Miss us at the burn? Want more? You’re in luck because one dusty desert event wasn’t enough for us and we’re going to Wasteland Weekend as well!
Here are some important logistical details for those of you interested in being able to participate:
See you in the wastes,
Death Guild Thunderdome Crew 💀🤘🤘
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We over at Death Guild Thunderdome take death very seriously because she is always listening so we wanted to give you the update for participation at Burning Man this year!
Come on out, Thunderdome is here and OPEN for your consensual violence opportunities 4:45 and Esplanade, starting at approximately 9pm M-F.
A few new things we need from you this year to participate!
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After very little deliberation and a lot of listing of reasons, Death Guild Thunderdome has made the rather easy decision to not attend Burning Man at BRC in 2021. At this writing, we do not know whether Burning Man plans to hold the event in Black Rock City in 2021. We wanted to make this crew statement prior to, and not as a reaction to, any decision/announcement from Burning Man Project.
Is it easy for us to not see each other?
No.
Is it easy for us to lose a huge sense of purpose, and opportunities for creation, collaboration, production, performance, management, building, getting shitfaced and being a burden on our campmates, and whatever else it is that makes Burning Man at BRC compelling for us?
FUCK NO.
We love each other. We want to see each other. Without Burning Man at BRC, in the before-times, we vacationed together. We have, over the last year, had Zoom cocktail hours together. Had distanced visits. Mailed each other SO MANY things. So of course we want to go to Burning Man at BRC (yes, I’m going to keep saying this because Burning Man is not just the event).
But, because we love each other, the decision to not attend was easy.
Because we have a lot of scientists and smart people in camp, there was not any hesitation.
We care - a lot - about each other, other people, and our impact on the world. Because we have a lot of very thoughtful people in camp, despite the immediate desire to Do That Thing We Do and to see each other, it is not a complicated choice to say, “No, we will not do the thing.”
We miss you. We miss shenanigans, love, dust, conflict resolution, being your dark beating heart of the playa. But, because we miss you, and want to see you again, we will not be participating. The nature of our show means that we will need herd immunity before we can safely and ethically run it again. But it’s not just that.
We broke our reasoning into four main areas:
Risking lives and participating in a non-essential event that is already lacking in diversity during a time when people of color are being disproportionately impacted by a global health crisis is unacceptable to us. We recognize that Burning Man Project is taking steps to address its historical diversity issues, but that doesn’t solve the world’s issues relative to employment privilege and health insurance privilege, particularly during a pandemic. As a result Burning Man at BRC 2021, if it happens, risks being the whitest, richest event ever, with a bonus risk of being potentially deadly, and we can’t, in good conscience, participate. We see disparity issues within our own camp and will not create a situation within camp where participation is limited to those who have had the privilege of being minimally impacted by the pandemic. Then there is location privilege - travel restrictions will not be lifted in time for people outside the U.S. to plan. Finally, there is health privilege. Because we will not have reached herd immunity by August, people who are, for health reasons, unable to be vaccinated, will not be able to attend. So the event as a result becomes more ableist.
Also, we do not want to be the next Sturgis.
Doing an event in 2021 will further the downward spiral of issues Cultural Direction Setting was trying to address, and cause those issues to be further compounded in subsequent years. Burning Man at BRC is a massive, high-profile event. Other event organizers will be encouraged to throw their own events without doing the research that Burning Man Project has done and will continue to do.
We are concerned about the impact of commuting through indigenous land. As a result, we will be donating to a few organizations benefiting local tribes, and encourage readers to do the same. Information on how to do this is here (thank you to the DGTD crew for putting this document together).
We do not believe, even with the best information, organization, and intention, that it is possible to safely attend Burning Man in 2021. This is the most important one. When we polled the crew about the possibility of attending Burning Man at BRC 2021, the biggest “what would it take to get me to attend” response was “everyone is vaccinated and there is proof,” followed closely by “herd immunity”. We cannot safely run Thunderdome until there is herd immunity. There is/are people breathing heavily on each other, tightly packed bodies, and fluid exchange (nope, still not OrgyDome (much respect, we love your work)). There is so much that is currently unknown. We aren’t sure (there have been small studies) whether people who have had the vaccine can still transmit. We don’t know how long the vaccine lasts. Even then, the Burning Man community has anti-science members who may not take the vaccine though they are physically able to do so. We don’t believe it’s reasonable to ask volunteers to check for vaccine status. Per the 2019 BRC Census, 47% of the US-based Black Rock City population is based in California, with 83% of the overall Black Rock City population (who completed the census) from the U.S. So that’s about 39% overall from CA. The California vaccine rollout has been abysmally slow and mismanaged (second from the worst in the country as of this writing), and most of our membership is located in California. Even if most people are vaccinated, we will certainly not have reached herd immunity by then. We will not ask our crew, who already put their bodies on the line being kicked, bled on, spat on, have drinks poured on, have items dropped on from 20’, touch harnesses that touch many, many sets of underwear, etc., etc., etc. to put themselves at even greater physical risk.
Death. We know it’s in our name. We’re not interested in causing it. Our lawyers just aren’t that good and we’re broke.
(Want to help us make it through the year? Storage through August 2022 is $7254 and right now we have about $900 in our account. Venmo is deathguildthunderdome, PayPal is phreddiva@operamail.com, our Patreon is here, and we aren’t afraid to ask for help. Ok, we are, a little.)
There are too many unknowns to reasonably plan for an event in 2021. While logistics fell far below safety, ethics, and impact in terms of our concerns, you can take the event away from the project manager, but you can’t take the project manager away from (thinking about) the event. Even if most people are vaccinated by early August 2021, we won’t have time to plan and will not have anything built before then, as we will not be able to safely gather for builds. How will vaccinations be determined? Will already-taxed volunteer gate staff also be tasked with policing vaccine status? Any proof of vaccine will definitely be faked and lied about. Because of current travel restrictions, people from other countries will not be able to plan. We have multiple members in different countries who would need to start planning immediately. What we see are a lot of moving targets. If this were a piece of software, we wouldn’t commit to a ship date prior to 2023, TBH. But that’s because shareholders. We think we can do this in 2022, but not before.
We had our first 2021 meeting last week.
We’re taking the opportunity to talk about our show. To ideate about new offerings in the form of performance, our show, our fights, our set, our characters, narrative, vehicles, props, and rituals. We haven’t had anyone bring up a pants cannon in a meeting for years. Until 2021. We haven’t talked about changing up our esplanade frontage in a long time. We haven’t had the luxury to ideate this freely and without constraint since we started. And we are RUNNING with it. DGTD fire troupe v.3.0? MAYBE. A two-story bar? We’ll see. More ritual around the dome ceremonies? Most definitely. We are not idle. We don’t know how to be. And we will not let this unique moment of stillness turn into inaction.
We do want the organization to survive. We have invested deeply in Burning Man and its culture for decades. It is why we feel strongly about not attending in 2021, so that we can, when the time is right, not be missing anyone when it’s time to come back together. If the cost of survival of the event is, at best, the inability of the most marginalized among us to participate and, at worst, death, the price is too high. The world is watching, and Death is listening.
See you in 2022 (even if we have to start from scratch),
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We stand against racism and police brutality.
We support equality and fairness for all.
Listen on! This is the truth of it…
It took us a moment to get here.
Death Guild Thunderdome has seen the continued brutalization of people of color by law enforcement, and we hear their calls for change.
Death is Listening
EMMETT TILL - MEDGAR EVERS - GEORGE JUNIUS STINNEY JR. - DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR - HENRY SMITH - JOHN CRAWFORD III - MICHAEL BROWN - EZELL FORD - DANTE PARKER - MICHELLE CUSSEAUX - MARY TURNER - LAQUAN MCDONALD - MALCOLM X - TANISHA ANDERSON - AKAI GURLEY - TAMIR RICE - RUMAIN BRISBON - JERAME REID - MATTHEW AJIBADE - JAMES N. POWELL JR. - FRANK SMART - ERNEST LACY - NATASHA MCKENNA - TONY ROBINSON - ANTHONY HILL - MYA HALL - PHILLIP WHITE - ERIC HARRIS - WALTER SCOTT - WILLIAM CHAPMAN II - ALEXIA CHRISTIAN - BRENDON GLENN - VICTOR MANUEL LAROSA - JONATHAN SANDERS - FREDDIE CARLOS GRAY JR. - JOSEPH MANN - SALVADO ELLSWOOD - SANDRA BLAND - ALBERT JOSEPH DAVIS - DARRIUS STEWART - BILLY RAY DAVIS - SAMUEL DUBOSE - MICHAEL SABBIE - BRIAN KEITH DAY - CHRISTIAN TAYLOR - TROY ROBINSON - ASSHAMS PHAROAH MANLEY - MICHAEL STEWART - FELIX KUMI - KEITH HARRISON MCLEOD - JUNIOR PROSPER - LAMONTEZ JONES - PATERSON BROWN - DOMINIC HUTCHINSON - ANTHONY ASHFORD - ALONZO SMITH - TYREE CRAWFORD - INDIA KAGER - LA?VANTE BIGGS - MICHAEL LEE MARSHALL - JAMAR CLARK - RICHARD PERKINS - PHILLIP PANNELL - NATHANIEL HARRIS PICKETT - BENNI LEE TIGNOR - MIGUEL ESPINAL - MICHAEL NOEL - KEVIN MATTHEWS - BETTIE JONES - QUINTONIO LEGRIER - KEITH CHILDRESS JR. - JANET WILSON - RANDY NELSON - ANTRONIE SCOTT - WENDELL CELESTINE - DAVID JOSEPH - CALIN ROQUEMORE - DYZHAWN PERKINS - CHRISTOPHER DAVIS - MARCO LOUD - JAMES BYRD JR. - PETER GAINES - TORREY ROBINSON - DARIUS ROBINSON - KEVIN HICKS - MARY TRUXILLO - DEMARCUS SEMER - AMADOU DIALLO - WILLIE TILLMAN - TERRILL THOMAS - DEMETRIUS DUBOSE - ALTON STERLING - PHILANDO CASTILE - TERENCE CRUTCHER - PAUL O?NEAL - ALTERIA WOODS - BOBBY RUSS - JORDAN EDWARDS - AARON BAILEY - RONELL FOSTER - STEPHON CLARK - COREY CARTER - ANTWON ROSE II - TAYLER ROCK - MALICE GREEN - RAMARLEY GRAHAM - ELIJAH MCCLAIN - AIYANA STANLEY JONES - BOTHAM JEAN - PAMELA TURNER - DOMINIQUE CLAYTON - SEAN BELL - ATATIANA JEFFERSON - JEMEL ROBERSON - JAMES LEE ALEXANDER - RYAN MATTHEW SMITH - DERRICK AMBROSE JR. - ADDIE MAE COLLINS - CAROL DENISE MCNAIR - CAROLE ROBERTSON - CYNTHIA WESLEY - NICHOLAS HEYWARD JR. - CHRISTOPHER WHITFIELD - WILLIE MCCOY - VICTOR WHITE III - MARCUS DEON SMITH - CHAVIS CARTER - MARTIN LEE ANDERSON - CHRISTOPHER MCCORVEY - BRADLEY BLACKSHIRE - TIMOTHY THOMAS - REGINALD DOUCET JR. - DANROY “DJ” HENRY JR. - KARVAS GAMBLE JR. - ERIC REASON - KORRYN GAINES - REKIA BOYD - KIONTE SPENCER - DARIUS TARVER - WAYNE ARNOLD JONES - MANUEL ELLIS - VICTOR DUFFY JR. - KOBE DIMOCK-HEISLER - CLINTON R. ALLEN - DONTRE HAMILTON - TIMOTHY CAUGHMAN - SYLVILLE SMITH - COREY JONES - TYRE KING - ERIC GARNER - MILES HALL - KENDRICK JOHNSON - CHARLEENA LYLES - MICHAEL LORENZO DEAN - TRAYVON MARTIN - RENISHA MCBRIDE - KIWANE CARRINGTON - OSCAR GRANT III - BREONNA TAYLOR - KALIEF BROWDER - DARRIEN HUNT - TROY HODGE - WILLIAM GREEN - AHMAUD ARBERY - DION JOHNSON - TONY MCDADE - JAMEL FLOYD - GEORGE FLOYD - RAYSHARD BROOKS - ITALIA MARIE KELLY - DAVID MCATEE - CHRIS BEATY - FRED HAMPTON
The recent outpouring of rage and grief, manifesting in protest, legislation, discourse, donations, awareness, and the simple placing of Black lives over white feelings, is long overdue.
We at Death Guild Thunderdome stand with the Black community. With our Black members, with our Black fans and supporters, even those who hate Death Guild Thunderdome and what we do. Because it’s not about liking. For too long, a willingness to look at our own complicit racism has been contingent on the genial behavior of BIPOC. The willingness of BIPOC to be patient, to educate. The stepping around white fragility as a favor to help bring the white community along. This is a survival mechanism that was borne of white violence, and white silence. This is bullshit.
We, ourselves, are long overdue. We are sorry for that. We had a lot to learn. As the outpourings of support were voiced across the world, and as corporations took their public stances, Death Guild Thunderdome plodded along with a quiet year of no dome setups. At our standing meeting in early June, the simple question - should we make a public Black Lives Matter statement? was posed. The overwhelming reply from those who attended the meeting was “yes, of course”. No one publicly said “no”.
We agreed and, after the meeting, began to write and edit.
As we began this work of writing and editing, conversations began, conversations that mirror the ones happening in corporations all over the country, anonymously and out loud, after these companies make their BLM statements.
The comments are predictable. I won’t repeat them. No overt racism, but entrenched, systemic, devil’s advocating.
Then our members - disproportionately our BIPOC members - some gently and kindly, all without personal attack, spent their precious emotional labor to educate members of this fierce family, in a good faith effort to bring people along.
We are a work in progress.
Death Guild Thunderdome was born in the 90’s out of the minds of a bunch of misfits, goths, punks, anti-racists, bikers, builders, and nightclub staff. Our membership spans the planet, and in its 20+ year history has become more diverse, like the patches on a twenty year old battle jacket.
This would have been our 22nd year of operation. We are, for a theme camp (our designation at Burning Man, though we exist in many other worlds), old. Our roots are in toxic masculinity, in white privilege, and fragility. Through careful, conscious effort, we are slowly, painstakingly breaking away from this. It is certainly two steps forward and one step back.
The path is clear. We will not place white egos over the safety of BIPOC. Not within the Death Guild Thunderdome community, not at events where we are guests, nor where we are hosting you. We are sorry for the times we did the opposite. We were wrong.
But we’ve learned. By the dust of them all, Death Guild Thunderdome’s learned…
Well… We’re learning.
We don’t say this to request patience. BIPOC have been fucking patient enough for long enough. We say this to acknowledge that this is a journey, with a destination at which we may not arrive in our lifetimes. This is an acknowledgement of two things:
Black Lives Matter - we stand with you
We commit to continuing to learn and grow.
If you’re lucky, you get to live long enough to learn and grow, and to be embarrassed by, perhaps even ashamed of, some of your previous behaviors. We acknowledge that our history has elements of toxicity, and we’re not proud. We have learned, and grown. If how much we’ve learned in the past 22 years is any indication, we will be in a vastly different place, with new learnings, 22 years from now. We want you to know that we are committed to remaining open to continuing to learn and grow. We look forward to those learnings, to being ashamed of elements of “us” now, while taking the good of the work that has been done and building on it.
We commit to evolution. We commit to never arriving.
Join us. We don’t need another hero.
We are calling on you, the Death Guild Thunderdome community, to examine yourselves and your circles. To have the uncomfortable conversations with the people who dress like we do, who listen to the same music, enjoy the same pastimes, attend the same festivals. To use your privilege to make a safer space for BIPOC. To not accept the lazy stereotypes that try - and fail - to explain the whiteness of the spaces we inhabit. To make these spaces uncomfortable and unwelcoming to racists, and to people with egos so fragile that they cannot accept feedback about their own racism, so that these spaces may be safe(r) for BIPOC. Because, every time you protect the feelings of a person who has created an unsafe space for BIPOC, you are making room for more of that behavior, making the space more dangerous. We call on you to value the lives and safety of BIPOC that you don’t even know over the fragile feelings of your friends.
In this year with no events, we have the rare opportunity to challenge ourselves, to get clear on who we are outside of these festivals, these events that often otherwise define us.
We are challenging ourselves to be better.
We are challenging you to join us.
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome.
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