🦫 November Newsletter

Great change is on the horizon – yesterday, the end of Daylight Saving Time, and tomorrow, Election Day. Update your clocks, get out and vote, take care of yourself and the people around you. And read on – heaps of good news below!

Today's newsletter topics:

📻 teaFM debut
☔ On Rainy Days
🧮 Grant Updates

November at a glance:

RSVP:

🕯️ Silent Sanctuary (RSVP)
Nov 11 –BedStuy – 7:30pm

Housekeeping:

• Our host application form closes this Wednesday, Nov 4. We are mostly looking for alternate (backup) hosts for our park popups.
• Our online merch store is open again! Free shipping on all orders <3
• Winter hours are officially in effect – all park popups will end at 4pm til March. Always check our calendar!

📻 teaFM debut

I'm stoked to announce our new monthly radio show + event series, teaFM!

teaFM is hosted in collaboration with FMFM, a neighborhood radio station and community hub in Crown Heights operated by Field Meridians and Rodeo.

Every first Thursday of the month from 8-11am, we (Miles + Nickon) be serving free tea out the FMFM space while broadcasting a live radio show featuring local artist spotlights, live morning mixes, and some talk radio / interviews.

Our first show/event is this Thursday, November 5, 8-11am. You can listen live at fmfm.rodeo or 88.5 FM (limited range). Or come to the space and hang with us!

Here's our planned program for this Thursday:

• 800 - 900 // local artist spotlight by Miles
• 900 - 1000 // live mix by Nickon
• 1000 - 1100 // story time with Syd [pending confirmation]

We're expecting future shows to follow a similar flow, but as with all things Tea Stand, we'll see what works and what doesn't and change things as we go!

And of course, we'll be serving free tea to sidewalk passersby and those who want to sit inside and listen for the entire duration of the program :)

Much love to John, Klara, LinYee, and all the folks at Field Meridians and Rodeo for making this possible. Having a local radio show is a long-time dream <3

And shoutout to Nickon, who will be co-hosting teaFM with me (Miles) – you may know him from his late-night tea service in Maria Hernandez Park over the summer.

If you're interested in getting involved with teaFM – whether to help serve tea or get some airtime – reach out!

☔ On Rainy Days

by ziggy bee

Three things are true of rainy days in Maria Hernandez Park: there is soccer to watch, I am wet even under tarp’s protection, and hot tea becomes a form of salvation. 

In autumn’s varying weather, Maria experienced many a rainy Sunday and with it came an overwhelming urge to slow down. Tea stand visitors found solace from the rain as they huddled underneath our blue tent, its steadfast support a beacon of dry respite; comradery came quickly. We wondered aloud when the best time to make a quick dash to the deli was, if the squirrels ever get bothered by the rain, if being wet in Maria Hernandez was to become our forever reality. The wandering mind gets brought out when physical conditions are changed. 

Something I love about New York is the comfortability of being in close proximity with strangers. Whether it be the L train during rush hour or sitting on a bench in the park, your physical space becomes obsolete and you become a part of the masses. This is especially true on rainy days at the tea stand. Everyone is hunched together, huddled like penguins over their tea, and everyone is attempting to keep spirits high. 

I love this easy sense of knowing. We all know we are cold, we all know we are wet, we all know that coming out to drink this tea with others will be a touch of reality we may not typically experience in the rain. Within these rainy days lives a thread of compassion weaving our lives into one large, wet braid of connection. I am wet, you are wet, yet we exist here in it, together, drinking our tea, looking out at the people playing soccer, eager for a nice warm shower and fresh dry clothes. 

Through the rain and the wind and the cold, wet days, I live here in it all looking forward to another day drinking hot tea in the park and brushing shoulders with strangers.

👛 Grant Updates

Finally, some good news regarding our grant applications!!!

This past month, we received two microgrants:

• $3,500 from CitizensNYC via Community Leaders Grant
• $3,075 from CityParks Foundation via NYC Green Fund

OH YES! Our first grants after maybe... eight rejections over the past few years? (It's just like people told me at the beginning: you gotta get rejected 10 times before you get approved once.)

These funds will almost entirely go toward our operational costs. The tea we serve may be donated, but the sachets, cups, lids, fuel, brewing equipment, and outdoor furniture are not!

All of this is especially relevant as we build out our secondary setup – that's right, we now have two distinct Tea Stand setups! One setup is stored in Bushwick (thanks JW), the other is stored in Crown Heights (thanks FM). Plus, maintenance costs are trickling up as we near the beginning of year five of The Tea Stand (!).

This grant funding also allows us to be more flexible with the funds from our membership program, which makes up about 80% of our total income and is used for operational expenses, promo materials, labor, and everything else!

For more financial transparency, members can reference previous Town Halls (sign-in required). If you have a specific question, reply to this email!

I was damn near ready to give up on grants all together – they felt like the only aspect of The Tea Stand where the energy I put in did not equate to the energy that came back, and that's a tough sell when I'm already being spread so thin.

But... wiser voices prevailed, and I've been continuing to reluctantly submit a couple grant applications each year. Special thanks to Adin, Nadine, Naqiya, Kristen, Sabina, and Jayshawn for sharing grant opportunities with me, providing feedback on the applications, and encouraging me to keep trying!

Thanks to CitizensNYC and the CityParks Foundation for keeping the free tea flowing and funding inspiring work all around this miraculous mess of a city.

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

Our new members: Amaya and Angel.

Those who donated tea: Sara.

You, for reading! Hope to share tea with you soon.

Keep Steeping,
Miles