🎇 What's a Pilgrimage? Why Memphis?
Pilgrimage: People + Place + Purpose
For those of us who are placemakers and people gatherers, we know our spaces have a life of their own. It's an energy that changes from day to day, reflecting the ever-changing group of people as they arrive and depart.
We create a framework around those comings and goings with our daily rituals of coffee brewing, intentional programming, beautiful furnishings, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Hospitality is elevated to an art form and a relentless quest for excellence.
Our pilgrimage is designed to gather people who do that hard, thankless work for four days in a place that will inspire and rejuvenate.
But not just any place.
Like the great sites around the world, pilgrimages don't happen just anywhere. The site is key to the experience. (There's also usually a very long walk!) The places we will explore together tell their stories with no words. While we have tour guides, this is not a conference with panels of speakers. We will have a few experienced Listeners to moderate conversations and offer reflections.
Our primary venues, Crosstown Concourse and First Congo are some of the finest examples of community engagement and historic adaptive reuse you are likely to ever see. It's no accident that they are located within a short drive from each other. Learn more about our venues here - though they really defy written description.
Of course, Memphis isn't just any city. For history, diversity, culture, and creativity, it has no peer. Also food. Holy smokes is there food! The pilgrimage builds in plenty of opportunities for you to discover this extraordinary city and meet its people.
Then there's the neighborhood - the historic Cooper-Young district that features shops, galleries, bars, and cafes, plus:
- A REAL book store and a REAL record store.
- And a cat sanctuary.
- And a restaurant located in Priscilla Presley's old beauty salon. (I know, right?)
It's a neighborhood that redefines "eclectic" and teaches real-time lessons in urban renewal from all perspectives.
On our Big Table Mighty Network, there is now a Group dedicated to connecting folks who are coming, and to those who want to learn more. Here's your invitation to join the group.
See you there!
🍏 Daryn
"Pilgrimage starts with setting intention. This might be healing, marking a loss, asking forgiveness, exploring a life transition, or simply reconnecting with joy. It might even be simply the intention of adventure —creating space in which unexpected new thoughts, friendships, or experiences might emerge.”
—Casper ter Kuile, The Power of Ritual
