we create ourselves. we create our belonging. we create our freedom.
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An Ecosystem of
Local Ecosystems
What Makes Up a Local Ecosystem?
Underground Rainbow Experiment (URE) is building an ecosystem of local ecosystems: a connected network of Black Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (BTGNC) collectives, stewarded spaces, and community partners designed to strengthen the conditions for our communities to create, gather, live, and thrive.
We are building the infrastructure for many local ecosystems (versus a single centralized institution) to develop their own power, resources, and relationships while remaining connected through a shared national framework.
Each chapter's local ecosystem is made up of three interconnected parts:
Chapters — the BTGNC collectives, community entities, and initiatives that form the local governance and resource-sharing base.
URE Stewarded Spaces — the living, commercial, and gathering spaces that create physical infrastructure for community life.
Community Partners — service organizations, venues, businesses, and community organizations that connect the chapter to the broader local ecosystem.
Together, these elements create the foundation for a self-sustaining local ecosystem.
1. Chapters
Chapter Members are existing BTGNC collectives, community entities, and initiatives that become part of URE's local chapter infrastructure.
Membership is designed to move resources toward organizations already doing the work while creating new opportunities for collaboration, funding, and collective governance.
What Chapter Members Receive
Luminescence Lab
Service partners who support Luminescence Lab are contractually obligated to reserve 40% of cohort spots for URE Chapter Members for each program offered. This creates a direct pathway for chapter members to access professional development, organizational support, and compensated opportunities.
Shaping Sanctuaries
Chapter Members collectively receive 40% of available cohort spots in Shaping Sanctuaries programming, connecting members to long-term cooperative development, resource sharing, and economic infrastructure.
CPI Programming
Chapter Members collectively receive 40% of available cohort spots in Centered Power Incubator (CPI) programming, including access to associated grant funding.
Circuit Fest
Chapter Members receive guaranteed participation in Circuit Fest, including access to associated grant funding and opportunities to produce programming within the broader Circuit Fest ecosystem.
The Global URE Network
As URE develops its international network, Chapter Members will have access to the opportunities, relationships, resources, and infrastructure created across the broader URE ecosystem. This may include cross-chapter collaborations, artist exchanges, shared resources, international partnerships, programming opportunities, and connections to Chapter Members and Community Partners in other regions.
Chapter Member Responsibilities
Membership is reciprocal. Chapter Members help steward the local ecosystem by:
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Supporting the chapter's collective governance.
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Managing and caring for chapter resources.
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Collaborating with other Chapter Members.
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Contributing 10% of annual event proceeds to the area's Chapter Lending Pool.
Each Chapter Lending Pool begins with a $10,000 annual investment from URE National. Contributions from participating organizations accumulate within the pool, creating a locally controlled source of capital.
Each month, a participating organization/initiative can access a loan from the pool to support activities, projects, emergencies, or other chapter priorities. The goal is to create a regenerative financial structure in which resources remain within the ecosystem and continue circulating among the organizations building it.
A local ecosystem requires more than organizations. It requires places where people can live, work, gather, create, rest, and build relationships.
URE Stewarded Spaces are physical spaces acquired, developed, or maintained through rent, ownership, construction, or donation.
These spaces can include:
Living Spaces
Permanent and temporary housing that supports BTGNC people through periods of transition, creative development, relocation, rest, and community building.
Commercial Spaces
Workspaces, studios, offices, production spaces, storefronts, and other properties that can support the economic and creative activity of the ecosystem.
Gathering Spaces
Third spaces where community members can meet outside of home and work. These spaces can host performances, workshops, meetings, celebrations, cultural programming, meals, and informal community connection.
Our goal is not simply to acquire property. It is to develop a network of community-controlled places that can circulate resources and opportunity across chapters.
2.
URE Stewarded Spaces
3. Community Partners
No chapter exists in isolation.
URE chapters are connected to a broader network of Community Partners whose resources, spaces, services, and relationships help make the ecosystem possible.
Community Partners include:
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Service Organizations — organizations providing legal, financial, housing, health, professional, educational, or other support services.
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Gathering Space — spaces that hold workshops, meetings, celebrations, and community activities.
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Venues — theaters, galleries, cultural spaces, and event spaces.
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QTBIPOC, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ Owned Businesses — businesses that can provide goods, services, employment, partnerships, and economic circulation within the ecosystem.
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Community Organizations — organizations and initiatives whose work intersects with the needs, interests, and futures of the communities we serve.
These relationships allow each chapter to connect its internal resources to the wider community around it.
Building an Ecosystem of
Local Ecosystems
URE's long-term vision is not to create a collection of identical chapters.
Each chapter is rooted in its local conditions, relationships, people, and resources. At the same time, chapters are connected through shared infrastructure, resource circulation, programming opportunities, governance practices, and a shared commitment to supporting BTGNC creative life.
This means that a resource developed in one place can strengthen another. A space acquired in one chapter can support visiting artists from another. A community partner can create opportunities across multiple regions. A successful event can contribute resources back into a local lending pool. And a collective that has developed capacity in one area can share that knowledge with another.
The result is a network designed not simply to serve communities, but to help communities build and steward their own infrastructure.