Community Leader: Poppy

Meet Poppy Liu, Chuffed.org's Community Leader based in New York. Poppy combines arts and activism to promote social justice to destigmatize stories around sex, body, intimacy and identity - read about her amazing work and to see how  crowdfunding can help build a community!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career (or life) so far.

Poppy is a queer first generation Chinese-American actress, poet and the founder of the storytelling initiative and production company Collective Sex which has the mission of "decolonizing storytelling."

Names of Women, a short film about abortion, was created by Collective Sex's all femme film team and is currently on an ongoing national tour to college campuses and community spaces in collaboration with various reproductive justice organizations such as #ShoutYourAbortion, Planned Parenthood, Abortion Care Network, Center for Reproductive Rights and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Collective Sex's newest project is titled "Mercy Mistress", a web series based on the autobiographical story of a queer Chinese-American professional dominatrix living in New York City. This web series is pro sex work and pro intersectional feminism.

Why did you decide to become a Chuffed.org community leader?

I had an amazing experience working with Chuffed during my campaign Names of Women. It is clear that building community with genuine care is woven deep in the Chuffed company fabric and I am very excited about supporting that mission.

How did your crowdfunding journey begin? 

In the artistic and activist worlds, raising funds can be challenging. Particularly with the work we do through Collective Sex, it's really important to us that this work does not get watered down through corporate investment or commercialization. It is a creative challenge to find a super aligned financial model when it comes to doing pro-liberation anti-oppression activism work.
This is why we opted for crowdfunding. Everything we build is grassroots: built from the community in order to serve our communities. This felt like the most aligned way to realize our mission.

What social cause are passionate about and why?
Destigmatizing stories around sex, body, intimacy and identity
Reproductive Justice
Intersectional Gender Justice
LGBTQ Rights
Trans Rights
Storytelling as a form of healing + liberation
Immigrant stories
API solidarity + healing

What relevant fundraising or other experience do you have that you can share with participants in the workshop?

I ran a successful $20,000 campaign last year on Chuffed called Names of Women which is centered around abortion and reproductive justice. I am currently working on another crowdfunding campaign through Chuffed called Mercy, Mistress which is about destigmatizing sex work, BDSM and liberating the strong Asian-American woman character.

What social cause project or campaign on Chuffed will the funds raised through the workshop support?

Mercy, Mistress - the campaign will be live on August 21 for a 90 day campaign - watch this space