Matthew Antonio's Ode to PFund

Ode to PFund – Performed August 3, 2011 by Matthew Antonio Bosch (PFund Volunteer & REI Graduate)
at PFund’s SummerCAMP to raise funding & awareness for the Racial Equity Initiative

I only got 5 minutes, 5 minutes is all I got

(c) Anna Min

To tell you about PFund, so I gotta make this hot

First off, who am I, a bunch of y’all don’t know

A queer Latino from New York named Matthew Antonio

I started out with PFund as a community volunteer

Reviewing scholarships for queer students, just finished my 4^th year

Reading these amazing stories, from so very many queers

I realized at Age 16, I was nowhere near this fierce

Underground queer activism in rural communities & the church

Or academic excellence through active grad research

So after a few years of that, I learned about a group

Where you could connect with others & enter the queers of color loop

Alfonso said it’s REI, we’re a few years strong & countin’

(c) Anna Min

I said REI’s a camping store, I’m not rappellin’ off no mountain!

He said no, it’s an initiative devoted to racial equity

We’ll be promoting collaboration, leadership, & integrity

You’ll get to meet new people, Black Latino Asian

Native & Middle Eastern, look it’s a POC celebration

During my time with REI, we had some monthly meetings

To talk about our conferences, our workshops, & some readings

We shared our daily struggles & success with solidarity

Across unlikely allies with surprising levels of clarity.

They sent me to a conference for queer POCs

I wish that would happen here, but San Diego sure did please

(c) Anna Min

REI brought in some speakers, I actually use their stuff at work

Plus they fed us pizza & salad, chomp chomp mmm…what a perk!

I got to visit places I’d never been before

Like the office for Shades of Yellow, so awesome to explore.

So you see you get connected, as a result of REI

Increasing your knowledge base & your POC network on the fly

You might think “Ok so that’s done, well what happens when you finish?”

Well the doors swing out wide open, the opportunities don’t diminish

They asked if I’d join PFund’s committee to find the next Executive Director

Since I’m a volunteer, a donor, they called me a ‘community connector’

(c) Anna Min

So then I met the staff, the Board, & some amazing committee members

And we hired Susan & Kate, it was unanimous I remember

Now look at this place, people of every ethnicity, faith, & age

What were you ever thinking, giving me a microphone and a stage?

But now you know about PFund, our initiatives are ever raging,

And I hope you found this format very informative and engaging.

Thank you