PUMPKIN DROP-OFF: Open ALL HOURS now through November 21st!

Leave your pumpkins on the ground by the mailbox at The Imagination Farm (2718 Painters Street) any time. If this is your first time at the farm, we recommend coming during daylight hours. Look for the big willow tree.

PUMPKIN FACTS:
🎃 Pumpkins have been cultivated by Indigenous growers for over 10,000 years. They are native to the Americas, with the oldest known cultivated seeds discovered in Mexico and Central America.
🎃 They play a vital role in Indigenous diets, medicines, and traditions.
🎃 The world’s largest pumpkin was grown this year and weighed 2,819 pounds!
🎃 Pumpkins are fed to hens during the winter to help stimulate egg production... and we feed them to our girls here at the farm, too!

COMPOSTING FACTS:
🎃 In a landfill, rotting pumpkins produce methane gas which contributes to global warming and climate change.
🎃 In a compost bin, they can be paired with other oxygen-dense material and turned into nutrient-rich soil instead!
🎃 Every year, more than ONE BILLION pounds of pumpkins rot in a landfill.
🎃 We can save labor and tax dollars by reducing unnecessary weight dumped at landfills.

Happy Halloween from the girls! Swipe to see their finished pumpkin 🎃🐓

REMINDER: Keep your pumpkins out of the landfill — We need them for #TransDayOfRage (Nov 21, 4-8pm)!

Drop pumpkins off anytime to the front of the farm. Just put them on the ground by the mailbox at 2718 Painters Street. We’ll smash them and turn them into healthy compost.

For those coming to TDORage, we also have a special offering/musical guest in the works 💕 Allies welcome, all ages welcome.

11/21 SAVE THE DATE and YOUR PUMPKINS for Trans Day of Rage, Friday November 21 @ The Imagination Farm (2718 Painters Street). All ages, TGNC centered, friends and allies welcome.

HELP OUT / WE NEED PUMPKINS: Drop off any time to the farm. Leave them out front by the mailbox! (Real talk, this keeps your holiday pumpkins out of the landfill, and we’ll turn them into healthy compost instead.)

DETAILS: This year we are only smashing pumpkins, gourds, etc. We’ll again have the playlist, campfire, light snacks, yard games, and we encourage you to BYOB and additional snacks if you’d like. This is a chill, community night.

All ages welcome, kiddos should have an adult with them. 💜

FREE: Catch us also this weekend at @acabzinefest at Fred Hampton Free Store on Saturday and @gasa_gasa on Sunday!

Look for Coleen and Ben handing out free copies of the New Orleans Community Resource Guide + sliding scale copies of the Queer/Trans Guide to Storms. Many others also tabling.

On Sunday also at the fest, join queer Palestinian writers Polly Sawabini and Thafer Abu Qamir for a discussion about writing toward wholeness + U.S. Army combat veteran turned anti-imperialist activist Zue Jernstedt who recently returned from the Global Sumid Flotilla.

Scroll through for times and details.

TOMORROW @ 12CST, ONLINE: Join IWW’s Executive Director (Chenier “Klie” Kliebert) and @funds4disaster for a webinar exploring how mutual aid operates in disaster contexts, what distinguishes it from charity, and how funders can support these models without co-opting or diluting the power of those closest to the need and solutions for equitable recovery.

We’ll also be joined by hajooj kuka, member of the Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan, and
Stacie Fugate, Executive Director with Appalachians for Appalachia, for a conversation across regions and borders.

Who should attend?
➡️ Philanthropic organizations, advisors, individual donors and funders
➡️ Disaster response and recovery professionals
➡️ Community leaders and policymakers
➡️ Anyone interested in learning about mutual aid in disasters

Register for free: https://disasterphilanthropy.org/events/solidarity-in-times-of-crisis-funding-mutual-aid/

Okciyapi means “help each other”.

On our last day in Minneapolis we spent more time strategizing with other orgs across the Gulf South and Midwest who prepare for and respond to disaster. We covered: legal protection while advocating for social change, communication strategies, and the importance of “voices of reason” in these dark times. Then we went to the sculpture garden and found peace in the native plants and creativity of people.

We were also missing our chickens, who had laid a record FIVE eggs in one day while we were gone, so were happy to come across the largest chicken sculpture imaginable… 🐓

Thank you for welcoming us, Minneapolis, we’ll see you again very soon (anyone going to the UNITY conference?!).

“Our community doesn’t just fight. We love on each other.”

Day 3 brought us to @jxta_arts, a youth art and design education center, gallery, and artists’ studio space. We took an environmental justice bus tour of North Minneapolis, led by Roxxanne O’Brien of @cmejusticenorth, and also visited the Terrell Mayes Jr. Memorial Garden where we learned that data shows a decrease in gun violence around gardens.

We left even more firm on our commitment to stewarding The Imagination Farm as a third space and a safe haven for all who seek refuge.

DULUTH: Day 2 of our trip brought us up to Enger Tower Park, where we could see Wisconsin across the river. We learned about environmental justice struggles in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, often forgotten about or ignored, and about their efforts to get on the map and to protect their land and people. Thinking about our neighborhood, too, and how most folks don’t know we exist even though we’re right off Franklin Ave. Noting that we’d like to gather more data to share with y’all about where The Imagination Farm is, the impacts of industry here and zoning that favors manufacturing over people, and what our health outcomes look like.

After the park, we visited @ecolibrium3 and brainstormed growing practices and ways to continue building out our mutual aid hub at home.

Our first day in Minneapolis included visiting what we’re told is “the only urban reservation in the U.S.” and stopping by @allmyrelationsarts and @powwowgroundscoffee. Felt healing to see, and we left thinking about what it could/should look like in Bvlbancha if we really did practice Land Back in a significant way and steward it together and keep our traditions alive.

Visited the George Floyd memorial and the Say Their Names Cemetery and thought about what it would look like to hold our grief together, and to have an unburdening ground.

Found very cool stormwater management, art calling for action and solidarity, information about traditional vs commercial tobacco, a Native restaurant that cooks without any colonized ingredients, and a lot of power. We are still meeting people and learning everything we can. It is an honor to be a visitor on this land right now, from the bottom of the Mississippi to the top.

(We aren’t at the farm for most of this week. Shoutout to the volunteer Imagination Farmers keeping it going!)

You could play the blame game or you could build something beautiful. Pictures from last night and this week, as we resist despair and stay focused on building something beautiful.

We got a big soil, sand, and mulch delivery from our friends at @schmellys yesterday and are working on some chicken care and tree planting!

If you wanna help us shovel these big piles into bags, swing on by today anytime from now til about 5pm. DM us before heading over so we know to expect ya. New and old worlds are possible 💚

RESOURCE: It’s here! Printed copies of the New Orleans Community Resource Guide for Resistance and Renewal are officially available for free at The Imagination Farm and at Climate Film Night tonight (swipe for event info)!

Many thanks to @cold_bean for keeping us all rolling every year with the NOCRG, and to all who donated to cover printing costs.

Tonight we’ll also have copies of our Queer/Trans Guide to Storms (English and Spanish versions) available for purchase/donation. All donations cover the cost of printing.

Lastly we still have plenty of emergency radios available tonight, but an RSVP is required to reserve one: bit.ly/rsvpradio (case sensitive). Waterproof folder hurricane prep kits also available while supplies last.

We’ll see you real soon!

1440 CANAL ST. @ 5:30 PM
OPERATION DREAM / CAN’T STOP CHANGE
FREE ADMISSION

RESOURCE ALERT: Emergency radios (RSVP required)

Coming to Climate Film Night tomorrow? In addition to the other light hurricane supplies (while supplies last) and information, we will also be distributing 25 emergency radios. These are battery, USB, and hand crank powered.

TO RESERVE A RADIO, fill out the RSVP at bit.ly/rsvpradio (case sensitive). If the form is closed, that means there are no radios left.

IMPORTANT GUIDELINES, as we are sharing limited resources mindfully:
➡️ You must attend the event; we will not be able to deliver or hold for pickup.
➡️ Limit (1) per person/household, as these are meant to help keep folks connected if they shelter in place. People who shelter in place together will be able to share a radio.
➡️ Do not reserve a radio if you know you will be evacuating for a storm or not on the Gulf Coast through peak storm season. These are specifically for emergencies. (If you’re unsure, this is for you!)
➡️ If you easily have the funds to purchase your own radio, consider leaving this resource for others.

Thank you for practicing mutual aid with us, and we’ll see you SO SOON!

**EVENT DETAILS**

THURSDAY AUGUST 21 @ 5:30 - 8:45pm
1440 CANAL STREET

OPERATION DREAM + CAN’T STOP CHANGE: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines, Gulf Coast Solidarity, and a Future for New Orleans

*Wheelchair accessible
*English + Spanish subtitles
*Single stall bathrooms
*Cushioned seating

*The film tackles heavy themes and does contain footage of storm damage. We have separate spaces (lobby, gallery, auditorium) and will encourage all attendees to go to other spaces and hang out with IWW teammates and art, even while the film is rolling, if you’d like. Lets practice freedom of movement, yall!

@queers4climatejustice
@imaginewaterworks
Operation Dream curated by @creating.dejamojo + @diappaix_curates

THIS THURSDAY 8/21 // OPERATION DREAM + CAN’T STOP CHANGE: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines, Gulf Coast Solidarity, and a Future for New Orleans

**FREE ADMISSION**

5:30pm // Doors Open + OPERATION DREAM (Exhibition) + HURRICANE SEASON PHOTOGRAPH PRESERVATION TIPS from @neworleansmuseumofart Conservator of Photographs and Works of Art on Paper, Nayla Maaruf

6:00pm // Welcome + CAN’T STOP CHANGE (Documentary Film) **ENGLISH + SPANISH SUBTITLES**

8:15pm // Q&A with filmmaker @dearyarrow from CAN’T STOP CHANGE and @queers4climatejustice + IWW teammates: artist/organizer @creating.dejamojo from OPERATION DREAM, artist/organizer Ida Aronson from @bvlbanchaliberationradio and @bvlbanchacollective, co-founder/director @klie__504

Light snacks and small hurricane supplies + information throughout event, as supplies last.

Wheelchair accessible, cushioned seating, single stall bathrooms. You will see security upon entering, an IWW teammate will be at the front door in solidarity. This is a “come anytime” event w/ plenty of room.

Many thanks to @tulane_sphtm for hosting.

**This is the second event of IWW’s Climate Justice Film Night Series.**

8/21: ONE WEEK til OPERATION DREAM + CAN’T STOP CHANGE: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines, Gulf Coast Solidarity, and a Future for New Orleans

**FREE ADMISSION**
5:30pm Doors Open + OPERATION DREAM (Exhibition)
6:00pm Welcome + CAN’T STOP CHANGE (Film)
8:15pm Q&A

**Join us Thursday, August 21st for an exhibition ft. local art, feature-length documentary film, and Q&A centering queer and trans solidarity from New Orleans to Florida** as we dream new futures across the Gulf Coast in the face of climate change and legislative attack. Meet organizers from @imaginewaterworks and take home hurricane supplies + info to make the rest of storm season a little easier. Light snacks provided.

ABOUT:

Operation Dream is a heartfelt endeavor embodying the community’s vision for New Orleans over the next 20 years and marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. A united assembly of artists, community members, organizations, and cultural leaders have come together to share their collective aspirations for the future of this vibrant city while reflecting on its past. Curated by @creating.dejamojo + @diappaix_curates and ft. @delasoulflower @thewomanwhosingsandpaints @tiny_bass @ateamer @elliot_ross_stokes @jane_tardo @piedakid @klie_504 @benbehindthelens @bvlbanchapublicaccess @sierratill52 @kashababy @geaux_brioniclaire @tee_thee_artist @kenthatartist

Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines weaves interviews with 15 LGBTQ2S+ artists, organizers, and educators across Florida (and the new Florida diaspora) into an intersectional climate justice narrative. As Florida’s violent legislation dominates headlines, LGBTQ2S+ communities are also on the frontlines of accelerating climate change.

Q&A to follow ft. Déja Jones & Klie Kliebert from IWW + Yarrow Koning from @queers4climatejustice.

THE VENUE: Wheelchair accessible, single stall bathrooms. You will see security upon entering, an IWW teammate will be at the front door in solidarity. This is a “come anytime” event w/ comfortable seating and plenty of room. Many thanks to @tulane_sphtm for hosting.

**This is the second event of IWW’s Climate Justice Film Night Series.**

Life is hard and beautiful. So many happenings at the farm lately, it’s hard to keep up. We found wishbone flowers (the purple ones - they’re edible!). Harvesting garlic, okra, cucumbers, eggplant, more okra. Tithonia (Mexican sunflower) and zinnias took off. Got our shower running and an ice maker to beat the heat. Been feeding the chickens lots of frozen treats.

Cleansed the community altar and paid respect to our ancestors and to your and our hopes and dreams. Installed solar motion detector lights and a coop cam after we spotted some predator scat - it seems to have worked so far! Lots of rain, lots of very unforgiving heat and sun, lots of swallowtails and monarchs around.

Working so hard also on storm prep, on sharing our lessons learned with folks near and far, on figuring out how to stay afloat financially, on resisting ableism and transphobia and racism, on keeping each other safe.

Endlessly grateful for this refuge, even when it’s a lot of work. Thank you to all who have built sanctuary with us — and to all the future builders we have yet to meet.

Catch our team in a new piece by @audreygray for @insideclimatenews —

“In all the hurricanes of the last twenty years, through much disappointment in federal and local emergency response and even during this latest assault on human rights, Kliebert has modeled the focused, get-it-done energy of a person uniquely made for their time. Someone who’s been through it already, who wrote in their love letter to a community under torrents of threat, “We stand firm in our joy and in our belonging even through the storm.”

Thank you, Audrey, for spending time with us and for elevating the intersections of queerness, climate change, and the current political moment.

Check out the full article, published by @insideclimatenews, for more on our work, our strategy, and our founding Executive Director Klie’s connection to this home we all love.

Learn also about the critical work of @vrad_ical of @queers4climatejustice, @goldsmith.leo, and @mikemendez818 – and the current state of organizing in the climate and disaster space as queer and trans people.

“It’s not that Kliebert and team are ignoring political mayhem and climate cataclysm. It’s that they’re relentlessly on strategy: nurture the physical and emotional sanctuary of that farm and prepare their community for extreme weather.”

Swipe or visit INSIDECLIMATENEWS.org for the full story.

Introducing the IWW HURRICANE HUB: Your trusted resource for all things storm related.

You asked for it, you got it! The IWW Hurricane Hub combines all of our most current homegrown hurricane resources, as well as a few select offerings from trusted partners, in one place for easy access and sharing.

We remain committed to sharing disaster information that is factual and trustworthy *without* being overwhelming or scary. We do not use fear tactics or “clickbait” and intentionally do not include pictures of destruction or personal loss on our website, in our hurricane materials, or on our social media.

IWW’s Hurricane Hub currently has:
* An extensive Hurricane Season Guide
* Simple hurricane prep checklists
* Waterproof folder checklist
* Queer/Trans Guide to Storms
* Deep breathing exercise
* Community Power Map (post-storm only)
* Storm Prep Q&A (when there’s a named storm in the Gulf)

And from partner organizations:
* Disability rights in shelters and emergency response
* Disability emergency personal evacuation planning
* Muck & gut guide with supplies list
* Muck & gut “how to” video
* Mold suppression guide with supplies list
* Mold suppression “how to” video

Many of the resources above are translated into Spanish and/or Vietnamese.

For those new to our work: Our hurricane information is updated frequently, extensively fact checked by individuals with trained and lived experience, and builds off generations of knowledge from native New Orleanians. Think of it as meteorological science + Indigenous science + tips from your favorite Paw Paw or Auntie.

Access the Hub at bit.ly/hurricanehub and don’t forget to share it with your friends. We keep each other safe.

🔹🔹The 2025 NOCRG is available NOW at www.imaginewaterworks.org/new-orleans-community-resource-guide/🔹🔹

This is a nearly 100-page guide to free or low cost services across the New Orleans area. Thanks to a mighty team of volunteers, listed resources were contacted by phone and asked to verify all info. Providers were specifically asked about funding for uninsured patients, the availability of Spanish translation services, and services for transgender and non-binary folks.

Important things to note:
🔹 If accessed through our website, the guide is clickable. Click on any number or web address with your phone or computer and it’ll send you there.
🔹This year we’ve added a QR code to the back cover so if you get/give a printed copy, you can still find the online version easily.
🔹We have always welcomed folks to print your own copies. Our website has files formatted to print both full size or booklet style.
🔹We’re happy to work with other orgs and groups to get copies to your people. If your workplace may want to print copies, but would need to ask questions, make edits, or add logos/etc to get the printing costs approved, DM or email us. Let’s get creative!
🔹Printing booklets this size costs $$$ and we have a fundraiser running to help cover printing costs. Donations always welcome.

Lastly, we have still been taking care of The Imagination Farm, practicing mutual aid daily, and getting everything ready to help keep yall safe through hurricane season. Imagine Water Works is entering our active season for social media and will be sharing a ton of critical, time sensitive, fact checked information — please help your friends plug into our channels before the next storm hits 💕

Hello! We don’t participate in Give NOLA Day (though we respect the hustle of those who do)… so we’re instead raising funds for a community project “owned” by the people. Directly speaking, we really need your help to cover printing costs for the NOCRG this year.

The New Orleans Community Resource Guide for Resistance and Renewal (NOCRG) is a nearly 100 page guide to free and low-cost resources across the Greater New Orleans area. It’s compiled annually by volunteers, with each resource contacted directly to verify all information listed. It’s info you can count on.

Last year we raised $714.74 to cover 142 copies of the guide. Imagine Water Works filled in the gaps and contributed $4,731.36 and staff time and space to host Call-A-Thons and print 1000 copies. This year we unfortunately do not have the funds to make up the difference.

Though the NOCRG has a home at IWW for the time being (and for as long as we’re around and it’s what you all want!), it is people-powered and not owned by any one person or org. We are committed to keeping the guide alive as long as we can, and we also invest considerable time in building relationships with other printing avenues/partners, but the NOCRG lives also beyond us — it’s had many homes over the years and is also hosted on @antigravitymag’s website and distributed through @nolalibrary and various hospitals and groups. Big shoutout to @cold_bean especially for organizing all of us over the years!

If you’re looking to donate to a people’s project today, 100% of donations to this fundraiser go toward printing and producing the 2025 NOCRG: donorbox.org/nocrg2025

It’s official, our girlies are home 🙂 The Imagination Farm has chickens again! Shoutout to everyone who came to Chick Hour to help socialize them, to the coop builders and the chick transporters and the sitters and driftwood gatherers and wasp nest removers. Dozens of people worked together to make this happen and to bring more life to the farm.

We are loving this continued and necessary experiment of what it means to build sanctuary and new systems of care together. ❤️🐣

TOMORROW / MONDAY, 10-4pm at The Imagination Farm: Come any time. This is Part 2 of our Call-A-Thon for the New Orleans Community Resource Guide.

You: Select a topic that interests you, and call various listings to see if their services or details have changed since last year.

We: Give you a general script so you know what to say, light snacks, solidarity navigating phone calls, a tshirt, and an okra plant to take home.

Our neighbors: Reference the guide when in crisis, and can trust that the information is accurate.

If you’ve ever been exhausted and trying to figure out which resources are real and which aren’t, then you know how valuable this is. This is an accessible way to reduce red tape and help thousands of people access the services they need.

RSVP to tell us generally when you’ll be here, but whenever you get here (between 10-4) is the right time: bit.ly/callathonrsvp

THIS WEDNESDAY 4/9, 10-4pm. Help with the New Orleans Resource Guide for Resistance and Renewal, and come play farm games with us too. RSVP now @ bit.ly/callathonrsvp.

What it looks like: We give you a script and a section to work on that interests you (housing, mental health, trans care, etc). You call the listings in the guide to ask them if all their info is still correct. We help each other out when we hit a snag or get nervous on the phone… and we ultimately make a new guide together, with every resource once again fact checked and verified 💪 In exchange for helping out, take home an okra plant we grew at the farm and an IWW tshirt ☺️🌱

See you at the farm!

*Can’t make it Wednesday? Use the same RSVP link to sign up for next Monday, 4/14.

🏳️‍⚧️ Thoughts and a call for support on Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️ It matters that our work is trans led... and that the majority of our team is trans.

Creativity, dignity, and belonging is at the core of what we do because we know what it’s like for others to attempt to take that from us.

It matters that The Imagination Farm is a sanctuary we are building together despite being targeted and told to not exist.

It’s hard, and it matters that for over a decade we’ve often been the only trans people at the Emergency Preparedness meetings, at City Hall, at the legal clinic, at the health summit, fighting for better outcomes for all of us.

❤️‍🔥 Clear-eyed, we see the violence around us. Still… we will continue care for each other through catastrophe, hurricanes, and political attack. We will continue to do heartfelt and courageous work. ❤️‍🔥

At the same time, our reality is that being a public group, with names and faces and an address, does put our team at risk. “Visibility” is not safe. There’s no way around it for us, but we deal with hate mail, stalking, folks stealing from us, rescinded invites, and surprise visitors on the land that sometimes do shake us up a bit. And in these political times, we are preparing for that to increase.

👉 It is time to get really serious about supporting trans people, trans collectives, and trans mutual aid.

We are minimally funded. And at the farm (our mutual aid and disaster hub), we have dreams of installing a fence to increase privacy and protection on the land. If you’d like to help us make our physical space safer, please consider becoming a monthly or one-time donor today to help us get there as soon as possible: https://donorbox.org/imagine-water-works (in bio). We do not have years to wait.

✊Here’s to continuing and caring, to being realistic and clear-eyed, and to dreaming and practicing hope despite it all.

We did a thing! Scroll for the cutest pics/chick book you’ve ever seen.

These babies are getting strong before we transfer them to the coop, but we’re delighteddd to welcome Shirley, T Black, T White, Dina, Clarenza, and Fig Vagts-Galindo to The Imagination Farm! 🐣🐣🐣🐣🐣🐣

These bbs are less than a week old and have been picked for a combination of temperament (all of them are gentle breeds), egg production, and of course cuteness. We hope that the farm can continue to grow as a place where we’re learning together how to live more autonomously, collectively, and in sync with nature through these otherwise *rough* times.

Exciting news also coming *very soon* about a new edition of the “Queer/Trans Guide to Storms” AND an opportunity to stop by and help with the “New Orleans Resource Guide for Resistance and Renewal” so stay tuned ☺️ And save the date for April 9th and/or April 14th! bit.ly/callathonrsvp