Happy Spring, Happy Birthday FED
reflecting on a year and planning for a future with you
Thank you, brilliant and beautiful readers and subscribers spread across both northern and southern hemispheres in fourteen countries and twenty-six U.S. states, for making this circle round the sun with us. I am happy to be here with you and to be contemplating not only FED’s second year, but also planning for a sustainable future of sharing creative ideas together—like food at a dinner party—of charting a path forward and through with you on the wings of aesthetic potential and possibility.
When I launched FED this time last year, it was with much optimism but also with the very real knowledge that it might be my swan song. I was living literally and figuratively at the end of the road surrounded by—with notable exceptions—neighbors both hostile to Saku and me and high on the worst of the values we’re all now dodging as they flood across the country and the world from the fount of U.S. governance. My chemo-irradiated brain no longer served me as I needed it to, and my accounts were drained following more than two years of cancer and its comprehensive fall-out. To make matters even worse, I was having trouble breathing in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert as its agriculture-fueled dust storms choked my lungs and reduced visibility—and my vision—to danger zones.
I claim without exaggeration that FED—although it has been wildly challenging to pull off—has kept me in the game. The generosity of friends, a physically grueling but creatively affirming stint as a chef last summer at the amazing Aragosta of Goose Cove on Deer Isle, Maine, an even more grueling winter stint operating heavy machinery to mill lumber and build cabinets, and now, a re-launch of my consulting practice have helped me begin to get my feet back under me and refill the empty coffers. Life in a converted barn in a field on the coast of Maine has not been perfect thanks to tick and rat infestations and exterior doors that don’t close out winter’s bitter chill, but it has brought a measure of peace and stability so that my still-healing brain can keep up and manage daily living. It’s FED, however, that has kept me hoping, a tentative cousin to optimism, but optimism nonetheless.
In its inaugural year, one fifth of our 133 subscribers have passed the gift of FED on to all with their paid subscription, and FED has published a total of sixty pieces. A global collection of no fewer than five musicians, eight artists, nine poets and writers, and double digits worth of growers, gleaners, cooks, and craftspeople have consistently offered us new angles and perspectives. They have reminded me of the essentially validating feeling of being among friends, sharing great food, laughing and connecting. With each new piece, FED has illustrated, performed, and claimed, incontrovertibly, the power of art to transform the worst and to nourish our best parts so they may not only survive, but also thrive.
The world needs more of this, especially now, as “shit’s gotten real.” My favorite contributor stories enthusiastically celebrate how FED enabled them to mine a new vein, reinvigorate an old one long lost touch with, or revisit and reflect on a life lived in creative pursuit. My favorite reader comments applaud the range FED encompasses across species and genres. And, stalwart contributors Darcy Reenis, aka DJ D:RC, with both seasonal mixes and FED’s design, and Preeta Samarasan with the Object Permanence series, have done far more than they know to bring you FED by keeping me accountable and on task when things were toughest and by lovingly and generously offering their respective inspired and inspiring examples. We can all do with seconds and thirds of this bounty, and I hope that we can find a way to create FED as a sustainable staple for you, and for me, for many years to come.
This second year is especially precarious, and to push through, some wonderful changes are coming your way. FED will no longer be Ashley David and Friends, but FED & Friends. Darcy and Preeta are officially being recognized for, and are also stepping into, their vital roles at the center of this party, and we three are meeting next week to brainstorm all the options.
We must solve for some big challenges. I have been donating 10-30 hours each week to the enterprise for more than a year. Darcy has been donating not only the seasonal mixes but also the design. And, Preeta has been donating her regular column. No contributors have been paid. In addition to the financial picture, we must address the marketing and audience stewarding elements plus the challenges of producing a magazine that spans this many genres. And finally, we must also steward and cultivate our contributors including locating and amplifying voices and perspectives that fuel and illustrate FED’s mission to welcome all and to challenge you to taste the new and find comfort in the known.
FED must nourish all—readers, contributors, and producers alike—or we run the risk of failing fundamentally. Remember your grandmother or mother or partner alone in the kitchen at the end of a family feast, exhausted and still cleaning up? Well, that’s not what we’re going for here. FED is all and only about mutual and reciprocal nourishment. It’s our core value. Unfortunately, we’ve landed here too frequently this year, and from the kitchen, I confess to burnout. The best dinner parties are awesome for all involved, however, and I’m still holding out for FED to manifest this best of all possible dinner parties. You can help.
Those of us who’ve been in the kitchen all year, me especially, would love to hear from you. What have you liked, loved, and appreciated most? What would you like to see more of? Who would you like to introduce us to because they are just the perfect sort to throw the most amazing dish on FED’s table this year?
I’d also like to personally encourage each of our 100 subscribers who have not yet passed the gift of FED forward with a paid subscription, to know deep down that now’s the time. If all of you convert your free subscription to paid, then FED can nourish its producers and contributors a little better.
Art is not free. Art is vital to our survival and immeasurably valuable. And, while FED does not put a price tag on the art it brings you each season and instead values something bigger—the priceless and fundamental gift art and creativity offer each of us… individually and as species and planet—we humans who are creating the art FED serves up live in a world circumscribed by the increasingly dear cost of living. FED can’t in good conscience continue to require, de facto, the beautiful souls who cook up FED’s feast to martyr themselves to the cause. We need your help to spread, and continue spreading the love.
With so much gratitude to all of you who have already paid it forward and to those of you who will take this very moment to do the same, I ask each and all of you to upgrade your subscription.
Art saves us. It saves me every day. This year, it worked overtime. I’m not alone. Many of us have had a tough year, and this one that’s just barely begun promises to be a doozy. So much goes into FED’s feast, and you, dear and beautiful one, are vital and necessary. Let’s keep each other alive and kicking this year.
On its first birthday, all FED wants is to keep being FED. We need you to do it, and frankly, we especially need your paid subscription.
Happy celebration to us all. Together, we made it round the sun. Despite adversity and hardship, we’re still kicking. That’s radical and revolutionary and testament to the sheer beauty of spirit and inspiration. Here’s to many, many more journeys round to come. Here’s to pulling this off together.
Bon appétit and big love, Ashley
FED is a participant-supported publication and community. Free subscriptions are a gift to all from other readers, contributors, and the editor. Paying subscribers both get a gift and give a gift by first, receiving their free subscription from the community and then, passing the gift on to others, via upgrade, in one great circle of giving and receiving.
All are welcome at the table, and together, we co-create and sustain community.
For more goodies…
Be sure to check out all the wonderful contributions added to the FED table since our launch last spring. Our global collection of musicians, artists, writers, growers, gleaners, cooks, and craftspeople cook up a smorgasbord of aesthetic and literal nourishment for your body and soul. Yum!
 | A guest post by
|