This month’s World Hoop Day celebrations in DC and Maryland were resoundingly magical. My gratitude goes out to each person who showed up to hoop, take a workshop, join our jams, enjoy the premier DC showing of The Hooping Life, watch the diverse and delectable performances of the first DCHC Flow Showcase, and to volunteer time, energy, and resources to help make our event a smashing success, including constructing and decorating hoops to give away to 100 children (and a few lucky adults!) across the DMV.

A few of the more significant highlights for me were: meeting Jes Raschella from Baltimore and adorning Joe’s with the hooprayer flags she & Spilly created and lent us for the event; meeting little hooper Scarlet, daughter of Julie one of my dear & wonderful students of the hoop; seeing just how many hoopers have sprouted up in the last year as our revolution tumbles onward with a gentle yet unstoppable velocity; having the privilege of meeting and spending a bit of time with Tisha Marina from L.A.- what a spirit of light and force of positive change in this world! So good to know you, Tisha! More treats: getting to hoop upside-down(!) on a tree in Rock Creek Park (thank you much, Shapeshifter); hooping with my 4 year-old nephew Elias on 10.10.10, the prettiest fall day imaginable; and witnessing the sheer and awesome dedication of all the folks who made the weekend happen- especially the DC Hoop Collective, staff of Joe’s Movement Emporium, Flow Showcase performers, Sonya Gross who lead our food team, and our guest teachers: Tisha Marina and Ann Humphreys. I am honored and proud to be a part of such a loving, accepting, and playful community as this one~ both locally in the Mid-Atlantic hoop scene and in the great world over.