Below is a bit of the story of how I’ve seen Fabric come together and its fundamental threads.
The TL;DR is that the intention of Fabric was woven together over several years. The fundamental threads are to convene folks in the community, to learn and practice conscious co-creation, to be inspired and creative, and to give and receive care for each another. As we welcome folks to the first Fabric in a couple days I am excited to see what magic might emerge!
My History with Fabric
Believe it or not, Fabric is a brand I began to develop back in 2017. Back then The Grove, a coworking community I had co-founded, was still alive. I was in a process of realigning myself with the magic of community building after being distracted by the allure of venture-backed tech for a few years. As part of the Elm City Innovation Collaborative I began to develop a new offering for the community and was interested in rebranding The Grove as Fabric. The Grove was all about fostering community connections and relationships which supported “the fabric of community.” Also, The Grove used to be in the old Horowitz Bros, an old fabric and department store in New Haven, so that made the brand even more appealing. The rebrand didn’t happen and Fabric went dormant but the spirit of community was and is at its core.
In the Fall of 2021, after I had begun to work with CEIO, other concepts enlivened the Fabric brand, specifically creativity and conscious co-creation. I wrote that Fabric might become a collective of conscious creatives co-creating change through cultural strategy. As you can C, alliteration has always been a big part of this brand. 😉
An image of a mockup I created back in 2021.
Come Spring of 2023, after I’d fumbled and struggled in my initial leadership of the Seeding Conscious Co-Creation program I realized that care is essential. Care needed to be a major thread in Fabric. I also realized providing care was something I needed to practice for myself before I could generously care for those I love. Back then I aspirationally wrote that I wanted Fabric to help “facilitate a mutual support structure for collective community care.”
As we moved into 2025 I began contemplating how the Seeding Conscious Co-Creation (SCC) team might utilize a reduced budget this year to support the intention of SCC which is to widen the awareness, practice, and use of conscious co-creation. I looked over past SCC applications, assessments and listened to past cohort participants and facilitators. I was curious. How might we open the components of the SCC cohort program to our larger community? An integrated version of Fabric started coming together seeking to knit many of the components of SCC together utilizing 4 primary threads: Community, Conscious Co-Creation, Creativity and Care.
The Magic in Community Convening
It is my experience that magic shows up when people come together. And I have found that magic to be particularly potent when folks come together around shared values and an aligned purpose. The magic I am referring to is a felt sense of connectivity, of remembering that we are interconnected and part of something much bigger than ourselves. I often feel a sense of rejuvenation and camaraderie when I am in diverse groups who have come together around a shared purpose.
This felt sense, this magic, is why I loved going to church so much when I was a teenager. Worshipping and being in ritual together is a powerful act! I used to think that gatherings had to look a particular way to excite such magic. Folks needed to dress up, sit in pews, sing along to a worship band, etc… That works for many people. But thankfully I have realized there is no one-right-way to animate community magic and it sure isn’t isolated to religious spaces!
I have found that when convening community the clearer you are about what you’re inviting people into the greater the possibility for community magic to spark. Which is one reason I am sharing all of this. Once it is sparked, inviting people to contribute, to bring their full selves, is what arouses the flame. I am grateful to the many people who have already contributed. The fire is then tended through the ongoing relationships within the community and being accountable to conscious co-creation.
Practicing Conscious Co-Creation as Co-Learners/Teachers
Back when I first developed the Fabric brand I never thought I’d write the phrase “conscious co-creation” so much in my life. These words are all over the communication I have developed for Fabric and they are in the name of the Seeding Conscious Co-Creation program, which is a mouthful!! I probably write “conscious co-creation” at least a few times a day so let’s hope I have at least an understanding of what this practice means to me. This practice is ongoing and I am regularly not as conscious or careful in how I co-create as I’d like to say I am. Part of co-creating though is taking responsibility for the damage caused from stumbling in the practice. I can say that it is no small matter to commit to this practice and I am constantly learning and adapting my practice to better align with the relational truth I understand at any given time.
Conscious co-creation is a practice that is not done in isolation. It is not individualistic. It seeks to be conscious of the reality of our interconnectedness on many levels. Co-creation is fundamentally relational. It is about how we approach using our power and responsibility in our relationships with others (human and non-human) to shape our ever-changing reality. As CEIO co-founder Niyonu Spann says, we are always co-creating whether it is conscious or unconscious, whether we are actively doing something or attempting to do nothing at all. If we are always co-creating then the question becomes how might we be more careful and aware as we use our power and accept responsibility?
Fabric is meant to be a place to practice conscious co-creation together, for co-learning/teaching. It is a gathering that seeks to honor one another’s stories, experiences and celebrate our collective creativity! Different facilitators, artists and healers will be featured at each gathering and folks will be invited to create together. We’ve got a lot of great workshops and coaching offerings with amazing facilitators who understand that within the community is the wisdom, care and creativity it needs right now.
Resourcing and Celebrating Creative Agency
I am forever grateful to my mom for nurturing my creativity. When I was a kid she signed me up for multi-media art classes, theater camps, young authors clubs and encouraged my creative expression at home. My parents also took me to arts festivals, concerts in the park, street fairs and other types of events that showcased and celebrated community creativity. Those experiences shaped an understanding in me of the power of creative expression both individually and collectively.
I believe one way to lead with conscious co-creation is to thoughtfully develop opportunities for folks in the community to share their creative energy and that “creating, participating in and sustaining opportunities of shared creative energy is a living expression of justice, of being whole (Niyonu Spann, 2016).”
Recently I was reviewing an old research summary from 2010 that informed the development of CEIO. The following statement captured me.
“We envision a New Haven… where there is a living practice in creative agency.”
I believe to really develop a living practice creativity needs to be resourced, nurtured and celebrated in community for it to grow. Through Fabric I hope you are inspired and feel resourced. I hope you join in the offerings in a way that allows you to thoughtfully express your creative self and tell a piece of your story.
Cultivating Collective Care
I don’t know about y’all but as I noted above I have learned about the importance of cultivating care the hard way, through moving faster than the speed of trust, falling on my face and hurting the people I was attempting to care for. My screw ups have become loud teachers reminding me to move slowly. I have also sought to fill my brain with the voices of queer BIPOC facilitators who are real champions of community care. I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention how much Farron, varun, Armela and Kristianna Smith have supported my understanding and practice of care in this work. These folks have held me accountable and taught me that caring for the collective starts with yourself through self-care and self-accountability. When I practice self-care and accountability I can then start to care and be accountable on other levels.
I’m still learning how to prioritize wellbeing in inclusive ways but I am clear – cultivating care is crucial to change work. It’s care that reminds me that I don’t have to do the most all the time, to listen attentively, that there’s not just one right way and to not get trapped in striving for the myth of perfection. Care says, “your wholeness needs to be honest about the limitations of your capacity. Pay attention to how stretched you are, don’t injure yourself. Ask for help. Learn from your mistakes and make sure to continually return to rest!”
Fabric has its limitations and it sure won’t be perfect but at each gathering we will have several care offerings (both individual and collective), healthy food, beverages and snacks as well as people around to make you feel welcome and navigate the day. Let’s cultivate a culture of care and nourishment for each other.
Bringing It All Together
Community. Conscious Co-Creation. Creativity and Care are the fundamental threads of Fabric. They are what I see Fabric being accountable to as it breathes, changes and cycles. And as folks actually come together we will see what we can weave together in space and over time. I have no doubt that the conscious, co-creative, caring community that comes together at Fabric will learn along the way and spark some magic together!
“We don’t get to the future we want by following a linear path plotted out from point A to B to C. The future we want is a spark inside us that says yes to joy and laughter and pleasure. It says yes to creativity and art and music. It says yes to transformative healing and care, and I am because we are. It says yes to vulnerability and our collective well-being and love. The more we fan and feed it, the more it sustains and grows. It lives in us and then we live in it and – 💥 – the future is here. We get to the future we want by practicing it now.”
– Mia Birdsong, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community