We are in the final moments, just about done and over. And we've done amazingly! I do not have my work computer back, so I opted for no end of project stream-- apologies! I know many people love them, but without my proper work setup it's really hard to make it happen.
However, I did take some thoughts from people's suggestions for a bonus two cards, and I'm putting them together! There were a lot of awesome ideas for what the two extra Major Arcana cards could be, but I've opted to go with an alternative Justice/Sheriff and Hierophant/Planner.
For the Justice card, I wanted to look at people who were being abused and left behind, or actively fighting to make things right for themselves. I think the Lavender Scare is often missed, but queer people were rooted out of the government (and elsewhere) during the 50s. Fear of the Russians blackmailing queer members of government and making them Red Puppets was the guise they used to oust as many as possible from positions in the state department and elsewhere. Of course, the 50s were a huge time with segregation coming to an end and a great deal of marching for equal rights for black Americans. For the foil, I did some obvious things with crossing out 'homosexual', and creating a sunrise behind the brave boy walking up the stairs among the white boys who were intimidating him on his way to school, but I also wanted to remind us of today's protests. The circles capturing faces that we can see is very much an homage to facial recognition technology that is being employed against us in exactly these kinds of scenarios today. I think it also helps people realize that many of these people in this image are still alive today. This is not the distant past. Justice is still far on the horizon, but we can make it real. For the Hierophant, I like to think about art as a connection from the mortal world to the great divine, and this was a way to pay homage to black music as it is and was without being appropriated and claimed out of their hands by white folks. The Planner card focused the man who planned the suburbs for white families as a connection to the divine in a sort of trite way, thinking of him as a great visionary-- but among the arts that didn't create safe and white places to live, we can find so much more power. It doesn't on its own speak to the way rock was taken and claimed by white folks, Elvis and the like, but it at least recognizes the beauty in the black music as it was, in the hands of those who created it.
What's Next?!
I'm finishing the guidebook, but think it can be done in a few weeks time. (So long as my work computer returns home quickly!) Then we'll move to pledge manager, where we'll work to combine orders for folks who backed the original campaign and just came here for the booster pack!
Can't wait to see where we end up! Right now with an hour and a half left, we're 430 backers with $16,300! Can we break even further?
