Alice Springs metal venue hits $1m fundraising goal to secure its future

In the red centre of Australia, 1,500 kilometres from the nearest city, a volunteer-run music venue called the Black Wreath has spent a decade proving that community is not a function of geography. When its owners announced plans to sell, the people who had built something from nothing chose to fight rather than grieve, and last Friday their crowdfunding campaign crossed one million dollars — a sum gathered in small acts of belief from across the country. The money does not yet close the deal, but it affirms something older than economics: that the places where people make meaning together are