🍂 November Recap

Welcome to the first-ever monthly newsletter from the tea stand! Thanks for being here.

In November...
❗ I incorporated the tea stand as a nonprofit!
📰 I launched this very newsletter!
🫖 I served 162 cups of free tea at 6 events!

Yes, the tea stand is now a nonprofit organization! As a nonprofit, I plan to apply for grants, start a membership program, and serve free tea in quantities previously unimaginable! I'll be sharing more about the mission of the tea stand soon, but here's the current one-liner: "the tea stand is a nonprofit devoted to serving free tea, building trust, and inspiring connection."

I'd also like to announce an upcoming event: 🫖 Tea Talk #3 on December 20th, 7-9pm. 🫖 Tea Talks are in-person, small-group conversations focused on a specific topic hosted at my apartment. The topic this time around is "2023 reflections." RSVP for free here.

The rest of this newsletter is an event-by-event recap of November. I share memorable interactions, historical tidbits, a poem written about the tea stand, and much more.

Here are the month's events at a glance:

⛩️ Popup #19 – collaboration with typewriter poet, Jayshawn Lee
⛩️ Popup #20 – collaboration with aura photographer, Kaye Birch
⛩️ Popup #21 – free tea at a techno nightclub
🎁 Distro #2 – Riders4Rights Community Giveback
📀 Vol. 5 of Steeped in Sound – in solidarity with Palestine
🫖 Tea Talk #2 – a conversation on "the world i want to live in"

The first event of the month was ⛩️ Popup #19, which was a collaboration with typewriter poet Jayshawn Lee. I met Jayshawn at a previous tea stand popup just a few days prior. On a perfect autumn Sunday, Jayshawn setup his typewriter alongside the tea stand in Tompkins Square Park, offering impromptu, personalized poems for all passersby. Free tea and free poems for all!

⛩️ Popup #19 was my first-ever collaborative popup and my Manhattan debut, and the universe was clear in offering me a congratulations for this: the specific spot within the park I had selected turned out to be directly underneath a historical, spiritual landmark – the Hare Krishna Tree:

"After coming to the United States in September, 1965, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Indian spiritual leader, founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York. On October 9, 1966, Prabhupada and his followers sat beneath this tree and held the first outdoor chanting session outside of India ... the event is recognized as the founding of the Hare Krishna religion in the United States."

The majestic elm tree showered me with its leaves and love, and several visitors shared stories of the tree with me throughout the day. One such visitor, named Kim, encouraged me to follow my own path as he has done in his own life:

"The issue is: people feel insecure, so they follow others. I was a shepherd for 12 years, so I can’t be a follower. Read, read, read. Digest, digest, digest. You get it, I can tell. Keep going, make your own path."

I held Kim's knowing gaze, gently nodding, smiling inside and out.

At the day's end, after blessing several visitors with day-defining poems, Jayshawn wrote one for me. Here's an excerpt:

"Before today this elm knew many others
and today sought to give
me a home, so I offered one back"

Thank you, Jayshawn.

⛩️ Popup #20 was also a collaborative popup, also with someone I had met at a previous popup – artist Kaye Birch! Kaye is a tattoo artist at NYC Tattoo Shop and debuted her aura photography practice as part of ⛩️ Popup #20. I setup the tea stand on the sidewalk in front of her Greenpoint studio on a Thursday night.

It was a strange experience. All my previous popups have been in parks during the daytime, so sitting in the dark on a quiet street, with smokestacks looming in the distance, felt dystopian. Few people walked by, fewer stopped for tea.

At 7pm, about halfway thru the evening, a visitor arrived with a question never-before asked:

"Is this the tea stand?"
"Yes, it is!" I replied. "Sorry, have we met before?"
"No, my name is Nicole. I've been following the tea stand for a couple months now."

I was floored by the fact that somebody – a stranger – had gone out of their way to find and visit the tea stand. I felt like a musician meeting a fan for the first time.

We chatted for a while before Nicole shared a blog post with me on the topic of change. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

"I’ve been feeling a shift of energy around me. Do you feel it? The air is getting colder, the leaves are starting to change color, and I’m embracing change instead of fearing it."

Nicole and I chatted for a while longer, celebrating change and sharing stories of our journeys, before she excitedly accepted Kaye's offer to have her aura photo taken.

When I saw Nicole's photo, one of the closing lines of her blog post came to mind: "My smile is wider in every reflection." You can read Nicole's full blog post here.

The very next night was ⛩️ Popup #21, another departure from the typical tea stand popup: I served free tea during a Friday night party hosted by Kissa Mode at a local nightclub. The venue, Hell Phone, is a speakeasy techno club tucked behind a daytime café. As one of the event's vendors, I setup in the café space, which served as a sort of lobby area for partygoers.

Many of the night's visitors were appreciative to have a non-alcoholic beverage option – especially one that wasn't a sugary soda or a $15 mocktail. Half opted for the caffeinated hibiscus maté, half opted for the herbal honey citron tea. As a casual techno fan, I enjoyed the music from the distance and reveled in the lively energy of the club. Expect me at a future Hell Phone party in January!

Just eight hours separated the start of 🎁 Distro #2 ("Distro" being short for "distribution") from the end of ⛩️ Popup #21, continuing the tea stand's non-stop spree of free tea. For 🎁 Distro #2, I served free tea as part of a food and clothing distribution – referred to as a "Community Giveback Day" – organized by Riders4Rights, a mutual aid group of cyclists working toward Black liberation. I was introduced to Riders4Rights by a different mutual aid group, Collective Focus, which I've volunteered with in the past (including for 🎁 Distro #1).

It was my first time serving tea at a Community Giveback Day with Riders4Rights. Friend Adin and I (pictured above) served hot cups of tea to dozens of folks waiting for the start of the distribution – it happened to be the largest turnout for a Community Giveback Day to date!

November 12th marked the fourth straight day of tea stand programming with 📀 Volume 5 of Steeped in Sound. Unlike previous Steeped in Sound events – an intimate DJ + tea event I co-host with Darren aka LEEWAY – 📀 Vol. 5 featured a meditation and a call-in workshop; these activities were intended to create a space of calm and collective action in solidarity with Palestine.

The event went great. Everyone enjoyed a much-needed meditation. Some called their reps for the first time, others faxed their reps for the first time. We shared a resource doc for future actions and further education, and donated $400 between Healing Our Homeland and Palestine Red Crescent Society. Plus, as always, the music was top-tier, the people were wonderful, and the tea (Shay bil Maramiya and peppermint) was flowing all event long. More info about 📀 Vol. 5 can be found here.

After a much needed respite, one final event brought November to a close: 🫖 Tea Talk #2. Four friends of the tea stand came over to my apartment on a chilly Wednesday evening to discuss the night's topic: "the world I want to live in." Over several steeps of a jasmine green tea, we imagined futures of resource sharing, implicit trust between strangers, and access to nature for all. Shoutout to Loose Leaf – a monthly poetry & performance series with free tea – for the inspiration.

If you're interested, I'll be hosting 🫖 Tea Talk #3 on December 20th with the topic "2023 reflections." You can RSVP to the free event here.

That's all for November, thank you for reading!

Be well! Keep steeping!

🍵 Miles