Black Visioning Group celebrates 4th anniversary with art, performances

Black Visioning Group, a collective group that helps members of Philadelphia’s Black queer and trans communities, is celebrating the end of its fourth year with “Dreamscaping,” an evening of art and performances at the Icebox Project Space in Olde Kensington on Saturday night.

The event will have special performances, a live printmaking and art exhibition, and altar-making by members of the group.

BVG says it is committed to “creating systems of deep care for the people deemed most disposable to society — the darker skinned, fatter, hood, femme, poor, disabled, and non cis passing.” It operates three primary programs: guaranteed income; a housing and land trust network; and homestead skill development.

Its guaranteed income program, fueled through the lens of reparations, has “liberated, raised, and redistributed over $800,000 to Black Marginalized Gendered Philadelphians,” according to the group. Over the past six months, they say it has provided regular monthly payments of $555, raised mainly through grassroots funding, to its pods — individuals, households, and groups that can access financial assistance for basic living expenses such as housing, car payments, child care, support during moves, and gender-affirming care and surgeries.

“When you’re here, when you are a pod, it’s in perpetuity,” said group cofounder Zique LaRue. “Because we also have this reparations groundwork and understanding, we understand that Black people, Black queer trans people, are indebted for generations of resources that we can not imagine paying in one single lifetime.”

The group has also renovated two houses for members and also identifies tradespeople who can both help with the work and train others on the site, creating a network of safe spaces where members can feel comfortable as apprentices. 

BVG began in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, around the time the Pennsylvania National Guard was called into Philadelphia after the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd. Ashley Davis, a BVG organizer and steering committee member, and others started the Germantown Supply Hub, a mutual aid hub providing free grocery and general supplies to community members.

“When the protests and things were dying down, obviously people still had needs and we were still in the middle of the pandemic,” said Davis. “So we began to focus our time and our energy on developing and sustaining a care network specifically for Black queer trans folks in Philadelphia.”

The group’s goal is to expand the scale of the model, with the backing of government entities and larger institutions, or to have those organizations emulate the model themselves. 

“Being an example for the people and institutions that have the level of funding that would help transition this not just for us into a larger, sustainable thing, but collectively sustainable iteration,” LaRue said.

The group has been structured in a collective format, with a steering committee of five people writing proposals and putting ideas down for the pod representatives and the whole collective to review. There is no hierarchy or out-and-out leader of BVG.

Deliberations and decision-making amongst the group can be slow, but LaRue said that is “a feature, not a flaw.”

“Has it made certain decision-making slow? Absolutely, and sometimes it’s infuriating. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, there are five different people who we’re waiting on to make this vote and they’re taking forever,’ ” Davis said. “But no, it requires us to check in with those five people … it forces us to stay connected to each other and to keep each other involved.”  

Saturday’s event runs from 4 to 8 p.m. COVID rapid tests and masks will be available and required before entry. An N95 facemask or better is required. The registration page for the free event is on the Icebox Project Space’s website.