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Weekend for Collective Being and Making

gathering

Weekend for Collective Being and Making is an annual gathering of friends and collaborators finding shared nourishment in rest, study, food, and reflection.

June 2023

Weekend for Collective Being and Making is an annual gathering of friends and collaborators of the Center. In 2023, we gathered in Philadelphia, PA for a weekend retreat centered in stillness, presence, and cohabitation. In between cooking and eating together, each resident shared an offering for the group. These offerings included activities like stick and poke tattoos, herbal meditation, view finding walks, film screenings, and more.

Three people gather around a piece of chart paper on the floor amongst soft surfaces, furniture, and a large television that is turned off. The participants are reading, looking at their phones, or writing. Several people’s hands travel to write and draw across quietly lit chart paper. A pile of transparent pink notes slip under one of the participant’s wrists while an opaque pink note grazes the tip of another participant's hand bracing as they mark the chart paper. A centered metal bowl of food with a metal serving spoon in it holds a bright green yellow and orange vegetable dish. Multiple curated zines and printed books are spread across a large piece of chart paper. Some of the titles are “Dyke Bar,” “Sleeper Car,” “Nobody Sleeps Better than White People, Rin Johnson,”and “Tenderness: A Black Queer Meditation on Softness and Rage.” Two metal bowls and a pot sit on a white counter and white gridded cloth. Each of the bowls carry a bright yellow, green, and orange vegetable dish and the pot holds a deeper colored soup with large orange and yellow vegetable pieces. A ring of many light blue viewfinders with different shaped openings are held in a circle by several hands. Each viewfinder has a different prompt handwritten across the bottom and top such as “tending to the mutual” and “all viewfinders are intimate invitations to look close and slow down.” Many people circle and write and touch and draw on a large roll of white chart paper on the ground. There are many transparent, and opaque pink notes of different sizes scattered across the space. Two metal bowls and a pot each carry bright green yellow and orange vegetable dishes along with metal serving spoons. Katie, Center Weaver of Armenian and Ashkenazi descent, has bright orange painted toenails and crouches on the ground and smiles towards the camera as they look up from their phone. They sit in front of a long roll of chart paper with pink notes and crayons scattered across it. Two people walk down the middle of a city street away from the camera. Each of them holds a viewfinder in opposite hands while their long black hair trails down each of their backs. A brown person’s hands stir a metal utensil in a jar of food they are holding. Their hands and arms are adorned with silver jewelry and a black watch and they don a white hoodie with bright blue airbrushed web stretching across. Lukaza, Center Weaver, stretches and twists their arms over their head while holding a rectangular viewfinder. They are framed by the triangular opening of another viewfinder and wear a bright blue shirt against the red brick corner of a building. A saute pan brimming with Shakshuka. Fried eggs and parsley and tomato sauce appear in the pan as it sits on a white surface next to an organized pile of pita. Luz and Vale sit on the ground in front of a lengthy horizontal chart with books, zines, crossword puzzles, and pencils. A gray trapezoidal opening frames three people using viewfinders with differently shaped openings on a sunny green city street.

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