# Dear Crisis

> Dear Crisis is a volunteer-run community in New York City convening around the metacrisis (also searched as the polycrisis or permacrisis). Monthly Metacrisis Salons in Brooklyn, hands-on Resiliency Action Labs, and The Creationship creative incubator in the East Village. No organization, no funding — people building an island of coherence in NYC, ready to take action.

Key facts: Metacrisis Salons run monthly at Lightning Society, 245 Varet St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (~65 people, $15, food included, two speakers + breakout groups). Resiliency Action Labs teach practical community-resilience skills (off-grid mesh radios, grid-down preparedness, rooftop food growing). The Creationship runs Sundays at Caravan of Dreams, 405 E 6th St, Manhattan (free). Founded by Benjamin Von Wong. Contact: hi@vonwong.com.

## Main pages

- [Homepage](https://dearcrisis.com): what Dear Crisis is, upcoming events, latest recaps, FAQ
- [Join the community](https://dearcrisis.com/join): request to join the WhatsApp community — short form, community agreements, instant invite
- [Community agreements](https://dearcrisis.com/community-guidelines): how we show up, in the room and in the group chat
- [About](https://dearcrisis.com/about): the full story — why hyperlocal, venues, how to plug in
- [Recaps](https://dearcrisis.com/salons): every Metacrisis Salon and Resiliency Action Lab, distilled
- [Past events archive](https://dearcrisis.com/events/past): every gathering we've ever run
- [RSS feed](https://dearcrisis.com/feed.xml): recap feed, updates with every new gathering

## Attend

- [Events calendar + RSVP (Luma)](https://luma.com/dearcrisis)
- [iCal subscription](https://api.lu.ma/ics/get?entity=calendar&id=cal-Cv4SfxulyNrsjTM)

## Upcoming events

- [Creationship Sundays: AI for Creative Good](https://luma.com/hpki7fh8): July 12, 2026 — Caravan Of Dreams, 405 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009, USA
- [How We Build Power - Metacrisis Salon #12](https://luma.com/6ujn84n5): July 18, 2026 — 245 Varet St, Brooklyn, NY 11206, USA

## Recaps (newest first)

- [Resiliency Action Lab #3 — Rooftop Reciprocity](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-3-rooftop-reciprocity): We don't garden to give back to nature — we garden to come back to it. A barren rooftop corner becomes a pollinator habitat, a medicine cabinet, and a small act of rebellion against a food system more fragile than it looks.
- [Resiliency Action Lab #2 — Off-Grid Comms with Signals Rising](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-2-off-grid-comms): When the grid goes down — a blackout, a hurricane, a crowd that overwhelms the cell towers — the people who can still reach each other are the ones who set up their comms and practiced before they needed them. (Spike)
- [Resiliency Action Lab #1 — Two Weeks, No Grid](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-1-two-weeks-no-grid): Could your household make it fourteen days with no power, no water, no internet? The first Action Lab put a room of neighbors to work mapping the plan — bathtub to Berkey, Starlink to mesh, rice math to a backyard fire.
- [Metacrisis Salon #11 — How we build an Ecocivilization](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/11-how-we-build-an-ecocivilization): The system isn't broken. It's doing exactly what it was built to do — extract, exploit, accelerate. So we don't fix it. We build the one that makes it obsolete. (Jeremy Lent)
- [Metacrisis Salon #10 — Is Climate Stabilization Still Possible?](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/10-is-climate-stabilization-still-possible): We are already engineering the planet — recklessly, as an externality, in the dirtiest, most inequitable way. The question isn't whether. It's whether to do it consciously, to understand what we are doing, and to apply rigorous scientific research to understand what could be done safely and responsibly from here. (Kelly Erhart)
- [Metacrisis Salon #9 — Is Empire Collapsing?](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/9-is-empire-collapsing): We are an egalitarian species. We keep building cages. AI is the newest one. (Luke Kemp, Samantha Sweetwater)
- [Metacrisis Salon #8 — Disconnection & Polarization](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/8-disconnection-polarization): We're not divided on issues. We've become contemptuous of each other — and contempt is a different problem entirely. (Emily Graham, Shia Levitt)

## Community

- [Join the WhatsApp community](https://dearcrisis.com/join): tell us who you are, check off the community agreements, and you're in
- [Instagram @dear.crisis](https://www.instagram.com/dear.crisis)
- Email hi@vonwong.com to speak at a salon, host an event, or collaborate