Breaking Open: A Hackathon for Creative & Tech Builders
every sunday, strangers become collaborators in the backroom of a vegan restaurant in the east village. every sunday, the room gets a little deeper.
this is a weekly practice. you show up, you find the people carrying questions like yours, you build something together. then you come back and do it again. the prototypes are real — last week three teams shipped three live projects in a single afternoon. but the prototypes aren’t the only point. the point is the room itself: the next economy isn’t going to be theorized into existence. it’s going to be practiced into existence, weekly, by people different enough to surprise each other and committed enough to keep coming back.
what makes it work is who’s in it. a muralist and a software engineer and a therapist in the same conversation will build something none of them could have imagined alone. small groups. honest work. repeated contact. building things and relationships that give back more than they take.
we need artists, engineers, founders, healers, execs, writers, organizers, parents, musicians, researchers, teachers, designers, people between things, people starting things, people who don’t know what to call what they do yet. if you’re carrying a question about how the world should work, this room is for you.
new here? show up at noon. order food, meet people, get oriented. you don’t need to bring a project or know anyone. just come ready to create and relate.
returning? the builds continue. the floor is open for new ones.
what this is
a weekly build session and creative incubator in the east village. you show up with a project, a skill, or just a question about how things should work. teams form on the spot. by the end of the afternoon, something exists that didn’t before. every week the work deepens. the relationships compound.
the day
🚪 11:30 — doors open. grab food from the menu if you can. support the house.
🔄 12:00 — community review. what’s been built so far.
🎤 12:30 — builders pitch. two minutes. say what you’re working on and what you need. half-baked is welcome.
🛠️ 1:00 — teams form and build.
🔀 2:30 — team blender. leave your table, visit another team, ask the question they haven’t thought of yet.
🎉 4:00 — show and tell. demo what emerged.
what to bring
laptop, sketchbook, AI tools, napkin ideas, whatever you’ve got. you are the toolkit.
tracks people are building in
meaning and mental health · attention and sensemaking · care and community coordination · AI and agency · narrative and media · entrepreneurship and social impact
you don’t need to pick one. the room will show you.
who this is for
all skill levels. all backgrounds. come alone or bring someone. the only requirement is you came to create.