🌼 May Newsletter

Today's updates:

🌀 Perpetual Brew reflections
☔ Season 2 of Flood Sensor Aunty

Here's a look at our May calendar:

Volunteer opportunities & limited capacity events in May:

🥬 Volunteer for Distro
🗓️ May 10 – 10:30am – BedStuy

🪷 RSVP to Silent Sanctuary
🗓️ May 13 – 7pm – Ridgewood

🫖 RSVP to Tea Talk (topic: dreams)
🗓️ May 14 – 7pm – Bushwick

🛖 RSVP to tea.haus
🗓️ May 16– 7pm – East Williamsburg

🌀 Perpetual Brew is over!

In case you missed it, we served free tea in Maria Hernandez Park every single day of April. We called the project Perpetual Brew (in reference to the similar Perpetual Stew project) and it was the most ambitious, committed month of The Tea Stand to date.

Over the course of 30 days, we served over 1,000 cups of free tea, including a gobsmacking 138 cups on the final, 14-hour day of dawn-to-dusk tea service. But numbers can only say so much....

I've broken down some Perpetual Brew reflections into three sections below:

1. Artist Takeovers & Zine
2. Meeting Neighbors
3. Commitment

🌀 Artist Takeovers & Zine 🌀

I (Miles) did not do this alone – far from it!

Leading up to April, I asked some artist friends if they'd want to participate in Perpetual Brew. The idea was for each artist to "take over" the tea service for a day, then create a work of art related to their experience (to be featured in an upcoming issue of our zine, bōcha).

All of the artists, pictured and named below, are local to NYC (if we include Long Island in honor of Sabina) and span a wide range of disciplines. I met nearly all of them while serving tea in the park or at some other community event in the past couple years.

In addition to being talented artists, they are all incredible people who care deeply about their neighborhoods, a truth clear in their creative pursuits (and willingness to participate in Perpetual Brew!).

This wasn't the first time someone served tea in my place, but it still felt experimental. How would the artists feel during their takeovers? What issues may arise? What interactions may take place with different identities present?

I don't want to say too much on their behalf, but my impression was that every artist had a positive experience overall – reviews ranged from "fun" to "one of the best days of my year", which is about as good as rating scales get.

There were certainly some challenges – creepy men, NYPD, small bladders, persistent winds, steady rain, dangerous camping stoves – all of which were handled mindfully and inspired changes to our setup and support documents. For example, we're doing more research on knowing our rights and how to handle police / ICE encounters if they harass us or other street vendors. (Check out the Street Vendor Project and Mi Casa Resiste for helpful resources!)

As for different identities enabling different encounters: the most obvious example (and one of the few I witnessed from afar) is that when Jean Paul, who is from Peru, took over The Tea Stand, they were immediately visited by a large group of Hispanic kids. I'm sure those same kids had walked past The Tea Stand many times before, and I'm so happy that they finally enjoyed some free tea :)

For more about what happened at The Tea Stand during the artist takeovers, we'll have to wait until the next issue of our zine is published...

On that topic: issue #3 of our zine bōcha is officially in the works!

This issue will be dedicated entirely to Perpetual Brew and will feature the artists' takeover-inspired submissions. We're so excited to see what they create and share a more holistic, diverse perspective on what The Tea Stand is and can be.

Additionally, the zine will be available in both English and Spanish – huge shoutout to Bethania Viana of Mil Mundos for translating the zine into Spanish! We hope this will allow for more connections with the Hispanic population in Bushwick and beyond.

This special, collaborative edition of bōcha will be published on the summer solstice: if you want a copy, sign up as a Steeper or come to our Teapotluck event on July 6th! (or both hehe)

Another warm thank you to Sabina, Nick, Jayshawn, John, Jean Paul, Val, and Zack for participating in Perpetual Brew 🧡

🌀 Meeting Neighbors 🌀

One of our core intentions with Perpetual Brew was to meet all of our neighbors. And boy oh boy did we meet a lot of them...

My (conservative) estimate is that one third of Perpetual Brew visitors were strangers prior to April 1st, which means we shared tea with about 350 (former) strangers, the vast majority of whom are local to Bushwick. That's more than 10 new local connections every day!

For many NYC residents, accepting a cup of tea from a stranger in the park goes against everything we've been taught – that strangers are dangerous, that there must be an ulterior motive, that we don't deserve free things, etc. This is the reality of living in a culture which villainizes strangers to stifle solidarity and celebrates exploitation in favor of collaboration!

But when you see the same "tea guy" over and over again, and constantly see other strangers drinking the tea, the narratives we've all grown up with start to unravel. People become people; trust comes naturally.

As the month went on, we heard more and more people saying things like: "I've seen you here so many times, what's going on here?" or "I've been meaning to stop by and now I finally have some time for tea!". Some people remained skeptical. (If you're out there, anonymous reddit user, I would love to serve you tea and answer all your questions.)

Consistency – and sharing our schedule online – also allowed for regular visitors, both planned and organic. A few people stopped for tea more days than not (shoutout José, the official #1 visitor of Perpetual Brew), several more made 10+ visits throughout the month, and a couple dozen neighbors came by at least once a week.

It was so special to be a part of this casual community of regular visitors and watch it expand, day by day. By the end of the month, it felt like one big, happenstance social network with no strings attached.

Also, by being out in the park at different times – sometimes in the early morning, sometimes past sunset – we were able to connect with people we otherwise may have missed. Like the elders walking laps at 7am and the small business owners enjoying the park on their Monday off.

One Thursday morning, my friend Ben brought a group of local schoolkids who were participating in his cooking program called The Student Kitchen. We did a little tea demonstration and tasting, explaining where tea comes from, how to brew it, and what I'm doing with The Tea Stand. To my surprise, they all liked the sweetened oolong!! Watch out, Arizona iced tea...

(If you know of any other tea & youth education opportunities, let me know! Or maybe I'll just volunteer with Tea Arts & Culture.)

With Perpetual Brew, The Tea Stand became a reliable, trusted space for people to use as they please – to meet their neighbors, casually hang out, and enjoy some tea. All without spending a cent!

While The Tea Stand has always been about creating spaces for people to connect, this was the first time it truly felt like a place you can always go, every day.

On the last day of Perpetual Brew, several neighbors told me that they became so accustomed to The Tea Stand being in the park – it felt like a fixture that was suddenly being removed. I was quick to remind folks I'll be back serving tea every Second Sunday of the month, but we both knew it wasn't the same.

Serving tea or not, I plan to be in Maria Hernandez Park on a near-daily basis moving forward. I'll see you there :)

🌀 Commitment 🌀

Leading up to Perpetual Brew, I had no idea what I was signing myself up for. I figured at best I would have time to rest most mornings and evenings, and at worst I would be exhausted for 30 days straight.

As with most things, it ended up being somewhere in the middle – mornings were mostly dedicated to preparing for the day, and evenings were for cleaning up, updating the Brew Log, and keeping up with emails/DMs. I was rarely frantic, but I was also rarely relaxing.

Without a single day off, exhaustion was never too far away, especially as the month went on. The hardest part was continuously pushing through that exhaustion. Usually, this looked like taking some deep breaths, being okay with not feeling okay, and reminding myself that this is the right time to push forward. (It's not always the right time to push forward, and we live in a culture which tells us the opposite.)

Deeper down, the force pushing me forward was the commitment I had made to myself and my community – the idea of skipping a day never even occurred to me (except in case of illness, which never happened, god bless).

So when I was laying in bed, exhausted and dismayed that I had to get up and go sit outside and serve tea for hours – especially on those cold, rainy days – it was never a question of if I would get up, just when. And that difference is all thanks to the accountability I feel to all of you.

This is something Craig Mod, a writer and photographer whose membership program is the template for ours, writes about often:

I wish my intrinsic motivation was more reliable, but I’ve come to realize I thrive through clear accountability. (I suspect most of us do.) [source]

Knowing that there was an end in sight was also essential to my wellbeing. On the other side of April was rest, free time, and expansiveness. Do not underestimate the power of constraints, especially when it comes to creative endeavors!

In closing...

Another big thank you to the artists, volunteers, and friends who made Perpetual Brew possible. This IG post lists everyone who bagged tea (yes, we hosted weekly gatherings to bag tea together), served tea, donated tea, or otherwise contributed their time and resources to the project.

And a special thank you to my partner Naqiya and my dear friend & advisor Adin for all the extra support last month ❤️

One more reminder that we'll be launching the zine and celebrating Perpetual Brew during our free Teapotluck event on July 6th in Maria Hernandez Park.

Oh, and to those curious if we'll ever do another Perpetual Brew, let's just say our April 2026 is currently blocked off :)

☔ Flood Sensor Aunty makes its return

With all attention on Perpetual Brew, few may know that in addition to serving tea in the park every single day, we also served free chai at six performances of Flood Sensor Aunty!

Flood Sensor Aunty is a community play about a local chai shop struggling in the face of climate change, inept local politicians, and bureaucracy. Directed by Sabina Sethi Unni (yes, the same Sabina who did an artist takeover!), Flood Sensor Aunty had its first run of performances back in September, which we also served chai at.

While the timing was not ideal – I had promised myself no other commitments in April outside of Perpetual Brew – I simply could not refuse the opportunity to continue being a part of such a special project and group of people! It was also a paid gig thanks to grant funding, and those don't come our way too often.

The six performances took place in all five boroughs, from Snug Harbor on Staten Island to Fordham University in the Bronx. Thanks to Flood Sensor Aunty, we've officially served free tea in all five boroughs of NYC!

At each performance, we served dozens of cups of free chai made by the amazing Divisha, Tim, and Adin – all friends and supporters of The Tea Stand who took the time to make 100 servings of chai for us to serve. So much gratitude to you all for preparing such delicious, love-infused chai for to enjoy 🧡

Flood Sensor Aunty has taught me how fun & educational public theater can be; I feel honored to be a part of it. There are rumors of a season three, but you didn't hear that from me...

Thank you for reading!

Thanks to all those who donated tea in April: Alicia, Dara, Alba, Victoria, Autumn, David, Sasha, Aaron, Devika, Katie, Waverly, Sulafa, Syd, Divisha, Tim, and Adin.

With all your tea, we served 1,300 cups of free tea in April :)

Keep Steeping,
Miles 🍵