Hi, friends! It’s been a minute since I sent an update, and a lot has happened since the last post. We’ve all been feeling the effects of the federal occupation and life has felt very heavy. We’re a new business trying to navigate and meet the needs of community in whatever way possible, including offering space for people to come together and disconnect for a moment, to catch their breath and recharge.

Our shop’s lounge/community space has started to get more action with people coming down to do arts and crafts, play board games, read, and just swap stories. Our main goal when we started this space was to offer an analog-first environment for people to disconnect and share phone-free experiences. We have been listening to our patrons and learning about the desire for a third space, for young people to gather with friends, for intergenerational skill-sharing, for local musicians (young and old) to perform, and so many other community-building activities.

Call for community support

The space we currently occupy in Milton Square is perfect for a workshop or fellowship hall, but due to the heat fluctuations and moisture we are going to have to relocate our retail side to the unit across the hall (Suite #6) which is temperature controlled and has a back entrance to improve accessibility for our visitors. Unfortunately it is not set up in a way that will work for us to have the third space and set up tables/chairs for community gatherings and events.

I believe third spaces are needed now more than ever, and we would like to retain this unit (Suite #5) as a standalone community space. We want to find out is if there’s interest from community members in some kind of a co-op or donation-based model that could support the $500 per month needed to cover rent. Grant funding is likely available to support this project as well, but that will take some time to get rolling. Ultimately, our desire is to ensure we’re working alongside community as this comes together.

How you can help

Please let me know if you have any interest in providing feedback, or if you are able to contribute financially to help get this off the ground. Thank you for your time and input! 

If you want to contribute directly to the community space, you can contact me or use our Venmo @presentcompanyanalog to send a donation. Thank you so much for your support. I will send another update soon!