Brooklyn|Local Event
Winter Tea at Prospect Park
Join Tea Arts & Culture and Prospect Park Alliance to welcome 2026!
Together, we will share an afternoon to appreciate the joy of connection and beauty around us through tea, nature, art, and community.
Winter Tea is created by many of the beloved community members and artists. In this shared moment, we reflect and create, reminding one another that within the vastness of the world, each life is significant in defining our shared humanity and the small moments will endure through time and transcend our human experience collectively.
Free event. All are welcome! Registration is reuqired.
Featuring:
Outdoor Fireside Conversations and Tea with our community members
Gather around the outdoor fire to enjoy tea, conversations, and the serenity of the winter park. Reflect on one thing you would like to let go of in the new year. You can write it down and release it into the fire at the end of the event.
Odes to Common Things Poetry Writing with Robin Lampman
Participating in our ongoing community art project, Odes to Common Things, through poetry writing to reflect on our shared experiences and this moment. To learn more about the project, check here.
Live Performances by Chris Williams, Kirin McElwain & Testu Collective
"Music is the language of the soul” - Hazrat Inayat Khan
In a time when political divisions, social media echo chambers, and global tensions threaten to fracture our shared humanity, music remains one of the few forces that can still unite us across every border and belief system.
Curated by Testu Collective, the Winter Tea Music performances are with artists they deeply admire. The first act is the premiere of a music collaboration between Kirin McElwain and Serena Stucke/Dan Tesene. Kirin McElwain is a cellist and composer who creates contrasting sonic worlds merging modular synth and cello. Serena Stucke and Dan Tesene use handbuilt sound devices and modular synth to create lush, tactile sound worlds. The closing act is trumpeter and electroacoustic composer Chris Williams, who creates ethereal soundscapes with trumpet and electronics.
Third Life Ikebana Exhibition by Flower Heart Alliance
The exhibition, titled Third Life: Before the Mulch, transforms discarded Christmas trees into ikebana (sculptural floral arrangements), giving the trees a fleeting third life as a public expression of form, impermanence, and quiet celebration before the trees are mulched by the Parks Department. Open to the public on January 2 -4.