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💡 Inspirations

The creative projects below have served as templates for The Tea Stand in various ways: in our design, our values, our membership program, and more.

A solarpunk novella written by Becky Chambers and our sacred text. In the book, a non-binary tea monk travels a post-capitalist, harmonious world and serves tea to strangers in search of a life's purpose. Along the way, they encounter a sentient robot and talk about what it means to be alive. A Psalm for the Wild-Built offers a vision of humanity's future which is joyful, sustainable, and full of tea.

"So, I started going to that shrine all the time. I learned from the monks that I didn’t have to have an excuse to be there. It didn’t have to be a bad day. I could just be a little tired, or a little cranky, or in a perfectly good mood. Didn’t matter. That place was there for me whenever I wanted it. I could go play in the garden or soak in the bathhouse, just because. And as I headed into my teens, I started paying close attention to the other people there. Farmers and doctors and artists and plumbers and whatever. Monks of other gods. Old people, young people. Everybody needed a cup of tea sometimes. Just an hour or two to sit and do something nice, and then they could get back to whatever it was.”
A copy of A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers at The Tea Stand! Donated by local mutual aid group Nonbinarian Book Bike.

A mobile tea house which drove around the US serving free tea for several years. Based on philosophies like the gift economy and DIY, we admire Free Tea Party for their commitment to a profit-free, tea-centric, community-focused endeavor. Guisepi and Edna Lu (the tea bus) are our heroes and role models.

"Anywhere in Asia, North Africa, or the Middle East, that's the first thing that you do: you offer someone a free cup of tea."
- Guisepi of Free Tea Party
Photo by Lydia Glassman.

A writer and photographer who creates books inspired by long walks around Japan's countryside, all funded by members. Eager to demystify and inspire, he openly shares what he's learned as an independent creator. The Tea Stand looks toward Craig Mod as an archetype for our own membership program.

“If you want to know the story of a place, walk it. For to walk is to apply the rigor of process to a place.”
- Craig Mod
Photo by Craig Mod, taken from this Eighty Degrees article.