Her current mission finds her in India for three months, helping Tibetan refugees learn English and basic computer skills, with support in the hardcore community from groups such as the Cro-Mags and Sick of It All.
When I meet Heidiminx in New York’s Café Brama, she flashes the snow leopards that she had freshly tattooed on her right arm the night before. She’s eventually getting the entire Tibetan flag drawn.
Bringing new meaning to the phrase “revealing interview,” she pulls down the neckline of her shirt to reveal the Buddhist mantra for compassion, “om mani padme hum,” tattooed in intricate lettering and arabesques below her collarbones.
Heidiminx is the founder of online forum Punk Rock Domestics, fashion line Franky & Minx, and most recently, Built on Respect (builtonrespect.com), a nonprofit dedicated to helping Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India. Her current mission finds her in Dharamsala for three months, teaching English, computers, and sustainable business models at the Tibet Hope Center (THC), a non-governmental organization.
Businesswoman, activist, teacher, fundraiser, fashionista — Heidiminx is many things, but she’s no dilettante. Punk rock, DIY, and Buddhism sound like clashing interests, but she has managed to make them harmonize.
She became interested in Buddhism in 2001 when her father sent her a book about the religion. “It was almost written like Aesop’s fables,” she says.
“There were all these little stories and analogies, and then it came down to the whole right view, right speech, right mindfulness, and right effort. I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is the same thing that we used to do when we were punk rock — work, make a living, be honest, say what you mean, mean what you say, be able to go to sleep with yourself at night, and don’t fuck people over.'”
In the summer of 2008, Heidiminx went to India through Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS), an international volunteer program based in New Rochelle, New York. While she was there, she took time to explore part of upper Dharamsala called McLeod Ganj, a Buddhist area.
Another volunteer through CCS told her about Tibet Hope Center, which was founded by Kusang Tenzing and Chundak on May 8, 2007. THC teaches English to over 150 students with an age range between 18 and 50 years old. Tenzing himself is only 22 and fled to India when he was seven; he does not know whether or not his parents are still alive.
Heidiminx began helping at the THC when one of her friends was teaching Photoshop to its directors and asked her to help. She started teaching the directors various things such as how to make CD labels.
“The next thing you know,” Heidiminx explains, “the students were saying, ‘You were teaching the directors last night. You understand computers. How do we set up e-mail? How do we attach photos?’
“We didn’t have an Internet connection at the school at that point, so they’re taking notes on how to sign in to Google. I was taking it for granted that I knew how to set up an e-mail account. So much of the computer usage there is to just keep clicking things to figure out what happens.
“I have very strong business and marketing skills, and I can’t teach them with a check in the mail, so I’ll go and teach first hand so that the center can be sustainable. When you share knowledge, you empower someone.”
So Heidiminx decided to create a nonprofit instead, and she received a lot of support for her idea in the punk-rock community. Built on Respect filed for nonprofit status, and it was fiscally sponsored by the arts-related nonprofit owned by her accountant, Howie Seligman, as well as The Solo Foundation, an incubator for developing nonprofits.
Heidiminx utilized all of her punk-rock connections and now INKED, Black N Blue Productions, and I Scream Records are all sponsors. Cro-Mags, Wisdom in Chains, and Trapped Under the Ice threw a benefit concert for Built on Respect on December 28 at New York’s Knitting Factory.
Sick of It All posted a PSA early in the life of the project to show support; Devil Doll posted a bulletin and raised funds at its first annual XXX-Mas Bizarre; numerous other bands have posted testimonials on Built on Respect’s website.
“Most of the reason that people come into India is either to follow the Dalai Lama or to get an education,” Heidiminx says. “A Tibetan can’t afford education when the Chinese government decides to make the cost of education for a child equal to one year’s salary. They also teach all the classes in Chinese, so it’s totally neutering the [Tibetan] culture.”
A book deal for THC also is in the works, and for the project, Heidiminx is working with THC to collect essays from its students.
“The stories of what the students have gone through to be in India are sad but also very inspiring,” she says. “That’s the easiest way that I have to describe what this book is. This is a group of people that aren’t hateful. It’s a very forgiving group of people.”
When I ask how her Buddhist practice and DIY converge, she replies, “Religion is not anything that can be done for you. Sending money to a televangelist is not religion. You don’t have to be a massive foundation to help people.
“Whether it’s working in an animal shelter, whether it’s choosing to be vegetarian, whether it’s making sure that your parents recycle, there are so many decisions that can be made at an individual level. You don’t need the government to say, ‘Hey, let’s have world peace.’ If everybody collectively started treating each other better, we wouldn’t have issues.”
Heidiminx wants individuals to help in baby steps, not leaps and bounds. Bands can increase awareness by posting a link to the Built on Respect or THC websites or by donating proceeds from concerts.
People can donate laptops and books on CD. “Books on CD are very useful to the students,” Heidiminx elaborates. “One of the students said that it was his best way of learning English. He said, ‘I get books on tape and try to get a copy of the book. It doesn’t matter if it’s Harry Potter.’ He’ll sit and read to the audio.”
Heidiminx is particularly keen to get her hands on copies of Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone Audio CDs for learning basic English. Her “Donate One Dollar” drive says it all. Even a buck would help.
“Some people may be reluctant to contribute because they feel that small amounts of money will not make a difference,” Heidiminx says. But a dollar here will stretch over there: 30 cents will buy an hour at an Internet café.
Heidiminx wants to make Built on Respect as interactive as possible, and to that end she wants to post blogs, take pictures, and post PSAs so that people can observe the organization’s actions and progress while she is abroad.
“Do you realize that $200 pays the Hope Center’s rent for like eight months?” Heidiminx rhetorically asks. “I’m trying to encourage people to do very little things.”
– Rihoko Ueno