Dear friends of Rhizome-

We’re writing to share the news with you that Rhizome Café’s last day will be Thursday, August 22nd. This moment is a bittersweet one for us personally, since it is both the end of a beautiful era, and the beginning of a new and exciting chapter. We are so grateful to all of you for standing with us during this period of transition.

We have been so humbled and honored by the outpouring of love and support you have brought our way since mid-April, when we announced our decision to close Rhizome so that we can move east to be closer to family and focus on other commitments. Since then, we’ve been reminded time and again that what we’ve built here together over these past seven years has been beautiful and important. We are committed to carrying all that we have learned from this experience into everything that we go on to do.

When we made the decision to close, we hoped that we would find someone to continue to hold 317 East Broadway as a place for community, for the forging of connection, and for work toward social and environmental justice. We are thrilled to announce that that hope has become a reality. In early September, Trinity United Church will open a new café and social justice hub at 317 East Broadway, rooted in many of the same values that have guided our work at Rhizome.

As we have worked on this transition with leaders from Trinity United over the past couple of months, we have been struck by their thoughtful commitment to honoring the work that has been done in this space, and to ensuring that 317 East Broadway continues to look and feel like home for all who have used it over these past seven years. We are so relieved to know that the work that so many groups have done in this room will be able to continue well into the future, and we are grateful to Trinity United for taking on this project with such care, integrity and enthusiasm. While it will not be “Rhizome,” this new café will be a closely related cousin, and we are excited to see how this new project unfolds.

We invite you to read Trinity United’s letter to you, join their mailing list, and participate in their open house on September 5th. You can contact them about events, meeting space, and more. For your privacy, we are not transferring our email list to Trinity United, so to hear further news of their project, you’ll have to sign yourself up to their email list through their website.

With much love for you all, and with deepest gratitude for all that you have shared with us,
Lisa and Vinetta