The Back Room & March Clubs

Happy Friday Beautiful people! I am extremely caffeinated and sitting in a beam of sunshine in a new apartment. Moving is a humble exercise, especially in a pre-war buidling. My hamstrings are sore.

Last night, I attended a Substack event at The Back Room on the Lower East Side. The first time I went to the back room I was 22 or 23. They have a 25 and up door and I talked my way inside to wait for my date. We roamed around and after on a cool summer night and said goodbye. He later suggested we go to the ballet and I fizzled, because the ballet is sacred. You have to really like someone to go the ballet together.

I brought the lovely Ananya with me last night and we met two food people who discussed "being as close to your food as possible" and "supporting Mom and Pop shops." We met the brilliant Jessica DeFino and the woman behing Lit Club.

The Back Room is very cool, they have all of these tasteful nude paintings and good lighting and serve all of their drinks in mugs and teacups. I have never savored a club soda as much as last night, after so many flights of stairs. I don't drink during the week, as well. A personal rule I've had since 18, as Princeton is a party school in disguise.

It was good to be in a room of creative people. I self-isolated pretty hard last year and remembered how much I love people and chatting and desparately want to make a better practice of "hanging out" in 2026.

Speaking of hanging out, our community section of our website is now live, with chat rooms and a dedicated space for our book club. This time, we'll be reading Their Eyes were Watching God, and I'll post a schedule in the book club room shortly.

I've also picked out some things for us to dive deep on together for the month of March. Here they are:

• Book Club - Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• Music - Sade

• Visual Art - Francesca Woodman

• Film - Sofia Coppola

I'll more clearly define how each deep dive will work, but expect chatter, stuff to do, creative projects, and more. Also so open to suggestions <3

hope u all are well enjoy the weekend,

go outisde!

xx

hailo