Could it be ... satire?
I mean, it can't be real. Right?
Right?... ....
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The Sparkle Goat House is looking for a new housemate to join our 7-person collective in Oakland! We aim to have a range of genders reflected in our home space and have a strong preference for a male identified feminist person to join us at this time. (we welcome you to express your experience of gender in your reply if categories don't feel like a simple fit).
Here is some details about our house, the people in it and more on who we are looking for.
The COMMUNITY: So far, we are a community of six queer white people committed to looking at the structures of privilege, power, oppression and the roles we play in them. We are in our late twenties to late thirties. Our conversations often center around anti-racist struggles and what justice may look like in our home, our neighborhood and in Oakland. You will find us at protests, vigils, and community events. We realize that for a person of color it might be hard to come into a house of all white people for so many reasons. We are committed to reflecting on our expressions of privilege and power and are open to working through ways our racism plays out in our community.
Overall we really enjoy being silly, laughing, having fun, sharing our feelings after long days, and going on adventures. We strive for clear communication and work on conflict directly when it comes up.
We eat dinner together a few times a week, keep our house really clean, have house meetings, share chores, and buy mostly organic vegetarian/vegan food together. Our food budget and other expenses run each person roughly $175 a month. There is not a lot of room for personal food and everyone contributes funds to collective food. Everyone cooks for the house 2 times a month. We also have a wonderful backyard with a fire pit, lots of places to sit, a rabbit named Stanley, and a thriving garden.
We have occasional potlucks, gatherings, block parties, and enjoy opening up our house to people's friends. Connecting with the neighborhood is important to us. We are an early to bed kinda house as most of us have jobs or projects that motivate us to get an early start in the morning. We prefer housemates and guests who are mostly sober.
The People:
Becca: At the moment Becca is a carpenter by trade, hoping to start a farm someday full of healing and good communication and veggies of course. She is genderqueer (you can also call her "they") and loves the woods, riding in the house bike gang, and eating mostly vegan food except for the occasional trip to fried chicken. She practices Kajukenbo martial arts to keep her voice and spirit strong and co-counseling to keep her heart tender.
Michael: is 32 and has been in the Bay for 8 years now. He is committed to restorative, diverse community in Oakland. He is a white Jewish queer cis man with roots from Russia and Poland. He is a lover of justice across the board and aspires to be a truth teller in all aspects of life. You might find him on the block getting to know neighbors, playing the guitar, doing anti-racism work, in the classroom, on the streets at a demonstration, or on the basketball court.
Emma: is a 28 year old Queer lady creative thinker and doer with a flair for bread-baking, a love of animals and children, and a passion for poop (aka "sustainable human waste management systems") and communal living and collective work. She is currently working as a pastry chef but dreams of doing something even awesomer, TBD. In her dreams she is a roller derby champion, ceramic artist, who also performs covers of her favorite songs while playing the accordion in front of an adoring audience. She loves flowers, and emotions (having them, talking about them, processing them -- hers and others'). She loves hiking, growing plants, working with her hands, and dancing. The way to her heart is through a giant bowl of soup.
Nicole: is new to Oakland, recently jumping the Bay after 15 years in SF. She is loving this side of the Bay and enjoying finding new places to drink coffee, people watch and find amazing second-hand boots. After recently finishing school and leaving a job working with incarcerated drug offenders, she is enjoying some down time and searching for her next role within the fight for social justice. Loves chatting about almost all things, motorcycle rides to almost all places, and dancing to almost all songs.
Wren sees herself most days as a queer jew, age 31 (biologically) born and raised in the suburbs of NYC. Z (attempting to bring it back) is new to the bay area, and this house, and is loving what we are creating. Right now, most of Wren's time is spent working with children, and studying to be a radical rabbi dedicated to the work of nonviolence. Wren is striving to achieve this through tracing back family ancestry from both Eastern Europe and the Middle East. . .and through, dirt. . . dance. . . song. . . community. . ., and prayer.
Kat: genderqueer faab White human who moved to the bay in 2003. They are working toward their MSW, which includes a thesis project about how to reduce white fragility and promote white resilience in anti-racism education and organizing spaces. They love half-and-half in their coffee but not in their nettle tea, crafty projects like making fire cider and leather wallets and baby booties, and are often found queer country-western two-stepping, hiking n biking, or at an organizing meeting. They love the combination of political engagement, emotional tenderness, and hilarity/joyfulness in the house.
We are looking for a housemate that has clear and compassionate communication, and who actively wants to work on being close to a group of people. We ask that you be a person who is willing to keep all common spaces very clean. We are looking for someone who wants to be involved in our neighborhood to help build community. We would also like someone who looks at their relationship with oppression and how it shows up in our country, society and communities. Justice across the board is important to you and in your own personal way you are working to create a more just Oakland. We aim to have a range of genders reflected in our home space and have a strong preference for a male identified feminist person to join us at this time. (we welcome you to express your experience of gender in your reply if categories don't feel like a simple fit).
If after reading our entire ad, you feel you would be a great fit for the house we ask you to answer the questions below. It would be an immense help if you answered the questions in order and kept the numbering so we can more easily keep track of responses.
Questions:
What are some of the things you are passionate about?
How do you co create safer space? Please share your thoughts around topics of racism, sexism, queer phobia, etc.
What are your pet peeves?
What does "clean" look like in your daily home life? How do you contribute to keeping a space clean (beyond doing your own dishes and cleaning up after yourself)? .
What is your schedule like? Do you work 9-5 or have a flexible schedule? Are you early to rise early to bed or do you like to stay up late?
What is your name, gender pronoun, and age?
How do you like to socialize at home? Describe an ideal social gathering.
Do you drink, smoke, do any drugs?
We buy communal vegetarian/vegan food (plus yogurt, butter, and honey), so all of our group meals are vegetarian/vegan and mostly created from staples and produce rather than packaged foods. How do you see yourself fitting in to that? What are your dietary habits and needs outside of this?
Thank You for reading our ad until the end. One last request. Please put the word Banana Split in the subject line to show us that you have read the whole ad.
in community The Sparkle Goat House Search Committee