“Love is an experience; it’s a way to live in the world,” says Becca Stevens, founder and president of woman-led Thistle Farms.
“It’s a universal concept, but it’s experienced locally,” she continues. “That's how the world will heal. Love in your community is the most powerful kind. It's not us taking on one another's trauma; it's us sitting with people as they heal from it. It becomes a joy, not a burden. At Thistle Farms … we laugh as much as we cry, we celebrate as much as we grieve.”
Thistle Farms is a social justice enterprise that helps women overcome and heal from systems of prostitution and exploitation. Employing survivors, the cafe is a restaurant, tea service, and event space. Items available for purchase in the attached shop include luxurious handmade textiles for the home, as well as jewelry, candles, essential oils, and more. All are handcrafted locally by survivors. Thistle Farms wants to extend an invitation to the local community to get involved by coming for a visit.
“First, when we love somebody, we have to be concerned about their economic well-being," says Becca. "Buying our soap, eating at the café, lighting our candles - that economic impact makes the biggest difference. Sometimes people ask what they can do besides buy our products. Our products are like an evangelical tool. 70% of the items are bought for gifts, so people are buying them and then gifting them and sharing our story. The best thing people can do is eat at the café and bring three friends. That’s huge!
“The second thing is that we have an open circle every Wednesday morning. It's the women in the program, volunteers, staff, and graduates who come back, but in the circle, we just practice love," Becca explains. "We light the candle, and do a check-in. There’s no ritual except for us hearing how people are doing. It’s a reflection, a reading, and that's it."
“Thirdly, we are trying to build a Remnant Project which is a textile history of women who have survived sexual assault, gender-based violence, all of those things," Becca says. "You can't really photograph all the scars that women carry. Many of them are internal, so we're trying to depict what those scars are and then binding them together with powerful red borders and gold threads. We're inviting people to basically join a quilting circle. We have about 200 panels done already, and we're hoping for 1000. We need people! We have two residents coordinating that project, so we engage with women from the program. You're invited to either create your own square or work on someone else's.”
Tasha Kennard, chief executive officer of Thistle Farms, says, “I remember when Becca started Thistle Farms 25 years ago. It was such a bold mission to help women who are surviving human trafficking, prostitution, and addiction and to do it with such a novel approach: creating acceptance, belonging, and opportunity. The café is really an invitation to the local community to come in and learn what Thistle Farms is about, but when you're here, you can feel that there's something different. It's a trauma-informed workplace, so we're not afraid of difficult conversations, we're not afraid of someone having a bad day, and we hold each other accountable to do the work that helps create more emotional stability and healing.”
“I believe the practice is 9/10ths of love,” says Becca. “If I can practice love in my daily life, that is how people experience love. Love is about doggedness and wanting to bloom, getting practical, and getting into the way that you work, the way you live, and the way you speak. I'm not crying for people, but I'm willing to weep with people. The only kind of love that I'm interested in is loving people without judgment.”
Readers can visit Thistle Farms online or in West Nashville.
thistlefarms.org/
instagram.com/thistlefarms/?hl=en
thistlefarms.org/pages/meditation-circle
For information on the Remnant Project email contact Becca at thistlefarms.org