Five YearSSS

 

Peace! I’m Sadé, founder/host of Sadé’s Sunday Salon (SSS) — an intimate, curated event attended by intellectually astute, culturally literate, and artistically inclined individuals gathering "partly to amuse one another, and partly to refine their taste & increase their knowledge through conversation". Since the salon’s inception, I’ve been asked to share these conversations more widely (podcast? livestream?!) and have wrestled with finding a format that felt right, i.e. that protected the intimacy/integrity of the space and the (personal) truths shared within it. After taking rigorous notes and recapping on my IG proved too laborious (and also impeded my ability to host/moderate as effectively as preferred 😩), I’ve decided to launch this substack to platform some of our brilliant intellectuals/artists and house some of the interesting, provocative POVs that fuel our salons.

This post will walk you through a timeline of salons throughout history (which informs the SSS origin story and evolution to date). Moving forward, you can expect profound essays, reflections, and poetry from the SSS community. I hope you tap in and stay awhile ❤️

The History of Salons

Derived from the Italian “sala” (room) and “salone” (the large reception hall of Italian mansions), these literary gatherings were often referred to by using the name of the room in which they occurred (i.e. previously: cabinet, réduit, ruelle, and alcôve). The first “salon” gathering occurred in Italy during the 16th century and later gained popularity in 17th century France. In these rooms, women would meet to discuss topics around art, science, politics, and other cultural influences (as they weren’t allowed to engage in such discussions outside of their homes). Due to these societal constraints, salons provided an informal education – a space to share their works and exchange ideas/critiques between intellectuals.[1]

Generally, women had a powerful influence over the salon. “Salonnières” were the center of life in the salon and carried very important roles as regulators. They governed the guest list, decided the (social, literary, or political) subjects of their meetings, and mediated the discussion. In time, men also began joining the gatherings and by the 18th century, salons had multiplied across Europe and the Americas, bolstering what we now refer to as the Age of Enlightenment. These salons brought together nobles and intellectuals in an atmosphere of civility and fair play in order to educate one, refine the other, and create a common medium of cultural exchange based on the shared notion of honnêteté (speak, honesty) that combined learning, good manners, and conversational skill. [2]

Salons in the 20th Century[1]

In the 1920s, Gertrude Stein's Saturday evening salons (as described in Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast and fictionally reenacted in the movie Midnight in Paris) were renownedly well-attended by cultural titans like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (...and his wife Zelda who I think is equally or even more iconic). Literary legend Zora Neale Hurston hosted salons as well as A’Lelia Walker (daughter of Madam C.J. Walker) whose salon “The Dark Tower” was the most popular and influential of the era, undoubtedly fueling the much celebrated cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance and leading Langston Hughes to dub her “The Joy Goddess of Harlem’s 1920s”.

Sadé’s Sunday Salon, est. 2020

As a native New Yorker, I’m ever inspired by the cultural & civic impact of the Harlem Renaissance but when I read My Soul Looks Back, a memoir by Jessica B. Harris set in 1970s NYC, I was supercharged. (There’s just something so so special about the 70s to me — from the music, to the fashion, to the activism, to the art…WHEW 🙌🏾 WATTBA!). Chronicling Harris’ life and times with luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, & Toni Morrison, MSLB is a beautiful ode to NYC and an even more beautiful tribute to this social circle’s shared commitment to joy, activism, intellectual engagement, and each other. So in 2020, several years removed from college and exhausted from navigating Corporate America, I was reminded how much I craved a space to deeply connect with fellow fun, intellectual activists.

I hosted my first salon in my Brooklyn apartment March 8th 2020. A few days after Super Tuesday, myself and about 12 others gathered to discuss recent inspirations, pop culture, and socio-political woes. One week later, the world shut down for COVID quarantine and the value of in-person gatherings became clearer than ever. We resumed in 2021, digitally hungover from a year of strictly virtual connection and starving for analog fellowship, (physical & psychological) safety, and truth.

Now, every 6 weeks or so, we cozy up in my living room amongst a backdrop of incense, jazz, charcuterie, cannabis, and wine to engage in an ongoing critique of “imperialist-white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy” (word to bell hooks) and more. Here is a recap of some of topics we’ve unpacked:

  • Masculinity & Femininity (gendered clothing, “gender” reveals, “tomboy”, toxicity, misogynoir)

  • Love (romantic, platonic, familial, poly, Black, interracial)

  • Privilege

  • Luxury & classism (quality, access/exclusivity, validation, “soft life”, “luxury” brands, “fine” arts, divinity & talent)

  • Inspiration vs. appropriation (invitations to the “cookout”, gatekeeping)

  • Free speech

  • The path to truth (education, literacy, media, and what it means to bear witness)

  • The meaning/value of life and morality of suicide

  • America’s Evangelical Christian Right

  • Fascism

  • The politics of food

  • Abuse within the Black community

  • Money, wealth & value (billionaires, Black Capitalism/“Black Excellence”)

  • The value of marriage and religious ceremony

  • Racism and collegiate/professional sports

  • Aliens/advanced species in the universe

  • Consumerism and sustainability

  • Diaspora wars

  • The role of parents & the treatment of children in society

  • Beauty, aesthetics, and attraction (colorism, desirability, modesty, confidence, eroticism)

  • Seasonal depression, grief, & escapism

  • Neurodivergence

  • Pop Culture / Current Events (non-exhaustive):

    • Elections (local and federal)

    • Kanye, Kyrie, & Anti-Semitism

    • Oscars Slap

    • Elon buying Twitter & billionaire media ownership

    • Kendrick’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers album

    • Black celebrities performing for the NFL post-Kaepernick

    • Palestinian Genocide

    • Olympics, Beyoncé, & Patriotism

    • Abuse within the entertainment industry

    • The rise (and dangers) of AI

As you can imagine, these topics produced quite a few memorable/provocative soundbites like:

  • "This place [America] is a casino"

  • “Where does the first-generation Black American go to feel at peace?”

  • “Every billionaire is a policy failure”

  • “Altruism is a farce”

  • "We (Black) people need to understand our own colonialism"

  • "A rising tide raises all ships, but Black boats are heavier"

  • "If you not eating, you food"

  • "We all not gonna make it, some ppl gonna get left behind"

  • “Being Black and gay is the best thing that ever happened to me”

  • “When they came to do the census they didn’t ask me if I was happy”

  • “Take the shackles off my feet so I can twerk”

  • “Struggle is what we’ve been through it’s not who we are”

  • “Everything [culturally] comes through the door of Blackness”

  • “White people aren’t inherently bad, the toxicity of whiteness is bad”

  • “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequence”

  • “If Kanye were on meds would we have more empathy?”

  • “Black billionaires are problematic because they take more than they give”

  • “What parts of masculinity do you still subscribe to? I still believe in snuffing n*ggas…not enough n*ggas getting punched in the face”

  • “If billionaires leave to go to another planet is that the meek inheriting the earth? Is it the earth purging? Earth has agency”

  • “Does death even have to be bad?”

  • “Sometimes perspective is greater than truth”

  • “Common core math can suck a d*ck”

  • “Love is someone reflecting back the best part of you”

  • “Black love is about reclamation and intention – I gotta get my lick back [from white supremacy]!”

  • “Can you be pro-Black in an interracial relationship?”

  • “Black men loving Black men is a revolutionary act”

  • “I gravitated toward girls/women that were softer than my mom and aunts”

  • “Our parents lied to us about life – they loved us, they poured into us, but they weren’t honest about the fucked up shit about life”

  • “If i hear ‘you’re smart’ [as a compliment] you’re telling me i’m ugly”

  • “Has Lizzo gone to therapy?”

  • “It shouldn’t be about money buying happiness but about poverty breeding stress”

  • “Money is [inherently] insecure. Money is not real – money is a promise that at any point someone can invalidate”

  • “We need to abandon the growth mindset to heal the planet”

  • “I am a lot of things but demure is not one of them, I take up space! Very intentional!”

In these last five years, the SSS community has borne much fruit – we share recommendations on things to read, watch, and listen to, support each other’s businesses and professional growth, and generously give personal resources for mutual aid. At the time of me writing this, Donald Trump has been freshly re-inaugurated into the office of President of the United States. Never did I think we’d be here (again) when I started this five years ago. While so much of our future is presently unknown and there is a lot to be fearful of, I find solace in the SSS community’s commitment to intellectualism and collective liberation knowing that we will continue to keep each other informed, lend support, and hold space whenever needed. Onward.

 
Sadé