I disappeared from your inbox for almost six months.
Not intentionally, at least not at first.
🌟SO, WHAT HAPPENED?🌟
(for TLDR, scroll down)
I kept postponing the next newsletter because, somewhere along the way, I realised that the format no longer fully reflected what I was doing or who I had become.
So while it may have looked like silence from the outside, I was slowly trying to understand what the next chapter should look like.
And to explain that, I need to go back a little.
DISCOVERING 🥟THE PIEROGI GAP🥟
Born out of writing this newsletter I had this silly idea.
To create a workshop on how to make pierogi, where people with Polish roots can (re)connect.
I had curated East European events for such a long time and I barely ever saw Polish food as part of our pop-up heavy, urban gastro landscape. I noticed a gap: the pierogi gap! So within the blink of an eye, I decided to create something new: a Polish food event that feels young and inviting to an urban audience, that gives young people with Polish roots a sense of pride in their cultural heritage, combined with a strong social element – and just like that Pierogi Social Club was born.
And of course, as you may suspect, the pierogi (while being the most awesome food ofc) are a symbol. A symbol for all the things that remind us of home. Of Poland, in my case.
About a year and a half in: 30 events hosted, the Pierogi Social Club Instagram account has grown rapidly while I get daily messages from all over Germany asking when we start to meet in Munich, Hamburg or Cologne.
What began as one experimental project has turned into a growing brand, a community, a team and an increasingly important part of my life.
And it could not have happened without this newsletter.
WRITING ❤️THE NEXT CHAPTER❤️
Many of you first discovered Pierogi Social Club through From Julia’s Desk. Others came to one of our events and subscribed afterwards. Over time, the newsletter readers and the Pierogi Social Club community have increasingly begun to overlap.
At some point, keeping them completely separate stopped making sense.
But at the same time, I also realised that I do not want everything I write, think about and create to have to fit underneath the Pierogi Social Club umbrella.
That is why it is time to say goodbye to the old version of From Julia’s Desk. And let it evolve into something better.
TIME FOR 🚨SOMETHING NEW!!!🚨
There will be a new Pierogi Social Club newsletter.
It will be the place for:
Pierogi Social Club event announcements and updates
curated events and recommendations from Polish and other Central and Eastern European communities in Berlin
useful information, opportunities and discoveries around Polish life in Berlin
stories, tips and insights connected to Polish culture, food and travel
The focus will become more clearly Polish, because this reflects the direction my work has naturally taken. But that does not mean that the other communities, cultures and initiatives I have always cared about will disappear. Pierogi Social Club may be rooted in Polish culture, but it exists within a much broader Central and Eastern European landscape. I will continue sharing and supporting events from across this community, just as I have done from the beginning.
🧸BEING BRAVE🧸
At the same time, I’m finally stepping to something I’ve wanted to do for sooooo long. But haven’t found the courage to do.
I always watend to write myself. Not curate, but write. In a way, curation was also a good way to start without having to put too much of myself out into the world. BUT THOSE TIMES ARE OVER!
From Julia’s Desk, will continue.
As its own newsletter.
A much more personal one.
The new From Julia’s Desk will live up to its name much more literally. It will be the place for short or long-form essays, personal reflections and deep dives into the questions and experiences that move me, including topics that go far beyond Poland, Eastern Europe or community events.
A creative playground for everything that is, symbolically, lying on my desk.
TLDR:
From Julia’s Desk in its new form will remain right here. It will turn into my personal blog & newsletter.
Pierogi Social Club now has its own separate newsletter, there you will find similar content (events in Berlin & beyond) to the old version of From Julia’s Desk.
Because many of you have followed both parts of this journey from the beginning, I have added the existing From Julia’s Desk subscriber list to the new Pierogi Social Club newsletter as well. This means that, for now, you will receive both publications.
I hope that many of you will want to stay for both. But I also completely understand if you originally subscribed mainly for the events, or mainly because you wanted to read my writing. Every e-mail will include the option to unsubscribe, so please feel completely free to choose which publication(s) you would like to continue receiving.
It feels emotional to let go of the original version of this newsletter. I started it more than four years ago, when I was 22 years old and simply wanted more people to know about the East European cultural events happening around Berlin.
I could never have predicted that it would eventually lead to Pierogi Social Club.
But it did.
And now it is time for the next chapter.
💫THANK YOU💫
Thank you for being here and for following this journey. Without the people who read, shared, attended and supported my work, none of this would exist.
Goodbye old version of From Julia’s Desk. <3
See you very soon, in one inbox, the other, or both.
Julia
She’s back!!!
Good job and good luck 👏