of mutual aid in the US are from the l960s and 1970s. The Black Panthers’ free breakfast program fed tens of thousands of Black children and ultimately helped contribute to the establishment of federal free lunch programs. In 1970, the Young Lords took over the sixth floor of Lincoln Hospital and fought to provide medical care and testing to neglected communities in the predominantly Black and Latinx South Bronx. And before Roe v. Wade legalized abortions, a group of women in Chicago helped 11,000 women access abortions.

https://www.theegayagenda.com/mutual-aid
https://www.mutualaid.coop/what-is-mutual-aid/

The Free Breakfast for School Children Program, or the People’s Free Food Program, was a community service program run by the Black Panther Party that focused on providing free breakfast for children before school. The program began in January 1969 at Father Earl A. Neil’s St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, located in West Oakland, California and spread throughout the nation. This program was an early manifestation of the social mission envisioned by Black Panther Party founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, along with their founding of the Oakland Community School, which provided high-level education to 150 children from impoverished urban neighborhoods. The breakfasts formed the core of what became known as the party’s Survival Programs.^[2] Inspired by contemporary research about the essential role of breakfast for optimal schooling and the belief that alleviating hunger and poverty was necessary for Black liberation, the Panthers cooked and served food to the poor inner city youth of the area. The service created community centers in various cities for children and parents to simultaneously eat and learn more about black liberation and the Black Panther Party’s efforts. (Wikipedia)

“Laundry Love” is a national organization dedicated to providing laundry services to people with low and no incomes. Our local chapter in Duluth, MN is now in full swing offering free laundry services once a week. Volunteers staff Spin City (Spirit Valley) laundromat for three hours at a time, offering people the chance to wash up to two loads of clothes per week. Laundry Love volunteers provide snacks and activities as well, hoping that this service is more than just a place to clean your clothes, but an opportunity to build and celebrate community.

Brake Light Repair Clinics are events where organizers change people’s broken tail lights for free in order to to reduce police interactions and have discussions with people about their personal experiences with police.

More than 50,000 drivers are pulled over in a traffic stop every day in the U.S., according to the Stanford Open Policing Project. Reports document black folks being pulled are over 20 percent more likely to get a ticket than white drivers, underlining the stark racial disparities within the criminal justice system.

The process for fixing brake lights is simple, but will help in reducing community interactions with police and help educate the community on legislation that activists are interested in passing.

Brake Light Clinic impact our communities by reducing the number of police interactions working-class people encounter due to bogus reasons such as broken brake lights and building relationships with our neighbors!

(https://mutualaid.dsausa.org/) 

Chosen families are made up of folks who aren’t related by blood but who treat you with love and respect while offering support. Chosen family is often a norm in many queer communities, often out of necessity and solidarity. When a blood family isn’t accepting, it leaves people more open to building those deep bonds regardless of age. 

According to recent research from The Trevor Project, only 37% of LGBTQIA+ youth feel like their home is an LGBTQIA+-affirming space. Among transgender and nonbinary youth specifically, less than one in three people believe their home to be gender-affirming. Unsurprisingly, this can take its toll on mental health; that’s where chosen families come in. 
For many teens and young adults, their closest friends act as chosen family members. Or, your chosen family might consist of more distant relatives who you feel closer to than your immediate family. There really are no rules when it comes to cultivating your chosen family. Even people who have good relationships with their biological family can have a chosen family, too. This simply lends itself to double the love and support that one receives and provides.

“Chosen family” refers to a group of people who are not biologically or legally related but who are considered family due to the strong bond and support they provide, often like siblings, partners, or close friends. While “work family” refers to the relationships formed with colleagues and co-workers at the workplace.

While distinct, work family and chosen family can overlap. Colleagues can become close friends, and chosen family members can even work together. Both types of relationships are crucial for personal well-being, especially in a world where individuals may not have strong support networks within their biological families. 

Chosen family, often formed with neighbors or other community members, are relationships built on mutual support, love, and understanding, regardless of blood ties. These chosen families can provide a strong sense of belonging, love, and support, acting as a source of strength when biological family bonds are weak or absent.

Neighbors can be a source of mutual support when biological family can’t or are unable to be there.

Lake Ave and Superior St./Lake Superior Fountain and Park with Trans-Affirming Street Side” pastel on paper will join a great group of artist in the YWCA’s 2nd Annual Gender Joy Art Show, May 2-31, Zeitgeist Atrium Gallery, Duluth. Opening on May 9th. This event is celebrates the joy that comes with expressing our genders freely, publicly and without apology!

For the foreseeable future my drawings will depict Mutual Aid and Chosen Families. Generous support has been given through the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Equity grant and the Minnesota State Arts Board, Creative Support for Individual Artists grant. I am very grateful.

Mutual aid is a voluntary, collaborative exchange of resources and services for common benefit that take place with community members working together to overcome social, economic, and political barriers in meeting common needs. This can include physical resources like food, clothing, or medicine, as well as services like breakfast programs or education. 
Resources are shared unconditionally and is not charity. It is an ongoing service where groups often go beyond material or service exchange and are set up as a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions.
Mutual aid groups are distinct in their drive to flatten the hierarchy, searching for collective consensus decision-making across participating people rather than placing leadership within a closed executive team. With this joint decision-making, all participating members are empowered to enact change and take responsibility for the group.

I intend to draw attention to historical and modern day mutual aid/community service and its place in a thriving community.

Chosen Families are nonbiological kinship bonds, whether legally recognized or not, deliberately chosen for the purpose of mutual support and love. Basically, these are the people who understand you, support you, celebrate you, help you, and love you, even without biological ties.

As I continue to explore pastel on paper I intend to tell visual stories where I hope folks will recognize and see themselves thriving in the drawings. These two drawing series are intended to remind us of our history as well as what’s currently going on in our communities, reminding us that despite the racist exclusionary systems which continue to exist – we’re not having it. And, we are not alone.

Pictured above – Pepparkakor Heart Cookie (Lois Olson recipe), Spritz Wreath Cookie with Green Sugar and Red Hots (Lois Olson recipe), Milk Pistachio Cookie Dipped in White Chocolate (Nic Sharma recipe), Rosette Flower Cookie (Hazel Wallace and Lois Olson recipe), Thumbprint Cookie with Almonds and Currant Jelly (Lois Olson recipe), Cat’s Tongue with Almonds Dipped in Dark Chocolate (Magnus Nilsson recipe), Chocolate Crinkle Cookie (Cook’s Illustrated), Peanut Butter Kisses (Lois Olson recipe), Lingonberry Shortbread (Aunt Olga and Aunt Agnes Swanson recipe)

5″ x 5″, gouache on paper, $150 each framed

“Sju Sorta Kakor” or “Seven Kinds of Cookies” is a Swedish Christmas cookies tradition that starts with a shortbread dough made with flour, sugar, butter, egg and vanilla. This simple dough is made into seven different tasting and looking “småkakor” or little cookies. Why seven? The number seven is linked with mythology and luck. During “kafferep” (coffee party) it was said that if you served less than seven then it wasn’t enough, but more than seven it was thought of as showy.

So what’s your favorite holiday cookie?

Three “småkakor” will be a part of the “small works show” at Lizzards Gallery and Framing opening Saturday, November 30th as part of our Small business Social. I’ll be adding new småkakor to web site over the next few months. Defiantly will be more than seven!

Just completed a limited edition of silkscreen prints from Worker series. Available now for $150 unframed each. See entire Worker series

The living wage is the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time, or 2080 hours per year. A living wage includes pays for basic needs including food, clothing, child care, medical, housing/utilities, transportation, insurances, internet & mobile, and taxes.

A recent study found that 44% of American workers (ages 18-64) make an hourly median wage of $10.22 ($24,000 annually) working full time jobs year round according to Just Economics, Asheville, NC

Studies show minimum wages in 2024 should be $22.45/hour with a commitment to increasing workers’ pay rate annually by 3% plus which is the annual rate of inflation according to the Brookings Institute and MIT studies.

Vote for leaders that believe our workers should be treated fairly and paid for their work. Support strong unions. Invest in our collective future where workers are enabled to engage in their community and support their families by being paid a living wage.

Experimenting with creating prints this summer. Warrior Printress (Duluth, MN) collaborated with me in creating two images from the Worker series. Beautiful work!

Available through
Lizzards Gallery, 11 West Superior Street Duluth, MN 55802
218-722-5815 manager@lizzards.com

Individual Artist Project Grant is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

https://rem34.ampmpls.com/90th
https://rem34.ampmpls.com/90th-photos/