A quick pause before the story...
If you missed the event, a handful of printed copies of The Garden Issue are still available.
A 16-page Art & Clarity Zine with original collage work, spring clarity exercises, and a seed packet.
Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
I’m just a girl so a catch up over dinner, drinks and a joint will always have my whole heart. But somewhere along the way I started craving something more. A creative outlet. A slower kind of gathering. Something that felt more like a practice than a plan. That desire is what planted the seed for the bouquet workshop and the Garden Issue release.
The event reached RSVP capacity and I even opened a few extra spots for some lovely TikTok inquiries who found their way to me. That alone told me this was something people were craving too.
I pushed myself creatively to build a flower bar that made women feel like they were picking straight from a garden. Not a vase on a table. A garden. And honestly, shopping for the florals was my favorite part of the whole week. I fully stepped into my Martha Stewart bag and I have zero regrets.
BloomTown Flower Market is where things got really good. I nerded out completely over the stems. We spent so much time talking with the owners that by the end of it she offered a generous discount, moved by the idea of spreading joy through flowers and encouraging women to slow down and take care of themselves. That kind of generosity stays with you.
I wanted an array of beautiful blooms alongside a few exotics that would make the bar feel like something unexpected. Something worth stopping for.
Many I was meeting for the very first time. But by the end of the afternoon we were no longer strangers. Real, genuine connections. The kind you don’t manufacture. The kind that isn’t performative.
Black women showed up and slowed down. And I want to sit with that for a moment because we don’t do it enough. We carry so much, so consistently, that pausing without a reason or a deadline can feel almost foreign. Sunday gave permission for that pause. No kids pulling at sleeves. No to-do list waiting. Just time that belonged to them.
Some settled in over coffee or matcha, many trying matcha for the very first time. Some made their way over to the flower bar and let me guide them stem by stem through building their bouquet. A few handed it completely over to me and said freestyle. Others had a very clear vision and I loved watching them follow it. Some weren’t there for flowers at all and found their people at the collage station, creating vision boards or just making something slow and intentional with their hands. And others planted themselves in Washington Cafe’s living room area and just talked. Got to know new faces. Laughed. Exhaled.
I couldn’t have written a better afternoon.
That law of physics applied to my life in full force the week after the Garden Issue. Here’s how the motion went.
Substack hit top rising in travel again. Thank you. Genuinely. Welcome to every new reader finding their way here and a very special thank you to my paid subscribers. Your support is the reason I can keep building this. A quick reminder that paid subscribers receive complimentary copies of my quarterly Art & Clarity Zines, full travel itineraries, and early access to my coffee travel book. It means everything when someone joins just to support or uses these articles as a real resource. That is exactly why I am here. To connect, to share, and to inspire more travel, especially for Black women and the younger generations coming up behind us.
Staying in motion. I traveled to Virginia Beach for the opening of the new MoCA on the Wesleyan campus in Norfolk, where Nina Chanel Abney was the featured artist debuted The Pursuit of Happiness, a collection that brings paintings, collages, sculpture, and an immersive installation that confront how we imagine joy, struggle, and survival in a time of global uncertainty. To kick of the event the museum hosted an intimate artist talk featuring Nina Chanel Abney + Pusha T.
But let’s reverse right quick.
Nina Chanel Abney is an artist I have been following since 2012. She was featured in NeonV Magazine, a women’s magazine I co-founded with four women, interviewed by our Creative Director Tanekeya Word. Tanekeya has always been ahead of the curve and that interview anchored our very first issue in a way that felt definitive. It felt like we were documenting something before the rest of the world caught up.
To now be in 2026, invited to the opening of a new modern art museum where she is the featured artist, watching how far she has traveled since that NeonV interview, into some of the most prestigious collections and museums in the world. And then to meet her. To genuinely connect. To run into her and a cool, warm group of art friends across an entire opening weekend in Virginia Beach at all the best spots the city has to offer.
Life is funny in the most generous way when full circle moments arrive. Everything you walked through to get there suddenly makes sense. All of it was worth it.
Sincerely,
Kimee
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