🌼 May Newsletter

Wow... here we are. April has come and gone, spring is fully underway, and we're ready to serve more tea all around Brooklyn.

Today's newsletter topics:

🌀 It's Over
⏳ Now What?

But first, our May calendar:

RSVP for upcoming events:

📀 Steeped in Sound (RSVP)
May 31 – Greenpoint – 2pm

Housekeeping:

• Join our volunteer group chat here!

🌀 Thanks for brewing <3

Where to start? At the end!

One week ago today was the final day of Perpetual Brew, a 30-day "Tea Stand Residency" in Maria Hernandez Park. We served free tea from 12-6pm every single day of April, rain or shine, in arguably the greatest park in the world. (Others would argue it's not even a park, but a plaza. I say it's whatever you want it to be.)

On the 30th & final day, we extended our hours and served free tea from dawn to dusk (6am to 8pm), a 14-hour finale, a marathon day to close out a marathon month.

It was exceptional for many reasons: the misty morning air, the 1on1 basketball matchup between me and Mae (winner disclosed upon request), the fact that 10 different people served tea throughout the day, the emotional weight of The End, the moon rising directly opposite The Tea Stand as we packed up...

The most meaningful moment of the final day, and maybe the entire month, came at the end of the end. At 7:30pm, we held a closing ritual, forming a giant circle with The Tea Stand in the center.

"WE DID IT!!!" I screamed into the twilight. I said some thank you's (never enough thank you's) and invited folks to add some tea to the communal teapot and say some words.

Over a dozen of the 40+ in attendance stepped into the circle to voice what this past month meant to them. Jamal shared that The Tea Stand became a place to feel love after a loss in the family, Jesse said that Perpetual Brew changed his life, and Allyssa summed up a central tenet of our work in a beautiful way: "the light in me sees the light in you."

More words of love filled the air, many tears were shed, and at last, the tea was brewed and we raised our cups to the sky.

We really did it. But "did" falls so short of describing what transpired last month. Yes, we served over 2,000 cups of free tea, yes we spent over 250 hours in Maria Hernandez Park, yes we were out there 12-6pm every single day in the scorching sun and unrelenting rainfall. But as a wise professor once told me, do not make the measurable important!

Instead, I hold onto the names, the faces, the moments of community love & grief & joy which we all experienced together. We watched life unfold as bare trees transformed into brilliant green friends, we witnessed a neighbor take his final breaths, we made a home where all were welcome.

I will cherish all of the tea & time I was able to share with destructive toddlers, long-time locals, curious high schoolers, moms & dads, strangers & friends. And I can only smile in wonder as I consider all of the neighborhood connections I did not witness myself – now is a good time to remind everyone that I served tea less than half of the days of Perpetual Brew!

Consider this the very beginning of "processing" such a magical month. How can we celebrate this collective undertaking, how can we memorialize the myriad of connections which formed, how can we integrate what we learned and bring it with us into the future of The Tea Stand?

For starters, we're making a zine – bōcha issue #5 will be all about Perpetual Brew. The zine will feature contributions (e.g. poems, essays, collages) from the folks who served tea throughout the month along with graphic spreads, photos, and words from yours truly. And it'll be RISO-PRINTED by Lucky Pocket Press!!

Save the date for the zine launch event on June 21, the summer solstice. It'll also be a member drive and the opening of a local community garden. More soon!

Things are still so tender, so fresh. We'll need to take a few more steps into May until we can look back and see the month of April in its entirety.

But for now, some more thank you's...

Thank you to Paige, Mattie, Andrea, Noah, Aimee, Ziggy, Juno, Syd, Sarah, Marissa, Naqiya, and Mae for spending a day (or more) serving our community.

Thank you to Mae Nagusky for dedicating a month of her life to make the Perpetual Brew podcast, the greatest art & archive related to The Tea Stand. Listen here, I implore you.

Thank you to all the neighbors & friends who spent so much time with us in the park and gave us a reason to be out there.

Thank you to the park staff & protectors who keep the park clean & safe.

Thank you to the residents of Bushwick for welcoming us.

Thank you to all the members & volunteers who make this all possible <3

⏳ What's next for The Tea Stand?

Fret not, the end of Perpetual Brew does not mean the end of The Tea Stand, far from it! Now that April is over, we'll be returning to our regular programming... kind of.

Perpetual Brew, among many other things, was an experiment, and every experiment has its conclusions & implications. We're still sifting through all the thoughts & feelings, but one thing is clear: we want to set up in Maria Hernandez Park more than once per month.

One of the salient themes of last month was consistency. The reality of The Tea Stand being a reliable, consistent fixture in the park was the basis of what made Perpetual Brew such a profound month for so many people. And while setting up once a month is consistent, it's too infrequent to allow for community connections to form in the way which we saw in April.

There are so many questions which follow from this conclusion: how many days can we, should we, be out in Maria Hernandez Park? What does this mean for our involvement in other parks? Do we need two sets of Tea Stand equipment? Are we trying to be something like a volleyball club (weekly, dependable) or more of an Uncle Iroh vibe (transient, profound)? Who's the "we" answering these questions?

You can trust that I'm taking these questions seriously, while simultaneously trying to figure out how to maintain a personal life outside of The Tea Stand, while simultaneously praying that this will some day soon be financially sustainable (I'm still living off of personal savings).

If you have thoughts on any and all of this, please don't hesitate to chime in – via email or over a cup of tea in the park (or at an upcoming Town Hall!).

So, with all of that said, below is a high-level overview of what we're currently thinking in terms of future programming.

⛩️ Popups in Maria Hernandez Park:

• previously: once per month (every second Sunday)
• new goal: 4x per month (every Sunday)
• also, one night-time popup per month!

⛩️ Popups in other parks:

• Herbert von King (once per month)
• Community-decided location (once per season, more here)
• Brower Park?
• Prospect Park?

Other events:

• 🥬 Distro with Riders4Rights (every second Saturday)
• 📀 Steeped in Sound (once per season)
• 🌿 Wild Tea Workshop (once per season)
• 🕊️ Silent Sanctuary returning soon?!
• 🫖 Tea Talks on indefinite hiatus
• 🛖 tea.haus on indefinite hiatus

All of this will require a great deal of support – material, financial, etc.

If you're interested in being a part of bringing all of this programming to life (or simply keeping it alive), consider signing up as a member here or dropping us a line with any ways you can help otherwise.

MUCH LOVE! FREE TEA FOR ALL!

That's all for now! Thanks to...

Amory, Olivia, TW, Anqi, Kelly, Anien, Ary, Anne, Jesse, Aidan, Aimee, and John for becoming members.

Alexander, Mia, Spy, Kameliia, and Paige for donating tea.

You, for reading! Hope to see you soon (calendar here).

Keep Steeping,
Miles 🍵