It’s been 11 years since Theo Severson was living in Hyde Park with his Crate Brothers DJ-ing partner Mes McDonald. Back then, he would go on bike rides late at night, but one evening, all of a sudden, he finally noticed the folks sleeping on the streets and had the simple thought most decent human beings might have: “Holy crap, look at these people. This is the city that I love, what can I do?” But he took another step.
“I went home, cleaned up my closet and grabbed warm clothes,” Severson told CL. “Then I asked some homies for donations.”
One of the first things he got was a fur coat from a friend’s mom. Over the years, Severson has received some other luxe items (comes with the territory when part of your circle is made up of sharp-dressed denizens from Tampa’s nightclub scene), but he starts collecting jackets, blankets, sweaters, mittens, gloves, shoes—anything warm—over the summer when people ditch cold weather items. He then washes the clothes, and every Thanksgiving he drives around giving the warm clothing away to anyone who wants it.
“About 95% of people will take something,” Severson said before letting out a little chuckle and adding that, “there are some people who understandable tell you to shoo off or get the fuck away.”
At first, the clothes took about three car loads to distribute. Then his friends started spreading the call. At one point, Monk, another Tampa DJ, made a Facebook event page that ended with clubgoers bringing items to since-shuttered Ybor City institution Czar. Recently, friends with businesses like Seminole Heights vegan food stand 3 Dot Dash offered discounts to anyone who brought a donation. Because of social distancing, 2020 will have a slightly different vibe (read: masks), but in 2019, Severson spent weeks giving the clothes away—and he still had stuff left over to give to other friends in need before donating the rest to The Spring, Gracepoint and Metropolitan Ministries. “I was driving around until New Year’s Eve,” he explained.
For Severson, the impetus to give back is a simple attempt to repay Tampa for what it’s given him.
“It’s cliché, but it makes you feel good and makes me feel like I did something good for a city that’s afforded me a lot of opportunities,” he said. “Everything I have is essentially because of this city, all the friends I have, my good experiences, for the most part, are because of this city.”
And when asked how others can help him provide aid, Severson put it simply.
“Just start doing it in your neighborhood. It’s literally just me driving around, collecting stuff from friends and passing it out,” he said. “There’s no need to make it bigger on my end. My friends send me socks, or gift cards, but it’s really just simple.”
Severson’s jacket collection and distribution treads near the territory of mutual aid.
Recently, mutual aid has become repopularized as a form of supporting one another through sharing goods and physical labor with people in our communities in order to build a better world together. From disaster relief during and after the west coast wildfires, to hurricane relief and feeding the houseless in Tampa Bay, mutual aid stretches across America, and across the world. But far from being a recently developed practice, mutual aid is a time tested form of people’s communal determination to better their living conditions and the political situation of their communities.
Tampa has a rich history of mutual aid. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, immigrant communities from Spain, Cuba and Italy formed mutual aid societies in Ybor, and supported each other through economic hardship, provided food and free medical care for each other, along with an array of other services. The Cuban Club, now one of Tampa’s most well known music and event venues, was one of the original mutual aid organizations in Tampa, along with L’Unione Italiana, Centro Español, Centro Asturiano, La Unión Martí-Maceo.
One of the most effective and popular examples of mutual aid in America was operated by the Black Panthers. As a response to the impoverished conditions in their communities, the Panthers started their Free Breakfast Program, which took root in Oakland, where their headquarters was located, and spread across the country. They estimate that they fed over 20,000 children, and believe that the federal government’s decision to give free breakfast to children in schools in 1966 was influenced by the Panther’s work. This is a prime example of mutual aid achieving two of its main goals: bettering conditions in a community while changing the political landscape to benefit the people. Locally, the Bay Area Dream Defenders replicated this program in St. Petersburg through its “Books and Breakfast” meetups.
Now, mutual aid takes many forms. Disaster relief is how I became involved with mutual aid, and since then I’ve worked in the aftermath of several hurricanes with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR). MADR practices the motto, “solidarity not charity”, which sets mutual aid apart from philanthropy. Mutual aid goes beyond throwing money at problems, to actively participate and remain on the ground in communities in order to help solve problems collectively and help build communities that care for each other.
Tampa Food Not Bombs distributed hundreds of meals a week to houseless people as COVID-19 set in this year. They were one of the only groups to continue feeding people as churches and other relief organizations shut their doors due to the pandemic. They continue their work, feeding massive amounts of people with a group of dedicated volunteers.
From the momentum of the Black Lives Matter uprising this summer, some protesters and protest groups have also begun mutual aid work. Groups such as the Black Collective Movement (BCM), Community Aid Network (CAN) and the Tropical Communist Party (TCP) are distributing much needed aid packages, food, water and clothing to vulnerable communities. This type of work is crucial in a time like this, as the nation faces a massive economic depression, climate catastrophe and as COVID-19 continues to disrupt people’s lives, especially in Florida.
As we approach the holiday season, it can be easy to get wrapped up in consumerism, or to rest on the belief that participating in electoral politics is where politics begins and ends. But getting involved in groups building community is very much needed to change our political landscape, and help the most vulnerable.
Here’s a list of some groups doing mutual aid in the Tampa Bay Area:
- Bay Area Dream Defenders facebook.com/baddsquadd
- Bay Area Harm Reduction facebook.com/tampabahr
- Black Collective Movement @thebcmtampa on Instagram
- Community Aid Network facebook.com/communityaid
- Food Not Bombs Tampa @tampafoodnotbombs on Instagram
- Love Has No Borders facebook.com/groups/lovehasnoborders
- Mutual Aid Disaster Relief mutualaiddisasterrelief.org
- Sex Worker Solidarity Network facebook.com/sexworkersolidaritynetwork
- Tampa Bay Action Collective facebook.com/tbactioncollective
- Tropical Communist Party @tcp.tampa on Instagram
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This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2020.