Mirror Memoirs

As a team with a small staff and a big mission, everything we do is made possible by the collective effort with our Leadership Team: Our Board (100% BIPOC LGBTQI+ survivors, at least 75% of whom are TGNCI) and Our Leadership Council (our “advisory board” of accomplices beyond our core member demographic who are committed to ending rape culture without leaving any survivors behind and without enacting harmful state systems). This year, we brought three new Board Members onto the team: Santos LaRose, Mateo Belen, MSW, and D Dagondon Tiegs. Each has been part of our Core Member community for years, and we are so grateful to have them in this decision-making role, guiding our strategic plan and organizational structure for the next 3-6 years! Meanwhile, after nearly three years of service, Hema Sarang-Sieminski has stepped off the Board but remains an active Core Member. We look forward to sharing their story from our audio archive with all of you in the coming year, and we celebrate their new leadership role as Executive Director of Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts statewide coalition against domestic and sexual violence! Swipe through to read Santos, Mateo and D’s reflections on their visions for a world without child sexual abuse and the importance of our work together. 🌺🌺🌺

Thanks to our generous item donors and bidders (and our amazing volunteer, Jenica), our second online auction was a huge success! We surpassed our goal of raising $4,000 by almost $1,000! Thank you to all our item donors and bidders for making this possible. If you’ve won an item(s), please make your payment at: https://lnkd.in/gZ8Q5k8G Just select “in honor of” and write “2024 Auction” in the memo line when making your donation. And if you bid but didn’t win, there’s still time to help us make our $5,000 Sustaining Member match by making a recurring monthly donation of $5/month or more (so far, we’ve raised $1,118 thanks to new or renewed pledges from 16 folks - the first month of pledges from new donors will be doubled and the first month of pledges from any past donor who becomes a Sustaining Member will be tripled thanks to our matching donor!). Sustaining Member pledges can also be made at: https://lnkd.in/gZ8Q5k8G Just select “Monthly” as your donation frequency and make a pledge of $5-$250/month. 100% of funds raised will support our end of year campaign to provide a free healing retreat to Black TGNCIQ child sexual abuse survivors in our new Black FLIGHT cohort and free film screenings and a live production of our theater project, “Transmutation: A Ceremony” featuring four Black trans women sharing their stories of survival, healing and resistance. ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

THANK YOU to everyone who’s bid on our Holiday Auction - we surpassed the initial goal of $4,000 and are close to hitting a big stretch goal of $5,000! ⏰ There’s less than TWO HOURS left to place your final bids 9️⃣ items still have no bids - which means you’ve got a chance to get a great deal AND, the top bidding war this year is for a gift certificate to the online shop Little Gaze - shirts, toddler tees, totes, prints, cards, and stickers by queer, non-binary, Nigerian artist Chi Nwosu. A portion of their proceeds every month go to mutual aid projects in Chicago, Palestine, the Congo, and Sudan - WE LOVE TO SEE IT! There’s also several iconic hotels, restaurants, authors, and athletes in the mix, if that’s your vibe. Care to rub shoulders with celebrities? Check out the following items: 🏨 Overnight stay for 2 at the Madonna Inn (San Luis Obispo, CA), a favorite hotel of Debbie Harry, Dolly Parton, and many other Hollywood stars. Every room is custom built and unique, featuring semi-precious stones, fountains, a pink dining room, and more. 🍽️ $250 gift card to Tavern on the Green, the iconic Central Park, Manhattan restaurant frequented by royalty, actors, world leaders, and featured in several movies including Ghostbusters, Wall Street, and Beaches. 💃🏻 🕺🏾 Dinner and a Cabaret Show for Two at 54 Below, the legendary Studio 54’s basement, converted into Broadway’s TONY Award-winning supper club. Bidding ends at 11:45pm PST / 8:45pm EST at: https://lnkd.in/gdJnksdq

Thanks again to everyone who tuned in to our 2024 Holiday Party and LL Legacy of Light Award Ceremony on Tuesday! You can now watch the recording via the link below. Here’s a few of our favorite moments from the very sweet gathering. Thanks again to Brianna Tam and Autumn Brown for the beautiful musical performances, to Aishah Shahidah Simmons for passing the torch to our 2024-2025 Honoree Ignacio G Rivera and heartiest congratulations again to you and to the beautiful container you’ve created at The HEAL Project! Thanks, too, to our language justice team: Neil & Randy from ProBonoASL providing ASL and Yaya Laureano & Patri Gonzalez Ramirez providing Spanish interpretation Watch the full party at: https://lnkd.in/g6v-GEPu

Thank you to everyone who was able to tune in live to our Holiday Party on Tuesday! This year has truly been a challenging one for so many on our team, from staff to board members to our storytellers. As 2024 comes to a close, we are still processing so much grief, even as we are taking time to remember the sweet and joyful moments we managed to create together. One of the biggest losses we are still coming to terms with is the sudden passing in February of our dear comrade Cecilia Gentili, who was one of the inaugural LL Legacy of Light honorees at our December 2023 Holiday Party. Last night, we shared this excerpt of Cecilia’s acceptance speech from last year’s ceremony, along with a remembrance from our Board Member Mateo, who was one of her closest comrades and collaborators. We’ll share our 2024 Holiday Party recording later today. If you missed last year’s party, or you want to revisit Antonieta Gimeno’s testimony about her child Lucia Leandro Gimeno, or Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Cecilia Gentili’s acceptance speeches, you can now watch the recording via the link below. We know that Cecilia has joined LL as ancestors supporting our work from the spirit world, and we will continue to uplift the stories of Black, Indigenous and of color trans and queer survivors in both of their names. 🌹 Cecilia Forever! 🌹 https://lnkd.in/gJCUE8Vh

We’re having a party today, and you’re all invited! Since our Core Members and Accomplices live across the US, we host our annual holiday party on Zoom as a webinar - meaning you can tune in without having your camera or mic on. Today (7:30-9:00pm EST / 4:30-6:00pm PST) we’ll share musical performances by Brianna Tam & Autumn Brown plus our LL Legacy of Light awards ceremony, named after Lucia Leandro Gimeno, a trans Afro-Latinx survivor, storyteller and healer who became an ancestor in 2021. Our Board Member Mateo Belen, MSW will share a remembrance of one of our 2023 inaugural honorees Cecilia Gentili, who became an ancestor in February. Our other 2023 inaugural honoree Aishah Shahidah Simmons will share her reflections, and together we will celebrate our 2024 honoree Ignacio G Rivera, founder of The HEAL Project. Tickets are free, ASL and Spanish interpretation plus auto-generated captions are included. RSVP now at: tinyurl.com/MMHOLIDAY2024 See you tonight!

A new offering from one of our partner organizations, Cactus In Bloom

Earlier this month, journalist Roxanna Asgarian published a piece in The New Republic uplifting our work and the ecosystem we are part of - an ever-growing network of child sexual abuse survivors who understand true solutions to end this violence will not strengthen carceral state systems historically and currently used to violently oppress Black, Indigenous, transgender, queer, undocumented, disabled, non-white, migrant and poor children and their communities. We are proud to be part of this group of organizations and individuals saying Not In Our Names - refusing to allow our personal and collective stories of surviving childhood rape and sexual assault to be used as fodder for the machinery of state violence. And we are proud to be shoulder to shoulder in this effort with so many of our long-time comrades and community members: Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Tashmica Torok, Alisa Zipursky to name a few. Please take a moment to read the article at the link below (keeping in mind some of the anecdotes do contain details of sexual violence against children and adolescents): https://lnkd.in/gs7srRav

We are so excited to welcome CJ Jackson to our team as the new full-time Mirror Memoirs Development Director! CJ (pronouns he/him) will officially join our staff January 21, but will pop in at our virtual Holiday Party on December 17 to introduce himself to our community (PS did you get your free ticket yet?? tinyurl.com/MMHOLIDAY2024 ) CJ is a passionate community builder and advocate, deeply inspired by his family’s legacy of activism and a lifelong commitment to uplifting marginalized voices. As a transgender man, he uses his lived experiences to guide his work, ensuring collective empowerment, authenticity, and equity remain at the heart of his approach. In his role as Senior Development Manager at The GenderCool Project, CJ has led transformative fundraising initiatives that sustain efforts to change the narrative about transgender and nonbinary youth. His leadership has strengthened donor relationships, advanced fundraising efforts, and contributed to the organization’s financial sustainability. His professional background also includes organizing impactful campaigns at the LGBT Life Center and developing volunteer programs and strategic communications at The Center for Sexual Assault Survivors. Across all his roles, CJ emphasizes relationship-building, authenticity, and equity. CJ views his work as an opportunity to align resources with social change and healing. He approaches fundraising as a relationship-centered practice, emphasizing transparency, collaboration, and equity. CJ earned a BA in English with a focus on Journalism and a minor in Communications from Old Dominion University, along with a Diversity Studies Certificate. He is motivated by a belief in the power of storytelling and community and works to help people feel seen, supported, and valued. Welcome, CJ!

As 2024 comes to a close, we are proud to be awarding Ignacio G Rivera the Lucia Leandro Legacy of Light Award! Each year, the Mirror Memoirs leadership team honors BIPOC LGBTQI+ child sexual abuse survivors who have been using their stories to end rape culture and to move towards collective liberation. This honor is bestowed in memory of LL Gimeno, a trans Afro Latinx femme community organizer, artist, healer and survivor who was a a beloved part of queer and trans communities from Seattle to New York City. He became an ancestor in 2021. Ignacio G Hutía Xeiti Rivera, M.A. is a globally recognized educator, writer, and cultural sociologist with over 30 years of experience in sexual liberation, and community healing. As a Queer, Trans/Genderfluid, Chronically-ill, Black-Boricua, and Taíno activist, they strive to blend theory with practice, creating spaces where sexual liberation and abolition meet seamlessly in daily life. Ignacio’s work focuses on addressing the root causes of sexual trauma, particularly child sexual abuse, and advancing community-led solutions and alternative healing. They are the Founder and Co-Executive Director of The HEAL Project , dedicated to ending childhood sexual abuse and relational trauma. Please join us on Zoom on Tuesday, December 17 (7:30-9:00pm EST / 4:30-6:00pm PST) for the awards ceremony and Mirror Memoirs’ end of year virtual celebration. The event will feature performances by Brianna Tam and Autumn Brown , reflections from our staff and storytellers about our work in 2024, and a look ahead to 2025. RSVP: tinyurl.com/MMHOLIDAY2024 Tickets are free, donations are encouraged. Also, check out our online silent auction. We are raising money to provide in person retreats to BIPOC LGBTQI child sexual abuse survivors and in person film screenings and a live production of our theater project, “Transmutation: A Ceremony.” There are over 50 items available, from vacations to food to art to jewelry and more! Bid on items now through December 20 (11:45p EST) at: https://lnkd.in/gdJnksdq