Hand Mirror Patreon

In April, we launched our Patreon subscriber platform.

With a number of new Hand Mirror projects underway, we have now added a new tier - Fun House - giving patrons the option to support us at £12 per month. Sign up at any level before November 1st and we’ll send you a Patron-only bonus from our August 2020 Poet of the Month, Shanekia McIntosh.

Fun House subscribers will get our monthly patron-only newsletters, including a previously unreleased song download by Harkin, a poem by Kate Leah Hewett and/or Hand Mirror collaborators, and a playlist by Harkin.

Plus, Fun House subscribers get access to benefits including:

• A signed, printed edition of bi-annual Hand Mirror Journal

• An annual surprise merch gift

• Exclusive streamed performances

• Written and video interviews with friends of Hand Mirror

• Early access to updates, tickets, releases

Patron support makes it possible for us to continue to grow Hand Mirror and, in turn, for us to offer that structure to others.

Our next project will be the first Hand Mirror print journal. The journal will feature contributions from over 20 artists, and will include photography, poetry, visual art, essays, and more. All proceeds from sales of the journal will go to charities supporting those living with food insecurity.

Subscriber levels range from Compact (£1 per month) to Full Length (£25 per month). There's no commitment, and patrons can upgrade and downgrade support at any time.

Thank you for reflecting with us.

You can support us on the Hand Mirror Patreon here

Harkin is one of three Yorkshire based artists to receive PPL Momentum Accelerator talent development grants, in partnership with Music:Leeds’ Launchpad and supported by Arts Council England. The grant will be used towards recording and marketing Harkin’s second solo album, to be released via Hand Mirror.

Harkin says:

"Thank you to PRS Foundation for recognising me and Hand Mirror as a recipient of the PPL Momentum Accelerator Fund. This support for LP2 means so much, this year of all years!"

READ MORE

August marks our first Patreon artist commission, made possible entirely by subscriber support. Thank you! We are truly thrilled to be bringing Patreon subscribers two poems by the incomparable Shanekia McIntosh.

Exploratory, vital and truth-seeking in tone, paced with fervour and urgency, Shanekia brings a wide-angled lens to her work which allows no short-termism, no selecive amnesia, no collective apathy. We're not worthy.

Shanekia McIntosh is a writer, poet and performer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York as a first-generation American, in a predominately Caribbean neighborhood, by Jamaican immigrants. Her work is inspired by the double consciousness of her cultural heritage and the black diaspora; it aims to disrupt and confront the historical colonial erasure of Black/POC narratives, the contemporary byproducts of that erasure and its continued practice today. Using the thematic palette of generational trauma, dislocation and migration, climate change, afro-futurism, empathetic political actions and accessibility, the work aims to cultivate a community space to engage contemporary narratives and perspectives to upend the learned complacency of these practices.

McIntosh has read and shown her work at The New Museum, Second Ward Foundation, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s TBA Festival, Hudson Hall, NY Live Arts, September Gallery and more, with recent work being published in Chronogram, Apogee Journal and The TENTH Magazine. She is the co-founder of Free Range, a black performance series with artist Tschabalala Self and DJ Michael Mosby. Previously, McIntosh co-curated TRIPTYCH, the Sunday daytime programming for Basilica Soundscape Music and Arts Festival in Hudson, NY with poet Joey de Jesus. McIntosh is the Youth Service & Programs Assistant for the Hudson Area Library in Hudson, NY.

Follow Shanekia's work at her website and at @itheabstract on Instagram. 

If you’re in a position to do so, you can become a Hand Mirror Patreon subscriber here, starting at £1 per month.

Fundraiser notebooks are back from 8AM BST / 3AM ET / midnight PDT for one day only. 100% of proceeds will be donated to Tanya Compas' Exist Loudly Fund which supports QTIBPOC young people.

For their part, on Friday, June 19, Bandcamp are donating their cut to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. For this reason, the notebooks will only be available on this date from handmirror.bandcamp.com. While you’re there, buy the albums of the black musicians you’ve been streaming.

BUY HERE

This item is pay what you want and ships worldwide. For any purchase over the suggested price (6 GBP), Harkin will write the lyrics to a song from her album on the first page(s).

Notebooks are A6 (4” x 6”) 300gsm brown recycled board cover, 48 lined pages.

They sold out before 9am last time, so remind your mate that missed out. (To those that purchased, thank you for your generosity. We’ve almost finished processing those first orders!)

Ta,
Kate and Katie x

Black Lives Matter

100% of proceeds from our new label merch - pocket notebooks - will be donated to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, an organisation which protects and defends the human rights of black transgender people.

BUY HERE

This item is pay what you want. For any purchase over the suggested price (6 GBP), Harkin will write the lyrics to a song from her album on the first page(s). Bandcamp is once again waiving artist fees tomorrow (Friday 5th), so these will only be available from handmirror.bandcamp.com in order to maximise the final donation total. While you’re there, buy the albums of the black musicians you’ve been streaming. 

Notebooks are A6 (4” x 6”) 300gsm brown recycled board cover, 48 lined pages. Available Friday, June 5th. Ships worldwide.

Black Lives Matter

Listen on SoundCloud

Hear Kate Leah Hewett read her poem ‘Grace Period’ as part of Tim Mislock’s ongoing With Love series of ambient sounds.

"Harkin is an album of spacious indie rock, modern and melodic, filled with hooks and exciting, memorable arrangements." -BrooklynVegan

“A master songwriter” - Narc Magazine

“She was right to take her time - debuts are rarely this refined” - DIY Magazine

“She has made a home with a singular sound, and found her true voice” - Loud and Quiet

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"I wrote this album between borrowed rooms on tour and a cottage among the howling moors of The Peak District National Park, searching for a sound that combined the eeriness of the English countryside with the pace of the mechanized world. The album is also the first release on Hand Mirror.

Founding Hand Mirror was a statement of collaborative intent - if we can build the scaffolding to support ourselves, then we can offer that structure to others. The mission statement of Hand Mirror being a place for the “boundless, the collaborative and the open” remains unchanged, though the parameters through which we can execute that look wildly different to a couple of weeks ago. For now, we'll be updating our Patreon monthly, and looking forward to the day we can re-stage our launch parties." - Harkin

📷 by Tim Dunk via @facetimportraits

Hand Mirror Patreon

For both of us, music and culture provided a kind of scaffolding for our emerging identities as young people, and continue to do so as we move forwards in our lives. Starting Hand Mirror was a statement of intent; if we can build the scaffolding to support ourselves, then we can offer that structure to others.

As live events and tours must come to a standstill while we all face the urgent global pandemic crisis, we have spent the last few weeks considering what continuing Hand Mirror at a distance could look like. Through Patreon, we hope to be able to continue to develop our own support system, and to connect to those interested in being part of what we're building, even as the parameters for performing, writing and creating new culture continue to shift. We hope to turn Hand Mirror into a space for self reflection which can support the work of others. We hope for Hand Mirror to be a home for the boundless, the collaborative and the open, from live shows to the written word, from performance to recorded music, and beyond.

By supporting us with a monthly subscription of your choice, you'll be working with us to help make that possible. In return, you'll have access to writing, music, performance and collaborations exclusive to patrons. If you support us at the Full Length level, you'll also get a subscription to our bi-annual print journal and will get both this, and a merch package delivered through your mailbox.

Thanks for reflecting with us. Kate and Katie

Stream Harkin’s ‘Dial It In’ on Spotify

Harkin is also sharing new single ‘Dial It In’, taken from her debut self-titled album, which is set for release April 24th via Hand Mirror.

Harkin says, "'Dial It In' is a song about about valuing intuition over entitlement. It's a track that I started writing in my best friend Ashley Connor’s New York apartment. I had planned to visit her but she got a job working on a film out of state, so instead I inhabited her life for a week. I’d aimed to wander NY in a romantic solo montage, but a particularly frigid storm hit and I was stuck inside for the duration of my visit. Which turned out to be the push I need to start writing this album.

I had played live with Jenn Wasner on tour, opening for her Flock of Dimes project. We got in the studio with Stella (Warpaint, Mozgawa). It was the first time they’d met and by the end of the day they were finishing each other’s jokes. The basic live track we ended up using was the first take. All pretty fitting given the inspiration of the song."

“Thanks Bandcamp for your actions so far to support artists in these unprecedented times. Promoting a record has never felt stranger, but participating in music has always made me feel less isolated and kept me buoyant. I thought I couldn’t possibly get more grateful for that, I was wrong. Be safe, much love, stay in touch.” - Harkin

Pre-order here.

Stream on Spotify here

"'Up To Speed' is a song about going nowhere fast. I’ve been on the move for a long time now and I know it’s been something of a coping mechanism. It’s easier to feel like a tourist somewhere you actually are one. It’s about trying to convert a desire to escape into genuine propulsion rather than just a sprint into the void. That’s Jenn yelling “this is my take” at the top of the song, which I kept as it felt very apt." - Harkin

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