Only community can save us
Finding real connection in an artificial world
Like food and oxygen, community is a human necessity.
Today’s world is hyperconnected but more isolated than ever. We follow beautiful strangers on social media but don’t talk to our own neighbors.
We’re facing a crisis of connection, eyes glued to iPhones, entrenched in camps of gender, race, nationality, and ideology. Instead of knowing the person who grew or prepared my food, I’m ordering delivery from DoorDash without interacting with another human.
Lately I’ve found myself longing for the good old (analog) days of house parties, movie theaters, hanging out in parking lots, and discovering new music in record stores.
As the world becomes increasingly fast, artificial, and automated, it’s important that we don’t lose touch with our humanity. We are not alive to be data points in an AI engine. We are alive to make art, make love, dance, sing, and make memories.
The psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna once said, “There are others like you. Find the others.”
Having a supportive tribe is essential for our wellbeing. But when the once vibrant town square has been replaced with Amazon Prime and social media offers shallow likes at the expense of true intimacy, many of us (especially creatives who already have a hard time fitting in) are feeling starved for connection.
Community is the new luxury. Status symbols like material possessions or a million Instagram followers can’t replace the fulfillment of having the unconditional support of a soul tribe.
Introducing Sunflower Club: A Virtual Creative Community
Since 2022 I’ve been hosting Sunflower Club open mics in Austin TX, giving conscious, multidisciplinary artists a place to share and connect. And I realized two things:
Creativity is a form of therapy
Community is the most valuable currency
It’s cathartic to create, and even more cathartic to share our authentic selves with others. Each month we gathered to share poetry, music, comedy, dance and storytelling. We listened, laughed, and cried together. Vulnerability creates intimacy.
I’m excited to announce that I’m now bringing Sunflower Club to a global audience as an online community.
Being creative is human nature, not a special privilege reserved for super talented professional artists. What we don’t express will be suppressed. Having a creative practice is a healing modality that helps us alchemize our thoughts, emotions, and experiences.
Sunflower Club is now open for enrollment. All creative modalities and levels of experience are welcome.
Membership includes:
Virtual workshops
Open mics
Special guests
Creative rituals
And more!
Sign up in January to receive a Founding Member’s VIP discount.
Join us in Sunflower Club! Hope to see you there 🌻🌻 https://www.sunflowerclub.co
We can only be as connected to others as we are to ourselves. I used to struggle with not fitting in, and over the last several years, I have realized we do not need to fit in anywhere. We need to have a sense of belonging within ourselves.
I dance on the outskirts of many communities in my city - public speaking, open mics, a conversation and connection series, community story nights, partner dance, a hiking group and a Brazilian percussion group (I am one of two non Brazilians in the group), and writing groups where we share and respond to our writing as well. What is so amazing - is all these incredible communities are free or very low cost (in instances where there is cost for rent of a space - and that is what the price covers).
I also split my time between working on co-creating an off-grid community in Mexico with the founding members of said group, who are primarily older, Mexican men. They spend much more time hunting and fishing and building things than they do on any of the things that interest me, but they have grown to respect how animals respond to me, they think it’s awesome that I’m working on building my own space there and they certainly love when I share my sourdough baked goods, pestos, ferments and other things I make with them.
One thing I learn is that community can be challenging when we want to give and take within it. Expectations weigh down connection and they put pressure on us to perform and mold ourselves to fit in. True community is built on being able to share and receive - in whatever form the sharing and receiving is offered.
Many businesses are now trying to jump on the community bandwagon, but real community is not something you buy your way into. In fact, many of the people who do, would benefit the most from the presence of those who cannot afford to pay for the privilege, who in turn would heal so much through being invited to sit at tables that we have made to be exclusionary.