"Joy is an affirmation of life, and a marker of our humanity; denying it dehumanizes us."

— Beautiful Trouble

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I know we are all busy, but you have got to take the next 3 minutes and experience the animation below.

It's just TOO beautiful.  

Becoming Imaginal: An Animation by Alixa García

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This year, those joining us inside the Play Incubator will spend two Sunday Sessions (one in September and one in October) with Alixa Garcia - artist, award-winning poet, visionary thinker, published author, social and environmental justice leader, and organizational strategist. Swimming in the magic of her visionary world(s), is what we'd define as necessary delight.

If you're impatient (like us) for our time with Alixa later in the program, spend some time exploring Alixa's other projects - choose your own adventure on her main website, or check out her writings.

Inspiring each other is part of what this Play Incubator hopes to offer, and we know the inspiration will not only flow one way. This container, is a conversation that you, are invited to help influence and shape.

We believe at our core, that the artist is an energy we ALL have access to. It is our creative birthright and it's essential to our liberation that we recognize ourselves as powerful agents and co-creators in this life.

You will be invited into acts of creativity & imagining beyond what separates and alienates us.

We're deeply interested in the potential for acts of creative resistance that may be born amongst us.

Through play and joy, may we introduce movement and air into our most frightened, enraged and calcified parts.

One of the things that we're looking forward to the most, is seeing how we remind each other of this birthright.

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"Our journey towards a better world can—and often should—be a nurturing and joyful experience! Find pleasure in the process."

— Beautiful Trouble

All of us in Rooted have other responsibilities beyond the walls of this Third Space. We have children, full time jobs, animals we love, families, sorrow, dentist appointments, and dreams.

Like you,

Our hearts have ached and rage has surged as we continue to bear witness to the violence and crises happening in our time.

We want to find ways to honor the immensity of what is too much to hold alone, and we are curious about centering play as a response.

‍Let us ask you this: (the same questions we asked ourselves when dreaming into this program and incubator)

Where in your life right now is energy stuck?
Where is your capacity for transformation shrinking?
Where do you feel incapable and too small to make change happen?
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Write down, dance out, or dream of your answers.
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Now, what allows for your sense of possibility to expand?

When we considered these questions, we realized that the missing elements in the midst of a time of great turbulence and uncertainty, is/was our sense of playfulness, our capacity to experience joy with one another, and our birthright creativity. These aren't things we can compromise, if liberation is our desire.  

We unearthed a deep need for time and space to cultivate it and bring levity, and a trickster energy, to our seriousness.
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Our commitment to one another and the energy of transformation is what this program was designed to hold.
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This is the space. This is the time.

What comes next we can only imagine (for now…)

If this calls to you to, join us !

And if you are already working on a rad creative project or local community action, remember that this could be an incubation space that we hope would nourish and expand your imagination and support your project.

Each session will be recorded, so if there is the occasional session you need to miss, you can always watch or listen to it later.

When you join us, you're joining a non-academic curriculum that will allow you to engage with approaches and practices rooted in play and expanded creativity and imagination that won’t monopolize too much time (the core program is just one Sunday a month) but that aims to enrich our lives and foster our capacity to come together in the midst of what feels like an impossible task.

This is the experiment in Rooted this year - will you take the leap?

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