🎉 The Soaring Twenties Social Club - One Year Anniversary! 🍾
Let me tell you the story. A year ago today, just over, I was stuck. Stuck professionally, creatively and personally- stuck in just about every way you can think of.
I had summoned up the nerve to publish my writing on Substack and I had been writing well received essays consistently. The numbers weren’t bad but everything had simply plateaued at a level below where I wanted to be. I had some readers but I lacked contemporaries, I had ideas but I lacked other writers to give me feedback. And more to the point I was in a minimum wage job with no prospects and I was cut off from meeting like-minded creative souls due to the pandemic response around the world.
Something had to be done.
I searched the corners of the internet to try and find where the artists were gathered. I had written a successful rallying cry of an essay prophesying that this decade would see a flourishing of creativity comparable to that of the Roaring Twenties, and that ‘our Paris is the internet’.
I believed it- I could see that the technology (especially via the promises of web3) was available to make it so- but I could not see any evidence for it besides talk and hope.
The online speakeasy I envisioned- the place I wanted in which to chat and talk about books and movies and music and real life and my creative works in progress, away from the noise and vacuity of social media- did not exist.
I knew that for this vision to become reality I would have to step up and create it.
And so I did.
On 24th March 2021 The Soaring Twenties Social Club opened its doors. And a year later it’s better than ever. It is thriving. And so to commemorate this anniversary I want to tell you more about this place and what the future has in store for it.
#start-here
Through a little luck and with an emphasis on putting out quality writing, I managed to attract a core group of extremely talented individuals from day one- writers, designers, poets, tech people, web3 early adopters and more. People from all over the world who clearly felt the internet as it stood was a lacklustre place that was not living up to its potential. People who were burnt-out on the low bandwidth ‘content’ that the online world was cranking out. People who valued art over algorithms and craft over simply doing whatever it is that the algorithms rewarded.
A promising start.
And so we all chatted, decided what channels were needed (we now have everything from #food to #flaneury to #rat-race-support-group and dozens in between) and we went about creating a fun, pub-like hang out with in-jokes, absolutely unparalleled culture recommendations and a genuinely supportive and authentic atmosphere.
It was soon my favourite place online. Many of us rapidly ditched or radically reduced our social media time for it. There was no comparison as to which was more valuable- the Social Club supported members’ creative ambitions, desires to be sociable and learn and to have fun whereas, Twitter remained Twitter: a place of platitudes, mimesis, fear and compulsive boredom.
And this oasis of art in a desert of content would have been enough. But we had grander ideas.
Enter The Omnibus
It’s easy to fall for the myth that creativity is a lonely pursuit. Of course, it can be, but this solitary state of affairs is far from optimal.
Writing, painting, music, and every other form of creative expression are team sports. You need people in your corner who can help you grow, you need mentors, you need feedback and if you are anything like me you need friendly competition.
The Social Club taught me this. The lack of these things had been the cause of my plateau. You can only go so far alone.
And so I knew that if I was going to reach the creative heights I aspired to I would have to bring the whole club with me. We would rise or fall together. So with the Social Club now firmly established I launched The Omnibus, a weekly anthology of all of the work that various members had produced in the previous week.
It took off instantly and more importantly every issue has proven to be better than the last. The collaboration and friendly encouraging sense of competition kicked in and soon members were putting out essays, reviews, translations, short stories, paintings, podcasts and poems. People who had been suffering from block or doubt were back and those who had never published before got into the game and saw the kind of artistic growth in mere weeks, the kind of growth that would take literally years without the help of such a varied and knowledgable group of compariots.
During this time I published my debut essay collection (you can buy it here) and achieved a lifelong dream of having a book that I had written sitting in my bookcase. It’s a beautiful object and I know for a fact it would not exist without the group’s feedback and Craig’s design expertise. We all help each other creatively at the Social Club. We all share our skills.
My book is the first Soaring Twenties Social Club release, the first of many. We are currently planning further essay collections, short story collections (both individual and collaborative), books of criticism and even a cookbook. New podcasts will be launched, as will new Substacks and websites. We are a year in and we have only just begun.
And you can join us.
Your Invitation
The Soaring Twenties Social Club has changed my life. And I can confidently say that it has done the same for all of our regular members. It is now far bigger than the sum of its parts and it has exceeded every expectation I had for it when we began.
And I want you to be a part of it too.
When I was first trying to imagine what the perfect decentralised, fun and supportive creative space could be I knew it would have to have a limited membership. A cosy pub can only hold so many regulars at the bar before it descends into chaos and noise.
From day one I decided that the capacity for the Soaring Twenties Social Club, that the magic optimal number of members would be 300 (maybe Leonidas was on to something).
And as of this moment we have 207 dues paying members. There is still room for more. You still have time.
The Social Club is its own entity, with its own organic culture. Try as I have to describe it (and I would argue that I’m pretty good with words), I suspect I still haven't fully captured its true essence. As with all great things you have to experience it for yourself to really get it.
So to mark this auspicious anniversary I want to offer you a two weeks free pass to the Social Club.
Press the button below, get your access link to the club (email me or DM my twitter @thomasjb3van if you have any issues) and come and have a look around. And then tell me if everything I have claimed above is not absolutely on the money.
I look forward to meeting you there…
P.S. There will be a special celebratory podcast recording in the Discord at 7pm GMT today (Thursday 24th March 2022). We’ll post it out publicly later in the week. So feel free to swing by and join the chat and throw any questions and comments at either me or Craig. Cheers!