As we navigate the opening days of 2026, we find ourselves standing at the portal of a new era, looking back at the profound bridge we built together in 2025. This past year was more than a calendar cycle, it was a Threshold Year, a period of intense transition where the Artist As First Responder (AAFR) collective transmuted collective grief and collective joy into local and global action.

Please join us for our monthly healing circles - Men’s Wellness Fellowship (on last Tuesdays) and Revolutionary Rest (on last Thursdays) both at the Black Panther Party Museum, and explore our 2025 Impact Infographic below which illustrates the "tangible receipts" of our work. From local healing circles to international advocacy, these metrics represent the lives touched and the systems shifted by our commitment to art as a first-responsive work, essential, and absolutely necessary.

Toni Morrison once reminded us that “being an artist is a very dangerous thing,” because truth-telling is a threat to the status quo. In 2025, we saw that danger firsthand as art, artists, and free speech came under direct fire. 

In response, AAFR is not retreating, but tripling down on our commitment to the intersection of artistic excellence, social justice, and spiritual & economic abundance. To our co-conspirators, resource-sharers, and creative practitioners, we bow to you. Thank you for your persistent insistence. We are not just sustaining, we are thriving in the audacity of our shared vision. May our work continue to be the light in the threshold.

With Love and Power,
Ashara, Christian, Ietef, Marcella, NiQueen, Sam, and Zandashé