AliceFraser

What Are The Salons?

Added 2023-05-02 11:11:19 +0000 UTC

Hallo! One of the things I run on this Patreon are weekly Tea With Alice Salons.

In this post I’m going to try to explain what they are, but because I know what they are and you don’t, I’ll probably forget to mention things that seem self evident in my brain but are not at all self evident if you’re not in my brain.

So feel free to ask in the comments here and I’ll try to incorporate the answers in the body of the post.

What are the Salons?

Historically speaking, shorn of cultural trappings and boiled down to their basics, salons were gatherings, hosted by women, where people would come and talk about ideas.

The salons here, we run mostly on video calls (very occasionally in real life). People from all over the world come into a virtual room and I host a conversation. We talk about everything, from the abstract to the personal to the fraught. We tend to steer clear of party politics, mostly because we’re a really international group and it doesn’t necessarily translate.

Who are they open to?

All Patreon subscribers of all levels are welcome at all the salons at the moment. I used to have some of them for higher levels but then the pandemic hit and I felt weird about paywalls. Will let you know if I revise that.

You host the conversation?

Yes, I play host; with a variably light touch. Depending on the group, the topics that come up and the number of people in the room, I’ll talk more or less and give Patreonites the floor as we go. Particularly in group video chats, I find that having one person steering is the most natural feeling way to keep conversation flowing along good and dynamic lines.

Can I just come sit in?

You can absolutely come sit in. If you keep your camera off, consider that the equivalent of sitting up the back of a show in the dark - I won’t pick on you if you’re ‘hiding’, but you’re welcome to drop questions or thoughts in the written chat as you like. I love the groups we get, and they’re not scary, but I definitely understand the urge to check something out thoroughly before diving in.

Am I going to get in trouble if I say something ‘wrong’?

The salons are meant to be safe places for difficult ideas; I want everyone to feel like they come in with the benefit of the doubt. I assume good faith from people bringing up the things they wrestle with, and so far, I feel like we’ve always seen it. I’m of the belief that it’s important to have good people and private spaces with whom and in which you can hash out half baked ideas and have them argued with in love.

We’re not looking for right answers, just good conversations that help us get better at thinking and at being people in the world. Which is not the same thing as having the right opinions - an aim that I feel leads either to preaching to the choir, or drag-out-debate-fights that descend into sassy point scoring. Neither of which I’m hugely interested in.

That said, I’m hosting the Salons, and it’s the job of the host to make their guests comfortable. So if someone’s being an unpleasant guest, I’ll show them the door.

What topics come up?

Literally anything from chicken breeding to existential crises. It’s so much fun to find out what we’re talking about each week and what themes arise.

Are there going to be literary salons?

I will be introducing a new set of more formal literary book club type salons to add to the slate of Things For Patreonites and I’ll tell you about those later this month!

What are the rules?

Normal Zoom Etiquette applies; be on headphones, use mute when you’re not talking; make a gesture or use the hand-emoji or stick it in the chat when you want to say something rather than everyone talking over each other.
Tea is compulsory (though everything counts as tea, including imaginary tea, definitely-not-tea and, I had a drink of water yesterday tea)
Feel free to let me know via DM if there are any topics or questions you’d like to raise anonymously.

Salons and Workshops First Half of This Month

(I’m doing double-salons for the first half of this month while I’m in Australia- because the split between Aus, U.K. and US is so wide, I can’t grab all the timezones easily in the hours available to me. When I get to the U.K., in the second half of this month the schedule will change)

Thursday 4 May 8.30pm Sydney Time: Salon 109