Volume 1, Issue 13 | Generalized Reciprocity
Whether well, ailing, calm, eager, or boiling—at home, with a friend, in the mountains, or somewhere in the city—however and wherever (and whenever) it is that this email finds you, I hope that it does in fact find you.
And I hope because I don’t often know whether these do, because we never turned on tracking for these emails, so it’s only the volunteered mention or occasional reply or annotated screenshot texted over that serve as confirmation of receipt.
—Ivan
Happenings
This week:
Weekly Wednesday Worknight, Wednesday, September 11
The Company is about combining creative work with good friendships. Make an appointment with your side project this (or any) Wednesday at a Worknight, where we oscillate between enforced, focused, quiet time and optional chatty social time. $5, or free for Company and Moonlight members.
PowerPoint Party No. 18, Saturday, September 14
What’s a PowerPoint Party, you ask? Twelve people giving 7-minute presentations about whatever they’re currently into. At past ones people have presented about their rules for life, how to cross this intersection, designing mazes, queer cinema, and loved ones. It’s a wide mix.
It’s a nerdy and sincere crowd that cares a lot, and we’ve met some of our favorite people at these.
Want to present? We’ve got a waiting list (email us back if you want to get on it). Want to just show up and meet interesting people and learn about what’s fascinating them lately? That’s great too. Bring yourself, bring a friend, bring your mom.
Future Weeks:
Type in Real Life, Thursday, September 19
A few years ago Norton and I watched a great documentary about the Linotype, directed by Doug Wilson. I had seen that he was local to Denver, so I emailed him after and we ended up getting coffee. It was a really great and wide-ranging conversation, and he mentioned at one point that he and his friend Kyle Read (of Badson Studio) had been talking for years about starting a type meetup in Denver. (If you’re unfamiliar with the term, type is how people in certain communities refer to what most people call fonts.) As an aspiring amateur type designer myself, I found this impossibly exciting, and I proceeded to email the two of them every few days until it finally got scheduled. (One of my great skills in life is following up.)
The Denver type meetup was short lived, but at the first one, held at OMF, I met some other people in the Colorado type community who were part of a longer- and more regularly-running type meetup organized by Steve Matteson out of The Book Arts League (then in Lafayette, now in Boulder), and since then I’ve been a a regular there and it’s been a total joy. Steve is such a brilliant and generous guy, and the whole type community has been such a fun community to be a part of.
Earlier this year, while Kyle was driving some of us to one of those Book Arts League meetups, I mentioned this new space we were starting, and he made the mistake of saying that he’d be interested in giving the Denver-based type meetups another go.
Mary Ann’s Book Club, Monday, September 30
Company member Mary Ann is hosting a monthly book club!
This month, we’ll be discussing How to Know A Person, by David Brooks. As a community of people that is generally interested in getting to know people, it’s a fitting book to start with. Lexi and I started reading it a while ago and are now definitely going to get around to finishing it.
You can find it available for purchase here. (Bookshop.org lets you choose a local book store to send some proceeds to. We recommend supporting The Shop at Matter, our local design and activist bookshop.)
Allyson’s Refugee Initiative, TBD
Company member Allyson is heading up an initiative to help refugee families in our area. It will be in partnership with a local, more established program, and would involve using our collective talents to wrap around a newly arrived family for 4–6 months. The main areas we’ll be supporting are: life skills, English, financial literacy, and employment support. Are you interested in joining this team? Email allysonacoan@gmail.com or reply here.
(Reply!)
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Also coming up: Summery, and Glint: Harvest.
Nostalgia
Do you remember Penelope plotting with paint? The blobs she was inspired to make? That Drew and Curtis were also in, and saw Halie leaving the note?
How John came in, and with his question about trash helped us solve our own question about trash? How shortly after that Marcia texted us about becoming a member, and we melted?
The rumble of the chairs and desks rolling away as we prepped for Join or Die?
Phil, surprise in town, on his way back home from Burning Man?
The sound issues, and then the speed issues, and then the sound issues again? How it all worked out fine? How Melissa laughed about the PTA comment, and we all laughed at her for laughing—how it was sweet to know why she laughed? The different clubs and events that were shared?
The long lingering afterward? The discussion table, the groups?
How the quiet room got so much use that night?
Do you remember how we all tried on Lizzie’s ruffle hat and it looked great on all of us? How we had club uniforms on our mind and thought that maybe the move should be ruffle hats for everyone?
That, at Worknight, we accomplished enough to make a star? That we discovered we could unravel the star? That we couldn’t figure out how to re-ravel it, but knew we would someday?
How Justin couldn’t work and rode the skateboard around the desks forever, and River chased him?
The lunch with the question cards?
How we finally had a jam session, and made plans for more?
How Lexi returned?
Bureaucratic Minutiae
Norton cleared up so much space in the locker room. It’s super walkable now. It’s amazing.
At Worknight: Drew created several horcruxes, brainstormed photo things, and ordered photo prints, Halie finished two blobs, Lizzie transferred her mobile calendar to her physical one, Livvy moved some work cards, Justin selected and outlined a PowerPoint topic, Ivan made four musical sketches, and Norton got two Advent of Code stars.
At Join or Die: Allyson shared her refugee initiative and Mary Ann Bennet announced her book club, and Norton shared about the Creative Coding Demo Night / Art Show.
Finally, a reminder that The Company is a membership-supported mixed-use creative space, and if you know any of us, you’re welcome to pop in any time for free (outside of events). If you know that one of us is here and you’d like to come by, reach out and we can let you in.
Do you know anyone in the Denver area who might be looking for creative community? Feel free to forward this email along to them. Everyone loves Paperwork.
😘
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This issue of Paperwork was made possible by the support of our members, Halie, Drew, Justin, Mason, Lexi, José, Mary Ann, Trevr, Aubrey, Allyson, and our newest member, Lizzie.
