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Chitra Aiyar - My Blog
Chitra Aiyar - My Blog
Drop-in Dinners
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The Rediscover Your Heart award was exactly what we needed to jump-start our drop-in dinner series. We started hosting drop-in dinners a few years back when we first moved to Brooklyn to meet our neighbors and friends. The idea was straightforward – every other Monday night we cooked and friends and neighbors were welcome to drop by and bring their friends. We never knew who or how many people would show up, but we wanted to create a space where people could feel free to drop in on good food, good people, and good conversation. We wanted to inspire others to host nights as well, but it never quite took off and eventually we stopped hosting.
We always felt that there was something special that happened when people came over to break bread with others. In New York City as in many urban centers, apartments are small and most people go out to socialize. In addition, most people are hyper-scheduled with multiple events, places to go and people to see. They don’t necessarily cook or use their home as a gathering place. What we envisioned is that we let our friends and their friends know that our house will be open on a regular basis – no need to RSVP or plan, if they happen to be in the neighborhood or have a free night or just feel the need for some community or good food, they can come by.
After we received the award, we realized that we needed to revamp the way that we host drop-in dinners. For one thing, we now have a cute young baby, who would not be so happy with dinners that last late into the night. So we decided to switch it up to brunch and to host less frequently. The second thing is that we really want to encourage others to host nights as well. Our big dream is that we inspire so many people that we develop a community in which at least one person is hosting a drop-in dinner every night so that there is always somewhere to go for good company. With the award money, we are trying to provide a little seed money as incentive for others to host events. We have asked our guests for their thoughts on what it means to cultivate a drop-in culture and we will fund at least 10 individuals to host a regular series that will hopefully inspire their guests to host as well.
These pictures are from a recent event – we collected books for prisoners. We ate good food, gathered over 300 quality books, and enjoyed lively debates about the literary merits of various books. Our challenge now is to think about the frequency of gatherings (to make it truly drop-in, we should be hosting every other week, but we’ve only been doing it monthly which makes it more of an “event” versus an informal get-together) and the number of people (at a recent event we had 35 people – which is vibrant and stimulating but we realize is too many to generate quality conversations and connections). So our conception of what a drop-in culture can be continues to evolve. We’d love to hear your thoughts…

February 26, 2009 | 11:11 PM Comments  0 comments

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