A message from E.D. Sulu LeoNimm: Are you ready for the fight? TONYC want you in our corner for our upcoming season, "Uppercuts to Budget Cuts"!

Pictured above: Sulu LeoNimm and Nolan Hanson of Trans Boxing. Photo by Elo Santa Maria.

Are you ready for the fight? TONYC want you in our corner for our upcoming season, "Uppercuts to Budget Cuts"!

From housing to schools and from transit to arts, the quality of life and creativity of New Yorkers has been throttled by infuriating misallocations of funding. Communities fight back by building the connections and sharing the resources to sustain each other. And yet, we at TONYC know the ongoing struggle can wear people down, so folks feel isolated and stuck.

At TONYC, our toolbox is connection and this fall we want to plug you into the action! Sign up for a facilitation training, so that you can activate people’s creativity in your community work. You can be a spect-actor at our Forum Theatre shows, rehearsing for action in dialogue with Troupe actors and community organizers. And through our volunteer opportunities, you can apply your skills and spend time in community. Each connection builds the potential to sustain and encourage each other, however we style our fight.

Which brings me to one special night: TONYC’s Fight-Raiser on October 24th. It’s our benefit event, and the first in-person one in four years! Our goal for this year is $100k. This is more than we’ve ever called on from our communities, but we - like many many other organizations - have seen reduced support across grant funding. We call on our supporters to contribute via buying tickets or becoming an event sponsor. For those who cannot join that night, support our our online fundraising by sending a donation to Team Muscle or Team Hustle or bidding on the auction.

We are calling the night a Fight-Raiser because we want the event to have an impact beyond our budget. Every TONYC event is a rehearsal for action. There will be organizers and activist artists in the room at the People’s Forum, sharing their campaigns and actions. In solidarity with everyone who is under-funded, we’ll have an interactive performance about budget cuts, to discuss and share our creative strategies as we navigate under-resourcing. And to make sure that someone breaks a sweat, there will be an actual sparring demonstration!

We’ve got a full team of event collaborators, who we hope will become your collaborators too:

• Broadway Cooks
• NYCLU - Prop 1 / Equal Rights Amendment Ballot Proposal
• Obie-winning Broadway director Stevie Walker-Webb
• The People's Budget
• Radical Evolution
• Ring of Keys
• Theatre Workers for a Ceasefire
• Trans Boxing
• Yei Tochtin, providing Spanish interpretation
• … and more to be announced!

Buy your ticket before October 5th and you’ll be entered into a raffle for a special gift of your choosing!

Plus, on Thursday, October 3rd, at 1pm, you can join us for our online season "Weigh-In" to hear directly about our plans via Instagram Live or Zoom.

If you’re ready to take a bigger role to support TONYC’s work, click here to join one of our Uppercuts to Budget Cuts online fundraising teams, Team Hustle or Team Muscle. Otherwise, please stay tuned on our website and Instagram for updates about trainings and shows.

- Sulu LeoNimm, Executive Director of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC