First Annual Letter (2020)

REGARDING 2020

Hello, world,

I hope that you are as well as you can be given the circumstances. We are coming out of a year that perhaps was one of the most challenging for the most people in decades.

So often, we forget that for people in many developing nations, epidemics are endemic to their communities. That is something I actively am trying to change, and was doing so before COVID-19. Every day I mourn the lives lost to the virus and all other forms of death and suffering. It took the best of humanity to come together, and it humbled developed countries with a deadly combatant that is invisible and quickly contracted and spread.

So many privileged people were able to access, afford and understand preventative measures such as hand washing, vaccines, and masks. However, many undeveloped countries and poor communities were left in the dark while developed countries scrambled to take care of themselves. If you have no running water, how do you wash your hands?

Coronavirus was also something that shed light on systemic racial disparity, with Black communities more likely to contract and die from COVID-19. America’s, perhaps the world’s racial tension came to a fever pitch with the filmed and widely distributed disgusting public lynching by asphyxiation of George Floyd by the state-sanctioned violence of the Minneapolis police force. Rest in power, George. As millions gathered to protest, I unfolded my homemade Black Lives Matter shirt, all stained and worn. It was time for another wave of public interest for Black Lives Matter, just as I had predicted in 2018 based on data from our research.

In 2020, Part of the Amazon, California, Colorado, and Oregon were ablaze with the latent, no less ever-growing effects of climate change. The Amazon rainforest also continued to suffer the devastating consequences of the slash and burn technique of growing palms for palm oil and other monocrops, as I alluded to years ago regarding the use of California to grow the majority of the US’s food. The wildfires in the United States were further ignited by a gender reveal party gone worse in what seemed to be a fiery hellscape of the apocalypse. 

Understanding some of the many levels of global public health and wellness, animal ecology, ecosystems, And Having already envisioned the future of personalized and decentralized manufacturing, we took action in the following ways. First, we released a beta version of Updraft- the App for Activism web app in March. Second, we launched an Alpha version of Updraft’s long-planned 3DPrintNet™ to enable the decentralized manufacturing of valves and parts for coronavirus intubation, as well as parts for Personal Protective Equipment. The CEO of Goose Design Co. personally 3D printed and constructed over 2500 face shields for her local hospitals. We had over 4 thousand 3D printers around the world in our system. 

Second, the Updraft Action Recipe System™ Beta was buggy but, with time, would have been ready to be used to provide instructions for activism of all sorts, both profoundly qualified for the pandemic response as well as racial justice, such as the Black Lives Matter movement. Once the Beta version of the product was ready, I reached out to dozens of investors to demonstrate the product and solicit capital. All of them declined to invest. Our lead developer then deleted the code from the servers and quit overnight in a terrible turn of events. It left us without a product in a time that the world needs it so intensely. We were left to restart coding the product. 

In response, we started a crowdfunding campaign that raised 9 thousand dollars of its original 2.5 million dollar goal. We started the GoFundMe to pay for the development of a new version and the other costs associated with running the business, like legal fees and server hosting. 

Now, the year is 2021, and we were able to retrieve the Updraft’s code. We have nearly secured a 7 million dollar investment at Utopia Prevailia, and we seek to raise 10 million additional dollars to fuel world-saving. Utopia Prevailia is a family of ethical ventures. It includes Updraft- the App for Activism, Feminist Scribe, Goose Design Co., Startup Selfcare., VFriendly, Café Sustain, and FATEWAY™ Capital. At Utopia Prevailia, we hyper-focus our actions on the needs of the world and all of its inhabitants; flora and fauna. 

With Updraft - The App for Activism, we are on the brink of starting work on iOS first, then reintroducing our web app, and then Android with plans for IoT, Neuralink, home operating system synchronization, WatchOS, and other wearables. We will be rolling out features on a 2-week sprint basis, working with a team of developers that are deeply passionate about and experienced with non-profit and humanitarian work. The grand design for the app is now over a decade in research and design. Development is becoming possible due to the recent availability of funding. Our team is dedicated to advancing intersectional eco-feminism through practices, policy, and culture. This includes preparing for the next pandemic with Updraft’s robust features. 

Last year, Utopia Prevailia launched Feminist Scribe, a feminist writing group and media company that works to seed Utopia through adult feminist essays and children’s books. Feminist Scribe has completed the first round of art sketches and 7th draft of our new children’s book that we are currently in the phases of finalizing and publishing. We are crafting a vertically integrated feminist media company that has multi-media plans beyond writing. 

In 2020 I wrote an essay on menstruation for The Pad Project, of which I later became an ambassador. Feminist Scribe recently released the second edition of the Menstruation Essay on the Feminist Scribe website.

At the end of March, Feminist Scribe released our essay on Consent Culture, over 2 years in the making, just in time for SAAM. The essay was written, edited, and given feedback by over seven people. This work is a Consent Culture Manifesto that is designed to inform and influence academics, intellectuals, thought leaders, business executives, parents, adults, and decision-makers to create cultures of consent in schools, in the workplace, in universities, at home, and in the media. 

In addition to these two essays, we last year began an essay on Ethics in Pornography that is currently around 17 pages long, including interviews with three different models and pornographic performers. This essay hopes to create a more ethical, profitable, and safe future for pornographic models, a form of sex work, by influencing pornography gatekeepers like OnlyFans and Pornhub. The next next essay is On Nationalism, Xenophobia, and Cancel Culture. Finally, we also have two other children’s books in their nascent and intermediate writing stages. 

We are in the powerful position of being a vertically integrated feminist media company, with plans for video production, audio production, and bringing Feminist investigative journalism to the masses. We are starting with writing and content for our website and social channels, publishing books as well as ultimately pursuing global investigative journalism. 

Goose Design Co. did not have outside clients last year, but we instead serviced companies within the Utopia Prevailia family and recruited top-tier talent for our growing team. In addition, this year, I started doing pro bono consulting work for a luxury womenswear empowerment brand and a natural food product company to keep my mind sharp.

This year, Startup Selfcare made a running start, with over 40 self-care tips compiled from stellar entrepreneurs, with more to come. These self-care tips will be distributed by our online social channels, our website, and later, books. Startup Selfcare is to help empower and aid entrepreneurs in their wellness, to help them be more able to make socially and environmentally responsible business decisions. Startup Selfcare has a similar multi-media approach to Feminist Scribe, though it is smaller.

Last year I started to do technical drafts to match the designs in my head for VFriendly’s first product, as envisioned by my mom. This year, we had a gig opening for a product tester. We are currently working with her to test a variety of products related to vaginas and vulvas. We want to disrupt the capitalist gatekeepers of period care and improve access to products for all menstruators. We want to improve the quality of life for people that have vaginas or vulvas.

With Café Sustain, we will completely transform fast food- those who pillage the Earth and the vulnerable out of their time and money to serve the needs of those who are forced to choose convenience over ethics.

I want to create a new baseline for what are acceptable ethics practices for restaurants of any kind.

In November of 2019, we signed a 5-year lease for a physical space for Café Sustain, with an ideal landlord that regularly holds education opportunities for folks-often, Black folks- to own and profit from their own real estate. The plan was to bootstrap the interior by building everything ourselves, from plywood, two-by-fours, found objects, and helpful welders, then overhauling the shop with our buildout partner afterward, which our buildout partner didn’t recommend because there would be an absence of revenue during the rebuild. 

About a week after signing the lease, I started to get chest pain thinking about the buildout and the year ahead- thoughts that didn’t include coronavirus at the time. The chest pain felt like a warning to not pursue this work ahead. I took the cues from my body and decided to listen to this instinct. This instinct would prove to be correct with the proceeding pandemic. We would have had to open right amid the lockdown ordered at the onset of the pandemic. Now, with funding, we will be able to open our first physical location with a proper buildout with our buildout partner.