Category: BW Public Service Announcement


Firstly, I gotta say, I have been literally moved to tears multiple times when I saw how much you all were donating and buying my services (seems like natal charts are really popular!), I am incredibly touched to see how many people really cared about my well-being and keeping a roof over my head. To be honest, I thought I was going to get a lot of mean messages or just no response at all so I am very wowed at how you guys really helped out – and in a crappy economy, no less!

And y’all not the only ones! My therapist hipped me onto a one-time grant that also really helped a lot. So, here’s what has happened so far and the changes in development.

So, first I got my yellow letter of doom that was asking for $750. That was bad but so was the following thought: it was on top of June’s rent, which is $715, creating a total of a whopping $1,465. And I wasn’t the only one, my parent who lives in the same area as me (but not with me, I live by myself) got one, too. That’s not good. There were people who could help but they could only help really either me or my parent. So, I created the donation drive so that I could alleviate as much burden as I could so my parent could get the bulk of the help and honestly thought that was exactly what was gonna happen: I pay off the $750, get donations for the $715 as much as possible, my parent gets their help and hopefully things would look a little better for both me and my parent. And then my therapist told me about the grant, which then I thought that I’ll take the grant for the $715 (because the $750 should have been taken care of) and whatever money I raise will go straight to my parent to even further alleviate their rent load.

Then, an error occurred with my finances because, of course, why should things only be a little bad when they can get a whole lot worse? And on top of that, the finances will take about a month to iron out. So that gives me money for the $715 and nothing for the $750. Crap.

I was worried about telling everyone the change in plans of having to find $750 because that certainly isn’t a good look to go “Yeah, I want y’all to donate but instead for $715 like I originally said, it’s actually $750.” And then to have to probably do it again when I learned that the $750 magically turned into $777 – Oh, hai, since I brought that up, let’s go onto that part of the story, it’s a bona fide humdinger.

So I couldn’t pay when I thought I would so I contacted my landlord’s lawyer who then directed me to my landlord. I call up the landlord company, got the receptionist and mentioned that I’ll be paying on a different date (Friday) and they say, “Okay, that’ll be $777.”

Wat?

I responded, “No, my sheet says ‘$750’. I’m paying before the 27th so there should be no fees or anything. That’s what the lawyer said.”

To which they respond, “Yeah, we didn’t have enough room on the sheet to include court costs so it isn’t on there but that’s what your total is, $777.”

So basically, if I or my parent (or anyone living in my complex and got a yellow sheet of doom) paid what was written on the sheet, they still would be considered paying short because of a fee that was never listed anywhere on the official sheet. The bottom line clearly said “$750”, not “$777”. A hidden fee that I didn’t know about and was never notified of, not even by the lawyer and only learned through the byways of just simply changing my pay date to another date that should not have affected my paying. I told my parent this, which sucks them even further of emergency funds that was supposed to be fettered out for other expenses. As you could guess, I’m not happy. Still am not because it is really deceitful and thus unfair.

So I kept the donating to $715 and decided to simply figure out a way to handle the additional bit. But now that what I had to raise money for was gonna end way sooner than what was originally planned, that’s why I had to end donating so soon. Again, I thank you guys for really stepping up and being there for me.

Here’s what you guys managed to raise: $441

The grant: $715

This together: $1,156

This is definitely the lion share of what my landlord wants me to fork up. I still have to hope for $336 going towards me but I hopefully I can get that handled and soon. And I’m working tightly with my parent to make sure they stay afloat.

Here is the evening update of “Keep Black Witch in Her Home”: 50% has been collected so far! Thank you donors and please continue donating, it ends at the end of today, in the next two hours!

Remember, if you don’t want to merely donate but would rather purchase services, you’re in luck. I do proofreading of resumes and academic papers. Don’t have a resume but want to have one? I can help you build your resume. Don’t have either but you do write creative works? I can assist with that as well. Price list is this:

Resume proofreading: $15

Academic paper proofreading: $20

General proofreading (e.g. stories and poems): $20

And I’m not going to do tarot or palmistry divination services but I actually can do natal charts so:

Natal Charts: $20

Comes with Chart, with a five to ten page interpretation. All I need is birth date, birth place and birth time (noon is used if birth time is not known)

Contact me at thisblackwitch@hotmail.com if you want to purchase any of these services.

STANDING UPDATE: I talked with the lawyer of my landlord and they want to get the money by this week. That means I need to raise $355 by the end of this week, Friday and to ensure the money is there, I would like to have at least the bulk of it raised by tonight, May 22. That means I really need some donations, people buying my services, whatever. I really need your help or I am out on the street. Please make it happen.

Here is the evening update of “Keep Black Witch in Her Home”: 42% has been collected so far! Thank you donors and please continue donating, it ends at the end of today, Wednesday.

Remember, if you don’t want to merely donate but would rather purchase services, you’re in luck. I do proofreading of resumes and academic papers. Don’t have a resume but want to have one? I can help you build your resume. Don’t have either but you do write creative works? I can assist with that as well. Price list is this:

Resume proofreading: $15

Academic paper proofreading: $20

General proofreading (e.g. stories and poems): $20

And I’m not going to do tarot or palmistry divination services but I actually can do natal charts so:

Natal Charts: $20

Comes with Chart, with a five to ten page interpretation. All I need is birth date, birth place and birth time (noon is used if birth time is not known)

Contact me at thisblackwitch@hotmail.com if you want to purchase any of these services.

STANDING UPDATE: I talked with the lawyer of my landlord and they want to get the money by this week. That means I need to raise $530 $493 $413 by the end of this week, Friday and to ensure the money is there, I would like to have at least the bulk of it raised by tonight, May 22. That means I really need some donations, people buying my services, whatever. I really need your help or I am out on the street. Please make it happen.

Here is the afternoon update of “Keep Black Witch in Her Home”: 31% has been collected so far! Thank you donors and please continue donating, it ends at the end of today, Wednesday.

Remember, if you don’t want to merely donate but would rather purchase services, you’re in luck. I do proofreading of resumes and academic papers. Don’t have a resume but want to have one? I can help you build your resume. Don’t have either but you do write creative works? I can assist with that as well. Price list is this:

Resume proofreading: $15

Academic paper proofreading: $20

General proofreading (e.g. stories and poems): $20

And I’m not going to do tarot or palmistry divination services but I actually can do natal charts so:

Natal Charts: $20

Comes with Chart, with a five to ten page interpretation. All I need is birth date, birth place and birth time (noon is used if birth time is not known)

Contact me and we’ll get squared away.

STANDING UPDATE: I talked with the lawyer of my landlord and they want to get the money by this week. That means I need to raise $530 $493 by the end of this week, Friday and to ensure the money is there, I would like to have at least the bulk of it raised by tonight, May 22. That means I really need some donations, people buying my services, whatever. I really need your help or I am out on the street. Please make it happen.

This is a major update for “A Plea for Help”, please read.

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who have already donated, I really do appreciate this more than you know. 20% raised already, this is fantastic. (Update (8:00 PM): it’s at 26% now. Please keep donating!)

I talked with the lawyer of my landlord about payment and they want to get the money by the end of this week, Friday). That means I need to raise $570 by the end of tomorrow (Wednesday, May 22, 2013) to ensure that it is there in their hands on Friday. I really need more donations, people buying services (will be posted below), whatever. I really need your help or I am out on the street.

Donate here

Here are the services offered by me, please email me at thisblackwitch@hotmail.com if you are interested:

Resume proofreading: $15

Academic paper proofreading: $20

General proofreading (e.g. stories and poems): $20

And I’m not going to do tarot or palmistry divination services but I actually can do natal charts so:

Natal Charts: $20

Comes with Chart, with a five to ten page interpretation. All I need is birth date, birth place and birth time (noon is used if birth time is not known)

Thank you and please help. I will keep everyone updated should anything changes.

I figured it would be smart to tell everyone exactly what is going on so I’m going to have a Ustream livestream tonight at 9 PM EST to explain everything that’s been going on with me. It will be recorded so if you miss it, I’ll have a link up.

Meanwhile, just read this post “A Plea for Help” and donate, donate, donate so I don’t lose my home. I’ve already got 10% towards the goal! Thank you so much, donors!

A Plea for Help

So, I usually don’t like to mix my real life with the Black Witch life but I think now would be the time.

Here it goes:

I currently am in a dire financial strait that could cost me my current apartment. Money has been reaaaaaally tight and it turns out, I can’t pay this month’s rent of $715. If I can’t get all this by May 31st, I’m out on the street, literally. I can barely cover the electricity for this month so the notice I got from the landlord is a real hit in the gut. I need your help.

I really could use donations right about now. Here is a donation link via Paypal , please share this everywhere because this is really important. I don’t know what I can do and if there are any organizations that can help me out, I would really appreciate it.

I’ll be posting this on the regular until all the money is collected or it is May 31st. Whichever comes first (I hope it’ll be the funds.) Please, please help. If I’m out on the street, Black Witch will cease to exist.

– Olivia H./Black W.

So, I usually don’t like to mix my real life with the Black Witch life but I think now would be the time.

Here it goes:

I currently am in a dire financial strait that could cost me my current apartment. Money has been reaaaaaally tight and it turns out, I can’t pay this month’s rent of $715. If I can’t get all this by May 31st, I’m out on the street, literally. I can barely cover the electricity for this month so the notice I got from the landlord is a real hit in the gut. I need your help.

I really could use donations right about now. Here is a donation link (now via Paypal), please share this everywhere because this is really important. I don’t know what I can do and if there are any organizations that can help me out, I would really appreciate it.

I’ll be posting this on the regular until all the money is collected or it is May 31st. Whichever comes first (I hope it’ll be the funds.) Please, please help. If I’m out on the street, Black Witch will cease to exist.

– Olivia H./Black W.

Good friend of mine, Crystal B., has been calling for submissions of the minority Pagan experience to create a follow up anthology to Shades of Faith called Shades of Ritual! Here are the details!

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for a follow up anthology to Shades of Faith, released in August of 2011.  This anthology will focus on people of color working in magical communities and their spiritual practices.  This anthology will provide another opportunity to get the voices and experiences of minorities within the Pagan community out to the world and address some of the challenges, stereotyping, frustrations and the beauty of being different within the racial construct of typical Pagan or Wiccan groups. These communities include (but are not limited to) groups and individuals working in Wicca, Voodoo, Umbanda, Shaman, and other Pagan paths.

As many of the roots of Paganism come from the lands of people of color, much of the color of Paganism is often forgotten in the cultural mainstreaming that often happens to ethnic cultures. Many people of color within Paganism walk between the worlds of their birth ancestry and culture, and that of their spiritual culture.  This anthology is meant to show how that might look within the spiritual practice of one’s home.

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology.

  • Rituals
  • Poetry
  • Your experience of integration into the Pagan community and how that might correlate with your practice
  • Magical work
  • Ancestor work
  • Deity specific practices and relationships
  • Integrating your birth culture with your spiritual workings
  • What magical work are you doing now? How do you describe it? Do you work alone, in a group, or in several settings?
  • Your birth culture and spiritual workings
  • Stereotypes and prejudice and the impact on spiritual or magic workings.
  • Being the only person of color in a coven, group or community
  • Sharing your culture and history with other Pagans
  • Cultural history and how that plays a role in your spiritual practice today
  • Family culture and how that plays a role in your spiritual practice
  • Cultural appropriations and how that works in your practice.

Rough drafts are due August 15, 2013. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. Essays should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Essay requirements:
• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material
• Bibliography of works cited
• Prefer APA format

Do write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely talks in the first person about your own experience, please include this also. There is a wide range of voices, and we are interested in being as inclusive of style as possible.

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

The anthology will be edited by Crystal Blanton. She is the author of two books with Immanion press; Bridging the Gap; Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society, and Pain and Faith in a Wiccan World.  She is also the editor of the first anthology, Shades of Faith; Minority Voices in Paganism. She may be found online at http://www.crystalblanton.org and her email address for this anthology is crystal@crystalblanton.com .

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

I have had a complete run of late posts for the past few weeks and this one is going to be no different, with a post on the latest day ever, Monday. I really feel like I’ve gotta say something now because this is getting ridiculous.

So, I’ve posted on the BW Twitter that my laptop is finally dead. It passed sometime during this week. Can’t blame it, I was pretty hard on it so it was a long time coming, either way, it’s dead.

When it wasn’t dead, it was on its last legs. The screen had stopped working so I had to hook my laptop to the tv which you could imagine reduced the portability of the laptop. Then there’s the fact the laptop had grown so slow and sluggish that it would freeze for minutes at a time if I wanted to just open a document. The longest freeze time was nearly ten minutes. The laptop was bought new in 2009, it’s almost 2013 and it has dealt with being treated pretty hard. So I kinda was waiting for it to go before getting a new one, which will be coming on Tues.

So now the lappytop is le dead. I did have a friend come over so I could borrow his hard drive reader so I could at least yank some of the latest posts for Black Witch and I did but they’re still in an unfinished state since there’s nothing to clean them up to the point I would like it and put them up. Yes, I do have mobile apps on my tablet and cell phone, Documents to Go, which is awesome, and Google Drive to share my files on between my devices but they’re not as good as finishing my works on an actual full sized computer. Linking is practically impossible, pictures are a headache and the spell checker is not as good on these mobile devices as it is on a computer. These mobile devices are good for me to write out ideas and columns in their rough shape, absolutely fantastic, but not to present writings to the world. This is the only exception because I gotta say something since I know readers are prolly wondering why BW keeps updating so late as of recent.

Thus, this does mean that I am writing. I’m working on this week’s write up, Afro-Punk’s extra piece and so on and so forth on my tablet and cell phone. I plan to go to the library if my cold isn’t that bad (well, it’s just a sore throat but I still don’t want to pass it to others and it’s been coooooooooooold in Baltimore) and update there or just wait for the new laptop and go from there. So I am writing, I just can’t update when I like. This means I’ll have to push the Etsy store reopening to Halloween (I’ve been keeping it under wraps because I wasn’t sure what would happen but it was going to be on the 16th) and no trips to NYC for Halloween.

So that’s what’s been going on. Expect the new piece on Monday (Tuesday at the latest).