The oysWORLDter Tribe
Before the Herbs n’ Beans project was fully constructed, it started bringing people into the space and quickly transformed into a community gathering venue. That same year, 2017, the cap’n was called to positive activism after seeing the plastic pollution crisis in the Gulf of Mexico on a family cruise. Still working with property owners through People Powered Luxuries, he was starting to get anxiety around the world most commonly littered item, the cigarette butt. It was at this time that he realized his personal goal of inspiring others to pursue their best selves and positively act today for a brighter, more beautiful tomorrow by modeling your own way. He wanted to connect with others that had similar values and began to look into nonprofit types that would allow him to do so. When he learned about 501(c)10, domestic fraternal beneficiary societies, he started to form The oysWORLDter Tribe with aspirations of bringing together individuals that shared his calling… because you know, the world is your oyster. He started calling his space 5280 Pride Rock and had plans to bring additional Pride Rocks to life in the future as gathering spaces for members of The oysWORLDter Tribe.
5280 Pride Rock
The space began to transform with nick’s remodeling skills and vision. The front lobby, which was originally going to serve as the to-go area for Herbs n’ Beans, was going to instead serve as an information center to introduce the public to the non-profit and causes important to its members. The dividing wall was built with a sliding barn door in the middle and framed ‘windows’ on either side with plans to hang vertical gardens. It was painted with purple chalkboard paint that invited visitors to leave notes or art as they stopped in. The floor was constructed with reclaimed pallets in a diagonal design splitting off either way from the center of the door and would have eventually had purple sand for ‘grout’ between the boards.
The first floor lounge was for members only and nick envisioned this space as the Grounding Space. Inspired by native american elders at a permaculture event he had attended, where they talked about taking your shoes off to get in touch with the earth, the space was intended for just that, but in an urban setting. The plan was to construct a 23 foot wide and 19 foot tall geodesic dome, within the space, and cover the inside with projection screen material. The floor was going to be made up of reclaimed foam gym flooring with dirt on top of it from different locations in Colorado that nick planned to visit to take 360 video that would be projected in the space. There was a structual beam in the center of the room that would have served as the center of the dome where the projectors would be housed and the plan was to transform it into a tree using bark and branches from areas where the dirt and video were collected. Members would have been able to use this space 24/7 with planned quiet hours in addition to other activities like yoga, guided meditations and breathe work, art and writing classes, and adventures into virtual and augmented reality experiences.
The Grounding Space
The downstairs had a long way to go before it could house the dream nick had for the space. As you walked down the stairs you would have entered a piano lounge with velvet couches, brick walls with bookshelves full of inspirational books and hidden cat holes for the pet cat, the cap’n hoped to give refuge to. The room would have a kind of speakeasyvibe with one of the bookshelves sliding open to reveal a hidden secondary room. The second room would have been a music studio for Tiny Desk like sessions intended to be rehearsed and filmed in. Inspired by the art of RumTum, nick wanted to make the room alien themed with brightly colored aliens made up of musical instruments that you could actually play, like an alien painted on a guitar, and another that had its mouth rolling out into a drum set.
The Downstairs
Tuesday Tea, on Wednesday.
Tuesday Tea, on Wednesday.
The space may have been incomplete as far as nick’s big aspirations for it, but it still served its purpose as an inspirational gathering place. That year, Independence Day fell on a Tuesday and nick and some of the founding members of The oysWORLDter Tribe had so much fun that the next morning they still thought it was Tuesday as they sat for tea in the backyard. They were calling it Tuesday Tea, all the way into the evening when they went for a regular event at Cervantes and realized it had been Wednesday all along. Tuesday Tea, on Wednesday. was born and from then on nick opened Pride Rock to hold space for potential members. When he first started he didn’t have much planned for tea, aside from networking, cleaning up the streets around the building, and sharing his vision for the nonprofit and its first gathering space. To kick off 2018, he started curating the event to align with The Tribe’s mission and booked artists to perform live music, showcased member’s talents, invited political candidates to share their goals, guided group activities, and much more.
Though he would leave the physical space after his year lease ended, nick continued to host Tuesday Tea, on Wednesday. through a new collaborative partnership with the Fox Street Compound. Through this new opportunity, nick gained experience in event and festival production working with the team to bring Denver Taco Festival, Spread the Word music festival, and the Flogging Molly & Drop Kick Murphys show to life. He also took opportunities with the bar team at Arise Music Festival in 2018 and 2019 and Sonic Bloom in 2019, 2021, & 2022. At this time he started getting shifts at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, in 2019, landing a consistent position on the venue’s team as it became available in 2023. Throughout it all, he kept working to answer his maddening question “Where do butts go?”