**We're about to lose something irreplaceable.**

Right now, queer elders' voices are fading. Their archives are being sold off or thrown away. The spaces where our community built itself—through grief, joy, defiance, and love—are being erased from memory.

[Eye Zen Presents ](https://www.eyezen.org/) is facing a crisis. After nearly 20 years of preserving LGBTQ+ history and turning it into accessible public art, we've lost 50% of our operating budget this year. Grants that sustained us for decades were denied. In the current political climate, the words "LGBTQ," "diversity," and "BIPOC" are being flagged. Queer and trans-led organizations like ours are being systematically defunded.

**We need $40,000 by the end of the year—or we may not survive to finish the most important project we've ever created.** [Help us by starting a peer-to-peer campaign with your community.](https://www.every.org/eye-zen-presents/fundraiser?viewport=desktop)

What's At Stake: [  Walk With Me](https://www.eyezen.org/walkwithme)

For the past year and a half, we've been building something extraordinary: *Walk With Me*, a first-of-its-kind, self-guided augmented-reality audio tour of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.

Picture this: You're standing on a street corner in the Haight. You press play. Suddenly, you hear the actual voices of queer elders—archival recordings from the 1960s through the AIDS crisis to today—telling you what happened right where you're standing. Hand-painted illustrations appear on your screen, bringing invisible histories to life through GPS-guided storytelling. Six decades of queer counterculture, layered over the neighborhood like a living memory.

This isn't just a tour. It's an act of resistance against erasure.

But we're running out of money to finish it.

**Why This Can't Wait**

In an era when LGBTQ+ communities face renewed threats of erasure, when elders' archives and neighborhoods are at risk, Eye Zen Presents stands as a bridge between generations. We preserve endangered materials, activate them through public art, and return them to community as tools for belonging.

It's more important than ever to battle erasure and honor the powerful, beautiful, and at times tragic stories of all the queens, dykes, trans folks, and gays who came before us.

*Walk With Me* brings this to life. Narrated by Seth Eisen and built from archival recordings of queer elders, the six-episode journey invites you to move through layered timelines of queer creativity, mutual aid, grief, and resilience. History becomes a shared, embodied act—ensuring that creative lineages of queer and trans expression remain visible and transformative.

**The Reality We're Facing**

We're a small team doing big work. We pay artists and archivists. We maintain digital infrastructure. We steward partnerships with cultural organizations, archives, and community venues. Our model turns preservation into public art.

**And right now, that team isn't getting paid for the work they're doing.**

It doesn't feel good. But we refuse to stop.

We're not here to despair. We're here to tell you that we are **determined** to finish *Walk With Me*, despite every barrier. Our joy in making these projects **is** our resistance.

**We're Already Halfway There**

- ✅ **Halfway through writing and recording the tour**
- ✅ **Installing** [Queer History Happened Here QR codes](https://www.eyezen.org/queer-history-happened-here) at Haight shops like Bound Together Books and O'Reilly's—linking to stories about historic gay bars, legendary business owners like Peggy Caserta (creator of the bell-bottom jean), and the rich life of the neighborhood
- ✅ **Launching test tours**—[want to join the next one?](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfo5VHmyaGw6ImJhMvZcglHRyEYmSdNcuoadSTVqVELWFxLlg/viewform)
- ✅ **Creating hand-painted illustrations** and curating archival images to bring invisible histories to life

*Queer History Happened Here* (#QHHH) creates permanent fixtures of queer visibility throughout the Haight-Ashbury—the first project of its kind for Eye Zen. These QR codes ensure that queer history isn't just remembered, it's **visible**.

**We Need $40K to Finish**

Without this funding, we may not complete *Walk With Me* or launch it in Summer 2026. Your support will:

- **Pay our team - 15k**: Staff, artists, archivists, and overhead; restore hours we've cut
- **Get the word out - 5k**: Marketing and publicity for this groundbreaking project
- **Honor our sources - 5k**: Music and image rights for historic sounds and visuals
- **Ensure excellence - 10k**: A+ audio recording, directing, and engineering
- **Finish what we started - 5k**: Give this project the completion it deserves

**How You Can Help Right Now**

1. **Donate directly**—every dollar counts toward $40K
2. **Start a Peer-to-Peer Campaign** on Every.org (takes minutes)
3. **Share this newsletter** and our social media
4. **Spread the word** to anyone who refuses to let history be erased

**This Is About More Than Funding**

This is about refusing to be silenced. About standing together when systems try to erase us. About ensuring that future generations can walk through the Haight and **hear** the voices, **feel** the presence, and know the profound, radical, joyful history that happened right beneath their feet.

**We've come too far to stop now. Will you walk with us?**

With gratitude, hope, and fierce determination,
Eye Zen Presents

Help Eye Zen Presents Finish Walk With Me

An SF Queer Theater Company, fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts

Eye Zen Presents illuminates and preserves hidden LGBTQ+ histories through interdisciplinary performance, archival activation, and intergenerational exchange. We create immersive public art rooted in place, memory, and accessibility that connects queer elders, artists, and audiences. Our practice pairs hands-on archival preservation with new creative works so that endangered legacies are safeguarded and shared as living culture. 


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