As always, we begin by listening.

It has been a long 20 months since we shut down the Beloved Presents operations.

We wonder:

What is being asked of us in this moment? What needs tending? What is most alive?

And how can we best serve the collective?

Even in this darkest time of the year, we sense the glimmer of returning light. And this sensing of the light’s return is what calls us to write to you now, Beloveds.

We grieve the loss of the ability to gather as we once did. We continue to hold the health and safety of everyone at the center of our concerns, so we are still foregoing live events.

The fractures in our community cannot be overlooked. While certain entities profit the most from an unhealthy populace, other entities profit when the pandemic isn’t taken seriously. The desperate grasping for comfort in this complexity, and the inability to stay connected across difference have allowed Conspirituality and memetic possession to take hold.

We also must celebrate the way dying things like old paradigms become compost for new futures: the falling of monuments to dead ideas, the uprisings, the unionizings, the visible mattering of Black Lives, the lands back to native stewardship.

What we know for sure: community care is the only future-proof approach to surviving and thriving in perilous times. Healing is an entangled, collective endeavor.

“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.” – bell hooks

***

black text on kraft paper: bell hooks quote healing is an act of communion

To be truly conscious is to be able to learn. Learning is often the capacity to change, to course-correct, and so we are currently re-visioning what Beloved can be, here, now.

The shape it is taking is a multifunctional site of learning how to be with the land and with each other in regenerative ways. We imagine sheltered, small outdoor gatherings in spaces that can serve as classrooms, dance floors, and kitchens.

“Small is good, small is all.” – Emergent Strategy

***

black text on kraft paper background: emergent strategy quote small is good small is all

Beloved has spent over a decade producing events that offer an alternative vision. As they became more popular, we have learned that perpetual growth is not the goal. We have learned that the best things happen in the edges where differences overlap, where the queering of time and space and bodies occurs, where there are diverse ecosystems and interspecies collaborations.

We are learning what Vulnerability is: the opening through which we thread our healing.

We are learning what Belonging means: nothing is wasted and no one is disposable.

We are learning what Liberation is: it means asking, ‘who isn’t free, and how can we get free, together?’

Vulnerability, Belonging, and Liberation are the end of separation and the promise of repair.

We have learned that we need each other, now more than ever.

We invite you to join us as we find out what comes next.

We end, as always, with gratitude: for all of you, and for the ways we have all shown up for each other. Please consider supporting these local mutual aid projects:

@be.lovedbloc @mealsonusPDX @portlandstreetmedicine @streetroots

Updates about Beloved events in 2022 will be sent through our newsletter, sign up here: bit.ly/belovednewsletter.

GET UPDATES