thatIsthequestion

Let me say this straight off. I don’t believe writers and artists should be required to pay to have their work read, shown, or published.

I’m a creative soul myself. I write. I make films. I create digital art. I know what it means to have an insistent compulsion, to feel driven to exorcise the visions that well up inside me and demand to be birthed like a long overdue baby.

I also know what it’s like to be a creative soul and have to go to work every day so I can support my creative impulses until they’re out in the world and can do that for me. Or until I live in a world that validates and compensates artists of all persuasions for the lifeblood they inject into the veins of the cultures in which they find themselves.

I struggled with this question for a long while, knowing my name would be mud if I charged the dreaded “reading fee.”

At the same time, I kept asking myself this: How much is the time you will spend reading for and maintaining this site worth? The answer to that?

Dark Moon Lilith is an online journal, yes. And, I am the Editor, yes. However, I don't have an editorial staff. I'm a lone woman with a vision. This journal is a labor of love for me, without a doubt. But, I have lived far too much of my life believing that the things I love to do most, I should do for free. I now know that what I have to offer others is worth something.

While I promote and maintain this journal, I will also be balancing my teaching job and finding time for my own creative projects, which I believe the world needs to see.

I say these things to make visible the value of what I do. I say this shamelessly. I say this with courage. You see... I live in a culture that tells me I’m a narcissist if I think fondly of myself in any way. I live in a culture which tells me that to be a good person, and especially a good woman, I must remain humble, coy, even silent. Even now.

While I can admit I have not completely killed the Angel in the House Virginia Woolf wrote about, I have, quite successfully, put her in a stranglehold. Her circulation has been cut off, and she is going down for the count. I've worked hard, been through some shit, as they say, to reach this level of self-awareness and self-love, and I won't give it up or hand it over. Not to critics. Not to so-called superiors. Not to those who are threatened by the light inside me that strives to cast its glow on that which must be exposed and illuminated.

We are all part of this beautifully complex and chaotic swirl of life. Sometimes we’re up, and abundance sits right next to us. Sometimes we’re down, and abundance is a distant dream. My goal is to offer this forum, both for artists and readers. My goal is to create a space for exchange of ideas that will change the world in a positive and significant way. Maintaining this site takes time. Viewing and reading submissions takes time. Writing the blog takes time. It’s true... I do this of my own free will. It’s also true that I believe this is my calling.

With this in mind, I ask you to consider a donation to help keep the journal going and to, hopefully, one day pay contributors for their fine work. My hope is that when donations are made they are viewed as a means to support and become an integral part of the DML community, which I hope to see flourish and endure.

If you cannot, I invite you to submit your work and take part in the conversation, and I wish you plenitude and abundance so you can live a life that allows you the room to pursue your passions and dreams and to make the difference in the world you were born to make.

Thank you for your contribution, in whatever form it takes, so that I, in turn, can make the difference I'm here to make.

that is the question...