Hello, bonjour, marhaba, kia ora, boozhoo! If you don’t know me, my name is Katy. I’m an anxious millennial woman of Western European settler descent. I grew up in the Great Lakes region of Turtle Island (America) and have since lived in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, North Africa, and Oceania. In all of these places I’ve been learning the languages and cultures and investigating local strategies for resistance and liberation.
In June 2024, I returned Stateside from my last adventure - a year in Aotearoa New Zealand). If you haven’t noticed yet, I thrive on change. Not just the geographic kind, but also changing my job, changing my lifestyle, changing my hobbies… And I guess I’m a little obsessed with trying to change the world…
On a personal level, I’ve felt for a while that the 40-hour work-week isn’t for me (or most people, but I’ll leave that for another post!). This summer I’ve begun an experimental journey of self/un-employment as I seek to dedicate more of my time to the revolution through activism and writing (like this!).
I don’t know if it’s the millennial urge to share my life online, or if it’s my scientific mind that wants to document everything for social research, but starting this blog has felt like a natural course of action.
In summary, the purpose of this blog will be to:
Document my own journey:
Exploring my role as a nomadic, white activist/organizer
Resisting full-time work paradigms
Sharing updates about my work (art, activism, volunteering and organizing, etc)
Share history, stories of ongoing work, and existing resources related to:
Current activism movements
Mutual aid and municipalism
Re-indigenizing our land and communities
And more!
Not just words
Alongside my writing will be visual representations of my thoughts, feelings about the state of our world and also hopes for the future. Some of these pieces will go alongside the written blog posts and others will be posts in and of themselves. I’ll include a description of what the work is about and I might also write about how I made it and other inspirations that played into it. In the future I might make this art available for readers to buy, or I may make an option where a piece of art would be mailed to paying subscribers. Please let me know if this is something you’d be interested in.
Open to collaborations
I have some ideas about making this a collaborative effort with writing and art from other social change practitioners. If this interests you please reach out to me at katy.nightingale(at)proton.me
Does something sound a bit off?
Like all of us, I definitely have some biases ingrained in me. There are times when this may show through in my writing. If you notice something that’s off, I would be honored if you let me know through a comment or personal email. I can’t promise that I will always agree, but for now I can promise that I will read and consider.
Why subscribe?
Subscribers will get every post sent directly to their email inbox - ensuring that you get to be one of the first to read them and admire my art. At this point, there is no difference between the free and paid subscriptions. Feel free to select the paid subscription if you want to show some financial support to this project, but also know that your comments and kind words will mean just as much to me! And if you know someone else that would enjoy this work, it would also mean the world to me if you shared it with them.
After subscribing, you should see a welcome email in your inbox. If you can’t find it, check your Spam folder or Promotions tab, and move the email to your primary inbox so that you don’t miss any in the future.
A bit of a disclaimer: This blog is NOT meant to be a how-to or instructional guide. Everyone’s circumstances and resources are different. I’ll be proud if I inspire someone to take a risk that works out well for them. However, we all have to find our own path.
