Dear Supporter! Back in March, when the pandemic was spreading across the globe and I got stuck in France, I dreamed up creating an online platform that would connect us during this hard time. Voilà: Joie De Vivre! Commercial tech isn’t serving queer and sex-positive people: AI spying, selling data, censorship. Riley Lamey of CloudWing said to me: I can build the tech! This began our fabulous partnership. At the end of May, we sold our first event tickets! Five months later, we’ve hosted 100 events with eight partners: The Positive Force, Folsom Street Events, Wellcelium, Women of Drummer, Men in Touch, Laura Zam, Pooja Virani, Smut Slam DC, as well as our own Queer Dance Naked Party. One-thousand people have come through the Joy Platform! Wow. Thank you for being a part of our launch and trusting us in our earliest days. Thank you, ticket buyers. Thank you, partners. Thank you, artists and performers. Thank you to our advisory team and consultants: Alaina, Cooper, Mark, Marcos, Otavio, Phil, Sherry, and Susan. Thank you, Riley, tech genius! Our dream is to incorporate as a benefit corp, triple-bottom line business, with a focus on equity employment and environmentalism. We want to generate earnings for Joie De Vivre as a queer online space, generate earnings to partners who sell tickets to events, employ artists and performers, and offer opportunities for connection that people love. It’s a win, win, win, win. I am inspired to say thank you because supporters have been buying gift tickets for the community and making donations, at a time that’s really hard. It’s humbling to experience, and it feeds my soul, to see you invest in us and in each other. Thank you for being a part of our dream in any way you have participated! We have 3 holidays parties planned, starting this Saturday. These can be fun opportunities to meet new people while staying home. I know this season is rough on so many levels. I’m sending love. I hope to see you at a party, or please email me to connect, whenever it’s good for you.
Love, Sarah Massey