“And the depth of the laughter! The way it seemed to go so far down inside it scraped the inside bottoms of the feet. No one laughed like that anymore. Nothing seemed funny enough. When his uncle and his guests finished laughing, they’d seemed lighter, clearer; even their activities appeared to be done more gracefully. It was as if the laughing emptied them, and sharing it placed whatever was laughable and unbearable in its proper perspective.”
-Alice
Walker, The Temple of My Familiar
one september afternoon i was running up flatbush avenue by prospect park and i saw that someone had left some windows on the grass. i paused. i wondered. who left them there? where did they come from? were there empty holes in the walls where they used to be? would someone come back for them? i became transfixed.
i went down a window rabbit hole. i learned that a root meaning of the word window is ‘breath door.’ breath door! breath door.....what a phrase.....like lungs... windows let air in and let air out.... through the window, light and music stream in, the scent of dinner and the sound of laughter waft out. windows make it easier to breathe, easier to live. i clung to this. we live in unbreathable and unbelievable times. we are facing down the 6th great extinction of species on earth, multiple genocides, fascism, white supremacy and militarism, patriarchal and transphobic violence. we are suffocating. in this atmosphere, within the regime of capitalism, how might we welcome deeper breath? return to it? be steadied by it?
could we build our own breath doors?
could we conjure, nurture, sustain thresholds to breathing easier?
could we protect what it is in our lives that affords breath as we also imagine alternatives to this abysmal status quo?
comedy + the solidarity economy are breath doors.
laughter helps us ease up on ourselves and each other. that sigh after someone cracks you up is of relief. humor refuses suffocation, guides us toward the political and spiritual transformation that is needed right now.
the solidarity economy prioritizes wellbeing, shared decision making, and meeting everyone’s material needs. it is ecologically attuned and balanced. it is regenerative as opposed to extractive, it is democratic as opposed to dominating, it is guided by care instead of greed.
what is the solidarity economy? it includes cooperatively run businesses, land trusts, time banks, credit unions, community gardens, and more. there are countless examples across space and time! the solidarity economy is alive and growing and can make capitalism obsolete.
wellinNewYorkCity!
Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC) strengthens and expands communityled, democratically-controlled initiatives — from worker, financial and consumer co-ops to community land trusts and gardens, mutual housing, and low-income housing co-ops.
CEANYC hosts and facilitates spaces for groups to deepen relationships, ground themselves in solidarity economy principles and coordinate their work — economically and politically. For example, they host the
Cooperative Leadership Intensive
a“deep-dive” training designed to build the skills and analysis needed for functional personal work ecology, leading values-aligned decision-making, and addressing oppression and power in an organization. All while building a network of peers to support ongoing economic and political cooperation.
