ThirdSpace Action Lab

We believe in the power of memory and the quiet rebellion of honoring our stories.

Join us in celebrating the brilliance of narrative and community gathering through hair and those special moments that happen in only our spaces.

Featuring the restorative work of our current Artist in Residence Jamaica Gilmer (), this exhibition dives deep into the sanctity of our culture, holding space for the memories held in our strands and the sacred practice of community care. The fight for racial equity is about more than policy; it is about honoring the inherent value and history of our people.

Join us as we welcome a powerful truth-teller and storyteller, Tiffany D. Cross, to the ThirdSpace Reading Room. We are leaning into our mission—and supporting our mental well-being—as she discusses her latest work, “Love, Me: A Letter to Black Women in a Toxic Country, Career, and Relationship”

This isn't just an author chat; it’s an opportunity for our community to gather and discuss the works that center our healing and humanity. If we are to honor our own capacity and ground ourselves, we must lean into spaces that offer restoration and real conversation. We must remember that rest is resistance.

In conversation with the dynamic Stefanie Brown James, this will be an evening dedicated to celebrating our brilliance, protecting our spirit, and investing in the sanctity of our humanity.

Details:
📅 October 1st at 6 PM
📍 ThirdSpace Reading Room

Link in bio to register.

It’s been a booked and busy summer here at ThirdSpace. From our partnership with moCa, recent Goodtime III cruises, new things happening at the Reading Room, author talks, and IG lunches. More to come to end the season and later this year!

This is the most important event of the weekend. Care for the Caregiver is to practice rest. Come thru for massages, good convo, and a community of caregivers.

Short films do something that features cannot always do. They demand that you pay attention to a single moment, a single face, a single truth — and trust that it is enough.

The Cleveland International Film Festival ) is bringing their Groundbreaker Short Films Program to the ThirdSpace Reading Room on July 17 at 6PM. These are the films that push the form, center the underrepresented, and tell the stories that the mainstream has not figured out how to hold yet. Come see what cinema looks like when it is made by people who have something real to say.

📍 ThirdSpace Reading Room, 1464 E. 105th St., Cleveland, OH
📅 Thursday, July 17 | 6:00PM

The day after Juneteenth, the work continues.

The Cleveland Freedom Dreams Coalition is hosting The People's Solutions Lab: 2026 Municipal Election Edition this Saturday, June 20 at Care Alliance Health Center. This is civic power in practice. The ballot is one of the most direct tools community agency has, and this session is about making sure we know exactly how to use it going into the 2026 midterms.

Community as agency is not just a theme. It is what shows up on a Saturday morning after a Friday night of celebration, ready to build.

Saturday, June 20 | 9:30AM to 2:00PM

Care Alliance Health Center
2916 Central Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115

More info here: https://3rdspaceactionlab.co/community-as-agency

Juneteenth is not just a date on the calendar. It is a question we have been asking ourselves for 161 years, and today we are asking it out loud.

Not freedom as a legal declaration that arrived two and a half years late. Freedom as a lived, embodied, daily practice.

Let's get this conversation going in the comments as we hope you return to read other's as a source of your inspiration for freedom.

This is week. And we are not sitting still.

Here is where we are:
THURSDAY · June 18 @ 6PM
Freedom Lecture: Dani McClain in conversation with the Homing Instinct installation at moCa Cleveland. About climate. Displacement. Who decides where we belong. Bar opens at 6. Talk at 6:30. $10 at the door, includes a drink. Link in bio to register.

FRIDAY · June 19 @ 11:30AM
Intergenerational Lunch: Dani McClain returns to the table for a conversation with Mordecai Cargill, then we take the bus to moCa together to see the exhibition in person. Space is limited. Register at the link.

SATURDAY · June 20 @ 11:30AM
The People's Solutions Lab: Midterm Elections Edition at Care Alliance Health Center. Civic education, voter access, and real organizing tools for the people you know who need them. Free and open to the public.

ALSO THIS WEEK:
Mx. Juneteenth is happening June 20 at North Coast Yard, free entry, 11AM to 6PM. Runteenth is June 19. Farming While Black is June 20. There is a full week of Cleveland community happening around all of it.
See everything at 3rdspaceactionlab.co/community-as-agency.

Community as Agency is not a theme. It is a description of what we have always done: organized, built, gathered, and decided on our own terms what we owe each other and what we are worth. This week, ThirdSpace brings that practice into every room we enter.

Lead poisoning is not an accident of geography. It is the predictable result of decades of disinvestment in Black and brown neighborhoods — older housing stock, deferred maintenance, and systems that looked the other way. Knowing the facts is the first line of defense for your family.

The Lead Safe Resource Center is hosting a free training at ThirdSpace Action Lab this Saturday, June 13 at 12PM. The session covers the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, the resources and teams available to support you, and everything you need to know about lead poisoning prevention in your home. This is the kind of knowledge that protects your children and holds negligent systems accountable.

Saturday, June 13 | 12PM