New merch, an interview with Alice Otieno and Darrel Kennedy of Blacks of Are.na, and more
Good day to you, how’s it feeling now? It’s actually summer here, the heatwave was making it feel extra real, but now we are getting a little break from that.
We’re working on some pretty big projects right now, which we are excited to tell you a bit more about next month, but for now, otherwise, we’re thinking about this Borges quote and listening to the latest door.link by Lykke Li.
What are you listening to? What have you been thinking about?
New Merch by Blacks of Are.na
Now in the Gift Shop, we have two limited-edition T-shirts produced by Blacks of Are.na in honor of Juneteenth. The group (which you can read more about below) worked with Houston-based artist Mitchell Reece on two limited edition shirts, one standard shirt (Written in Our Image) and a premium version (Written in Our Imagination), both of which explore the power of information—what happens when it's withheld, and what becomes possible when it's reclaimed.
We’re also selling a Blacks of Are.na vinyl sticker in the store. We have a limited supply of everything, and 25% of the proceeds go to The Reading Room in Houston, so get these before they go.
An Interview with Darrel Kennedy and Alice Otieno of Blacks of Are.na
In conjunction with the merch launch, we published an interview with Darrel Kennedy and Alice Otieno about Blacks of Are.na, their “In Honor of Juneteenth” project, and the “sacredness of curiosity and the privilege of knowing.”
We also re-published a piece from the Are.na Annual by Megumi Tanaka about digital storage and keeping our data close.
Re-Written Juneteenth Writing Workshop
At The Reading Room in Houston, Blacks of Are.na and Amarie Gipson hosted a workshop inviting reflections on Juneteenth. You can see the results of the workshop in this beautiful channel: Threading a Digital Quilt: In Honor of Juneteenth (2025).
Community News
Thanks to Kristoffer Tjalve who mentioned Are.na in an interview for Apossible. He says, “Are.na feels like an ‘environment in balance,’ almost like a forest, a place where I can embrace myself without needing to explain myself. It also doesn’t try to extract any value from me. There are no dark patterns, growth hacking tactics, or the language of urgency and conflict. As a result, I easily relax in this environment, and — when I do meet others on Are.na — I can listen to their curiosities too.”
Our friend Spencer Cheng has an interview there too.
Ping Practice is developing an iOS app that looks really nice. It’s a journaling app designed to “help you synthesize these fleeting bits of resonance into wisdom you are inspired and equipped to embody.”
Are.na friend Amirio Freeman has interviewed another Are.na friend Evan Collins (of CARI) about the botanical influences on human design for Amirio’s Substack Plantcraft.
Lastly, Alvin Ashiatey made a full-featured Raycast extension for Are.na. For those who don’t know, Raycast is an application launcher and productivity tool. Alvin’s extension not only makes it possible to search Are.na from within Raycast, but also lets you create new channels and blocks as well.
If you have any news you’d like to share, don’t hesitate to add it to the Community News channel.
Roadmap
As always, you can check out our roadmap page which goes into the features we're building, our long-term goals, and our current numbers.
There are so many places you can spend your attention, and we’re touched that you spent it reading this letter.
The Are.na Team