Each quarter, Stoic leaders from around the world share updates from their local Stoicism communities.
Meetings are held in-person unless there is a snap lockdown. We have changed location and now enjoy the great weather and scenery of New Farm Park, behind the library near the playground (kids welcome). Online meetings could resume alongside in-person meetings if enough interest is expressed. New members are always welcome. We will be having our annual Stoicon-X on Sunday 31st October. Details for all events and sub-groups can be found on our Facebook page, MeWe group page, and through Meetup.
We’re still in the planning stages, and haven’t held an event yet. We’ve kicked off with online meetings, due to COVID-19 restrictions. The aim of initial meetings will be to raise awareness of Stoic week and hopefully get them involved in living ‘like a Stoic for a week.’ We’re on Meetup and have a Facebook group and have a website.
Another fantastic year, there is momentum in the group with each of us developing his unique blend of stoic strength and fortifications. We’re hiking in some exotic locations and recently revisited Pinnacles National Monument. We welcome all visitors to our group. Planning for stoiconX 2021 has begun, as always stay safe ! Intergalactic Stoic School We’re wrapping up our 3rd year and couldn’t be more proud of our readers, who have made great progress exploring the foundational Stoic texts. In addition to the reading program, the school is drafting a basic Stoic workbook, and has already produced a Stoic Calendar for the new year. The next term begins in March and enrollment opens on January 1st. If you are looking for a Stoic community to read with, we invite you to join Intergalactic.
We started reading and discussing the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in June, and we will continue the MA literature project this fall. We also celebrated his birthday by having a couple of “Stoic sunrises” in the early morning. We´re currently organising a digital Stoicon-X event, which will take place on November 6th 2021. It will feature the philosopher, author and speaker Dr. Nicolas Dierks (University of Lüneburg), who is going to present ideas on strokes of fate and their meaning for being human. Tickets are available on eventbrite. Regarding future events, we are now trying to reestablish a regulars´ table for monthly meetings (fate permitting).
We started having meetings in June and would announce them on our Facebook group. Now, we’ve transitioned over to Meetup, which has helped new people find us and come to our meetings. We’ve been having some good discussion meetings where we’ve talked about early Stoic leaders like Zeno and deep topics like living in the present moment. We’ve also been learning how to apply the skills from A Handbook for New Stoics. COVID is making it challenging for us to meet up in crowded places, so we’ve been meeting up at a nice nature trail on UNF’s campus. I’m (Michael) thankful for my fellow members and the contributions they’ve made to help our group grow and to help us get the most out of our meetings.
London Stoics continued online over the past few months, with some great speakers and also group discussion of Seneca's letters. Eve Riches took over as organiser from September, and has an exciting range of speakers, topics and group discussions booked in. These include Paul Wilson on Inequality, Andy Small on Crime and Punishment, Kai Whiting on Disability, Brittany Polat on Compassion and Katherine Koromilas on Creativity. We look forward to seeing you in a Zoom meeting soon.
The L.A. Stoics continue to meet at least twice a month. Our 'Regular Meetings' are held every 2nd Saturday morning IN-PERSON (though we often have a corresponding online version). We are currently going through a selection from the Discourses of Epictetus. Our 'Theory Meetings' are held every 4th Tuesday evening ONLINE. We are currently going through Hackett Publishing's The Epicurus Reader (we are learning about Epicureanism to better understand and appreciate Stoicism). Discussions in between meetings are held on Discord. On Saturday, November 13th, we will be holding our second annual Stoicon-X Los Angeles. All info can be found at our website. This website also post sporadic blog articles on Stoicism and Stoic takes on public holidays.
Manchester Stoics continue to meet online monthly. At present, we are currently discussing How to be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci.
We are meeting now in person and online since August 2021. October 3, we are honored to have Mr. Chris Fisher (author of Stoicism on Fire Podcast, and newly appointed Scholarch of the College of Stoic Philosophers) as our online guest for this meeting. Visit the College of Stoic Philosophers website for more information on their study course.
The Nashville Stoa keeps on chugging along. We have been meeting at East Nashville Beer Works in an outdoor space (kindly reserved by the brewery) for the last 4 or 5 months, once a month. Whether the meeting is mostly regulars or first timers we have been having enjoyable and engaging conversations that we all take something from! Find us on Meetup.
This has been a crazy year for us so far. We started meeting again in person but have never stopped the virtual meetings. The success of the virtual meetings could not have been ignored and we are able to utilize that format for events that we have that require PowerPoint presentations. We recently started a new event called the women's philosophers Cafe. This is an event hosted by one of the women in our group and it is only for the women in our group. Sometime ago one of the female members of our group had mentioned to us that she was concerned that stoicism was an all boys club. We wanted to reassure her that this was not the case, and we had a conversation about the things that made her feel this way. The conclusions were that from time to time some women don't feel comfortable sharing what they go through as a woman because men simply do not understand. They also feel that there can be mansplaining going on with regards to talking about stoicism. As a result we began this meeting type, it is an open format for me to talk with other women about stoicism and to help him feel more comfortable on this philosophical study without having to worry about all of the other issues. It is one of our most successful meeting formats. This year we will be hosting our 4th annual New England stoicon x event, it will be a hybrid event both in person and virtually. Our keynote speakers will be the leader of the women's philosophers Cafe and William Irvine.
The New York City Stoics are winding down our “Year of Stoic B-Sides” by working through ancient snippets related to Stoicism from “The Stoics Reader” by Inwood and Gerson. Our main meetings are held online, so anyone is welcome to join! We’ve also been taking advantage of the remaining temperate weather before winter comes by holding some outdoor in-person discussion meetups, which are much more conducive to conversation than video calls. If you’re interested in learning more about the New York City Stoics, visit: https://www.meetup.com/New-York-City-Stoics/
Stoa of Ontario Online is a meetup group for anyone in Ontario, Canada who doesn’t have a local stoa or prefers to meet online. The group is a continuation of a project we started at the beginning of the pandemic. Knowing we wouldn’t be able to see our friends and support networks in person, we decided to meet online every Sunday with our friends to talk about philosophy, religions, and mental health. We kept coming back to stoicism in our discussions, because it’s a straightforward and practical way to tackle life’s difficulties. We wanted to take our talks a step further, to meet with new people who could bring other perspectives, but we couldn’t find a local group to chat with in person — or because of the pandemic, online — so we started our own group! We’d like to welcome everyone who has joined Stoa of Ontario Online, and look forward to diving into life’s challenges with your unique perspectives and our shared love of stoicism. We’ll meet on the first Sunday of every month at 2pm on Zoom. You can find us on Meetup.
This time of year, our group is gearing up for major events like Stoicon 2021, Stoic Week, and Stoicon-X Orlando 2021. We’re also excited that our Friday practice night is starting a new series: we will be reading “How to Think Like a Roman Emperor” by Donald Robertson (probably 1 chapter per week or two). Find us on Meetup. Also, we made a gratitude video for Massimo and Greg, having just finished a series on their book “Handbook for New Stoics”. We learned much and improved our Stoic practice from reading this book every Friday for 11 months. You can see the short YouTube video.
We have had several meetings since last time, and we also organized a StoiconX along with the two other stoas in Norway. We were very lucky to get some excellent presentations from Greg Sadler and Kai Whiting. The meetings have covered several issues, from the more theoretical to the practical, and they have been well attended.
The Redwood Stoa continues to meet on-line, taking our discussion cues from our list of monthly topics, and we just had our 8-year anniversary meeting. In October we plan to have a “face-to-distanced-face” meeting among the redwoods in the Berkeley hills, which we haven’t done since CoVid. On the subject of face-to-face vs. on-line meetings, I might mention that online meetings have allowed more women to attend our meetings, which puts us a little more in line with Stoicism’s claim to be a Cosmopolitan philosophy. Salvete, studentes.
Gradually working our way through Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, using his wisdom to help us to personally reflect on our experiences and actions, and sparking influential and supportive conversations and debates between our members. Our group conducts a measured study in a community environment within a natural setting focusing verse by verse primarily on Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations" and how these reflections are interpreted and experienced by us each individually. Philosophical discussions about one’s nature, amongst nature, while observing the nature of others, and all without offence. One of our former members and the facilitator of our group recently gave a presentation to the local Philosophy Meetup Group about Stoicism and there was a genuine interest in learning about modern Stoicism.
After a bit of a hiatus, Stoicism Winnipeg is going to start a rotating schedule of virtual and in-person meetings.
The group continues to grow every month with new members. Some have commented recently that they had missed philosophy all their lives, and they are grateful that this group exists to provide an introduction and forum for discussion. Also, our monthly meetings are covering Seneca’s essay “On Anger”. Find us on Meetup.
The group meets monthly on a Friday (see Meetup site for details) and the meeting is in-person at a Panera cafe in Tampa. The discussion is enriched by an outline, which covers the next part of Epictetus’ Discourses. Open to the public, and free. Also the group has a “walking meditation” once a month on a Sunday. Check Meetup site for times and locations. Find us on Meetup.
We have been meeting regularly, approximately once per month. We read through all of Seneca’s Letters together and now we are going through Epictetus’ Handbook. The Trondheim Stoics participated in Stoicon-X Norway 2021 on September 16th. We had great presentations about Stoic stumbling blocks by Greg Sadler, and about Stoicism and AI by Kai Whiting. Find us on Facebook.