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It’s been a rough few months.
This dispiriting world we inhabit, there often doesn’t feel like any point in going on.
But being in this space tends to draw one back in to refocus intentions. From the shelves brimming with ideas to plants lush with life and when friends and fellow travellers gather in joy or commiseration, there is a comfort in the knowledge and actuality of not being alone, of the constellations that made and surround this possibility.
Surely it should continue and be further nourished, be another way for us to keep finding each other, and though little experiments are in progress, we have challenges ahead and truly need your help.
Last year, we made the commitment to renew our lease by another two years, in the blink of an eye we’re now more than halfway through it, having just marked the infoshop’s third year open in Tiong Bahru-Bukit Merah.
This does mean there’s just about half a year left, and soon we’ll have to talk to the landlord about the lease again. There’s also the possibility of moving if a better place is found or offered, but a top priority now is to find a more sustainable way for us to make rent. We won’t be able to go on regardless if we can’t afford it, and here’s how you could assist.
We’ve had a Patreon for years that isn’t highlighted enough. It allows for easy monthly subscriptions and we want to use it to raise at least $600 per month. For greater assurance though, we hope it could cover rent in full, which will likely be going up to $1200 or more.
We could reach our lower goal with 80 more people contributing $6, or 40 at $12. To give more options, we’ve just added a $9/month tier as well. Paynow is also available to those we’ve already met and trust, and for larger sums. What would it take to gather three times of 80? These numbers are a fraction of the over 3000 of you following on Instagram, which might be for one reason or another but we sincerely hope there are friends and comrades who are not just willing but excited to help us out at this critical time.Since 2018 wares has been self-funded by the loose assembly of friends building up and caring for the project, with rent, books, printing, maintenance and more paid from our own pockets. At present, a couple of us cover 80% of rent in varying splits, which is topped off by around $200 coming from Patreon plus fluctuating donations and sales — all of which has gone back into the project. We want to change this as it’s becoming untenable in an already hostile world with rising costs and shifting personal situations.
Back in March we mentioned one of us had a medical emergency, they’re doing well and still in the midst of recovery, but as someone who contributes a big part to rent, this has meant for them a strained ability to keep up with precarious wage labour and in turn a shrunken window for desired tasks at the infoshop. In their own words:
“I would really love to dedicate more time and energy to wares as I adjust to new rhythms, and I think I could do that if so much of it didn’t go to worrying about and working for rent, especially now with the medical bills too. It’s hard to ask for help but I and we truly need it for the space to go on, and we want to go on.”
There have been other unsteadiness among us too, while things still go on behind the scenes from week to week, unexpected departures and shifts in employment and housing have dampened energy and moods, making for our long lapse recently, but we're slowly and surely returning to activity.We want to build some distributed resilience shared between more of us: many people pitching in small sums lightens the burden on a few people paying large sums. The present set up has us just maintaining level, often dipping low, unable to push forward with things we want to do, such as hosting projects, organising events, acquiring inventory and print equipment, sustaining direct aid, connecting with spaces, artists and publishers, bringing the library outside, and contributing to developments in liberatory organising and thought locally. We will talk more about some immediate plans soon but for now, we hope you’d heed our call, especially in a city where space for in(ter)dependence is so privatised, financialised, and increasingly under threat.
Help support Singapore’s only communal library featuring a wealth of printed matter lovingly curated for autonomous liberatory thought and practice. Keep open a social space and hub for rest, gathering, work, and self-organised activity led by an intentional ethos; a fledgling distro for anti-commercial zines, books and other printworks you can’t find at typical stores; a site for collective creative and rebellious imagination to be nurtured, expanded, and circulated; a node of continuity among transnational networks of friendships building another better world.
We understand money can be tight, spreading the word absolutely helps too. Aid us with post engagement and fighting this alg0-monster, tell your friends offline, convince those with the means to share, carry our stickers and flyers to give away, and of course, come visit, dwell, share, and explore. We are open! (And will get on top of the emails) Check out our reconfigured space with a wider entrance and air purifier now, new materials added in the past months from friends and friendly publishers, and much more to come.
Thank you for being here, for your solidarity, rage, and love in this wretched world, and see you around soon!
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We’re back! That was a long pause. Well, those of you on Discord know it hasn’t been total stoppage — the space still opened from week to week, albeit on a more informal tempo, though as our availability was reeled in, months have inadvertently passed without much news on here.
What happened was that one of us had a medical emergency, which forced some unexpected and dramatic life adjustments, and also put the brakes on how we’ve done things — to rethink how to continue. We’ve always tried to foreground disability given how a lot of us contend with illness, madness, and an uncaring capitalist world, but this still hit hard.
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Last year, with the launch of Mynah Magazine's fourth and final issue, it seemed a good time to begin stocking select titles for sale at the infoshop. It ended up taking half a year to pick and order a few other books as well as make changes to the space. You can read more about this in an email and Patreon update sent last week to friends, visitors, and supporters. Part of it accounts for those few months of online inactivity as the bulk of this work happened, unseen and entangled in demoralisation, while other portions sketch out plans, threads, hopes, and challenges for the project.
We purchased a few copies with the combined intentions of supporting Mynah, exploring more varied encounters through the infoshop, and creating additional ways of sustaining it. Having also been added to our library, this cosy little space is likely now one of the few places where you could find and read all four issues.
