The Fire We Shared: Reflections from the Torchlight Gathering
A reflection on what we built together and an invitation to help it grow.
📣 Signal Dispatch — Signals from the field
A small but kindred group of voices gathered across distance and time zones in the quiet glow of Refuge Bonne Foi, a private digital gathering space for creative collaboration. What began as a digital event became something much more: an embodied moment of cultural resistance.
The first Torchlight Gathering brought together the people and projects that form our wider ecosystem: Ember Commons, the Happy Medium Sustainability Collective, and Torch & Tinder Press itself; all gathered under one fire. We reflected, we planned, and we began to build what comes next. No slogans or spectacle; only practice. Cultural resistance, community resilience, and creative collaboration, taking root together. Each shared not only what they do, but why they do it—how freedom, imagination, and community can still be practiced, even in a fractured world.
Participants met one another in the Hall of the Commons, lit by purpose and warmth, and reflected on the simple truth that has guided every Torch & Tinder publication:
freedom is a practice.
The Gathering was structured not as a presentation but as a circle. A rhythm of reflection and collaboration. The evening began with a warm welcome and keynote, then flowed into conversation with Ember Commons, exploring education as liberation; Happy Medium, sharing what regenerative practice looks like on real soil; and Torch & Tinder’s spotlight on publishing as a way to preserve truth, memory, and imagination when authoritarianism seeks to erase them.
From there we learned about the Resistance & Resilience framework—a flexible tool that helps cultivate our personal resilience. We also discovered how a simple vision board can help us see the ways we already resist and start planning our next steps.
What emerged wasn’t performance or theory.
It was connection.
Proof that our work is alive, not abstract.
The Gathering reminded us that resistance doesn’t always look like protest. Sometimes it looks like conversation. Sometimes it looks like shared learning. Sometimes it looks like care.
And as the final words lingered, embers leapt forward, bridging reflection and action.
Help build the next chapter of Torch & Tinder Press.
Keep the light moving. The flame passes from hand to hand.
What comes next is already in motion. Torch & Tinder Press is preparing its first print releases: Embers Quarterly, Issue 1 and Field Guide 01 – What Are We Supposed To Do? These will be the first works to make the leap from digital commons to print—books designed to be carried, shared, and passed hand to hand. Each title continues the work we began together that night: making knowledge tangible, accessible, and alive.
Starting now, readers can help light that path. The circle widens through your support. Paid subscriptions are now open on Substack. Free subscribers will continue to receive every Signal Dispatch, Torchlight Praxis, and Embers post. Those who carry the torch with us help fund print runs, pay contributors, and keep all community editions free for everyone. It’s not enclosing the fire, it’s feeding it.
And for those who choose to carry that torch further: paid subscribers will also be invited to join Refuge Bonne Foi, our private campus for gatherings, workshops, and creative collaboration. It’s a quiet commons where we practice what we publish and where the Ethos of Embers & Ash becomes daily work, not distant theory.
So, if you’ve been reading, sharing, or standing with us in spirit, this is your moment to join the circle.
The flame passes from hand to hand.
Because our books, essays, and zines aren’t the fire itself. They’re tinder.
Each supporter adds fuel.
Each reader keeps the signal alive.
You are the signal. Keep your torchlight—and ours—burning.
Explore more from Torch & Tinder Press
📣 Signal Dispatch — Signals from the field (you’re here)
🔧 Torchlight Praxis — Tools you can carry
🔥 Embers — Warmth for the long winter
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Subscribe free on Substack to receive every post.
Become a Paid Subscriber ($8/month or $80/year) to help fund print releases and join Refuge Bonne Foi.
Join as a Torchbearer ($240/year) for early access to Core Collections and digital issues.
Group discounts: 20% per seat (min. 3).
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Books and zines for cultural resistance.