I've Been Hosting Anti-Facist Craft Nights & It's Healing My Soul

Here are all my tips to host your own!

I’m so glad you’re here! I’m Sarah Von Bargen, a long-time online writer, marketing consultant, and coach. Every week we’ll be exploring ideas around spending our time, money, and energy on purpose + how to build a life we love that doesn’t make us broke or exhausted.

Here is a short list of things I love:

• Repurposing and upcycling random pieces of, well, trash

• Doing things with friends beyond getting coffee

• Eating snacks

Sometimes this results in me badgering friends into taking a Community Ed wood burning class. Sometimes I make vegan meringue out of the water left in a can of chickpeas (it’s so much better than you’d think!)

Lately, it’s taking the shape of what I’ve been calling “Anti-Facist Craft Nights” and y’all? IT IS HEALING MY SOUL.

Sure, I use 5calls.org to call my reps multiple times a week and I’ve been avoiding (and thus inadvertently boycotting) big box retailers for ages - but hanging out with friends? While I create something with my hands? It scratches a different itch than leaving angry voicemails for Amy Klobuchar.

And it has totally nudged me outside of my social comfort zone. You guys. I went to a book club where I only knew the host and by the end of the book club, I had invited all of these women over to my house for an Anti-Facist Craft Night. And a week later - they came! And they brought friends!! And asked when I’d be hosting the next one!!!

I already have two more on the calendar and at least three more planned in my mind. I’m going to use these as an excuse to reach out to my “just say hi in passing” neighbors and local Instagram friends I’ve never met IRL. I’m even planning to eventually host one with a friend from high school in our tiny, conservative home town!

Whenever I post about these craft nights on my Instagram Stories, I get tons of questions and “that’s such a good idea!” DMs.

So if the idea of an Anti-Facist Craft Night piques your interest, but you’re not sure where to start, here are my best tips.

First things first: I got the idea to flood the mailboxes of our elected officials with physical mail from Gina Luker. She is great and you should follow her!

Your Anti-Facist Craft Night “shopping list” (You probably already have most of these things)

• Cereal boxes, snack boxes, frozen food boxes - any light weight cardboard

• Magazines and catalogs

• Glue sticks

• Paper for writing letters

• Scissors

• Markers and pens

• Stamps - postcard and letter

• Envelopes - I like the larger, legal size

• Print outs of elected officials mailing addresses

• Any other craft supplies that would make this more fun

• Snacks!

And if you plan on hosting a bunch of these and you’re worried it’ll get expensive to buy two sheets of stamps twice a month, just ask your guests to bring some!

Invite your friends + use Doodle to find a date / time that works for the most people

If you’re feeling shy or nervous about inviting people, I’ve found folks to be INCREDIBLY receptive. Most Americans are feeling overwhelmed, not sure what to do, or like they’re not doing enough.You’re giving them a fun, easy way to stay engaged!

Spending two hours crafting and connecting is fun! The concept of an Anti-Facist Craft Night is weird enough to pique people’s interest and I think having an “activity” to do makes it much easier to navigate socially. Folks who are nervous about making small talk can just cut things out of magazines and use glue sticks!

I love you too much to just "grab coffee"

Start stockpiling cereal boxes, snack boxes, frozen food boxes

Really, any lightweight cardboard boxes that aren’t corrugated; these are the right weight for postcards. Cut them into 4” x 6” postcards so they’re ready to go for your guests. And when my guests ask what they can bring to Anti-Facist Craft Night, I tell them to dig through their recycling bin and bring all their cereal boxes!

An example of a letter inspired by a magazine clipping, 4 friends crafting

Stockpile magazines and catalogs

I’ve found that it is really fun to make collage-style letters and to use images you find as an inspiration for what you’ll say in your letter.

Image of a dinosaur = “You’re responsible for the extinction of democracy.” Image of money = “Your tax cuts for billionaires are reprehensible.” One of my friends found an image from a cat litter ad and … I’m sure you can see where this is going.

People can cut out words or letters. I know some people like to cut magazine pages into tiny pieces of confetti and tuck them inside their letters, so they make a mess for the person who opens them.

Print out elected official mailing addresses

I make things easier by printing out the GOP addresses onto pink paper and the DFL addresses onto blue paper. Of course, you can just look up addresses on your phone, but it’s nice to have an analog option as well.

And fun fact: every Senator has multiple local offices. So if there’s a specific person you think deserves multiple letters, you could - just hypothetically - send letters to Amy Klobuchar’s offices in Minneapolis, Rochester, Moorhead, Virginia, and Washington, DC telling her what you think of her vote to spend millions of taxpayer dollars bombing Gaza.

Hang up a few “examples”

This tip comes from my time as a classroom teacher. It seems silly, but if you hang up an example of a postcard or letter you wrote, it can really help people get unstuck and just start.

If they see that their postcard can just say “Stop allowing masked men without warrants to kidnap people” they can stop spiraling about writing a profound essay. Or if they see that your letter is just a series of photos you cut out of magazines and sharpie marker saying “Grow a spine! We need you!” they’ll stop overcomplicating things.

Cereal box postcards, a pink print out of GOP addresses.

You can send positive letters of support

If someone doesn’t want to wallow in bad vibes, they can spend this time writing thank-you notes and letters of support and encouragement to elected officials they appreciate and support!

Obviously, be mindful of what you write

We’re not trying to write anything that will trigger an investigation or dusting for fingerprints.

I have zero qualms about reminding our elected officials that during the Nuremberg trials people who said they were “just following orders” were found guilty of war crimes. And I’m not afraid to tell elected officials who work for us and are paid with our tax dollars that they are useless, shameful nutbags.

But I’m not writing anything that could be construed as threatening or violent and you may want to remind your guests of that.

Have your friends leave their mail with you + mail it out in a big blue drop mailbox

The same way that a bag of Goodwill donations will rattle around in your trunk for seven months, these letters and postcards can get lost in the bottom of a bag or purse.

So make things easy by having your friends leave their postcards and letters with you and then you mail them off all at once from one of those old school blue drop mailboxes. If you’re not sure where the nearest one is, this website will tell you!

---

So many of us want to take action and connect with people, but we don’t know where to start. This is such a fun, easy way to do something while also seeing your friends and eating snacks. It’s a win/win/win!

How are y’all doing? Are you taking action in any ways I haven’t thought of?