Sep 8, 2025 9 min read

🌽 Free Tea in September

I am back in Brooklyn, savoring the 60° weather, following a couple weeks spent in Guatemala, where I was learning Spanish, drinking some of the best coffee I've ever tasted, and preparing myself for what will be a Seriously Busy September.

Today's newsletter topics:

🪂 YOU can serve free tea for all
🇬🇹 Learning Spanish in Guatemala
💬 Other Things

But first, our September calendar:

**You can RSVP and/or volunteer for these events using the links below!**

Upcoming events:

🪷 Silent Sanctuary (RSVP, free)
Sep 9 – Ridgewood – 7pm

📀 Steeped in Sound (RSVP, $0-10)
Sep 21 – Prospect Park – 2pm

🫖 Tea Talk on "change" (RSVP, free)
Sep 23 – Bushwick – 7pm

🛖 tea.haus 005 (RSVP, $0-20)
Sep 25 – East Williamsburg – 6pm

🎭 Flood Sensor Aunty (RSVP, free)
various dates & locations

And some volunteer opportunities:

🥬 Distro with Riders4Rights (volunteer)
Sep 13 – BedStuy – 10:30am

🎭 Prepare chai for Flood Sensor Aunty
Sep 10-12 range, reply if interested!

📦 Help prepare Tea Boxes
Sep 15-17 range, reply if interested!

📀 Steeped in Sound (volunteer)
Sep 21 – Prospect Park – 2pm

And as always, our ⛩️ Popups are free for all and require no registration.

🗓️

You can view our upcoming events on our calendar here.

🪂 Do you want to take over The Tea Stand?

In August, two separate takeovers took place. "Takeovers" are our term for when someone other than me, Miles, serves tea at an event. (If you have a better idea for what to call these, please let me know.)

Both the takeovers went swimmingly, so swimmingly that we feel ready to open up the opportunity to take over The Tea Stand to all of YOU!

So, if you'd like to spend a few hours serving free tea to neighbors and strangers on behalf of The Tea Stand, you can fill out our interest form here. No commitment or prior experience necessary!

**Sabina braving the rain for first takeover of Perpetual Brew back in April! You can find Sabina's website** **here**.

Before I say more about what a takeover entails, I'd like to share some words about the wonderful folks who took over The Tea Stand in August.

First up was our friend Noah, a semi-local, semi-nomadic photographer who I met two years ago while serving tea in Maria Hernandez Park. Before embarking on a 4-month backpacking trip, Noah's final wish was to takeover The Tea Stand one more time (yes, Noah is one of two repeat takeover-ers).

And so Noah's wish was granted: he served free tea in Herbert von King Park in his favorite – and former home – neighborhood of BedStuy. In Noah's own words: "It was incredible and amazing and so inspiring. But I popped your plastic bag."

**Noah being swaddled with love on his final day in Brooklyn! You can find Noah on Instagram** **here****. Photo by** **Joey**.

Six days later, friends Adin (advisor, chai preparer, in-house programmer, etc.) and Sabina (of Flood Sensor Aunty & Perpetual Brew fame) teamed up for a special Popup in celebration of Raksha Bandhan, a South Asian celebrating sibling and familial love (more info here).

Adin and Sabina set up The Tea Stand in Travers Park in Jackson Heights, served free chai to lots of local aunties and uncles, practiced their Spanish, and provided free Rakhi for folks to tie around the wrists of their loved ones.

**Neither Adin (center) nor Sabina (who took the photo) have told me what's happening here, but it looks like a kid popped a flat tire and neighbors came to the rescue!**

Given how well these takeovers went, along with the fact that more and more people are expressing interest in serving tea for a day, we're officially opening up the opportunity for folks to take over The Tea Stand and serve free tea for all!!!

If you're interested in taking over The Tea Stand, please fill out this form here.

To provide a little more context, a takeover looks something like this:

picking up all the equipment from my apartment
biking the equipment to a park / food distribution
serving free tea for all
returning the equipment

It's a lot of labor, both physically and spiritually. It's also one of my absolute favorite things to do! And the dozen or so folks who have taken over in the past have had overwhelmingly positive experiences.

We're still working on ways to make the takeover process as simple and stress-free as possible, so please consider this a trial period. There's still a lot to figure out in terms of logistics, compensation, etc. But we like to learn 1) by doing and 2) with others.

**The first takeover in Tea Stand history, hosted by our friend Serena! And shoutout to our friend Bob who always hypes up our tea.**

The first takeover opportunity is September 22nd in Herbert von King Park, exact timing flexible. Following this, there will be another 3 takeover opportunities in October, as I plan to be out of the city for most of the month.

We're excited to work with all of you and continue following the natural, community-driven evolution of The Tea Stand.

🪂

Once more: you can find the "takeover" interest form here.

Maybe, as one friend envisions, The Tea Stand will one day be "open" everyday in the park – a free, outdoor café for all. Like Perpetual Brew all year round!

🇬🇹 Aprendiendo español en La Escuela de la Montaña

For a while, I'd had the latter 2 weeks of August blocked off for one of my 2 annual breaks from The Tea Stand*. Yet as the date neared, I remained without a destination. I did, however, have two main intentions for the trip:

1) improve my Spanish so I can have more meaningful conversations with my neighbors in Bushwick

2) spend time in nature

So, when a friend told me about a Spanish-immersion school in the mountains of Guatemala, I felt like I had found the perfect place to visit. (Thanks Zach & Celia!)

*as of now, taking 2 breaks per year, each 2 weeks in duration, feels like a sufficient amount of time off without compromising on my commitment to run The Tea Stand and serve the community. This also doesn't include shorter, opportunistic getaways, which don't happen often but are always relished.

**I was honored to share copies of the Spanish version of** **bōcha** **with the school. Muchas gracias a Bethania de Mil Mundos por tranducir el zine y a Adin por el estímulo.**

And so, after a few days on Lake Atitlán, I forced my way off a camioneta (public bus) and arrived at La Escuela de la Montaña (The Mountain School).

It's difficult to communicate just how special of a place La Escuela de la Montaña is. To start, the school and its neighboring communities were founded by several dozen families following a long labor struggle (to put it mildly). Many of the people involved with the school were born on coffee and cacao fincas (plantations) whose parents worked as, essentially, indentured servants.

(For more context on the decades of armed conflict and revolutionary struggle in Guatemala, I suggest the biography of Rigoberta Menchú – a K'iche' Indigenous activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In the book, she tells her story of organizing campesinos (peasant farmers) in resistance of the terrible conditions faced by herself and thousands of Indigenous people across Guatemala, including kidnappings, torture, malnutrition, and massacres. You can find her book here.)

**La Escuela is located in el campo (countryside) about 2 hours from Xela (Quetzaltenango).**

For almost 30 years now, La Escuela de la Montaña has provided not only an immersive environment for students who wish to learn Spanish – including 4 hours of daily one-on-one conversation with a teacher – but has also been funding scholarships for local children to pay for education, supporting neighboring families who cook meals for the students, and offering free programming to the community.

From their website (here):

The idea behind the school was to provide some economic sustainability for the rural Mayan communities. We are committed to fair wages for our staff and offer paid leave benefits, which are not common in this industry. We use our profits to support groups and projects focusing on Guatemala’s social and economic problems. The school is managed by a collective of teachers, and the profits do not go into the pocket of a single owner.

**Sipping some black tea in the backyard of La Escuela. Thanks for sharing, Wendy!**

So yes, my Spanish improved significantly after just one week at La Escuela, but that was just one part of my experience there!

I also learned about the medicinal plants growing in their garden out back (like ruda, salvia santa, and chilca – thanks Jorge!), heard directly from some former guerilla fighters who founded a nearby village named Santa Anita (more on that here), and shared lots of cups of tea with the other students who were all incredibly kind and thoughtful (thanks Joya for sharing your herbs with us!).

It's one of the most inspiring places I've ever visited. I was surrounded by teachers who described themselves as "neo-anarquistas," murals which reminded us to "confía en la lucha" (trust in the struggle), and families who welcomed me and other students into their homes for home-cooked meals and shared their personal stories with patience and openness.

Gracias a Rony, Adelayda, Cecilia y Juan por compartir tanto conmigo y darme la bienvenida a Guatemala 🧡

**My fellow students! Thanks Sofia, Jewell, Sofie, and Wendy for being the best learning companions and comrades :)**

I'm grateful for the experience at La Escuela and look forward to continuing to practice my Spanish during my final days here in Guatemala and with my neighbors back home in Bushwick. If you would like to practice speaking Spanish with me at a future event, simply say la palabra and we can learn together!

I highly, highly recommend spending some time at La Escuela (or PLQ, their sister school in Xela) if you're interested in learning Spanish in an immersive, revolutionary context amidst great people, healing plants, and troublesome dogs.

You can learn more about La Escuela de la Montaña aquí.

**Oh Maya Luna... always escaping La Escuela to terrorize the neighboring chihuahuas...**

💬 3 more things happening in September

As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this newsletter – it's going to be a Seriously Busy September.

Here's why:

🎭 We're back serving free chai at 4 more performances of Flood Sensor Aunty, your favorite community play about controversial chai shops and climate change. This is the third "season" of performances and it could be the last, so don't miss out! It's really funny and you can feel all the love the cast has put into it. The chai, too, is infused with love, along with a medley of fresh herbs and spices – shoutout to Divisha & Tim for brewing it! We're also doing two performances in Wellesley, Massachussetts – share with your friends in MA! More info and free RSVP here.

🎭

If you're interested in preparing chai for one the performances, reply to this email! We'll cover all your ingredient costs.

📦 We're shipping out the Fall Equinox Tea Boxes to Steepers soon! The fall equinox is on September 22nd this year, and we've got another lovely batch of Tea Boxes for all of our Steepers. These boxes feature a postcard illustrated by local artist Jake Breither (website here)! And of course, the boxes also include 3 delicious teas from The Ridge (website here). Expect nutty notes, roasted teas, and warming herbs to guide you into fall.

📦

We have 5 Tea Boxes set aside for new Steepers, so if you'd like to receive this box (and other perks), you can sign up here!

📀 We're hosting a Steeped in Sound event on September 21st! Steeped in Sound is an event series we've been co-hosting with local musician LEEWAY for the past couple years. Each event features live DJ performances, a guided meditation, local vendors, and free tea. For this volume, we'll be setting up on the Nethermead lawn in Prospect Park, same spot as last year. Hope to see you there – you can RSVP here!

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

Olioli, Tip, Sara, DONA, Bana, and SoulShine for donating tea.

Sofie, Natalie, and Mo for becoming members.

You, for reading! Hope to see you at one of our September events (calendar here).

Keep Steeping,
Miles 🍵