introducing newsletter 2.0

last year, we wrote the following about our decision to start a newsletter. 

now we can call it newsletter 1.0

it was circulated on a monthly basis via mailchimp between april and august. we shared updates about our work, things we were thinking about, announcements from community and stories and conversations with sami el-enany, niki kohandel and maia magoga. it was the first place to hear about our programme at soanes centre, including solfi, saturday play school and hui sessions with sami el-enany, niki kohandel, soundcamp, christine hannigan, hui, music before medicine and sound and solidarity. to register for these (free) events, you had to sign up to our newsletter.

now we are really happy to introduce you to newsletter 2.0. it is an upgrade. these are some of the reflections that have helped us to evolve. 

what did we like

• writing to you all, regularly and slowly
  • it felt personal, authentic and comfortable. it felt true to how we want to communicate our work. it felt better than writing on instagram. 
• giving subscribers first and exclusive access to our programmes
  • we thought a lot about the public-ness of our programmes at soanes. we knew many people would hear about the programmes via instagram. we knew that some would not know about the work of kin structures, soanes centre or our collaborators. we wanted to give context. we wanted people to know what they were signing up for, what they were arriving into, where these programmes were rooted.  we were also aware of the risk of being perceived as ‘exclusive’ or ‘hard to access’. in an attempt to find balance between these considerations, we made our newsletter free + our events free, but you had to register for our newsletter to be able to register for our events. this seemed to work well and we had lots of good feedback about it. 

what we learnt

• monthly newsletters are hard to maintain within our current capacity
  • we managed to write regularly between april and august, but once things heated up with the eviction notice and the launch of the save soanes campaign, it was hard to write to you on a monthly basis. 
• people developed new understandings of us and our work
  • the newsletter allowed us to speak with a different voice and this was received, appreciated and desired by many people. thank you to all who shared feedback and talked to us about the newsletter and what it allowed for them in their understandings of us, our work, the soanes centre and our broader context
• people chose to subscribe to surveil us
  • what they saw they did not like. mainly because they already did not like us, but also because, to the point above, they learnt more about us, and what they learnt they did not like. perceptions did not change because people do not see what they do not want to see. as a result, a lot of what we shared via newsletter was then used by you know who, their friends, and others to harass us.
• mailchimp is annoying to use
  • it’s really clunky and slow and boring

with these in mind, we have made a few changes:-

• we will be using a new platform called ghost. 
  • we did a lot of research and testing, and finally settled with ghost because it is great to use, it’s (so far) free of questionable and diabolical ethical, moral, political affiliations and ghosts are cool.
• we will be charging £1 a month or £10 a year for access to the newsletter. 
  • we need to find ways to resource grassroots cultural programming at soanes. all our events, with the exception of summer jam, were organised with no funding. everyone agreed to take part for no fee. food was paid for by donations on the night. passa supplied the sound for free. we tried to get funding, we really tried, but we kept getting rejected by funders who “appreciate the need for global majority spaces” but aren’t willing to fund them when they are created on our terms. in the absence of serious investment in global majority practices, ideas and histories (inside and outside of the institution) we need to try and find other ways to resource programming in equitable and sustainable ways. any funds generated will go towards paying for programmes at the end of 2025 and in 2026. we wanted to have it lower at 50p a month but ghost has a minimum of £1. our current subscriber list is 400 so if you all paid £1 a month for the next six months we’d be able to organise an amazing programme of performances, workshops and talks at soanes, like we did last year for solfi, saturday play school, hui and where pathways meet (2023). if this is a barrier for you, please get in touch with us at info@kinstructures.com and we can figure something out. 
  • also we are curious whether paying £1 a month would stop someone from subscribing to surveil us. Maybe, let’s see, and if not, we get more of their details, and they help fund us :)  

what will I receive if I sign up to newsletter 2.0

if you make the highly encouraged and enthusiastically received decision to sign up to newsletter 2.0 you will have access to the following:-

• an intentionally regular newsletter that might fail in its intention
• the only place to read news, stories and reflections from kin structures 
• our free programmes this year at soanes
• first news on stuff we do outside of soanes
• stories, news and announcements from community 

how do I sign up to newsletter 2.0

click this and follow the steps to become a paid up member of the kin structures newsletter.

This is the only page that everyone will be able to read. if you leave us here, thank you for reading and we wish you the best (unless you are an op)

if you have decided to subscribe, thank you! we’ll be back in touch next week with the first newsletter of the year and lots of special news to finally share with you all :)

with love and light 

arman and kwame