⚖️ A Note from Miles
This is more of a privilege statement than a bio... but it's kind of both.
Hello!
I'm Miles, the founder & steward of The Tea Stand. The main purpose of this writeup is to address the following question: how did I get here – serving free tea as my full-time work?
The short answer: curiosity, persistence, and a whole lot of privilege.
For most, the concept of quitting your job to go serve free tea in your park is not only absurd, it's impossible. To be in a position where I can 1) have a fun idea, 2) not immediately dismiss it as unimportant, and 3) have the means & free time to actually go out and do it is a position that I hold with absolute gratitude and constant awareness that it is one of extreme fortune & privilege.
I could write a lot about all of the factors that have created the conditions for the above three things to be true, but it can be summed up with a few facts about my me and my life: I present as a white male (and am one, but he/they btw), I grew up in a supportive, stable, upper middle-class household about an hour north of New York City, I attended a safe & well-funded public school (our mascot was an "Indian") and later a resource-wealthy (a.k.a. gentrifying & fossil-fuel-loving) university which my parents helped me pay for, and I got a biotech job with a six-figure salary immediately after graduating (in the midst of quarantine days).
(A few more important facts while we're on the topic of factors and conditions: you may know this well, but we live in a system designed to benefit the wealthy, exploit the poor, and destroy our planet. We live in a system which is a direct descendent (and continuation) of the genocide of the indigenous people of the land we now occupy and the enslavement & dehumanization of tens of millions of African peoples. We live in a system that gives people who look like me praise & opportunity while simultaneously restricting the freedom & humanity of people with literally any other identity. In other words, the privilege I benefit from as a white, upper-middle class man is built on centuries of violence.)
Alongside my education & brief professional career, my dad took me camping constantly and introduced me to the world outdoors, my mom taught me the importance of play and the power of poetry, and my older sister protected me from the worst of the toxic masculinity rampant in our town/world. From a young age, my family encouraged me to explore the world and myself, and I consistently had the resources and free time to do both.
Let's jump to 2022: I've been at my biotech job for 2+ years, I've been saving as much money as possible, and I'm feeling less and less optimistic about the cancer therapy that I'm working on (it costs how much???) and more and more keen on refocusing my life toward art & community. So I move to the city where my dad grew up, a place I've always loved and imagined as a future home, and a few months later I quit my job.
This is where things stop making sense – I catch a stray thought while in Sunset Park (how nice would it be if there was someone here serving tea...), bring it up to my friends so annoyingly often that they force me to actually do it, and have such a wholesome experience when I actually do it that I cannot help but do it again, and again, and again, and the roots sink deeper, and the trunk grows stronger, and a new branch appears, and flowers start blooming, and fruits appear, and oh my god there's a newsletter & a zine & a whole community of amazing humans supporting me this might actually work let's go for it FREE TEA FOR ALL!!! (Here is a more historically accurate timeline).
Which, more or less, brings us to present day!
I'm continuing to do my best to de-condition myself from years of propaganda, re-educate myself with a more radical (root-oriented) lens, listen to & amplify the voices of my peers who do not share the same privilege I've benefitted from, and generally work toward a world where such privilege and opportunity gaps don't exist. The Tea Stand is both a result and a continuation of these efforts.
To put it in more direct terms: through The Tea Stand, I seek to put my privilege to use by facilitating connections with neighbors & nature, supporting local mutual aid groups, artists, and community-oriented organizations, and holding spaces of care & compassion in our sick, suffering world.
By holding gratitude for all I've been given, recognizing that I have enough, and sharing tea & space & love, I strive to play my part & use my gifts toward a more trusting, liberated world.
Shoutout to some of the many people in my life who have taken on god's work – radicalizing white people. Adin, Naqiya, Jean Paul, Tanvi, Ben, Taylor – thank you for your patience & trust!
Learn more about The Tea Stand here.