Grokkist Newsletter #77

Hey friends,

I’ve been thinking about community again, which is always a slightly uneasy topic for me.

It’s one of those words that tends to get sprayed around like an air freshener—sometimes as a substitute for clarity, other times as a way to make things sound warmer and more wholesome than they actually are. We all nod along, but often we’re not really talking about the same thing.

So when I came across On Community, a book-length essay by Casey Plett, I was curious to see how someone else had taken a run at this word.

Plett is best known for her fiction—sharp, tender, often devastating stories centring trans lives—but in this piece she steps sideways into nonfiction, weaving memory, critique, and reflection into something that feels more like a working-through than a statement. That appeals to me.

One thing she names right away is how often people in power invoke community as a kind of shortcut—like a known quantity they can refer to, stand with, or claim authority over. “The [insert identity here] community,” they say, as if that tells you anything about the people involved, or the dynamics at play.

But as Plett shows, communities aren’t always cohesive or kind. They don’t speak with one voice. And sometimes the worst kinds of exclusion happen within them—inside the places where you’re supposed to belong.

That struck a chord. I’ve had experiences like that too. And it’s something I hear a lot from fellow grokkists.

Many of us have complicated relationships with groups, systems, and identity categories. We’ve been burned by institutions, flattened by expectations, or found out we don’t fit—sometimes despite our efforts, and sometimes because we didn’t really want to.

So when we try to gather, we tend to bring both longing and caution. We want connection, but not conformity.

We want to feel seen, but not surveilled. We want to belong, but not be boxed in.

At Grokkist, we try to practice a form of belonging that doesn’t require fitting in. That’s easier said than done. It means designing not for alignment, but for encounter—for what Plett calls “an ongoing space of encounter,” especially with strangers.

That line has stayed with me. We often describe Grokkist as a place to have loving encounters with the unfamiliar, and I think that’s the part we get right most often.

But designing for encounter also means accepting that not every moment will feel comfortable. The vibe we aim for is “shoes-off”—a place where you can exhale, let your guard down, and stop performing.

That kind of atmosphere doesn’t just happen. It takes effort, attention, and care.

And at the same time, we’re not in the business of promising that every interaction will feel safe to everyone, always. What we can offer is a commitment to showing up with integrity, and to responding with care when things feel off.

We don’t treat safety as a guarantee. It’s something we cultivate together—like surfing in the air: not always steady, but spacious, and carried by something bigger than us.

This week we’re bringing that spirit into the new rhythm we’re launching for members: a fortnightly Lab and Lounge format that’s the heartbeat of what we call groksmithing in community.

The Lab is where people bring projects, questions, or stuck points and get live support—through hands-on help, parallel play, breakout chats, or just thinking out loud in company.

The Lounge is slower, more spacious—a place to listen, share what’s on your heart, or just be with others in an unhurried way.

It’s part of a broader recalibration I've been working on, which you can see reflected in the updated membership structure, our growing collection of signature projects, and the new ways to work with me and my capable co-conspirators.

All of it is anchored in groksmithing—the craft of shaping environments where clarity, momentum, and mutual support can flourish.

It’s what I’ve been doing most of my life, without quite having a name for it. Now it has a shape. And that’s helping me organise not just Grokkist, but my own attention and energy too.

I’m not sure any of this qualifies as a “community” in the traditional sense. But if it’s a space where people can be real with each other, explore what matters, and follow their curiosity in good company—towards the far end of something, even if we don’t yet know what—then maybe that’s enough.

With curiosity and care,
Danu

Fresh and Featured Pressings

Euro Book Trek: Part 2

By Alan Raw (23 min read)

A literary and climate-themed journey through Europe, one bookshop at a time.

Read the article ↗

5 | Painting with the Spirit and Traveling for God, with Dimitri Kadiev

By Jim Robinson and Liam Myers (76 min listen)

In a world constantly selling us stories of fear and scarcity, how do we learn to trust our spirit to guide us to a more meaningful life? Dimitri Kadiev shares joys and lessons from a life on the road.

Read the article ↗

More from the Press

• Of Comfort and Disquiet (Peter Gilderdale, 4 min read) – As disturbing as tales of monsters can be, perhaps they protect us from more troubling truths.
• Oblivious Oligarchs (Peter Gilderdale, 6 min read) – Who can we trust to build a brighter future for us all?

Upcoming Events

🟣 Members Lab & Lounge [Timezone A]

🗓️ Tue 14 Oct | 6.30pm–9.30pm UK time (view in your timezone)
Facilitated by Danu Poyner

Welcome to the new heartbeat of Grokkist membership. The Members Lab & Lounge is a three-hour gathering designed to combine practical groksmithing support with the warmth of relational connection — a reliable tentpole for our community of grokkists.

Each session is split into two parts — and you’re welcome to join just the first half, the second half, or stay for as much time as you like:

The Lab (first 90 minutes): Hands-on, practical, energising. Get live groksmithing support from Danu or another groksmith on your project, workshop, talk, or life situation. Rehearse, test, ideate, or simply listen in and learn from others. During the Lab we also open private breakout rooms for parallel play, so you can co-work quietly on your own project or team up with others in a smaller space.

The Lounge (second 90 minutes): Slower and more spacious. Two cosy 1:1 conversations with fellow members, followed by a closing circle of care — a chance to ask for advice, share what’s on your heart, or simply connect as humans.

Event Details and RSVP ↗

🟢 Listening to Tulip Poplar: a heart-centered plant communication workshop

🗓️ Wed 15 Oct | 1pm–2pm Eastern time (view in your timezone)
Facilitated by Amanda Nicole

More-than-human voices are all around us, longing to be heard. Their non-linear, heart-centred communication is often muffled by our own mind-centered noise—but with practice, it’s possible to become still and listen.

In this practitioner workshop, you’ll explore heart-centered plant communication with herbalist and plant listener Amanda Nicole . Fluent in the language of the heart and conversant with trees, Amanda creates magical opportunities for humans to listen with their hearts to the gentle voices of nature beings.

Event Details and RSVP ↗

Other Upcoming Events

• 16 Oct | 🟢 PhilosophyGym @ Grokkist
• 3 Nov | 🟢 Grokkist Writing Salon
• 4 Nov | 🟣 Members Lab & Lounge [Timezone B]

#1 - Five attitudes towards climate change and the impact on our society

Five Attitudes Towards Climate Change (and the impact on our society)

For years, I thought that there were two “sides” to the discussion around climate change. There were the people who believed in the science and the people who thought it was all a farce. Often, they could segregated into Democrats and Republicans. Of course, there were plenty of people who

Made Not Found (by danah boyd)danah boyd

Climate change may be a shared reality, but the stories people tell about it are pulling in sharply different directions. danah boyd traces how climate discourse has mutated beyond denial and despair, fracturing into five different worldviews. Beyond the familiar globalist narrative of coordinated action, she traces how fringe ideologies are increasingly influencing real policy decisions, from end-times prophecy to nationalist self-preservation to elite techno-eugenics.

#2 - Just Plain Wrong podcast

Just Plain Wrong

Three Mennonite librarians discuss depictions of Amish, Mennonites, and other plain groups in media and popular culture. We review Amish romance novels, other Amish fiction, movies, TV episodes, and more! New episodes most Wednesdays. Follow us on…

Buzzsprout

A podcast hosted by three Mennonite librarians who unpack how Amish, Mennonite, and other “plain” communities are portrayed in pop culture — from bestselling Amish romance novels like Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult to reality TV and film. Each episode explores what it means to see your culture reflected back through the lens of media, offering smart, specific, and often funny commentary. Their critiques interweave theology, gender, representation, and the politics of storytelling. A great place to start: the episode with Karen Johnson-Weiner, author of The Lives of Amish Women, which sheds light on everyday experiences across Amish communities — far beyond the usual tropes.

#3 - A sculptor’s study of faces and flesh

Jack Cox’s specific, obsessive practice involves sculpting hyper-realistic human heads — lumpy, fleshy, and heavy with gravity. The 8-min short film trails him through his cramped New York studio and out into the street, where he treats the city as a way to gather a “sociological understanding of humanity.” The documentary’s style mirrors his social unease: long silences and moments of surrealism, abrupt edits, an opening stretch of wordless hesitation. He says he doesn’t try to inject personality into the heads, but if they could talk, they’d probably just say: “This sucks — don’t make me exist.”

#4 - Zabihollah Mansouri: the translator who made the story his own

Amir Ahmadi Arian Goes in Search of Iran’s Most Famous Translator

Was Zabihollah Mansouri secretly a prolific author?

The Yale ReviewAmir Ahmadi Arian

A translator who may have written more than he ever translated, Zabihollah Mansouri was one of the most widely read literary figures in Iran — his name filled library shelves, and his books were passed hand to hand during wartime blackouts. “Most people in Iran, even those who rarely crack open a book, know who Mansouri is, though he died almost forty years ago.” But many of the works he “translated” were wildly embellished — or entirely invented. In this essay, Amir Ahmadi Arian traces Mansouri’s improbable legacy, from childhood fascination to a broader reflection on truth, fiction, and cultural memory. What begins as a literary detective story becomes a meditation on authorship, truth, and the blurred line between storytelling and deception in a society hungry for knowledge under constraint.

#5 - Atmospheric oil paintings by Martin Wittfooth

Martin Wittfooth’s large-scale oil paintings depict glowing animals — lions, deer, birds — rendered with classical technique in atmospheric, often post-apocalyptic settings. Fire, flood, decay, and detritus coexist with symbolism drawn from myth and ritual. His work reflects on cycles of destruction and resilience, drawing attention to how nature absorbs, reflects, and endures the impacts of human activity.

Grokkist is a living ecosystem — 🟢 free to enter, powered by members 🟣.

If you’d like to go deeper, you can join as a member, explore Signature Projects, or work with Danu.

Become a Grokkist Member ($99/yr or $27/qtr)

A pair of parting thoughts...

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ― Anaïs Nin

“Re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem.” ― Walt Whitman