What Your Comfort Costs Us: In Conversation with Gabriela Alcalde & Cyndi

This gathering is thoughtfully designed as an immersive, facilitated conversation — not a traditional author talk and not a performative panel. It is a space to slow down, listen deeply, and engage honestly with ideas that shape our institutions and our lives.

Grounded in What Your Comfort Costs Us by Gabriela Alcalde, the conversation invites us to gently but directly examine the role comfort plays in leadership, philanthropy, and systems of power — what it protects, what it stabilizes, and who ultimately carries the cost. Together, we’ll explore how story can illuminate what policy alone cannot, and how shared reflection can open the door to meaningful shift.

This gathering offers a space for courageous conversation and collective reflection. Through story, dialogue, and shared inquiry, we will examine how comfort operates within leadership, philanthropy, and systems of power — and what it makes possible, or prevents. The experience is designed to move beyond inspiration toward clarity, connection, and a deeper sense of shared responsibility for shifting what comes next.

This is a women-led space centering women of color authors and lived experience. It is carefully facilitated and designed to move us from reflection to practice. We invite you to join us — ready to listen, ready to reflect, and ready to move.

Lunch will be provided as part of this shared midday experience.

Reading the book beforehand is not required, however should you like to purchase What Your Comfort Costs Us, you can do so here.

The event will take place at Street Theory Collective, located at 541 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge.

Street Parking:
Limited metered street parking is available along Massachusetts Avenue and on surrounding side streets. Please be sure to check posted signage for time limits and resident restrictions.

Nearby Parking Garages:
There are several public parking garages within a 5–10 minute walk in Central Square. We recommend allowing a few extra minutes to park and walk to the venue.

Public Transportation:
Street Theory Collective is conveniently located near the Central Square MBTA Red Line station, just a short walk away. Multiple bus routes also run along Massachusetts Avenue.

If possible, we encourage public transit or carpooling to make arrival smooth for everyone.

Info: Guests will be welcomed with lunch and music and invited to participate in an interactive collective installation. This sets the tone: we are participants, not observers.

Info: We will establish shared agreements and introduce a short reflection on power — specifically the distinction between comfort and safety, and how that distinction shapes decision-making and leadership.

Info: Gabriela Alcalde will read a brief excerpt from What Your Comfort Costs Us, followed by a moderated conversation with Cyndi Suarez exploring:
- Identity and leadership — how lived experience shapes power
- Comfort vs. safety — who benefits, who pays
- Storytelling as strategy — how narrative shifts institutions and creates real change
This exchange will be candid, thoughtful, and rooted in lived experience.

Info: The gathering concludes with a brief reflection and a practical invitation:
What is one small way you will choose safety over comfort this month?
Guests will leave not only with insight, but with a tangible commitment.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Street Theory Collective, 541 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, United States

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