How are you? Perhaps this is a tough question right now. Perhaps it isn’t. But I know that for me it’s the question that makes me stop where I am and pause. I am not sure of the answer. It feels like I could say a lot of things and also very little. I can tell you I am well. I have moved kindness to myself and others up the priority list and this has made me wear three jumpers today to keep the chills out. Or I can tell you about the ups and downs of this year, the bright connections and the darker bits in each day.
What is true for me right now is that I have a sense of completion as this year draws to an end. Mary Ann and I have been working hard. We have been writing a book for the last two years and have just finished it. In the book, ‘Red Tents – Unravelling our Past and Weaving a Shared Future’, we have documented our shared hope, vision and dream of Red Tents as liberatory community spaces for women around the world. We offer practical support and ideas to help women to establish and sustain a Red Tent in their community. We have also included questions and practices to support you and to stimulate discussion about some of the challenges that we know Red Tents face.
This shared vision we describe of collective community is also an invitation to you, to take part in shaping the Red Tent Directory by joining our team.
We have some spaces for new women to step up to this work. We welcome a number of new Red Tents who have joined us over the last few months, 13 in total, from Canada, USA, UK and our first in Mexico. A huge wide open hug to embrace you all. It is wonderful to have you with us.
Our book about Red Tents is ready to pre-order
Together we have written a book that weaves together the voices and experiences of many, many women in this community to create a shared story about the role Red Tents can play in our lives. And we wanted to let you know that signed copies of our book are now available for pre-order from Womencraft Publishing. When you pre-order you will also get:
- a ticket to our virtual launch event on Friday, March 26 (7.30-9 pm UK time): a chance to experience the power of meeting with others in a shared space as a liberatory way to be together
- An audio download of ‘Preparing for your Red Tent‘ in which we invite you to ground yourself, take a moment and embody your full self so that you can invite others to do the same when they attend your Red Tent. Designed to listen to before holding a tent, this audio complements the section of the book which speaks to preparing space for yourself and others, inviting you into a moment of stillness before your Red Tent begins.
Pre-orders ship on 18th March next year but to be sure to be one of the first to receive your copy get your order in now!
Step up to the welcome mat and join our team
As you will read in our book next year, we think the practice and ritual of Red Tents can be part of imagining spaces in our lives that help us to understand together what is possible in a world that will never be the same, that will never get back to normal.
And as we at the Red Tent Directory, adapt to change forced by a crisis of health, climate, inequality and systemic injustice we have multiple opportunities to reflect on what the world is calling for right now and how we can respond.
And we are currently looking for women to join our team who are able to give 6 hours each month to support the vision we are weaving together for Red Tents and attend our Red Tent counsel each month.
We are very clear that we stand for creating Red Tents collectively, spaces where we practice leading together, being together, imagining together.
We believe in spaces where care becomes a blueprint between us.
We support spaces where we can engage together in the long-term work of unpicking oppressive systems.
We want spaces where we can make mistakes as we learn so we emerge stronger together and connected to ourselves.
The roles that we are currently recruiting for are Community Lead, Engagement Lead, Comms Lead and Inclusion Lead.
You’ll join the two of us and Agnes our Digital Lead. We want to work with you, we want to create this together, we want you to feel you have a place with us. In fact, we can’t do this without you. Apply now.